I don't like cooking on induction cooktops either. I find nearly everything about them a PITA. A single burner is nice (imo) for keeping something hot, maybe reducing, reheating, boiling water for pasta, etc., but for sautéing, nope, not a fan. (Maybe frying or deep-frying--but I don't do much of either.) For me, much of it comes down to years of experience in knowing and working with the interplay between flame and pan; not being at all interested in surfaces that scratch, cooking on them anyway; not wanting to use S/S pans (I really prefer anodized aluminum or copper--though I cook with S/S on the road often, much to my dismay); not wanting to employ utensils when hand tossing/flipping is so much quicker.
High end cooktops have no hobs--the entire top is a hob. Sensors determine pan size and shape and the nodes under the pan fire up.
Try an unenamelled CI pan or pot and see what happens. If that works it's the other pans/pots. If it doesn't then my guess is lack of power in the unit.
Note this that I discovered on a forum: Another difference between gas and electric cooking when boiling pasta is that over a gas burner, the water boils up from the side toward the center while with electric elements, including induction, the boiling is more across the bottom and usually gives a pattern of boiling from the middle of the pan toward the outside because the heat is going into the bottom of the pan, not moving across the bottom and up the side. You can check this by heating a pan of water using electricity and gas. While the pan is heating, hold your hands close to the side of the pan, palms down and note the difference in the amount of heat coming up the side of the pan.
Perhaps it is as simple as that.
