i have an electronic singer sewing machine.mine acted the same as yours when i was using a needle that was not a singer , but with the naked eye looked exactly like my singer needle. i got a new singer needle and replaced the other one, wow my machine was working perfect, when i realized it had to be the needle, i took a magnifying glass, looked at both needles, the hole for the thread was not excatly as low as the hole in the singer needle, amazing but that was the reason. hope this will help someone out there. arlene