Long, long ago, in a land far, far away, some carvewrights and compucarves came brand new with faulty QCs. The vibration caused broken wires and sensors and unhappy users. Some QCs have been working great for 5 years, like mine. I have a 2007 "A" model with a QC that still works great, but many didn't. So no it isn't unusual to find an A model with little time and a bad QC. It may have been that way from the factory. The best thing you can do at this point is to replace it with the new carvetight or rock chuck and most of the machine problems go away. Good luck