Hi Dan,

At this point I might say welcome to my world.? Way back as WIN-XP reached its end of life I suddenly found that updates from Microsoft appeared to be crippling the PC I use for accounting and some older 32 bit applications.? ?I finally had to remove all anti-virus programs because one of the XP upgrades probably did something that required at least a dual core processor.? The anti-virus software and some other windows tasks were now taking 100% of the CPU time most of the time.? Even now with the anti-virus software removed the machine is slower than it used to be but fortunately it only gets used occasionally.

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When WIN-10 was introduced I started to see the same sort of behaviour on my WIN-7 Pro Desktop.? First a virus showed up.? A pop-up advertisement that took a while and a special program to remove.? The pop-up was from Microsoft telling me how to upgrade to WIN-10. Since I didn't deliberately install a program to launch this pop-up and it acted like a benign virus I named it for what it was.? Pop-up Advertisement virus from Microsoft.

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The newest version of Alibre CAD has required me to also update a DLL from Microsoft.? I have no idea yet if that has resulted in breaking older programs that I may only run once per year.

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So fast forward to the CNC conversion I'm finally restarting on my G3616 mill.? The older hard drive I was using on a Lenovo PC crashed and I had to re-install WIN-XP.? I thought I'd just use my Windows Home Server to restore but the disk driver in WHS restore CD doesn't recognize the newer disk control hardware nor the 1Gbit Ethernet.? So instead I started from scratch and created a dual boot PC with WIN-XP and LinuxCNC.

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My licensed copy of WIN-XP refused to connect to the Microsoft web site for approving the license because the browser was too old.? Hours and hours later I finally managed to get the 30 day trial messages to go away and newer drivers for the motherboard disk and Ethernet.? The second parallel port card this time just wouldn't be recognized.? Don't know what I did the first time with this PC to get it to work but it no longer has the right driver.

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1.?????? So first moral of this story is use an older PC for WIN-XP if you want to run MACH3

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The USB Smooth Stepper I borrowed from my CNC Router, a new PMDX-126 BoB and MACH3 can now run the mill

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Next the LinuxCNC end of things was also fraught with problems.? Unlike the ease of setting up MACH3 the configuration program isn't nearly as user friendly even if the infrastructure is more powerful.? The first thing I found is the nag message that my PC was too slow for 55kHz stepping. Very disappointing since MACH3 didn't appear to have any problems. ?What was interesting is that while running G-Code the LinuxCNC PC real time aspect allowed me to open other windows and look at files etc. ?Even just moving a window under MACH3 on that PC would cause a delay of parallel port stepping pulses to the DC servo and a position fault.? That's with just the parallel port.? The smooth stepper as the parallel port emulator didn't suffer from this problem.

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2.?????? A LinuxCNC system works on the Lenovo with just a parallel port and running the DC servos without problems but on start up the nag message is there.

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I had thought that I might install WIN-7 and MACH3 on this PC but your experience suggests that Microsoft is going to do everything they possibly can to make it's end of life more real this coming January.? So I bought a MESA 7i92H board ($89) which is far cheaper than the Ethernet Smooth Stepper.? I really want to see how the two systems compare.? ??

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I'm just about to connect the MESA 7i92H to the PMDX-126 BoB now that it looks like I have the configuration complete.? Then I'll continue with my upgrade document that shows how one could move from MACH3/WIN-XP to LinuxCNC.

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Costs for Free or very low cost PC after the one that runs the CNC system dies and the thought of installing another 10 year old PC is a bit scary.

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1.?????? LinuxCNC install:

a.?????? Lenovo PC from government surplus with a Vista License.

b.?????? LinuxCNC on LiveCD.

c.?????? Mesa board at $89 US plus ribbon cable to plug into existing CNC hardware setup with no other wiring changes.? Same parallel port pins.

d.?????? A lot of time and time to get it to work.

e.?????? Not easy to run the G-Code on a WIN-7 PC to try things out.

f.??????? No call home licensing.

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2.?????? WIN-XP Install:

a.?????? Same PC

b.?????? WIN-XP distribution with legitimate Serial # and hours to get network and browser upgrades to get license approved and get rid of the 30 day nag message and finally PC no longer booting WIN-XP

c.?????? USB Smooth Stepper $189

d.?????? Easy to install existing licensed MACH3, hard to get WIN-XP to be stable.

e.?????? Upgrade to WIN-7 possible if I can find a legitimate serial # but may cost $ for a WIN-7 version that is end of life in January.

f.??????? Upgrade to WIN-10 ($) but then I believe MACH4 is required ($) so more money needed and internet connection for periodic call home.

g.?????? Don’t know if single licensed version of MACH4 will also run desktop to try G-Code.

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I'm not suggesting this as the correct solution.? I still like MACH3 more than LinuxCNC.? I haven't yet decided which one I will keep.? The goal is to be able to use the grub bootloader to decide which one to boot and not have to change a single wire to evaluate either system. But at first glance it appears to be way more expensive to go the Windows route.

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John Dammeyer

?I have had mach3 on my office PC for many years with no problem. It is a i5 quad core 2.7Ghz 32 bit CPU running win7 ultimate. Today I wanted to run a G code program without a machine. Every time I clicked on the mach3mill icon the screen goes blank and the PC reboots. All my other programs seem to work ok. The only thing I can think of is that thee were some recent win7 updates. Any suggestions?

Dan Mauch