An Unfortunate Event

In my forced time away from home, I brought my lightest, smallest sewing machine so I would be able to create. I bought the Brother PE400D (home embroidery) machine in 2003. I know 20 years is a long time for an electronic machine to keep working well, but I really did hope for more.

I’ve had trouble with it in the past. The LCD screen needed calibrating at one time, and I took it to an authorized repair spot. The fellow looked it over and said he needed to do some research. He ended up calling me after about a week, said he couldn’t do anything for me, and I could pick it up with no charge. I got on the internet and stubbornly searched until I found step-by-step instructions. It worked and I was again able to use the LCD touchscreen.

Lately I’ve had vertical lines in the display and wanted to recalibrate again. I searched stubbornly again but this time I find no mention of how to calibrate this machine. I find instructions for other machines with buttons and features that I don’t have, so I can’t even guess how to do it again. I called the Brother service center and the tech listened patiently but would only suggest I take it to an authorized service center.

The situation got a little worse but I worked with it. I found out I would not be able to change stitch functions if I had been sewing a while, unless I turned it off, unplugged it, and waited at least a half a day or overnight. Recently that changed again. Now the LCD screen won’t respond at all. It lights up but the screen won’t accept my touch, and it has dozens of vertical lines in the display.

I left it unplugged overnight and I get the same non-response, and the same with several days of it being unplugged. Is there anyone with the calibration instructions? Do you have any advice for me? I didn’t want to upgrade my embroidery machine yet, but if there is nothing else offered for advice, I may have to do that. Or I could abandon the embroidery. Meanwhile, my 11-year-old granddaughter is lending me her small sewing machine so I can keep busy.

Technology hates me. (tale of woe)

I have a home embroidery machine, but I cannot write designs to the memory card. I could in the past. Too many upgrades means I’m way behind. Maybe you can help me solve this dilemma, find a way out.

My machine is a Brother PE400-D. It’s small, it wasn’t too expensive, and it’s just right for the few times I need to embroider. What I want to embroider right now is quilt labels. What I don’t want to do is sink a lot of money into something I only use sometimes.

I have Embird software on my computer, no problems there. I paid the upgrade fee. I can digitize all I want. On this part of the whole she-bang I was willing to spend a little money.

I have an Amazing Box, in order to get designs from my computer to the memory card that goes into the Brother. Here’s my problem: the Amazing Box works with Windows 98. Yup. When I got the XP on the “new” computer 6 years ago, I downloaded the free upgrade. I couldn’t make it work with the memory card I have, because PE400-D was not an option listed, and all the others I tried didn’t trick it into working. I tried tech support with Amazing Designs, but what they suggested was to choose a different machine from the options. Lady, I tried that. She had no further ideas. No problem, I kept my old laptop (circa 1999) that still has Windows 98 on it. I simply transfer the designs I want to use to the laptop, write to the memory card via Amazing Box, and I’m good to go.

Then it gets tricky. I had to buy a 3.5″ floppy drive that runs from the USB port in order to write designs to the laptop. From the desktop, I would write designs to a floppy, put the floppy into the laptop, and write to the memory card. Problem solved, for a while. Now the USB port on my laptop isn’t working. My son gave me a card thingy with USB ports on the end of it, to plug into my laptop. Now the laptop won’t boot up with the card thingy in it, and it won’t recognize the card thingy if I insert it after the laptop is booted. Twelve years is a good run for a simple laptop, and I don’t blame it for wanting to go to the hardware graveyard.

Still with me?

Back to the main desktop computer, which has again been replaced with one running Windows 7. I tried loading the Amazing Box software, and it doesn’t know my hardware.  The USB port is working, it just doesn’t find my Amazing Box. I really don’t want to put a couple hundred dollars into a more current reader/writer. If I could make this work for about $40 or less, I would do that.

My final idea is to put a barter ad on Craigslist. If someone would transfer designs from a flash drive to my memory card in exchange for something I could do as a return favor, I might try to work out a deal.

Can anyone relate? Anyone have any good advice for me?