Hi SingerSewer, with your thread did you try different needles. Sometimes that makes all of the difference even though I know that a lot of machines are picky. It has taken me from Christmas to this past month to get my machine to FSL using the polyester cone thread because the projects that I was attempting to do didn't warrant me using the more expensive thread. After a lot of hair pulling and reading and playing, I finally got it to work by changing the needles and slowing down the machine; not sure if I need it to be slow but it works so unless I'm in a hurry I'll not change it. I too have tons of designs downloaded and slowly getting them organized into folders. I'm lucky because Viking does supply you with a small software package with the machine that allows you to see what your designs are and do a few other things. I was surprised to hear on here how many machines come with nothing. There is a software that I'm going to download as soon as I finish setting up my new pc. It's called ERA Universal; it's free unless you want a copy of the CD then it's $14.95. It is supposed to do everything so you might want to check it out. I agree that it would be great to have our own place to go but it would be great if it was incorporated here since I use mine in quilting as well and I wouldn't have to go to another forum but either way; it would be great. I know that if you go to yahoo there are alot of groups up there; alot of them are based on what machine you have but Ihaven't went up there; yet.