Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: sebashtionh on November 19, 2015, 05:54:13 PM

Title: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: sebashtionh on November 19, 2015, 05:54:13 PM: Hello I checked the search bar but might of not put in the right questions..
I am setting up a new Windows XP box for just mach3 is there a thread or list of what to uninstall to just be mach3 running?
is there a how to thread or video to make sure mach3 is the only thing running?

thank you in advance and sorry if I couldnt find this in the search

Sebashtion H.
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on November 20, 2015, 01:27:35 AM: Hi Sebashtion,

Welcome to the forum.

For a dedicated PC control system my suggestion would be just to make a clean install of WinXP Sp2 - no updates or anything else (except Mach3 components) on the PC.

Tweakie.
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: sebashtionh on November 20, 2015, 02:10:55 AM: Thank You
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: beefy on November 20, 2015, 03:55:00 PM: I personally go silly with killing whatever I can on my PC. My motto is if it's not needed then kill it.

Regarding XP SP2 someone once swore that he had tested SP1, 2, & 3 and 2 was the ONLY one that didn't give some random issue. Now I believe his system was one of the older Candcnc plasma systems (MP3000-DTHC) which have a plugin written for Mach3, so whether the issues were related to the plugin or Mach3 itself I have no idea.

You need to install XP in "Standard PC" mode. This is detailed in the "XP Optimisation" guide which I believe is available from the Mach site. Search for "optimization" on this site or even Google Mach3 XP optimisation and you might come across it. It's normally a .txt file.

I disable anything in the bios that I think is not needed.

No other programs running or installed, the PC is a machine controller. I uninstall any XP programs like Internet Explorer, etc. My ethernet is disabled.

I even go into "services.msc" and turn off & disable a whole bunch of things that are just XP crap and are not needed. Google about disabling XP services and use your own judgement about what you think you can turn off. I'm no expert so don't want to recommend things in that area.

I hear all sorts of stories about how Mach can be happily chugging away for hours / days then capow it suddenly goes wonky and smashes a tool. Was that some service running in the background that caused it, no idea, but the less things there are running the less chance of one interrupting the program flow.

This is what I personally do and no-one has recommended I do this, it's just a calculated guess I made that maybe this will make Mach3 more stable.

I've occasionally found a PC that just doesn't work with Mach3, no matter what I do. I seem to have had best luck with Intel motherboards and quite a few of those have gave me a good driver test right up to 100Khz.

Keith.
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: sebashtionh on November 21, 2015, 01:02:33 AM: Thank you Beefy
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on November 21, 2015, 01:45:54 AM: Just while I am thinking about it, something else you may want to consider at this time is checking that you have, or else fit a new, good quality graphics card with plenty of RAM (those with 1GB are quite cheap nowadays). This becomes relevant if you ever run long Gcode programs within Mach3 or if you consider you may wish to use Mach4 at some future date. There has been some recent discussion in the Mach4 section suggesting that AMD graphics cards perform better than Nvidia graphics cards at this moment in time - something to consider ?

Tweakie.
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: sebashtionh on November 22, 2015, 12:35:09 AM: thanks
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: sebashtionh on November 22, 2015, 08:33:22 AM: so just asking, is there a way to convert the PC to standard or do I need to format and reinstall windows to follow the list of optimizing?
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: sebashtionh on November 22, 2015, 09:02:08 AM: sorry if i read the whole thing I would of seen you can...

EDIT: and I lost all control of the computer..
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on November 22, 2015, 10:35:55 AM: :)

Tweakie.
Title: Re: setting up a new xp system for Mach3
Post by: beefy on November 23, 2015, 08:55:45 PM: Quote from: sebashtionh on November 22, 2015, 08:33:22 AM
so just asking, is there a way to convert the PC to standard or do I need to format and reinstall windows to follow the list of optimizing?

I always do it when fresh installing (I always fresh install when I obtain a PC). When installing XP you'll get a message comes up something along the lines of "Press F6 to install a 3rd party...................." You press F5 instead and it will soon take you to where you can select "Standard PC". You have to scroll up until you get to "Standard PC".

I recently had a PC that would not work with Standard PC mode, it just froze. Of course it was a Dell, which I hate, and have had many problems with due to their proprietary nature.

Keith.