Hi Beryl,
We had exactly the same problem after the machine was only six months old. After six months of service engineer visits and replacement of most parts (including circuit board, brushes, etc) they finally agreed to let us have a replacement machine (although because they took so long to try and fix it this became a huge argument and took a few months to sort out).
Sorry I can't be of much help to you though.
Gareth., November 2005