Camsoft CNC Pro- Computer Shutting Down

[mzartop6]

Why would a computer suddenly turn off when opening or closing the CNC program or CNC editor? It almost behaves like there is a short or not enough ram in the sysyem. (Power supply shuts down completely and has to be reset by turning the PS switch off and on. ) I took the basic steps:removed the PCI hardware piece by piece rebooting each time, upgraded ram to 1GB. At one point I had removed all the PCI devices (motion card, PCI-IO, etc) and the computer still shut down when opening or closing CNC pro or CNC editor. Now keep in mind I can run any other application in windows without a problem. It all seems to be related to CNC pro.

Here's where it gets weird: In the systems monitor the CPU load pegs out at 100% and usually hovers at 77% when the machine is working. This does not look unusual. I thought that maybe there may be a problem with the CPU overheating. The highest temperature I read is Bios was 72deg C. The only limit set for temperature in bios is the CPU core temp. What else would shut you down (dead): Overheating or a short, right? Maybe the temp reading is false? I opened the case and hung a 85CFM fan and pointed it at the CPU. After doing this CNC Pro and the Editor Start up without any problems. After running the CNC program for about 10 minutes however, the computer dies again. Sometimes it will die when you try to save changes and exit the CNC editor. I don't see why the fan would make a difference but it did. Bios shows the Cpu temp within limits. What gives? I don't get it. Any other application runs fine.

Recap- Camsoft shuts the computer off and blowing a fan on the CPU while running Camsoft makes it work for about 10 minutes. Any other application works fine without the fan. I know this sounds kind of stupid but this is what is happening. Any suggestions short of getting rid of the whole thing?

(CNC PRO, GALIL DMC1802, AthlonXP 3200,1GB Ram)

[Carlo Rechi]

Mr. mzartop6

I know the answer. It happened to my computer in the shop next to the machine where we do downloads. I made myself crazy figuring this out.

I change the power supply in my computer to 500watt and also bought new battery backup UPS for 500 watt. The problem went completely away.

Carlo

[murphy625]

I had a hard drive problem once.. I had 3 hard drives stacked next to each other..
That top hard drive got hot. When it did, the computer became unstable and I would get weird problems like hanging, massive cpu usage, etc..

Putting a fan pointed to the mother-board created air flow and cooled the hard drives.
It took me a while to figure out what was heating up...

I put some space between the drives and the problem has not returned.

[Karl_T]

FWIW, my fan broke on my computer last year. It would eventually die running any application, but would only run camsoft for a few minutes after letting things cool overnight. Me thinks Camsoft moves lots of elctrons around making things hot quickly.

Karl

[mzartop6]

I think you're right Karl. Everything I've done so far seem to point me tword a thermal problem. I talked with one of my guys who was there when the Camsoft package arrived and started the installation...Guess what!......The CPU fan and heat sink fell off during shipping!!! They put it back on without replacing the heat sink compound! Can never find good help these days...........Damn!

[Karl_T]

Just buy yourself a new unit. You'll never find just the heatsink compound and get it right. Here's a great place to purchase it:
http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=FAN

Karl

[69owb]

Hi just order up some arctic silver 5 thermal paste through www.newegg.com and then go to there web site www.arcticsilver.com for the directions to install the compond, 72deg's C Is to hot try to get it under 50deg's C

[jerrybaldwin]

They make industrial PCs now designed for use the the demanding enviornment where most of these things are installed. There are many manufacturers out there, we generally spec them out for a specific customer with their desired end results in mind. A touch screen is nice but very spendy.