Really stuck....

I have had a 3 axis mill up an running fine on a 700mhz laptop , Finaly decided to use a more powerful desktop with XP and latest Mach3 Lockdown. Once I have configured Mach correctly I can Jog my
machine for about 10 seconds or so then the pulse timing goes crazy and the motors will scream, jump and stall but they do try to move in the correct direction! A reboot cures it for another 10 seconds. I have even tried a different Motherboard and processor (Both AMD Athalon XP 2800) and  both ECP parallell port on board giving out 5v at address 0378 and same problem ive lost count of how many times I have reinstalled windows even Win 2k and still no joy have also tried with Mach2 and earlier Mach3 releases.

I am confident that it is all set up perfectly I have tried every kernel speed and rebooted after. My Parallel port works ok because I can turn on my spindle  and see the limits/probe change state in the diagnostic screen.

One thing I have noticed is I dont seem to get the Driver successfully initialised in the status window? However the Machengine does appear in device manager. I have also allready tried using the special driver by running the batch file but nothing works with that one so reverted back to original driver.

If any one can help
Thanks

Hi, Michael

In device manager, Delete the Mach3 driver, Then run Driver Test, It should reinstate your driver, Then run the  Driver Test again let it complete/exit on it's own.

The Driver successfully initialized in the status window doesn't show up for me ether on a std. installs. 

Reboot and try Mach3 again.

Chip

Hi, thanks for responding.

Did as you suggested and ran the driver test which extited on its own (usually crashes) but still no joy ran fine again for about 10 secs! then the most crazy sounds you can imagine come from the motors!

Thanks

Have you tried doing the optimisation steps ?
http://www.machsupport.com/optimisation%20XP.txt

Hood

Yes I have followed all the sugestions and my windows install is minimal ony mach3 installed on the machine. And I have even tried setting Computer to Standard PC NOT ACPI PC.
Its got me baffled!

Cheers

What mobos/chipsets are they? do they have onboard graphics? How much memory?
 Just curious if bot the mobos you tried have similar chipsets etc.
Hood

I used the same Athalon XP 2800 processor same 512mb Ram and same 64mb Graphics card in both attempts

The first Motherboard was a ECS KT600M with the VIA KT600 chipset. (No onboard graphics)

The second was a Abit KV7 which I beleve is still the VIA KT600 chipset (although according to manufactures www they also use KT400 chipset) (Again no onboard graphics.

Thanks again

Mike

I have used the KT chipsets before so looks like its not that. Not keen on ECS/PCchips mobos but that still shouldnt be the problem.
Just dont know what to suggest, sorry.

Hood

  Think ive cracked it!!!!

In frustration i formatted the HDD reinstalled windows following the optimisation suggestions for troublesome setups  (setting Computer to Standard PC NOT ACPI PC) from installation not after from device manager, following the install of all the m/b drivers and then finally Mach I also had to do every single thing listed in the optimisation document for it to work successfully.

Magic!

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

Mike

Well I wasnt much help but the main thing is you are sorted

Hood