i have a spare computer... it has mach3 set up and running. it is being used while i am resolving the issue with this one..
it has xp pro. for the o/s... it has only 1 parallel port.. ( less i/o and no pendant )  ..

to refine this a little bit more... the scenario.. i live in seattle , wa.. the milling machine is in kingston, wa.. a difference of 50 miles and 1 hour by ferry...  i retrofitted an old cincinatti milicron cnc mill for a group of retired  live steam train enthusiasts.. ( think geriatric  60's -90's)  i am their go to guy for tech...

i am a retired Intel engineer  -- a motion control freak... .. but the software i play with is too much for the old guys to deal with... thus.. mach3..

i retrofitted the mill in stages.. and upgraded to state of art machines  as per their request.. ( personally a $10.00  retired compaq desktop would work for the job.. and that is what i used to do the primary configuration..)


the old guys wanted the snazzy pendant .. and the pc had to fit inside.. so in went a 1.6ghz  Atom ITX ( the little one)  1gb ram 500Gb sata hard drive and an additional pci parallel port card  into a tiny black case the size of my big dictionary..  all fanned out for cooling...

it normally sits inside of the original pendant enclosure... and has more than sufficient air flow... one parallel port is designated for basic mill operations.. (axis control,limits, e-stop flood/mist  and probe) the other is for pendant interface ( mpg,buttons, and lights..) the usb serial controls the vfd  ( all cables are rf choked like crazy to keep the noise from the vfd from screwing with them)
 
when this went wonkie  i tested the new machine in place and bisected the problem.. put the milling machine back in service with the old box and came home with the new machine ..  to keep making parts for the old guys...

 i have a micro mill with a 10x  scaled setup 1 inch =.1 inch.. ( the exact pulse count works )
 i have the same  vfd with the same connections driving a smaller spindle motor..  and it is wired exactly as the big mill...
 i have a pendant interface wired exactly the same as the big mill  also..

in other words i have a clone testing platform at my house..  no need to venture back and forth...

 the machine has been testing itself for over a week  constantly...

 the mill is cutting parts without a pendant on the old machine..
 the geriatric train enthusiasts are wanting to use their snazzy pendant.. with windows 7 and mach 3... and i am running tests that take 2:30 hours to run and occasionally it fails at an hour or so into the job... ..

i have at this point  totally disconnected the machine from everything absent power, usb kb/mouse and vga...

the intel internal  hardware diags that are used to qualify the hardware commercially and for military applications are coming back with excellent reports... (all aspects of the hardware are good)  
when the mach3 hangs for the most part windows stays usable .. and a simple restart of mach3 brings things back..
on 2 of 50 failings windows actually tried and succeeded a shutdown/reboot..
on 2 other failings the machine reboot and said that it could not find the hard drive .. but a manual reboot ( power cycle ) restored everything.. ( this is what triggered the hardware diagnostic session)

on 46 of 50 failings the mach3 stopped between 1 hour and 1:20 into the 2:30 job...
 the code contains 1 tool change  operation which is ignored..
the code is essentially 19 layers of successive  finishing passes.. and a couple of curved cuts....

the windows 7 install is a basic  32 bit one with all power management options disabled..
the network was installed and unplugged when the machine was in use ( else it was only used for windows updates)
the updated were manually searched and installed.
it has since been removed..
the mach3 install was plain vanilla  except the hyungyang vfd plug-in.. being controlled by a usb serial to rs4-22converter ma jiggie...

i will turn on the debug mode and check out the logs... in between the tests i will try to get some sleep.
thanks..

 
 

FIrst thing I would DO is turn OFF all plugins and ANY macro code running(macropump,etc) Get the machine BACK to basic MACH3. ALSO make sure you have turned off the watchdog. It has been KNOWN to cause random problems.

THEN do the testing with the basic MACH3. I think ONE of the IMPROVEMENTS is causing the problem as it RAN FINE for a long time then failed after an improvement??

IF all goes well with the basic Mach3 then add on the improvments 1 at a time until you find the culpret.

Personally I would DUMP teh Win7 and go with either XP or W2K. THOSE were the OS Mach3 was designed around. If it aint broke don't fix it(;-)

Just a thought, (;-) TP

watchdog has always been off...
 and when the usb com port is uninstalled.. the plugin is not installed....
so it is by default back in its default mode...

there are no macros..
you are missing it..
 the machine is failing  after 3-4  successful runs... and it is only mach3 hanging..
like a buffer is overloading and  mach3 goes to off  on walkabout . forever.. ... sort of like i want to do when the wife starts nagging..


the real issue is that microsoft in their infinite lunacy has end of life'ed  windows XP and windows 2000 and the variants..

we cannot be offering commercial products without a valid upgrade path... and the  arrogant money grubbing "*****explicative deleted***" morons keep forcing their planned obsolescence designed by retarded committee should have been aborted products upon us..  just to line their pockets....
and i should know... i have walked out of many of those meetings in utter disgust.... i have war stories...from the 90's 
i think that effectively  demonstrates my opinions..  ( this opinion is not directed at artsoft in any way... more towards the big boys in the industry that confine us to their model.)


ART.... if you are out there.... i would be glad to help you port this program to linux...... that way we could do away with most of these nasty   annoyances...  ( you can still charge for it... like always..)
in fact we could set up a distro that wraps windows into a virtual machine and pipe i/o to a real RTOS...  no one would really see a difference..
...

OK I am going to give YA the $20 lecture on machine tools. Once you set up Mach3 in W2k OR XP you will NEVER have to upgrade or buy another OS. The machine will ALWAYS run fine with either version.

You can make a smaller load with W2k and it is very dependable.

You NEVER have to be a member of the OS upgrade of the month or year club.

See how much money I just saved you(;-)

As to another port?? Art says in ain't never gonna happen. (;-)

IF you want LINUX then use EMC2. I have run both.


OK IF you have no macros then what is driving the pendant on the LPT2

(;-) TP

i hear ya...
i agree.. but finding a  legitimate legal copy is very hard .. and the old guys have the fascination with "new" ( newer is better) ...
 
sort of the same way my wife has her shoe fetish.. handbag fetish...  the same fetish i have with money accumulation ... more is better..

as for lpt2.. yep.. it is pendant..  and i am using oem triggers to select axis for the mpg...


i am running emc2 at home.. and have got some sneaky things afoot.....  

it is late here... and i have just completed my 5th evolution after adjusting the kernel speed..  without failure....  it looks promising so far.. but i'm a skeptic... 10 more evolutions without a failure and i might be convinced ....  perhaps it was thinking slowly..  like our retarted congress and senate... .
 i'll run it a few more times .. re tune the motors and re-install... perhaps that was it.  if if does it again .. i'll slap the jtag probes  and slap the das 9000 onto the ports  and make it fail..  then i can have some good data to play with...

voodoo diagnostics  gotta love it..
allan
 

Out of curiousity WHAT were you running for Kernal speed when it acted up???

(;-)TP

 it was set at 25000khz..  and  i thought that was conservative....
it is now set at 45000khz and is running better...


i reinstalled the unit today and re ran the part... no errors...
time will tell if it is stable ...


allan