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General Mach Discussion / Computer freezes while running Mach3 - Windows XP SP3

« on: December 01, 2011, 01:30:48 PM »

I've had our CAMaster MC2840 CNC machine since November 2009 and have used our own computer as the controller. However, every so often from the very beginning to yesterday, while the machine is cutting and Mach3 is controlling, the computer would suddenly freeze up. The CNC would stop in it's tracks and I'd be dead in the water until I did a cold boot. Sometimes the computer would unfreeze itself and the operation would restart without skipping a beat, but usually I don't have the patience to wait for it to "thaw" and do a hard cold boot.

I wonder if the PC I'm running isn't up to par with what is required?

Here are our specs:
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHz
1 GB of RAM
Windows XP, Version 2002, Service Pack 3

It's basic computer with Cut2D and Mach3 installed. It is also connected to the internet and has Internet Explorer running in the background for mail and radio.

9 days out of 10 we run without a hiccup. But it seems like the past few days has had a hiccup or two each day.

Any idea what may be causing these intermittent problems?

Thanks,
Bryan

2

General Mach Discussion / Mach3/computer freezing during operation

« on: March 09, 2010, 09:05:15 AM »

Every once and awhile the computer freezes (mouse does not move, Mach3 stops, etc.) when running g-code through Mach3 to my CAMaster CNC machine. At first I thought it was a hardware issue, so I replaced the entire PC with a faster PC with more memory (2.66 GHz Intel with 1gb RAM) but am still experiencing problems. Yesterday while cutting, the computer/Mach3/CNC would freeze for 5 to 10 seconds and then unfreeze and resume normal operations. This happened 3-4 times in 5 minutes. With the old computer, it would freeze and never unfreeze which would require a hard boot.

I even had the computer freeze permanently when I double clicked the Mach3 icon and then flipped the ON switch for the CAMaster CNC machine. I remedied that problem by loading Mach3 first, then turning on the machine. But even then, that shouldn't happen?

When the CNC is running, the only program running on the computer is Mach3. During this time the computer is also wirelessly connected to the internet but no browser is loaded. I am running Windows XP Pro which was freshly installed not even one week ago.

Any ideas?