The standard printer port address for an IBM PC - which is what PCs are supposed to be - is LPT1 - &H378. LPT2 if you are lucky enough to have that fitted is address &H278.
The output lines 2 to 9 which Art uses for stepper motor board drivers is address &H378, the 5 input lines - pins (note the order)15,13,12,10,9 are bits 3 to 7 of address &H379, and the 2nd 4 outputs, pins 0,14,16,17 are the first four bits of address &H37A.
If you disconnect your breakout board from the lathe/mill, you should be able to set the correct address, and then test the output at each pin with a voltmeter. You can use Mach3 to address each line individually (on the ports and pins page). Go to the output page and select M3 and allocate it to a pin, starting at 0 and working up the output pin numbers, using M3 and M5 command to turn the pin on and off. See if you have a voltage change on the particular pin.
If you detect the change then you board is OK. Don't forget - most driver cards etc use 0volts as the 'on' command - i.e. that is active low in Mach3.
As an alternative you could peek or poke data to the addresses to test them - but using Mach3 is better.
As far as you machine is concerned, ny computer that I am using now is also full of junk, but I have a copy of Mach3 on it. I had to make sure the driver was functioning - see the tutorial video, and it works OK. I do all my planning and programming on this one, then transfer the GCode on a stick memory to my workshop computer - a Toshiba lap top. All you need do is make sure that as much of the background junk is turned off as possible and it should be able to run Mach3.
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