Most people have had success right from set-up with some tweaks to make it better. So either you’re doing something wrong and not realizing it, have put it together wrong or there’s something wrong with your machine. Or the filament. A lot of people have had problems with the SM PLA that came with their machines. (Mine was fine)
As Atom said, need a few of the details and some pictures to help.
You’ve updated the firmware. Have you calibrated the extruder? ( Extruder Calibration a must )
Have you tried doing simple tests, benchy, calibration cube first? Need to start small and work your way up.
When you heat up the nozzle to load (make sure it’s 220 for PLA) and then press load does it come out steadily? You should only have to load when changing filament.
You shouldn’t have to auto-calibrate before every print. Only when changing between beds/toolheads. Calibrate once and then that’s your baseline and start adjusting from there. Most people find that raising the z-offset helps. I’ve found that if I do the final step of calibration to where it’s just showing resistance and then raise the Z-offset .05 it’s perfect for me for PLA (PETG I raise .2) Quite a few people who have been struggling find that’s their problem and have success raising it somewhere between .05 to .15.
If it’s too low it squishes the first layer into the bed and makes prints very hard to remove. Since I started doing PETG (which really sticks to the bed) I’ve become a big fan of using glue stick. and while it’s not necessary for PLA works really well too. First layer goes down great and things come off super easy.
Are you using a skirt when printing? I’ve found that setting the skirt to 2 helps to prime the head and gets thing flowing. It’s also a great starting indication of how things are working. If it doesn’t go down right I restart and if it still doesn’t then something’s off and I make adjustments.
I’ve found that my bed has seemed to have gotten ‘seasoned’ the more I’ve printed on it. Prints release better and stick better to start. (May just be my printing temps and adjustments are better)
I wipe down the nozzle with a microfiber cloth between prints when it’s warm. I use tweezers when something longer is hanging.
Can’t hurt to clean bed between every time. If I’m using gluestick I wipe it off with a wet paper towel and then redo gluestick every 5 prints or so.
Don’t give up. Everyone has had to figure out how to do this. PLA was super easy for me and thought I had it all down pat. Then I tried PETG and it gave me fits. Finally got it dialed in and now it works great. One thing that taught me is to be patient and not try to change too many things at once. Start with a setting that’s working for someone else and then do small tweaks. Z-offset, nozzle temp. and bed temp, in that order, are the first to try.
-Steve