Ok so if its worse with FRO locked out you have some serious issues somewhere.
Where is the hard bit to determine. As this happens with both PP and SS then it has to be a hardware issue.
You mentioned you had to filter the index so I am wondering if that could be the issue, maybe a better index pulse device would help.
Not going to go back and read to see whether you mentioned it or not but are you using steppers or servos? If servos it could well be your servo tuning is not good. If steppers it could be they are not powerful enough.
Do you have ballscrew or just acme lead screw?
Hood