Try the Panasonic at Costco...

Do a search , at the "Bottom" of the main Appliance Page, in GW for microwave popcorn or speed oven popcorn.
You will see posts for similar problems, and at least
in the case of the Elux Speed oven (with plenty of power, 1100 watts), the problem was solved by elevating the bag
in the speed oven (Per the users Manual).

There was also a post about another speed oven or MW (Non Elux) having the same problem, I haven't seen posted yet as to whether elevating the pocorn bag in the mw solved that problem or not.

Also make sure you are using proper bag size per your MW's Operation Manual (assuming it has popcorn info)

Worth a Try???? (Elevating)

Gary

I have an ancient 700W microwave that pops popcorn fine. It just takes longer.

Agree with Bill's rec to look at the smaller Panasonics...well-made, powerful, and won't break the bank.

>I have an ancient 700W microwave that pops popcorn fine. It just takes longer.

Likewise. I find that with the really small unpowerful ovens, you should shun the popcorn button, but a little experimenting will show you the right settings to use.

And elevating the bag makes a difference. I have a mw-safe tray, but you can take a plate and turn it upside down.

Wow! Interesting idea about elevating the bag. I am definitely going to try this tonight when I am watching my shows.

Using the elevation trick definitely worked. We installed a new 800 watt GE Profile microwave and were getting an err message while trying to pop a small Trader Joe's bag of popcorn. Worked fine in our previous microwave. I elevated the popcorn bag on a bowl and it popped all the way without an error message.