computer locking up - any suggestions....

[xrotor]

Hello, Hopefully this is the right place to ask for a little assistance.   I recently just got my Bridgeport knockoff up and running under Mach3 current release (Mach3 R3.043.022).  However after some period of time (10 minutes to 5 hours) the computer completely freezes and requires that I remove the power to get it restarted.  I am using an older HP business machine under W2000 and I have tried turning off zone alarm and the virus protection to no avail.  I then installed the previous release Mach3-2.63 and all seems to run well now.  I have a few questions:

1)   Is this a common problem perhaps with a straight forward solution? 
2)   Being new to Mach3 I am trying to determine if I am missing very much by running the older release (obviously the new release exists for a reason) comments?
3)   I would like to assign keystroke macros to explicitly set the jog feed distance setting and not just roll through the predetermined values - is there a tutorial somewhere for this?

I can certainly provide more details of the setup of it is needed but I thought I would keep this simple to start.

Thanks in advance. 

[Hood]

What are the specs of your computer?
What kernel have you got set?
Have you tried the optimisation steps detailed on the downloads page?
Hood

[xrotor]

Hood  -  I have tried a number of the steps in the XP_Optimization.txt file but I will admit to not all of them.   I did turn off all of the startup items but found that there was not effect.  I was kind of hoping to keep the machine still usable as an internet appliance.  Some of the steps seemed like very very remote possibilities.

Here are few more details of my computer set up... I think these are the basics.   

Operating System         System Model
Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 (build 2195)         Hewlett-Packard e-pc 42 1.0
System Serial Number: US22701413
Enclosure Type: Space-saving
Processor a         Main Circuit Board b
1.70 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache         Board: Hewlett-Packard HP System Board B01
Serial Number: S630QSG01DE6D02149
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. JB.01.06 06/14/2002
Drives         Memory Modules c,d
20.40 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
15.06 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space



WDC WD204EB-71CPF0 [Hard drive] (20.40 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAAU2556521, rev 06.04G06, SMART Status: Healthy         768 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM1 ' has 256 MB
Slot 'DIMM2 ' has 512 MB
     Local Drive Volumes
     
      
c: (NTFS on drive 0)    20.40 GB    15.06 GB free


Don

[Hood]

Computer should be ok although there may be some power saving features in the BIOS that could be affecting things. Dont normally use Intel PCs so I cant recall what the name of them is but hopefully Gerry will see this and chime in as he often talks about disabling them.

I asked before what Kernel you were running Mach at and dont think you said?
Hood

[xrotor]

hmmmmm...... Kernel - now you are starting to reveal my ignorance.  But I could guess that it is the Mach.sys file?   I just ran the installation routine that came with each version of the Mach3 program that I tried.  When I decided to run the legacy version of Mach3 then I replaced the mach.sys file with the one that came with that package.  I did try the current mach.sys file with the legacy version but the system did not work and I replaced it and then everything seems to work normally.  BTW, when the current version froze the computer there did not seem to any particular activity that would cause it.  The computer could be idling for some time and then when I would go to move the mouse it would be frozen along with the keyboard.

Regards

[Hood]

It is the kernel speed you have Mach set to. Start Mach and go to Config menu then Ports and Pins and you will see the kernel, 25,000Hz, 35,000Hz etc.
Hood

[xrotor]

Hood

It is currently set at the lowest - 25Khz 

When I run the drivertest program it seems ok and indicates around 23500 pulse rate.  I am not complete sure how I should relate these two figures but the test program gives no warning.

Don

[Hood]

That should be fine as long as the pulse rate is fairly steady. Could there have been a possibility that you had the kernel higher with the newer version when you tried it?
Hood

[xrotor]

No, I have always left it at the slowest with the assumption that my CPU was on the low end of what is required to run these machines.

Don

[Hood]

Only thing I could suggest is you rename the Mach folder and delete the driver and try again, if it screws up you can always delete the new folder/driver and rename the other one back again, then running the driver test will install the old driver.
Hood