Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: CT on May 28, 2008, 03:43:19 PM
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Is there anyone successfully using Vista with Mach3 2.0. I am a newbie with a newly retrofitted mill and I believe Vista is the problem. Thanks Colin
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Colin,
I was reading your other post and am still unclear about your printer port, is this a card slot port or some USB adaptor. I'll keep watching your other post for updates as it will be easier to follow the whole flow of things there rathr than starting a new thread.
Kristin
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The question is is anyone successfully using it for anything. It has been dubbed the New Millennium.
Microbloat are ditching it for Windows 7
I myself have just bought a new laptop NOT for Mach it came pre installed with Vista so i did try it but it was just so slow.
Put on XP, which i can start up, check email, then shut down faster than Vista will boot, total rubbish, albeit pretty.
Phil_H
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I tend to agree, seen lots of computers recently with Vista and even tried it on my own one here at home when it first came out. If the computer has 2 Gig of memory then it will run at the speed XP will run with 256Meg (if lucky LOL)
I would imagine that there will be many features that can be turned off so that things speed up a bit but not worth the hassle, XP or Win2K run much better and dont try and interfere with everything you do.
Hood
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Kristen,
The PP (DB25?) is a Moschip aftermarket card I purchased. Recommended after I was told the USB adaptors would not carry the signals needed. I installed it, downloaded the drivers online because I couldn't figure how to get it off the CD they sent. I then followed Machs tutorials on how to designate the proper address, which seemed successful, I continued setting up via video (Great BTW!) to the point where he says: you should be able to move your motors only right now, the rest we will do later....Well, it's later and I am still waiting for my motors to move. I am kinda green with this so, if someone said burn it- then throw it to the dogs, I would.
Hood,
I have a meter and will do what you have suggested.
I do not mind messing with Vista as long as I will get working results in a reasonable amount of time. I want to use my mill, I am behind on a engine construction project and by letting this get in the way, it is starting to consume me.
Colin
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Colin,
If you can scrap vista I would, seems most people work well with XP, question is do you have the XP OS on CD to do that. Next Q, since it a new system, I would recomend swapping out the HDD and using another to install XP on so as not to mess with the "factory installed" OS should you need warrenty service. Since it's a PCI card it should work, the address you gave here or on the other thread seemed strange to me is there any way you can assign 0X378 to that port? It seems like the # you gave may be a virtual port address and that may make a big difference if the PC has to jump through hoops to send a signal to it. Just a thought as I just recently upgraded to XP from 98 but each OS has it's "funny quirks" and I used to be much happier when I could set a hard address by jumpers rather than plug and play software, a whole lot less problems and trouble.
Kristin
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None of us would be having this discussion if Mach ran on Linux and there was some good CAD /CAM software for it as well.
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Colin,
If you can scrap vista I would, seems most people work well with XP, question is do you have the XP OS on CD to do that. Next Q, since it a new system, I would recomend swapping out the HDD and using another to install XP on so as not to mess with the "factory installed" OS should you need warrenty service. Since it's a PCI card it should work, the address you gave here or on the other thread seemed strange to me is there any way you can assign 0X378 to that port? It seems like the # you gave may be a virtual port address and that may make a big difference if the PC has to jump through hoops to send a signal to it. Just a thought as I just recently upgraded to XP from 98 but each OS has it's "funny quirks" and I used to be much happier when I could set a hard address by jumpers rather than plug and play software, a whole lot less problems and trouble.
Kristin
Kristen,
I do not have XP on CD, of course when I purchased the computer they said they could install another HDD and load it there. As far as assigning a different port address such as OX378, You would have to explain how to do that to me..
I was just out in the shop checking for voltages as Hood had recommended and could not get anything on my dir pins 2(X),4(Y) or 6(Z) to a ground pin (18-25). (I believe I had the correct pins)
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CT
B400 (or whatever it was) will likely be the correct address, 0378 is the standard address for onboard parallel ports but PCI can be all sorts of addresses, dependant on chipset, slot used etc. As an example one of my cards addresses is 9c00.
As you have tested with the voltmeter and its not showing any voltage it shows your card is not installed properly, either in Vista or the address is not right for Mach, I think however the address is correct from what you have said. I think there are some programmes you can download for free to test a parallel port, try doing a google to see if you can find one and give it a try.
Benny
Yes you are correct, we would be to busy climbing that big old hill thats called the Linux learning curve , so no questions (or machining )would be getting asked (done) :D
Hood
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Hood the laptop i bought HAS 2 gig ram Intel duel core CPU, with vista about as fast as a snail.
I bought it as refurbished, but it was brand new sold at a lower price due to having Vista as the OS
Another tip on a different note is a program called NLIGHT "Free Download" it made a new WinXP boot disk with slipstreamed SP3 all the drivers for the laptop and worked perfectly The laptop has a sata HD, no floppy so i couldn't have done it without NLIGHT well i could but it would have been a headache
I am going to put a multi boot system on it and try out ubuntu and see what all the fuss is about
Phil_H
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I think all this anti-Vista smack talk is rubbish. It sounds like to me that your parallel adapter does not work properly with Vista. So, it is a driver issue.
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Jeff, show me where anyone has suggested that the problem is other than the driver, PCI card or a Mach setup problem, I certainly havent. What I have said is Vista is a memory hog and likes to take control away from you and if you dispute that fact then I think you must work for Bill :)
Hood
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Hood the laptop i bought HAS 2 gig ram Intel duel core CPU, with vista about as fast as a snail.
Forgot this comment: Laptops are problematic with Mach anyhow. I had issues getting Mach to run properly on my older Dell Latitude properly it was running XP. I did all the power management tweaks (look for thread here called something like "how to use a laptop with Mach"), and got it sort-of working. It is VERY likely that power management is handled differently with Vista on a laptop than with XP and nobody has put together all the tweaks to make it work. In my case I had an older desktop that was going to run the machine anyhow on the machine so I switched over to it and have had no issues since.
If you really, really want to use your laptop then look into using a SmoothStepper board. It connects via USB and moves the pulse generation off the PC. I think it will solve your issues.
As a side note I have been running Vista on the laptop I am using now for 8 months or so (don't have Mach on here) and have no complaints. 99.999% of all anti-Vista complaints I have read are bunk. Something happens on the PC so folks mindlessly blame Vista.
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Hood, look at posts 1, 3, 6, 7, 8....and no I don't work for 'Bill' (exactly the kind of mindless comments I was referring to.), in fact I would say most comments in this thread have done nothing to help out the OP...
Let's compare memory to shop space. You have a 2000 square foot shop and N number of tools. Are you going to figure out how to cram all your tool into as little space as possible (and keep tripping over everything when trying to work) or are you going to figure out how to make the best use of the space you have available? I bet you choose the latter. You wouldn't use up every square inch as you may need to bring items in/out, but you would lay your tools out to take the most advantage of the space you have available.
Operating systems 'should' treat memory the same way. If you have two gigs of memory then the OS should make the most out of that space, not cram every application into as little RAM as possible (and wind up with big slow swap files).
As you said Hood, the problem lies in the driver or Mach set up (most likely), my bet is on the driver as most drivers suck (Machs LPT driver is great though). The OP should be certain that he has the proper driver installed, sometimes the default one that Vista (or XP) chooses are 'generic' and do not fully support all of a devices functions. The biggest issue probably is that it is a laptop. A quick search would reveal all number of problems with Mach and laptops. I would again suggest that a SmoothStepper would be the way to go.
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The reason most in this thread have not helped out is for two reasons, firstly he has another thread running and secondly and most importantly is what he was asking in this thread, ie he was wanting opinions on what people thought of Vista and whether anyone has Mach running with it. As I have never tried Mach with Vista I cant give an answer to that but I have messed with enough computers in the last year that have Vista on them to know that it needs copious amounts of memory to perform at even a slow pace.
As for my comment regarding working for Bill, obviously you didnt see the emoticon, it was said in good humour.
Your analagy about the shop space and memory has gone way over my head, my take on it is if you have 2Gig of memory and run XP you will need 4 times that to run Vista at anything coming near to a similar speed. XP in itself is not efficient with memory but compared to Vista it is positively frugal.
Your comment regarding the laptop is also misplaced as from what I see Phill is not saying he tried it with Mach, he is merely confirming how much of a memory hog Vista is with normal day to day aplications. Also I fail to see where the OP says he has a laptop, if its a PCI card he is using then I would think it be a desktop.
Oh and also I fail to see anyone in the posts you mention saying that it is Vistas fault, well maybe in post 1 but that is the OP himself so that doesnt count :)
Just myt thoughts on the matter, obviously yours differ and I respect that and it will give the OP all the more to go on to make his mind up reagrding which OS he decides to use with Mach.
Hood
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Well now that the Vista/XP/Linux thing has been beat to death, I would seem we are back to a hardware issue if there is no voltage on the cable pins. So I Propose the following again.
1- I can't recall (since this thread is split in two) if the cable its self was ever checked for continuity pin for pin to make sure it is wired straight through.
2- Seems there was a mention that the driver installed was a download from the net because "I could not figure out the CD" according to the OP
3- Time to remove the hardware, reboot and start clean, perhaps even try a different slot if avalable and install it with the driver provided on the included CD.
4- Has this card been tested with the most obvious thing, a printer?
5- Since the OP does not own a copy of XP that does not seem to be much of an option, adding a HDD & buying XP would probably be more than just buying a PC already loaded with XP, there are plenty of off lease machines cheap.
Kristin
PS- Thanks Hood for bringing this back around to the topic.
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I appreciate all the comments, am sorry for the thread split (I know now I should not do that) and will attempt at responding to all that are relative:
1. It is a Desktop
2. This may very well be human error and is why I could use some help.
3. I am not sure how to fix the port issue.
Kristen,
1. I did check the cable pin to pin (OK).
2. I downloaded the driver online because the instruction sheet that came with it did not say anything about what to do for Vista (Culprit?). So, I went on line and let it determine whether it was capatible with Vista and figured it would tell me if it was not. In fact, whenever I go into the driver files it says it is working fine. I am a real newbie to this so, I believe what it is telling me.
3. You are saying I should remove the PCI slot card & driver only? (Only have the one slot)
4. If I send it to printer, it does everything but lay down the ink. (Ink was old) It would not work at first, I had to eventually go into port setup and click the pooling box and all the ports available. Not really sure which one it was. Should I redo that and determine this?
5. It sounds like a cheap lease machine is the way to go before adding XP to this one. I thought I was doing the right thing by purchasing a new computer dedicated for this purpose and thought I did enough investigating. Maybe I didn't!
Thanks again
Colin
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If its working with a printer then it seems that the port is working fine and looks like its a setup issue with Mach. Please attach your xml and we can have a look and see if anything is amiss. In the meantime go to the Mach3 Folder and run the DriveTest.exe (Mach needs to be shut down when doing this) Also look in device manager and make sure the Pulse engine is installed.
Hood
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I don't mean to ask a dumb question, but do you mind telling me how to do that XML thing?..Do I need to be online? Also, I do not remember seeing a pulse engine in the device manager. Did I miss that too? I will look again now. Thanks Hood
I did check for the pulser engines (Mach3Driver??) It is there and status says it is working properly. I will do the other stuff as well.
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the xml you will find in the Mach3 folder, if you are just using the standard Mach3Mill profile that will be its name. Copy it to the desktop and then rename it, you can then go to the forums full reply form (press reply button rather than using the quick reply) you will then see additional options where you can then browse to the xml you have renamed and attach it. Rename it CT.xml or similar, that way the forum will accept it.
Hood
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Does that computer need to be online? or can I save it to say, the USB key?
I did the driver test and it is saying that mach3 "took control"
There was a good line and the freq. is approx. 25,800.
It all seemed ok. Colin
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Yes saving to USB is fine.
Looks like your pulse engine is fine then.
Hood
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A message for Jeff Birt
The fact of the matter is the best time to get a new OS is when like XP it is near the end of it's life all the bugs "Well Most Of Them" have been ironed out as with XP and SP3 this link shows that Vista takes more than twice as long to complete a task http://news.cnet.com/Windows-XP-outshines-Vista-in-benchmarking-test/2100-1016_3-6220201.html
The best OS for Mach would the one that uses the least resources and it ain't Vista
I remember at the time when XP first came out someone from Redmond said XP had fixed 20,000 bugs someone else said but they have created 30,000 new ones ;D
Phil_H
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For some reason I am having trouble replying with this attachment. I guess I need assistance with that too.
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Colin,
When your reply, look for the additional Options button, it will let you add a file.
Kristin
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Hi CT i think you may have to rename it too. I think i am right in saying you cannot upload any file using a default name IE "Mill.xml"
So the copy on the USB drive rename to a non standard name ie "colins.xml" and then try
You will get there in the end.
Phil_H
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It is telling me that my upload folder is full?? Not sure what to do here or even if it went through!
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I am trying send the entire folder?...or am I sending one of the files in it?
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sent you an email.
Hood
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It took me forever, but I think I finally got it off to him ??? I am not an expert to start with and Vista is still new as well....I'm a DoughHead should sum it up! Thanks to all for your patience. Colin
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The attachment problem is now fixed.
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Colin
Thats the backup xml's you have sent. What you want to do is look in the Mach3 folder and you will see Mach3Mill.xml, you probably wont see the xml part as the file extension will probably be hidden. You have gone into the Mach3 folder then into the backup folder.
Hood
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Hope this is it!
Well...it went up, hope it's the right one. I may have to step out for a couple of hours. Will check back as soon as I can. Thanks Colin
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OK think I see your problem. you have the Port 2 enabled and looking to your PCI cards address. Problem is you also have your pins 2-9 enabled as inputs, take the check out of that box and you should get some control.
Really it would have been best to set it all up as Port 1, put the address of your PP in the Port 1 address and disable port2. Then you would need to change all your outputs etc to look at port 1 rather than the 2 you have it at the moment. So if disableing the 2-9 as Inputs work then probably best to change it, but simply disableing the 2-9 as Inputs at the moment will show you if that is your problem.
Hood
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I will go and do that although I have been switching that back and forth trying various config. not knowing any better. Colin
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A message for Jeff Birt
The fact of the matter is the best time to get a new OS is when like XP it is near the end of it's life all the bugs "Well Most Of Them" have been ironed out as with XP and SP3 this link shows that Vista takes more than twice as long to complete a task http://news.cnet.com/Windows-XP-outshines-Vista-in-benchmarking-test/2100-1016_3-6220201.html
From the linked site:
Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP's 35 seconds.
Vista's performance with the service pack increased less than 2 percent compared to performance without SP1--much lower than XP's SP3 improvement of 10 percent. The tests, run on a Dell XPS M1710 test bed with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and 1GB of RAM, put Microsoft Office 2007 through a set of productivity tasks, including creating a compound document and supporting workbooks and presentation materials.
My response: Who cares???????? It has nothing to do with this thread or anything I said. Win 95 used more resources than 3.1, 2000 more than 95, and XP more than 2000, why is it amazing that Vista would run better with more resources than XP? I merely said that everyone jumping in to bash a particular OS wasn't very helpful; showing that under ONE condition in ONE test on ONE machine that Vista is slower than XP is somewhat helpful, but shows nothing about its applicability to Mach. That's the way benchmarks are, you can choose just the right tests to show anything you want. Some folks will run Vista and XP and Vista on the same machine and jump up and down when they see that Vista uses more of the available memory. My question was: Why shouldn't it. Why would you want to to put 2GB of memory in your computer and only take advantage of half of it?????? (You wouldn't cram all you tools in half your shop would you?
I have yet to see a single fact that shows why Vista would not be a good operating system for Mach, only different people opinions. I really don't care if anyone like Vista or not. That is not the point. Bring facts to the table to support your opinion on why one OS is better for Mach than another.
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I made the changes last night because it was showing (2-9) as unchecked. When I went back into the xml, it still showed it as married to port 2. Do I have to reboot after making changes like that? I disabled port 2 as well with no change to the xml or the problem. Still no motor movement or signals on the port. Now when I put this PP card in, it came with an additional port to be plugged into the board (PCI Card). I did not plug the second one into the card thinking I did not need it.
Do I need to pre-tune the motors before attempting this stage of setup?
According to the setup video, I thought I coverded the required config. just to see if I had motor response. Is there something I should take a look at?
Is it possible that making as many changes as I have made, be counterproductive? Kristen said I should consider uninstalling I guess Mach3, PCI card Drivers etc. and reinstall. Should I be doing that?
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ok, can you take a screen shot of your port address, with what you are saying maybe you have two ports showing in device manager and maybe you have the wrong one set up. Let me know the address and I will configure your xml and we will see if it works.
Hood
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The initial address which came up right after I installed the Port Driver was: D800-D807& D480-D487 Port *1, in Port #2: DC00-DC07 & D880-D887.
Now, in the port settings window I have the "use any interupt assigned to this port" checked. Is this right? Colin
Sorry, it originally said *LPT2 & #LPT3, of course I have changed them now.
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Is it possible that Mach doesn't recognize the addresses provided by the PCI card Chipset? Colin
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Sorry dont really follow, what does it say now, doesnt matter whether it says LPT 1 or LPT2 or whatever, just let me know what the address for each and every LPT that is showing in device manager and I will set up an xml for each and you can test each to see if we can get it working. The only part of the address I need is the first 4 digits, in your example above it is D800 for port 1 and DC00 for Port 2.
Got to go to a meeting with a customer but will check when I get home.
Hood
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In the Device manager, Moschip LPT1,resources-LPT1D800 & Moschip LPT2, resources-LPT2 DC00. I must also leave for a while. Thanks for all your time and effort thus far. Colin
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Download both of these files into your Mach3 folder and then use the Mach3 loader and choose one of them from the list and see if it works. If it doesnt close Mach and then restart the loader and choose the other and see if it works.
Hood
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I did not have any luck here, as it would tell me that it was not a licenesed version of mach4 and it was aborting. What's up with that?
Therewas a "get port address" file inthe mach folder I do not remember seeing prior, went into that and it seemed windows took some time and would not allow it. I have no idea what is going on with that either. Is there any way I can connect this computer so you could look at it?...
I am thinking about uninstalling everything and starting over. There's no telling what I have done to this thing. Colin
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If I click on the "get port address" in the mach folder, I get the following windows and "access denied". Does this mean that Vista is denying Mach3 access to the pp driver? I have uninstalled mach3, drivers for the pp port, rebooted and reloaded, still is not right.
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OK the licence problem may well be my fault, I am testing out some Beta stuff and it could be that because of that the xml carries some info and because it is not installed on your computer you are seeing the error.
The Get Port is normal to have in the Mach3 folder and it is good that it is showing your port address, it is however showing up LPT1 different from what you say it shows in device manager so might be a good idea to start Mach3Mill from your old xml, ie just start via the Mach3Mill shortcut Icon. Once opened change the port address to D480 and keep your fingers crossed :)
Rich
I think Colin said earlier that a printer worked on the port so it must be installed correctly if that is the case.
Hood
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Rich, Thanks for the reply, it's sounds like it could be some of my issue's. I have done so many things to this computer, mach and everything else, I am not even sure what I have done. I am desperate right now.
Hood, thank you for your reply as well, the pictures I loaded here are what I have since uninstalling everything and reloading it. It seems that something may not be quite right here. Is it possible I have not dumped & reloaded everything properly. If I have done it correctly, then something is wrong and not sure what I need to do to fix it. Colin
Rich, to answer your question about the card it is; NetMos, dualport, PCI nm9815cv, spp/epp/ecp mode, multi I/O controller card made in china. Hope this is enough info. as it's about all that is on the box. In the instruction sheet, it said nothing about Vista however, on the CD that comes with, it shows something about Vista 32&64 somewhere in the file. I'm not sure if it is compatible. It took some playing around with the ports just to get the printer to go through the printing motions. It never did print (with ink anyway) what I sent to the printer (Ink Cartridge was old and crusty) but it did respond and go through the process as if it did. I replaced the cartridge and with all the excitement of "Wow I actually made some improvement" forgot to remove the tape from it and wedged it right on in there and clamped it down (TIGHT). Once I figured out why this piece of junk would not still print, I removed the tape and still would not lay down the ink. So, I don't know if I broke it or not.
I certainly would be grateful if you could investigate this port to see if it is compatible.
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Hood, BTW, I tried to go into the loader and pick which xml to use but, it would not let me. It kept going back to the last config I made when I sent the xml to you. It let me make or create "one" profile. But, once I deleted the one I made, that was it. I am trying to remember everything that happened. Colin
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Sounds like the best thing to do is start from scratch if you can, format the drive and reinstall Vista, the PCI port and Mach.
Hood
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Rich,
Good advise, most likley there is not a full install disk incuded in the system, just a restore disk so doing a fdisk would be fatal. Even then HP would probably want the HDD back and ship a new disk with the OS installed. One good reason I keep behind the pack and always have a installable OS disk.
I might add sometimes it's better to remove, reboot, reboot and then shut down before re-installing a hardware item, don't know why but there seems to be some latency built in that will restore the old settings on one shutdown and not allow for a clean install. I had the same problem with Mach3, tried to just re-install, same problems, uninstall reboot and install, same problem but after uninstall and two reboots it worked fine in XP. These dang OS's take over and are hard to repair. On that note, if there is still a "restore point" in vista, he could try to just back up to the original software settings and start fresh.
ALT-CTL-DEL
Kristin
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Thank you all for your advise,
I think I should backup to BobCad for a minute here and tell you how I approached Mach3 initially as this may or may not be relevant to my current issues...When I loaded bobcad, it would not load beyond the "Demo"status. Bobcad had me changing the compatibility settings to XP, run as administrator, disable desktop themes and so on. I Thought I needed to do these things with anything else that may not have been necessarily Vista compatible. Mistake on my part?...
Back to the current posts. After installing the card, not seeing a specific Vista driver on their CD, I got online, ended up in moschip, I relied on them to give me a compatible driver since I didn't feel confident on picking one. I do remember seeing Vista 32 driver in there on my computer after that, everything showing no conflicts, driver working properly at this point. I am sure the "get port address" folder was there, I just didn't see and think I needed to go anyplace the software was not directing me to and maybe I didn't need to. This happened to be the first sign I saw that Vista was denying Mach3 access to the driver. I have a much better understanding of what is happening here and it sounds like your advise to remove mach3, shut down, remove the card, reboot a couple of times etc.?? is what I should do. I am able to go into bobcad and can access the files that I had in there. Does this mean I have a problem with Vista and need to go through a Vista reload?
I don't mean to sound stupid here but, I could not quite figure out how to put the XML Hood gave me back into the mach folder. Vista is different to me compared to XP. There is no "save as" as I was expecting. I did what I thought was right. It may have been wrong...I don't feel the user friendlyness here with Vista. It also freezes up every now and then. This could be bad for my application as well??
I did not reboot twice as Kristen suggested but will do that. I am not a computer expert here however, with fairly precise instructions I feel confident I can handle the card issues, I do not feel comfortable enough to handle the OS stuff though. When I took mach off the system this last time, it seems like I didn't even take it off. Nothing changed so, not sure if I did it properly. Not quite sure how far back I need to take this?
I hope I am making a little sense here and apologize if I am not. I appreciate everything your doing for me, I am keeping the XP option on a seperate computer (older one) on the back burner.
I do not feel it is fair to me "the consumer" to iron out Bill's R&D issues (at my expense and your time), sit back and watch while he lobbies Congress to educate and exploit the worlds poor for his benefit while our "Lifestyle justified income & educated" are jobless . Sorry for the Political statement! I wish I could be just asking mach3 related questions at this point.
I will be monitoring this until early pm EST today and will have to be away until next weekend
Thanks Colin
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Why would Vista tell me everything for this card is working fine but, deny access to mach3?
What would be considered a recommended processor size in an older computer to run mach only? I am keeping an eye out for one for the right price and maybe I can at least get started with it while the other issues get worked out.
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CT
1 Gig with min of 512Meg RAM and a fairly decent graphics card (64Meg or more) would be the min I would suggest. Memory is cheap, graphics cards are cheap, mobo and CPU are cheap, you could build an excellent platform for Mach here in the UK for under £200 (2Gig CPU, 160Gig HDD, 256Meg Graphics, 1 Gig DDR2), probably cheaper if you shopped around.
BUT as has been pointed out you could dual boot and use XP to run Mach and that would save you the expense of buying another computer. You may still get Vista working, I am sure there are quite a few that have.
My experience with Vista is trying to sort out problems that customers have with their computers, lots of the fisherman I do work for have laptops/desktops in the wheelhouse for navigation, plotters etc, a few have newish ones with Vista and so far none are happy with the performance. The only person I know that likes Vista is my friend who is a gamer, he is very computer savvy and has stripped away Vista to the bare minimum. I should qualify my statement when I say he likes it, he only likes and uses it for one game and only that game, the rest of the time he boots to XP.
Hood
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Hood,
As I am finding out about possibly changing the OS, is it still possible to have port issues even with XP on this computer?
If I were to dedicate another computer for mach only, it would eliminate me having to lug this back in from the shop each time I need it inside the office for drawing. This current computer has a dual core pentium, will mach3 v2.0 perform properly, would I need to upgrade mach if there is an upgrade for the dual core or does it even matter? I have just heard that if my software does not utilize this processor's capability it could actually decrease in performance. I don't know if this is true or not.
I am sure there are people running this setup however, they are more savy than I. I would like to know the basics of how to troubleshoot a problem when I am confronted with one, I just don't want to know more than I need to. At my level, (which is low)I was hoping for a more "plug & play" enviroment rather than the "plug, troubleshoot & experiment this deep" enviroment. Isn't this what Windows was all about in the first place?
Colin
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You may find your port isnt up to the job of running Mach no matter what system you have it on, some PCI cards just dont work, usually because they have low voltages.
Definitely better to have a seperate computer dedicated to the machine only, personally its the only way for me but I know thats not an option for some people.
Dual core shouldnt be a problem, dont use Intels myself but I have AMD dual core here and it runs Mach fine. I have even tested Mach on an AMD Phenom and it ran fine, the phenom is Quad core.
Vista was meant to be more user friendly but from what I have seen it takes away choice and insists on doing things its way whether its right or wrong. Also it fights very hard against you when you insist on doing it your (the correct ) way :D Some of the hassles I have had with the boats computers are etched firmly in my brain never to be forgotten :(
Hood