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Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2011, 10:58:16 PM »
Hello

Mine is the small one not the big tower. It is an Intel P4 2.4Ghz. It has the on board Intel graphics controller. You can add your own AGP graphics card and opt out of the onboard graphics.
You can put up to 4G of memory in the GX270 but I've heard that going over 2G can create boot problems. Here is the link for the Dell sepcs sheet www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/optix/gx270_spec.pdf. I got mine off ebay for $15. S&H was around $20. CD drive installed but no hard drive installed. There are a couple of PCI slots so you could add a PCI parallel port card for LPT2. I didn't want to spend a lot if it was a bust but I'm very happy. I don't know why the new PCs are have such a hard time running Mach3. All I know is I wanted an all Intel system. My old computer was an AMD system and I had nothing but problems trying to run Mach3. Now it is just for CAD CAM.

Eric
Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #11 on: June 03, 2011, 11:21:00 PM »
Well... my friend let me borrow a PCIe 256mb graphic card and try it out.... it wouldn't turn on display... So I went out and bought a new 1gb geforce today... wouldn't work either... So I spend hours searching online finally modify some pin on the card and got it to work perfect.

Guess what?  Didn't help one bit... son of aaaaaa..... gez.  Anyway. I am going nut.  Here's the funny part... NOW even in Motor Tunning, it jitter and studder just as much?   What the fffff???

Only think I can think of is the 225watts power supply... Anyone think this could be a issue?  More powerful graphic card pull more power and made it worse?

Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #12 on: June 04, 2011, 05:53:47 AM »
I assume you are on XP?

I use Windows 7, tried it on my notebook(Dell Precision M6500, 1.6Ghz) and on the controller (which is hardware I put together, so no brand name, ATOM 1.8Ghz D425 on Windows 7 Embedded). Both have Solid state SATA drives and onboard graphics, the notebook ATI and the controller intel, both run 100Khz without a problem, on the notebook it runs at max speed without losing a blip on the driver test with all 8 cores busy rendering at 100% CPU load. The difference between the two is that when I open and close something on the notebook it stays steady, when I do it on the controller it takes a blip which doesn't matter though since I'm using a kflop anyway.

I've been wondering if these machines having problems are using IDE or SATA as the hard drive interface and if there is a difference?
What mainboard chipsets are they using, this is most likely the problem more-so than the onboard video card, a lot of system boards with onboard video are cheap low throughput boards.

Try and get an old server or workstation and NOT a desktop, I doubt you will ever see a problem on the high IO boards, which is more important than high CPU speed.
Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2011, 07:18:57 AM »
I have used just about every make of computer out there to run mach 3, and i see more problems with the compact desktops than any other type of computer. One advent compact desktop did have a similar problem to your computer, poor running, grumbling drives, in the end i binned it. You could try a seperate ground from the machines drive electronics to the breakout board, it has helped in the past.

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #14 on: June 04, 2011, 07:57:21 AM »
No help at all but this type of problem is occurring more and more frequently as the old technology PC's with parallel ports and WinXP are starting to become scarce. The future of Mach will perhaps lie in 'external motion controllers' but which one is best to use is anybody's guess.
I have one machine running with the Smooth Stepper and that works just great but from reading other threads I see it would not be suitable for all machine situations.

Anyone else have any views on the future for Mach (except that version 4 will solve everything) ??

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2011, 08:05:22 AM »
I try to use pentium 4 pc's and have very little trouble with them, whether they have dedicated graphics or shared graphics cards.

The most important thing to remember is the computer is there to run a cnc machine, and only a cnc machine, no frills or internet or virus protectors or ultrasonic keyboards or mice,  or anything else.

Keep it simple and it will work.

Offline ger21

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Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #16 on: June 04, 2011, 08:53:28 AM »
Quote
The difference between the two is that when I open and close something on the notebook it stays steady, when I do it on the controller it takes a blip which doesn't matter though since I'm using a kflop anyway.

Since you're using the KFLOP, the drivertest is meaningless, as the KFLOP handles all the step and direction signals. With an external motion controller like the KFLOP or Smoothstepper, virtually ANY PC should run Mach3 just fine.
Gerry

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Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #17 on: June 04, 2011, 11:03:34 AM »
Well, I guess I have to give up... I pull a Power Supply from my old CPU which is a ATX... thought it would work... all the plug fit.  but the damn IBM power supply is unique or something... when I plug my other PS in... it will not power on.


I guess I can go back to my other old comp and have to use that for now.  I am afraid of buying another computer and it freaken don't work.  However, I have start to notice a problem running it with the old comp yesterday.  For some weird reason, running 2500mm-3000mm in the Motor Tune window and main window it's fine.  But when running a Gcode file...   It loses position.... I believe I did not hear the stepper stall or losing step.  But Mach3 totally lost it and the cut miss like 10-30mm of gap.

If I run at about 1000-1500mm/m, then it seem fine.

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #18 on: June 04, 2011, 11:38:08 AM »
Quote
If I run at about 1000-1500mm/m, then it seem fine.

I think you have answered your own question here.  ;D

You could do as Gerry did (at least I think it was Gerry) and find a local computer supply store, take a copy of Mach on CD and explain that this is the program you want to be able to run and if the Driver Test works OK on their recommended computer then you will buy it. If they don't want to play ball find another store.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Mach3 problem with new cnc
« Reply #19 on: June 04, 2011, 01:47:07 PM »
Quote
The difference between the two is that when I open and close something on the notebook it stays steady, when I do it on the controller it takes a blip which doesn't matter though since I'm using a kflop anyway.

Since you're using the KFLOP, the drivertest is meaningless, as the KFLOP handles all the step and direction signals. With an external motion controller like the KFLOP or Smoothstepper, virtually ANY PC should run Mach3 just fine.

I did the test just to see how it runs.