singer xl 580 lcd panel troubleshooting quotation

There are now several versions of the software for SINGER® Futura™ and AutoPunch available on the market. The most current is version 1.0.0.2. To determine what version of either software you have, you will find this information around the inside rim of the CD at approximately 4 o"clock. Before loading AutoPunch into your computer, check the version and then follow the steps below.

I purchased my Singer Futura XL-550 in September 2014, but only after doing a great deal of research by reading 100’s of pro’s and con’s on the XL-400 and XL-550. The biggest complaint about the Futura was thread problems & breaking needles which I figured was operator error, that they made a mistake and blamed it on the machine. But I started having these problems right away; in the first 10 minutes I had 5 or 6 bird’s nests and that happened while I was just trying out the Futura as a sewing machine. And while trying to embroider something I broke my first needle within 2 minutes and 5 more needles in the first hour. I also had problems with the large hoop. It just would not hold the fabric in place and I was not able to embroider a simple pattern that came with the machine. Also, I would get this error message “wrong size hoop installed” about a minute after I started an embroidery project. After all the research I did, to say I was pissed is putting it mildly. I was ready to take an ax to this “machine” (I won’t write down what I really said about this machine). It turns out that my first assumption about it being operator error was wrong, and I want to APOLOGIZE to everyone that post their problems; the ones that I did not believe. I was feeling like an idiot for buying this piece of junk and that old saying of “if it’s too good to be true” is right, this Singer Futura is a real problem.

Singer at one time stood for QUALITY, but lately Singer’s quality SUCKS. By making their machines oversea in places like Vietnam and others, the new owners of Singer Company appear not care about their quality control because it is not there. And YES, there is a learning curve to all new equipment, but it’s hard to learn how to use the machine when it has so many problems that are clearly out of the operator’s control. The Futura XL-550 sewing abilities are okay, but the embroidery part has problems, and I bought this machine to do embroidery. If the manufacture had tighter quality controls, people would not be having these problems. After trying to get my Futura to work, I found a number of problems with it. And in time I came up with some modifications that I used to repair my Futura. I took each problem one at a time and broke it down, and I was able to find the reason for each problem and then I worked out a solution for each problem.

I found that my Futura was having 5 major problems that had to be worked out if I was ever going to be able to embroider anything. Here are the 5 problems I was having: 1. Birds nest in the bobbin case, 2. Breaking needles, 3. Large hoop problem, 4. Wrong size hoop, and 5. Machine would stop over and over on a new project. These are the problems I was having with my Singer Futura XL-550, now for the modification.

The modification I made to my Singer Futura XL-550 has improved its abilities by eliminating the birds nest in the bobbin holder area and stopped the needles from breaking. And what I had to do to fix the problem with the large hoop. I had to deal with these problems and here is the list of problems and the modifications I made to fix them:

Within 1 hour of using the Futura XL-550 embroidery part I broke 6 needles, the first needle was in the first two minutes. What I found was the needle was hitting the edge of the bobbin cover plate. The needle was hitting the edge about 1/32 to 1/16 of an inch above and below the needle slot.

The large hoop was not holding the material while I was running an embroidery design. And believe me I tried everything to get the hoop to hold the material, I even hand stitched the material in the hoop to help the hoop hold the material, but it didn’t work. I used the Futura customer help website to get some help with the large hoop. After waiting on hold for over and hour the person in Customer support gave me the "RUN AROUND" about “are you making sure that the hoop is tight and the material makes a drum sound. Is the notch & grove lined up“ and stuff like that. I told them the hoop was to thin and to flexible to hold the material and that I wanted it replaced. And that only happened after I sent them a picture of the hoop with the material hand stitched into the hoop. They also told me that the hoop replacement they will be sending me is the same as the one that came with my Futura XL-550. Well, after three weeks of waiting the replacement hoop finally showed up. This replacement hoop was not the same, so they lied to me about the replacement hoop. That replacement hoop was about a half an inch longer on the long side and overall was about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch thicker then the one that came with the machine. But even with these differences in size the replacement hoop still did not hold the material tight enough; it would slip out just enough to mess up the design.

Solution: Before you try to embroider that project you just modified, you have to save it (use a new name for that modified project). After you have saved it turn off the Futura XL-550 and close down the software. After you do that, restart the Futura machine and the software, you have to do this to clear out any software problems. You can re-open your saved project and send it to the machine. I know it’s a problem to do that every time you make a modification to a design, but it’s the only way I have found to get around this problem.

The Futura XL-550 “OUT OF THE BOX” gets an overall rating of 1 stars, that"s only because Amazon will not let you give a zero star rating. The sewing machine part is okay and gets 3 stars, but the sewing machine is not why I bought this machine in the first place; I bought this Futura for its embroidering abilities and that part gets a minus 1 stars. I know that many of you are having problems with your Futura and YES “OUT OF THE BOX” it should work without any problems. Don’t give up, most of these machine can be fixed with a little work (and YES, Singer should pay for all the shipping to get it fixed), but they won’t do that. But, after I made the modification to my XL-550 I have enjoyed embroidering custom patches for my Karate Studio and making gifts for friends and family. So, after ALL the modifications to my Futura “My Modified Singer Futura XL-550” gets an overall 4 stars, I reduced the score by a half stars because it is a very noisy machine and another half star because you have to watch the Futura throughout the embroidery project. I came up with these fixes to solve the problems I was having, and I hope this helps you.

UPDATE: I found a service manual for my XL-550 online, and believe me you need this service manual. I use my Futura a great deal, so every 3 or 4 months I clean and lubricate it and adjust the X-Y axis points on the