[mussersail]

I have a PRO4896 with older rail system and NEMA 34 plug and play CRP800. Machine has been working flawlessly for two years now but tonight the spindle won't start up when I press cycle start in Mach 3 to run a program. Usually the spindle will start right up and then the machine goes to home and then moves out to start cut. It's doing all the moving, just without the spindle. One thing I noticed, and this probably has something to do with it - when I start Mach 3 I get a message that says MACH3/MACROS/MACH3MILL/not found I click on OK and the message repeats and then click on ok again and Mach 3 screen comes up - it's got my name and the CRP identifier in the bottom right hand side still. I've tried restarting a few times - different g-code etc .. Nothing. Have a project to run (was for tomorrow mornings job) so hopefully it's not the spindle. HELP Thanks
Oh, the spindle is the CNCRP one and their electronics plug and play

[ger21]

The error would imply that your .xml file is gone, or unreadable. This contains all of your settings.

Try going into your Mach3\xmlbackups folder, and copying one of the backups into the Mach3 folder. You need to change the extension to .xml first.

[mussersail]

When I go to copy one of the backups it says that there is an identical file already there. The error message talks of a Mach3/macros/ file missing? The backup files seem to be for just the Mach3 directory. I can't actually find any macros file folder? Essentially my g code will load and operate the machine, except for the important part at the very beginning when it turns on the spindle. I have since been able to manually start the spindle by clicking on the "spindle cw f5" button on the right side of the control panel. Everything will work fine with the cut then, and the spindle even shuts down at the end of the cut? Just doesn't start. It's a work around but I know it will be a constant hassle so I'd like to get back to how it originally was. I'm not clear on what the macros file does and where I can get that, and even if it has something to do with the spindle turn on phase. Thanks

[LeeWay]

This is a good reason to back up the entire Mach 3 folder.
You should have a Macros folder in the Mach 3 folder.

[mussersail]

What is in the Macros folder and where could I get it from again? Do I need to repurchase Mach3?

[LeeWay]

There can be a lot of stuff in the Macro folder. However the entire Macro folder should not just disappear. If that happened without you doing it, then I suspect you have bigger problems. Look in each sub folder in the Mach 3 directory. See if you can find a Macro folder that way. It could have inadvertently gotten shoved into another folder. If you find it, pull it out of that sub folder. If not, then my suggestion is to rename you current Mach 3 folder to Mach 3 old or backup or something. Then reinstall mach 3 using the files from the CRP site.
That should fix you up.

[ger21]

Sorry, I misread the error message.
What you posted is probably not the full error message?

When I go to copy one of the backups it says that there is an identical file already there

My assumption was that the existing .xml file was corrupt, which is a common Mach3 issue, and replacing it with a backup may fix the issue.

But, if the entire Mach3\macros\Mach3Mill\ folder is missing, or some macros are missing, then you may need to reinstall Mach3.
You could install Mach3 into a different folder, like C:\MachTemp\, and then copy the macro folder from there.

But I'd need to see the full error message to have an idea of what's actually missing. I've never seen or heard of that error message before. It would imply that files were deleted. But, it could still be the .xml file.