Hi everyone my Name is Dewald from South Africa and I'm a manufacturer of agricultural equipment and new to cnc. So it started about 4 months ago that I decide I want to build a cnc plasma cutter so after work I spent my time on the Internet Google and searched for everything I needed to know and did the sourcing I started of with linuxcnc a great program. I've built my machine in the meantime 3axis 2m x 3.6m  with a waterbed now I'm at the point where I need to buy a plasma cutter I'm going for a hypertherm powermax 105. In the meantime looking at the machine at the engineering shop cutting some of my parts I saw they are using mach 3 and it looks a lot easier to use than linux. So naturally I I have an old pentium 4 running on windows xp service pack 3 and ive downloaded the mach 3 trial so I can see how it works to choose what system I'll be using so a ran into a problem on installation about halway through it comes up with an error message that says "a sharing violation occurred while accessing an unnamed file" can anyone assist me with this problem I couldn't find a related post. Thanx

I'm guessing you have other stuff running on that old P4 computer.

The general advice is to dedicate the PC to Mach. This is what I do when I set up a PC for Mach3.

Format the hard drive.
Install XP in "Standard PC" mode.
I don't bother with any XP updates, my ethernet is not even enabled.
Install motherboard drivers
Use an independent graphics card
Install graphics card drivers
Go through XP optimisation for Mach3
Then I go a bit "nerdy" and un-install any Windows programs not needed.
Then I go into "services.msc" and completely disable any Windows services that are not needed.
I even go into the bios and disable anything I think is not needed.
Install Mach3

In a nutshell, I go silly to try and ensure the PC is doing nothing but running Mach3. Windows is a multi-tasking system and there are plenty of reports of Mach3 not running right when users have other stuff running on the PC.

I do admit I go a lot further than most other users in this regard.

See also this post:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,30566.msg212264.html#msg212264

Keith.

Very good advice Keith. 

If I remember correctly at some point in time there was a program available on this forum that you could download and it would scan your PC for potential conflicts with mach3. Maybe some of these other guys can point you in the right direction. I remember seeing it on the forum. I've always  bought bare bone kits and built the PC and installed nothing but Mach 3 and the basic drivers. Hope this helps.

Thanx for the great advice Keith sofar I only uninstalled antivirus and it solved the problem I'm going to continue removing any other software for future problems

Chaoticone,

thanks for the thumbs up.

Dewald,

there are several ways of installing XP during installation. The one always recommended is "STANDARD PC" mode. I don't know if you can convert to this once XP has had a typical install. I've seen people having issues and XP had not been installed in this Standard PC mode.

Mach3 is known to be running fine for a good while then all of a sudden it may do something and break a tool. It may appear to be OK right now then maybe some program or service kicks in at some random time and mucks up Mach3. It could be in an hour or days from now. That's why I go overboard and minimise the risk of this happening.

My plasma table was merrily cutting away once and then it just stopped in the middle of gcode, no errors, no nothing, just stopped. Restarted it and everything went good. I've heard the stories about Mach3 and I've had several experiences myself. Still love it though.

Good luck with everything.

Keith.

For people that just want to install Mach 3 to "learn" and are not worried about conflicts: There is a work-around..

As the  "a sharing violation occurred while accessing an unnamed file" is a standard error that means that two programs can not handle the same file at the same time; and irsetup is trying to access a file that is currently in use.

Solution Windows XP: Click Start: Run: and Type "       msconfig     " no quotes then click the ok button

In the default GENERAL tab of the SYSTEM CONFIGURATION UTILITY: Click the radio selector dot to select: Diagnostic Startup
This will disable programs that may have accessed the UNNAMED file when the computer is restarted. Click OK, then click the restart button

After the computer restarts... there will be a message... leave it there and ignore it for now...

Now that your ANTI-Virus and other programs are not running you should be able to install the Mach 3 Program

1. Install Mach 3
2. If it doesn't install, then try to install as administrator

When I did this, I did receive an error that the port was not found... this is not an issue for those that are learning.

Then after the Mach 3 install ... return to the SYSTEM CONFIGURATION UTILITY: and click Normal Startup... Apply and Ok

After the reboot...

Now... your computer has access to whatever that unnamed file was... so you can simply

One last time Install MACH 3 ... and it should install without any error and install the port with no errors.


P.S. All the information above does matter... but this is for those that just want to LOOK at the program try it a couple of time
to see if the program even works on their computer... if it works.. and you want to run a machine with the computer..
Then all the advice above is both noteworthy and recommended... I hope this helps someone... take care

To the admins... this is a old topic... and the solution should be applied here... as this is were everyone ends up that searches this issue.