I had to migrate to a new PC recently, and I have been stumped by the parallel card. I have a windows 7, 32 bit computer with a parallel port attached to the PCI-E bus. And for the life if me I cant get the Mach3 to interact with the parallel port.

A poster on the buildyourCNC forum suggested that MACH3 cannot see the parallel port on a PCI-E bus. Is that true ?

Thanks

I have never used a PCI-E card but know others that have with good results.  Are you loading and running everything as Administrator?

Brett

Make sure that it is a true P-port and not a usb implementation of one.

Mike

My old PC is getting past it, I am thinking of running my CNC with a lap top any ideas of what spec I should go for and is there any problems that I might have to watch out for
Cheers
Ray

I just started this.  I struggled to get the thing (Mach3) to even boot up.
Just can't get it to make the mill budge.  Nothing.  Nada.  Not even a twitch, trmmer or shimmy.  Nothing.
Am at a loss.
I know there has to be a reason for it but right now I have no flippin clue.
3 days now and not a single thing is moving.
Going to have to dig up some documentation and see if there is something I have to do like sacrifice a chicken at midnight while dancing under the full moon.
It's going to be a VERy rough week.
Hey if this turns into a flop Ill have a PC, Mill and software for sale! 
So disappointing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW I am running a win 7 64 bit, start with run as admin. All requirements met or exceeded, no alerts or request for action to trouble shoot.

The parallel is a pci card.

You can't use a parallel port on a 64 bit OS. Mach3's parallel port driver won't run.

A 32bit OS is one of the requirements to use the parallel port.

So what do I need to do?  I went with this assumption that I could.  This is off their website.  What do I need to do to run my mill with Mach3 off this computer? 

Laptop, 32 or 64-bit Desktop – External Motion Controller Only

    An appropriate external motion controller (options can be found on the Plugins page)
    Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8
    1Ghz CPU
    512MB RAM
    Video Card with 32MB RAM(Large G-code files, especially 3D files will require a video card with 512MB RAM or higher)

For 64 bit PC's, you need to use an external motion controller. The most popular is the Smoothstepper, from www.warp9td.com

Why did I not see that coming.
Ok, thanks for the info and the link.
I should have known that the deal on the cnc mill was going to end up being expensive.......

There are other options. Look at the UC-100, it's a little cheaper. http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/product_info.php?cPath=93&products_id=481