Hello everyone, I am new to this forum and decided to come to you for some help. I recently converted my first Shizuoka AN-S to cnc. I was hoping someone could help with a problem im having. I have been running mach 3 for about 3 months with no problems other than the warp 9 ESS  running out of data. My immediate problem is that when I go to the mach loader and load my profile, It freezes on the opening screen ( the grey screen with the rectangular mach logo on it ). While it is stuck on this screen, It says at the top "Mach3 CNC Licensed To: Austin Brackin", IF I try to click on anything it says "Mach 3 CNC License To:  Not Responding". This started while i was in the middle of running a part program that has been run many times, The screen froze and i could only get out of the program by restarting my computer. I have only been able to start the program 1 time out of roughly 30 or so tries. The one time i was successful getting back into my profile, I noticed a lot of my settings were different and my imach ps4 pendant plugin was missing from the plugin drop down menu, but still showed my profile in the bottom right as SHIZUOKA AN-S. At first i could not access my profile , but it would go into the default mach mill profile. Now it will do nothing. I purchased my license from cnc4pc. I use this mill for a business and would really appreciate  some help getting this problem solved. Please let me know what other information would be useful. Thank You in advance.

 The mill uses-

Samsung touch screen i3-3220t cpu @ 2.80 GHz 6.00 GB RAM
64-bit operating system
windows 8

cnc4pc c32 Break out board
warp9 ESS

Please attach your xml and also what version of Mach are you using?
Hood

Did you do any Windows 8 updates recently? If so... do a Windows restore to the date before the updates and try Mach 3 again. I run Windows 7 pro and have gotten burned twice with a locked up PC after an update. Loaded some bad DLL files.  I have "Automatic Updates" shut off. MicroSoft does "Update Tuesdays" for patches and other crap.   

Thanks to all for your replies. At the same time I posted on this forum, I sent a email to mach license support and talked with scott, he was very helpful.  I did what he said and found the vista cnc imach ps4 pendant to be the problem. with the pendant plugged into the usb port, The screen freezes on the opening screen. as soon as I unplug it from the port, mach continues on like normal.  With mach up and running, I can plug the pendant back in and the screen locks up. I tried all three usb ports with the same results. I tried removing all files related to the pendant and reinstalling them with no success. I guess i am in the market for a new pendant. geh7552, I will check to see if any automatic updates took place. From what i am gathering i should remove The mach computer from the network and disable the internet connection. Hood, I will check on what version I am running and post it just as soon as i can. Thanks for all of your help.

After emailing vista cnc about my problem, they replied with this.

"Sorry for the issue you have with the pendant.
Before I send you a replacement, I'd like to try two things to see if the issue can be solved.
1. Try to find a USB hub (any type of USB hub), connect the pendant to the hub, then connect the hub to the PC.
2. Upgrade the pendant with files and instruction from the link below. Use the latest plugin included in the file.
http://vistacnc.com/manual_download/user_files/P4-S  Pendant FW update procedure.zip
Let me know if you still have the issue after this.
Thanks,
Lee Newman
VistaCNC LLC"

After doing the download they suggested, the pendant works perfect again. Lee from their tech support was very helpful  with his quick reply. I hope this might help anyone with the same problem.

Hi Vandabrackin,

Thanks for taking the time to come back with the answer and sharing the solution - I am sure it will be most helpful for others that follow.

Tweakie.