When making a full pitcher of drinks and you add extra ice and drink mix the blender will stop pulling the ice down so it can be blended. You have to manually remove the pitcher and take a spoon and stir it up. Now if you are only making one drink it works fine.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup nopal (cactus pads cleaned, spines removed), julienned.
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped.
• 1 lime, juiced.
• 1 cup water.
• Crushed ice (optional)

Licuado de Nopal (Cactus Smoothie) - Muy Bueno Cookbook

muybuenocookbook.com/2011/01/licuado-de-nopal-cactus-smoothie/ Recepies for the cactus smoothie Google Search

If you can visually see the rod, use a few drops of cooking oil. If it leaks into any drink, you wont get sick. Don't use mineral oils.

It means it's working very hard,
I suggest to put items that are thick in first and blend them then add the other ingredients after , the smell is the coating on the motor getting hot , if you see smoke coming out, drink your smoothie wash it out and take it back for a new one.

Yes it very well could, it is highly likely.

You're blending at a high speed and air is getting introduced. Try a slow blend speed. This should solve your issue.

This can be coming from discoloration and/or food acting on the rubber gasket. Be sure to take the pitcher apart, removing, the screw on base cap, the blade mechanism,and the gasket to clean your blender after each use. Acids and liquids can act on the rubber causing a discoloration and this will seep into your pitcher. This should take care of your problem. If it does, please come back to Fixya and rate my solution!

You may need smaller ice chunks, this is usually a physical issue, look at it and see if ice is stacked in a manner to block more ice from getting to the blades.

When mine did that I just put in less ice the next time and I experimented to see how much liquid to add. Once I did the 2nd and 3rd batches of drinks I got the hang of it.

well it looks to me there is some thing not tight enough connection to ur blade.....as u say it works when empty but when u put soemting in its stops....this means ur blade is not tight on the shaft to the motor......or u may have done something wrong when u had the blender open........recheck ur work and make sure its tight,,,,,
if so u will have ur ice cold drink....cheers i hope so for ur shake