Just got my smoothstepper a few weeks ago and initially used an old XP laptop with the USB power management turned off. I would occasionally see errors in Mach 3 saying it couldn't talk with the cyrpto data in the smoothstepper, or data timeout, etc. A reboot (and power cycle on the controller) would always fix the problem.

Last weekend I picked up a nearly new Dell Desktop for free. Unfortunately it had Vista Business. I was going to just wipe it clean but decided to give vista a go. Uninstalled and turned off everything I could find - no virus software, removed every windows feature I didn't need, disabled all power management, pulled every app I could find, etc. Machine has Mach 3, the smooth stepper drivers, CamBam, Alibre Standard, a web browser (for getting updates) and not much else.

At first it seemed OK, but Mach 3 is crashing if I just let the machine sit idle for a few min. It also gets into a state where it simply will not talk to the smoothstepper on startup. "Data timeout error" is the usual startup error - though I occasionally get errors saying it can not find the smoothstepper or the crypto memory is corrupted. I've checked to make sure I have the latest version of Mach 3 and the latest driver and plug in for the smooth stepper. Any ideas what else might be the problem? Not sure if I have an XP 32 license that will install on this machine - but I'm getting awful close to trying.

Thanks,

Mark

I would try a wipe and reinstall of vista if you have the disc.
Then just install Mach3 and the Smoothstepper stuff.
If it works well then reinstall the rest of the needed programs.
I would suggest not putting anything else on the computer and dedicating it to the machine.

Mike

Thanks Mike. Actually that is what I did today. Re-installing Vista wasn't too bad, but then it had 65 "critical" updates from Microsoft. It is a dedicated machine for the mill, so all it has is Mach 3, my CAM software, and my CAD software (so I can look at or modify drawings without having to run back upstairs).

I am happy to report that all is working well now. I should have done the clean install to begin with, but thought I could get away with just pulling the old stuff off. Guess I either overlooked something or there was something that didn't completely uninstall.

Windows and some of the programs that get installed are notorious for not getting uninstalled completely.
Uninstalling is unfortunately not the same as never having been installed in the first place. The registry gets full of garbage that gets in the way of programs working properly.

Nice to see that it is working now.

Mike