Yes, cutter is grounded.It's been grounded since its out of the box. Had my husband check it just in case and he said it was fine. Got it to working after I found another post saying to disable antivirus and turn off all programs running in the back round. Then, tried one more time just to be sure before I put in vinyl and it went crazy again. Smaller stuff it cuts absolutely fine. I separated the design and cut only the word cake pop it cut fine. Then cut the word Oh Lollipop, cut perfect. Tried it together and it messes up. It's not extremely complex or detailed.