Receiving bad printer testes results even after disabling all unnecessary services. Have tried 3 MB so far and all have the same result.
Getting proficient in Installing system on different MB's and running thru the optimisation. txt  but port seems to be silent and  without reason I get a wave that looks like a big fat hairy caterpillar and then goes silent again , have tried to run the alternate drive but the system blue screens on me.
Thinking that maybe this is an error if there isn't a breakout board connect yet , but should have one PMDX 132 in about two weeks time.
Only popup that I cannot seem to disable is the message that the updates have been disable but they are ??
Initially thought it might be the registration but thats been down now

You are saying a lot, but not saying anything.

Have you downloaded Mach 3 - Yes/No.
Can you see Mach 3 on the screen  Yes/No

What computer are you using ( + RAM memory size). Which version of Windows are you using.

You do not need any board fastening to the computer to make Mach 3 work. The computer I am using now is in the office, and is not connected to my machine. I have Mach 3 on here to write GCode programs on, and do design work. It works perfectly. I have it running at a much faster speed than my machine will run to save time when checking programs.

Do you have a 25 pin printer port on the computer - if not you might need Smooth Stepper which plugs into the USB, and also does not use the computer to generate timing signals for the drives.

System is a MSI 1.7 P4
Current Ram is 1 x 256 MB DDR266
40 Gb ATA 133 MB
Using Win XP SP2
Downloaded Latest Version of Mach 3 Ver R2.63
Driver Test Mach1 Ver 1.0.0.1 Displays Mach 2 Compatibility Test Diagnostics in program header when run.
Pulses between 24 169 , 24171 and 24189
Interupt Used 00
Apic timing constant 4142
Shortest Time low35 9004 high 392222 and
Longest Time low 42 5003 high 48 4487
Onboard video has been disabled in BIOS and using Nvidia 32 AGP card
Mach3 Pulsing Engines version 1.0
Motherboard has an on board DB25 which is set to EPP

Thanks

What exactly is happening, you say the "port seems silent" what do you mean by that?
Do you have motors connected? If so what happens? A PMDX or any breakout for that matter will not help to make the driver test clean.
Hood

Sorry used incorrect terminology. By silent I meant good wave form with the occasional small spike , however intermittently it is followed by what would best be described as allot of very very close spikes that look like a big fat hairy caterpillar. Only running the software no breakout or motors connected yet

XP (just by itself) runs very crappy with only 256 MB of ram. I would recommend at least 512MB.

Also, have you gone through the Mach Optimization document for XP?

Jeff - I was going to say that as well - Windows needs nearly all the 256 mbyte for itself, leaving precious little for Mach. When Windows needs some, it just grabs it (it gives it back when it is finished). Get a 500 Mbyte memory card, either on its own, or with your 256 Mbyte already and you will be a lot better.

I say 500 Mbyte, becasue they seem to be quite cheap at the moment. 1 Gig would be even better.