That's strange, if I hook up W2000 box to the ORAC, the spindle control works fine by clicking on the icon or by MDI input so that tells me the PP is working OK I guess?  The spindle speed DRO even works.

Still no stepper motor action by jogging or MDI though.  The DRO moves from either input but motors don't say nuttin'.

Gotta be sumthin' stoopid I'm overlooking.

Have a look in the BIOS and see what mode the port is in. Been a while since I used the PP so cant really remember which is best but EPP rings a bell.
Hood

You are GOOD Robin!  That's exactly what was ailing it.  Changed to EPP mode in the BIOS and she's happy now.  (...and me as well!) 

As we say down heah in the Tennessee: "Anybody don't like Hood's a sumbitch!"

LOL I have a feeling there are a lot of "sumbitch!"'s around in that case
Hood

Just curious:  What problems do the spikes in the driver test cause?  I wasted 3 or 4 hours of my life yesterday (I'm old, stubborn  and a tight bastid) trying to get an old Ati video card to work just to see if it would help smooth things out.

Never got it to work due to frustrating driver issues.  I took it back out & played around with the mill a bit using the integrated video and it seemed to work normally.  I assumed the spikes would show up as audible glitches as the steppers move around?  Haven't cut anything yet to see if sumthin' shows up there.

Couple guys at work have some old video cards they're gonna donate to to try out later this week.

You will likely lose position if they are bad enough. I think Rich reported he could hear his steppers tick when he used the Dell via the parallel port and the ticking occurred at the same frequency of the spikes he observed in the driver test.
Hood

OK thanks, I'll monitor it more closely and see what happens.

I might borrow the shop "Chassis Ears" & clip the pickups to the stepper motors and run some code.  It's a 4-channel amplified audio rig with headphones we use to pinpoint wierd mechanical noises in cars we work on and should make it easy to hear any funny stuff going on.

I could also rig a DTI to the axes and run some repeating codes to see if it returns to the same spot each time.  Don't wanna wear out the teeny little leadscrews & nuts though.  They have a very finite lifespan:

Brought the thing to work with me today and one of the guys got the Ati video card working in about 2 minutes   I then re-ran the driver test and the same spikes are there so I guess it's just a Dell mobo thing.  I'm still going to test it actually running the mill later on.  I think it'll do fine for my needs.

I posted 'cuz I hate to leave a question unanswered.  Ya' just never know when some other tight bastich comes along trying to get an old steam-powered PC working and stumbles onto this thread.

Hopefully it will work for you seeing as you are as tight as a ducks ****
If not then two options, try another computer or get an external controller.
Hood

Hopefully it will work for you seeing as you are as tight as a ducks ****

Hey, I resemble that remark!  SWMBO says I'm so tight I take my glasses off when I'm not lookin' at anything.

My answer is to her is always "I have to be the way you spend money!"