Hi Tweakie, Hood
Thanks again for you help but unfortunately I am not making any progress.
Using the G540 drive with the charge pump disengaged I have holding torque on the motors so all seems well.
I loaded the G540 xlm file from Gecko
Once connected to the computer with the charge pump switched on the drive shows a fault and no power to motors, there is a constant external emergency signal stop in mach3
With the port address set at e800 there are no LED's lit on the diagnostics screen, when set at E480 one home led and one port pin led id lit. However, after changing the port address a few times the port pin led's lit is not consistant.
I checked the pin no for the charge pump and it correct.
It does say in the Gecko trouble shooting instructions, if the inputs and out puts are not working then make sure the parallel port is set to EPP.
So I am guessing the problem must be to do with the parallel port?
According to the box the card came in it's ECP and EPP but I can't see how to change the settings, I am thinking I should take it out and refit and install and hope during installation I can set it to EPP?

Cheers
Nigel

Sometimes there are jumpers on the PCI ports to set to the mode you wish, may also be a means in device manager to do the same. You shouldnt have to physically remove the card, just right click on it and uninstall  from device manager should do the same, then either reboot or right click at the top of the device manager tree and scan for hardware changes.
Hood

Hi Nigel,

You are correct, I was wrong   

I just checked the G540 data and yes it does require the EPP mode to communicate the stop / reset in Mach.

When I last installed a parallel port card the ECP / EPP option was a choice during install but I used an install disc that came with the card. I don't know if the standard windows installer will give you the option.

Tweakie.

Hi Guys
Thanks again.
This is becoming a comedy saga where everyting that should be simple just does not go your way. Really fed up now but some day I am sure I will look back and laugh.
I un-installed the card in device manager and just to make sure I removed the card and re-booted the computer (silly me).No LTP3 port, good. I turned off the computer fitted the card, turned on the computer expecting to install using the CD and hopefully get an EPP option (there are no jump lead options on the card), but no, it installed it's self, just seemed to pick up the un-installed drive if that makes sense, so no further forward.
In desperation I went out and bought another parallel port card. It says it supports EPP. Did the necessary, turned on the computer, no found new hardware message, it just installed LTP3. As it turns out, although a different card it has the same moss chip and just seems to have picked up and re-installed the installed drive. (is that possible?) Can't see how to get it to install from the CD even after un-installing it in device manager.


How do you get these cards to operate EPP? Nothing in Bios, nothing in device manager etc to change config.

How do you un-install and get it to re-install from the CD (assuming there is an option on the CD for EPP)?

Cheers Guys for your continued support. I just hope eventually I get this going.

I have had enough for today.

Nigel

If you have a CD for it then in device manager right click on the LPT3 and then choose Update Drivers. In the wizard choose No Not at this time, Next, Install from a List or specific location, Choose to search CD or in box below actually browse to the CD then click next and hopefully it will find the driver.
Hood

Hi Nigel,

This is totally untested but you could try uninstalling the device then - Control Panel / Classic View / Add Hardware wizard to install it again, inserting the disk when prompted. (if you remove the PP card and insert it in another PCI slot it should be seen as a new device without uninstall).

Tweakie.

Hi Guys
For your further info.
I have tried un-installing in device manager, opened the CD and found a folder winxp... , opened this and selected install icon, then I get the message "this must run in windows 95/98".

Snookered again.

You must think I am making this up?

Cheers
Nigel

Hi Hood.
I have gone through the procedure you suggested.
I scans the CD then says it can't find more up to date software than what's already on my computer. I tried "don't search, I will choose a driver to install", selected what I though was the correct driver, get message "The wizard has finished installing software for PCI ECP Parallel Port", no config options.

Hi Tweakie
I un-installed the card and fitted it to a different PCI slot, turned on the computer and it just installed it's self as before, no options just reappeared in device manager.

EPP completely eludes me.

Cheers
Nigel

Not sure what to suggest, its been a long time since I have used the parallel port so cant really remember how/if anything can be done.
Hood

Hi Nigel,

I just made a special trip to my workshop to check the PC connected to my router which uses two parallel ports.

It has Award BIOS and under;
Integrated Peripherals
Onboard Super IO Device
Parallel Port mode

It allows selection of the onboard pp mode between ECP/EPP/SPP/ECP+EPP

My second pp card, as mentioned earlier, was set as EPP 1.9 during install.

Don't know if this helps.

Tweakie.