My MakerGear M2 is experiencing this exact same issue. I've had my M2 for over a year now and have kept it very well maintained and have run many spools of PLA and ABS through it. But at this point, my M2 is basically parked until I get to the bottom of this problem. This issue didn't crop up for t...

the z bed needs to be zeroed and likely leveled

I upgraded to the 24v setup on a late 2012 M2. This unit has 1/8 microstepping. I loaded the latest firmware and made the changes to reflect the 1/8 step changes. I am having lots of trouble getting a successful print with ABS. It will print the first layer, but beyond that the extruder starts to sk...