[jaru-eri]

I get this screen when I run Driver test. Are these spikes to large. What kind of problems will they create and how can I fix it?

I´m running win xp with service pack 2 and all securities updates and have no programs in the background.

I have an old computer pentium 3 with Asus A7V133-VM motherboard and 1 ghz cpu.

Will it be better to uninstall all windows updates?

[DennisCNC]

They are too large. Do you have onboard video? If yes, get a pci or agp video card and that might help a lot.

[presslab]

I am just getting my mill working now and I see a DriverTest screen VERY similar to yours. The steppers have a "chunking" sound and no amount of "optimizing" fixes it. Unfortunately I have a laptop and can't try another video card.

The video card is a good lead though! While moving the steppers if I scroll a page in internet explorer the steppers really start complaining. I'm going to try another laptop.

[DennisCNC]

Mach3 doesn't work on Laptops.

[presslab]

Mach3 doesn't work on Laptops.

Hmm? I've seen a fair number of people on the 'net with it working on laptops... And a fair number of problems with it working on laptops. However it doesn't seem to me that Mach3 absolutely doesn't work on laptops...

[ger21]

It'll work on a lot of laptops. And it also won't work on a lot of laptops.

[DennisCNC]

I said it doesn't work on laptops to save the guy some headache.

[LeeWay]

Probably a 50/50 shot as to whether it will work with a laptop. It worked with my Thinkpad, but poorly. It even had better DT results than those posted by the OP. Mine may have had low voltage @ the PP, so a BOB that increases this may have fixed it. I typically just run straight pass through bare bones BOB's. I have had poor luck with the two nicer BOB's I've bought. Probably just my luck on those though.


Is there a setting in the BIOS to help with an onboard video card?

[jaru-eri]

I think the reason is that laptops doesn´t support enough currents to held the pulses stabile. Maybe it will work if you set the active pulse "lo" See page 4-3 in the manual.

[presslab]

Well, I tried another laptop and it was better but still had the occasional hiccup. I got it to work though, just needed to take out the battery. Now it's smooth and working fine.

After some searching it seems that laptops commonly use the "System Management Mode" feature of the CPU to run some code in the BIOS periodically. This code preempts anything from Windows and causes the Mach3 driver to have a latency spike. Apparently some of this BIOS code runs a battery monitor program, and removing the battery bypasses it.

[LeeWay]

Now that is something that I haven't tried yet, but makes sense. I'll give that a whirl. Thanks.