Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => Mach4 General Discussion => Topic started by: anchor1 on September 05, 2015, 10:43:50 PM
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I have a problem installing the license it accepts the license ,says it is licensed, but when I reboot the computer the pcid has changed and it is unlicensed again . Artsoft says I can't license it until the pcid stays the same when I reboot .After trying three different computers with fresh installs of operating systems xp they all do the same thing, its long past frustrating can someone help here . Artsoft won't answer my emails any more and I have no licenses left to use (for my paid software).I have mach 3 installed and running fine for a about a year with hafco hm52 mill conversion .I decided to change to mach 4 I have it jogging in demo mode ok , finally after much hair pulling.I can't think of anything left to try its not looking good for this software.There is a lot of information on how to install the license but not much if it doesn't.
Thanks mike
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Hey Mike
I'm having the same problem with the last 2 or 3 (2660 and 2673 for sure) versions of Mach4. also using XP.... I emailed them about it ... but probably won't hear anything till next week sometime(holiday weekend and all). now that someone else is having the same problem it sounds like a bug to me in the newer versions.
Dave
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Thanks for that , I have sent quiet a few emails to support and they are not responding now ,must be the weekend thing . There are no other posts about pcid being different on reboot that I can find.. Its good to know I'm not going mad after all.
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Same Here?? I only have 1 computer using Mach4 and so far i'm on 3rd licence...
DazTheGas
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Hey DazTheGaz , I just counted mine I've used 10 for 1 mill..... I win :)
Mike
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I haven't used Mach4 on a a machine, and I've used 5. Old PC, New PC, and the licensing scheme has changed (I think) 3 times since Mach4 was released?
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Gerry I have loaded mach4 demo onto my main computer win 7 64 this one returns the same pcid on reboot, seems to be just xp home and xp pro the pcid changes . After a bit of sleep I realized the deactivate licence button was a do nothing button unless the coders are using newfangled wormhole technology to access the shed. I have managed to get jogging and run a short gcode in demo mode no chips yet , but can't get limits and homing to work must be limitation with demo.
Mike
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I have loaded mach4 demo onto my main computer win 7 64 this one returns the same pcid on reboot, seems to be just xp home and xp pro the pcid changes
Done a little test today, I have loaded mach4 twice on same machine in different directories, one for build 2630 and one for 2673. so without rebooting etc between different versions they produce different pc id`s ???
This I would say is down to the mcCntlGetComputerID command being different between the 2 versions of what data it is collecting to make the key..
DazTheGas
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Hi,
I also had that issue where the license would not "stick" and reverted back to the demo mode. This is on a brand new Lenova H50-55 PC with Win 8.1 (3 days old).
I used both Mach 4 VER 2 Builds 2651 and build 2673 - no luck.
I finally refreshed my brand new Win8.1 machine then updated to Win10.
A day later (this morning) I was finally able to get the license to stay.
I don't know what that was all about.
I ended up using Mach 4 Ver 2 build 2651 because the Warp9 website claims its the tested one to work with my Ethernet Smooth Stepper (ESS).
Next, I added the unzipped two files for the ESS plugins to the Mach 4 plugin folder. Open Mach 4, enter, when asked, the 10.9.9.9 IP address for the ESS (which worked fine on a demo Mach 3 install on an old XP computer) but Mach 4 now won't complete the "open" part by giving an error that it must close. Dead again, with no idea why.
To post this experience I used my trusty WIN 7 laptop to register on this forum and the "Gotcha" slider won't move. So I couldn't register. What?????.....
I finally ended up registering on my new Mach4 PC and its "Gotcha" sliders work.
What a frustrating process just to get my cnc running - and it still bogged down with some unknown problem.
I have considered going Linux, but it is way too fussy regarding latency and even my brand new Lenova PC had a severe latency that it is not recommended. I had one old XP machine that did have a decent latency - but I can't use the ESS with Linux, and I would lose my Mach 4 - ESS investment too. CRAP....
Now I'm waiting for Support, or this forum to help me.
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OK, I'm now able to run Mach 4 with its license properly loaded. Don't understand what I needed to do to get it this far. Just kept trying the same thing but expect different results - and finally did get the license to hold.
The ESS issue may be a non-Mach 4 issue. When I run the ESS Config, Mach 4 gives the error that the "GUI has stopped working". Possibly because it can't see the ESS board via the Ethernet connection. My cable is good as it works on an XP Mach 3 demo system. My Ethernet port on my new Mach 4 PC has been setup for a fixed IP address (10.9.9.2 Mask 255.255.255.0) and it's configuration gave no sign of error. I even rebooted the PC, but still no ESS working.
Cheers.
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how many Axis`s do you have set up
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I ended up using Mach 4 Ver 2 build 2651 because the Warp9 website claims its the tested one to work with my Ethernet Smooth Stepper (ESS).
The recommended version on the website was there due to an error I overlooked and prob hasnt been updated yet, i am using latest version with ESS and all is working as should be.
DazTheGas
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blockhead,
3 plus one slave. Worked fine on a Mach 3 demo and XP setup. But switching to Mach 4 and Win10.
dazthegas,
That's good to know. May try it when I get the chance.
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I found if I have A axis enabled it would not work but that`s not the problem.
one thing I found that helped was to reload M3 as it would over wright the driver`s on load up. then go back to M4 with only the E stop going then added in the axis`s close and restart M4 then do the other inputs, close and restart then do the outputs.
the ESS set up can be a nightmare to do if one setting is wrong. and 2651 was a op`s you have to go to the new one they made some mistakes in the code
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I got this back from support:
Hello Mike, the latest version of Mach4 has issues with Xp. The developers and programmers are working on it and when it is addressed i will let you know. Best regards Jim.
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well at lest they gave you the correct answer
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Why are they wasting they're time supporting a 12 year old OS, when most PC's still running it will not run Mach4 very well.
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Well.... because people were told that it would run on XP and they based
their purchase decisions on what they were told.
Almost half of our customers are currently running XP. Over time I would
expect this number to decline, but booting them out without a stable
version of Mach4 running on XP seems a bit harsh.
Dropping XP at some point in the future when Mach4 gets a significant update
seems more reasonable.
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there are some dependency that need to be added to M4 for it to work on xp
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My point was that they should have never supported it in the first place, but I guess they didn't think that getting it in people's hands would take 5 years...
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yer but half of the user can`t afford to drop the dollars for a new computer or bits need
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I would move to linux before I would buy another windows os.
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10 is better well it`s quite good no more silly ********* on ya screen and a hell of a lot better start icon left click or right click both work.
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So will XP not work as well as 7 ,8 and 10 ,the reason I ask is I have lots of XP boxes in the dead computer cupboard .Will they run slow or what ,they all exceed the minimum requirements plus XP is easy to tame .This is win 7 I am on at the moment just rebooting is a pain with (windows has operations to perform) waiting, waiting ,waiting ,I have never been able to stop it ,8 will never go on one of my computers for more than 5 min its just plain horrible , I don't know about 10 I don't see it as being supported.
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it depends on the computer some will be ok some not there is a reason why.
yes win 10 is better than 7, 8, 8.1 it`s faster, it has the old and new start menu you can have it look like xp or 7 or 8 it is over all better microsoft listened this time, but as it goes with microsoft 0ne crap, next one better the one after good.
just test them running big files if they can run good all good, but it would be better to get a new computer to start with. I did for my big machine it made a differences, for my small one I am making do with a old xp computer it run`s ok for now.
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Thanks blockhead I did some limited testing in demo mode didn't use more than 5% cpu on anything I have done .Not sure what a big file size would be but I made the step over .03mm in vcarve pro and recalculated some raised lettering, that took five min to load into mach4 and was then using 70% cpu while loading ,is that what you mean by slow ,it seemed to cut air alright at maximum speed of the mil ,would break bits if it was cutting steel at that speed.
Mike
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There is a knew version of mach4 out that fixes xp pcid changing now if I could just get a new license...... :)
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just don't forget to deactivate your old one`s
I just wish I could get it to work, just got to find the correct update, I run windows update on a xp today it still work`s it was meant to be shut down years ago
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I have windows xp pro, service pack 3, 32 bit, if thats any help had to install vcredist_x86 2013.
Still waiting for license they deactivated my license page for mach 4 after 10 ,Getting close .
Is yours not installing.
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it`s installing just have a dependency missing i installed vcredist_x86 2013 did not help it has not finnished updating will try again after that`s done trying to hold of getting a pokeys57cnc to m4 a bit more finished then I will just use one of my many laptop`s
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Is it the home version of xp
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yep it worked before they went to vc 2013
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on an xp home I loaded the demo on clean install service pack 2 I had trouble, I then installed service pack 3 and vc 2013 to get it installed and running
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So I guess that with a good XP Pro SP3 Dell box (off line) running Mach3 .062 and an ESS for production work, changing to Mach4 right now might not be a good move?
Cheers
Roger
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The latest version(2686) seems to have fixed Mach4 license issue on my XP machine. But still having a license problem with the Darwin plugin. Not sure about any other plugins.
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I have Mach4 2686 running and successfully licensed on my Win7 32 bit office computer.
I have wondered whether there would be any benefit in moving to 64 bit operation, so have installed Win8.1 64 bit on a second drive on the same machine. I wanted to see if Mach4 still ran successfully so installed it on the 64 bit OS.
To my surprise, the PC Id was totally different to that for the 32 bit OS, despite it being on the same machine, so my existing Mach4 licence was invalid. Is this the intended behaviour, or should the Id be machine specific and therefore the same for both OS?
I hope that with all the licensing issues of late Artsoft do not unduly limit the number of inactive licences we can have.
Allan
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Ok, the licencing issues are dieing.
But what about all the other problems I read about?
Cheers
Roger
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I think if you install a different OS your gonna get a different PCID. Basicaly thats like a whole different computer.
Dave
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M4 does not need 64 bit, 32 is all it needs built to 32 bit, Roger whate to the next update from the ESS side it`s god know`s when, but the ESS will work ok now only ok, you can try the winxp box there are a few dependency need for it to work.
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I think if you install a different OS your gonna get a different PCID. Basicaly thats like a whole different computer.
Dave
I went from WIN 10 back to WIN 8.1 and Mach 4 kept the same license key. This of course assumes that your Mach 4 folder isn't erased when changing OSes.
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yeah that would have been an upgrade.... I wonder if it would change if you did a clean install. if I wipe my drive and reinstall XPsp3 it will still generate the same pcid. but it's the same OS..... guess I'm not sure how all that works.
Dave
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Clean install of xp needs a knew pcid . If you image the drive with acronis and do a clean install of windows from that you wont need a knew pcid
Mike
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I just wiped my drive.... deleted the partition.... reformatted the drive and reinstalled win xp it has the same pcid it had before.
Dave
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not on my pc 12 licenses and counting , also the number for phone activating windows changes too .
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my copy of xp pro is an industrial version it doesn't need to be activated and theres no limit that I know of to how many machines it can be installed on. never bothered to look to see if the windows pcid changes when its reinstalled.
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pity I cant get a copy of that ,I need xp for work stuff and can't go past win 7 pro with xp mode
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I had the same problem.. Somehow the PC ID was not the same as my installed version of Mach4 so I deleted the Mach4 install, saving my config 1st, then downloaded a fresh copy from the FTP site where the newest versions live, and grabbed the current PC ID. I deactivated the existing license and added the new PC ID and sent the license. It installed as before but this time it saved the license...
Hope this helps...
Cheers,
Hugh