[smutboy420]

I have a dell insperon 4150 2ghz P4m with a pretty striped down install. But only a pathetic 256mb of ram after about a week and a 1/2 of trying to get the moters fine tuned to were they move smooth . I finely am able to get basicly smooth joging if I turn the kerrnal speed way up But the program is slow. With the kerrnal turned way up. the moters don't make a dreaded grinding squeeling noise when I'm just joging the table around. and turn my inche per min down low on the moter tuning. but the faster kernal lets me to turn up the moters inch per min speed Up higher then all the rest and except for ocasinal glitchs mach3 seems to move things nice now that I spent all the time trying to get it just right.
I have a test G code I have been running that engraves a 12 inch ruler. That I have been using to run some test runs on my mill. (taig with xeolux board.)

I notice difrent screens in mach3 will give me better results then others. If I go real slow and use the window a few tabs over from the main one "tool path" runs pretty smooth at 100% feed rates. but it wil some times be going along then at a quick movement the Y axis will grind and miss a few steps and then continue on in a wrong starting point for the next line but will keep going straight from where its off by intill it happens again then it will start the next line in the wrong spot.

I notice if I minimise the mach3 window down to my windows tool bar all together and let it run not only does it run the whole way threw straight as a button. I can turn the feed rate up some. but can't run it with the windows open with out missing steps even in the windows that let it run better.

Something is telling me its the low amount of ram that I have. I know there is an Issue with some laptops having 3vdc instead of 5vdc. But I don't think its that. The laptops manuals say in the specs it suports 3vdc and 5 volt ports. Its testing out on my multi meter as 4.7 volts Dc (I'm assuming thats still considered 5 volts)
Plus it don't seem to be having the problems all the time like it would if it was a 3 volt port problem. only when I use the wrong windows in mach3 or if I try to do any thing on my computer.

So does this sound like throwing a gig of ram in to the laptop would solve the problem with having to close down the window to get a perfect cut all the way threw with out missing steps?
cause it will now if I turn every thing off and just let it run with mach3 down in my taskbar.

[ger21]

Try turning off the toolpath display on the diagnostics screen, then close and restart Mach and see if it helps. If it does, more memory would help. Also, check the drivertest and see if you get good results with that.

[smutboy420]

Ok turning off the tool path display made a world of difrance. With the mach3 window up I can now go about 150% on the feed rate. instead of about 30-50% before missing all kinds of steps.
If I crank up the feed rate to 300% and minumis the mach3 window it hums along perfectly.
So its seeming like I am able to go 3-6 times faster with the tool path off.

LOL if I try to open internet explorer while mach is running a code it slows way way down to like one step at a time but still keeps going and don't miss steps just goes real slow and in chunks.

So I definitly think more ram will have me runing mach3 pretty good. I just ordered a gig of ram.
Thank you. Very much. I'll lets ya's know how it turns out.

[mackeym]

Yes, you need more RAM. 256mb is just not enough. u're probably into your virtural memory which is much slower and puts a lot of wear on your harddrive. ram is cheap...512mb is the mimimum you want to use.

[smutboy420]

My ram arrived yesterday. I now have a gig of ram in the computer and it seems to work awesome now.

I also have a newer computer on its way thats 3ghz and can take up to 4 gigs of ram. So it should run like butter on that on.