I suspect this is a question that will display my great ignorance of things mechanical. The saw starts fine, and idles OK but when I give it throttle it dies. Might it be carb adjustment? I spent a while twiddling with the carb adjustment not really knowing what I was doing and have failed to fix the problem. Simple ideas welcome because that’s all I might be able to cope with. If it makes any difference its a cheapy Chinese saw. Thanks.

That sounds like the choke is still on. Is it smoking a bit?

Do you use the choke to start it?

Take air filter off, and check choke is fully swinging from across the air inlet.

Varnish in the carb from old fuel?

Clogged fuel filter?

Clogged spark arrester ?

Sounds like it’s overfueling,.

Chain too tight?

could be one of many things from too rich on the High adjuster to blocked filters.

What brand?

If stihl, some pointers here:
http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/chainsaws/46716-stihl-ms-230-a.html

What brand?

Cheap Chinese according to OP

ah.
Part of me doubts there’s much in the way of screws for carb settings, so start with filters and work up the fuel line from there.

Wow, I guess everybody is on STW tonight. I didn’t expect so many replies so quickly.

I don’t think the choke is staying on. I took the air filter off to see the screws for the carb adjustment and it looked like it was off when I pushed the over back in after starting it.

There is fresh fuel in it now but there was some sitting in it for a few months. I drained it and replaced it with fresh but the old stuff might have caused a problem. I took the fuel filter out and followed the instructions for cleaning it. Don’t know what a spark arrester is, I really am not awfully practical.

I don’t think the chain is too tight. I adjusted the idle setting too and when it was high the chain was running.

Stoner, I’ll have a look at that link for ideas but yeah its a cheapy Chinese job. The local place that sells Still and Honda stuff just laughed when I asked them to look at it for me.

Another thing to add to the list above.

Is the fuel new?

If its old, try swapping for new, old fuel has done what you describe to me in the past.

[opps] beat me to it 😉

Oops double post. Can’t even get that right tonight.

will it run without the air-filter on? have you let it run long enough ( warm-up ) before you pull the throttle?

It will idle with the air filter off, dies when I give it throttle. I let it warm up for a few minutes, and had to restart it a few times so I think it was fully warmed up.