Anilam 3300 Mk Mother board/Graphics problem.

[scott0031]

I would like to pick the brains of the very knowledgeable here if I may.

This is a bit of a long story, I will try to keep it short and to the point and avoid the politics.

I had a 3 axis mill retrofitted with the Anilam 3300 MK here in the UK at some considerable cost some years ago. This was by Anilam themselves so no 3rd parties involved.

I have to say I have not been exactly happy with Anilam uk (or ACI Europe as they are known)

This control has spent most of its life broken down as opposed to operating. I have been particularly disappointed due to the actual amount of hours this control has actually done Which is very few.

The problem I have at the present is on boot up I get a blue screen and a message with ' video input error', then the screen shuts off and that’s it job done! This fault I feel had been developing for some time, one day I booted the control up to be faced with a pink screen. The control was still usable but with a nice pretty pink background, This could not be changed in the control settings. (I tried).

I did speak to Anilam UK and had the advice its probably the mother board, as it has onboard graphics. The cost of the board at the time was 900 UK pounds + service charge at £60 p/h that was approx 1 year ago. Being a small 1 man band business those costs were prohibitive. I recently could have done with the machine running, so I again got a costing for this board from Anilam UK. I was told the cost had increased by 50%! I was now quoted 1500 UK pounds, that’s some $2,400. The really odd thing is 50% of 900 is 1350. I actually thought in the current climate and the pound v the dollar would have altered prices in my favour, how wrong I was!

This motherboard uses the old ISA slots, so my question is can I fit an old ISA graphics card or replace the mother board with something else. I know these controls are pc based but to what degree is where I'm a bit in the dark. I'm not a total idiot with computers but I do not really understand the more in depth stuff of what will and wont work.

I found this thread which seemed very interesting.


Anilam 3300 Motherboard died!!


There is a lot of history with this retrofit, mechanically and control wise by Anilam UK and lets say, due to one service guy we have to go through life is made very difficult indeed.

I want to make this clear this is not a dig at Anilam in America, I have read some posts and it seems they are very helpful indeed compared to my experiences here in the UK. I don't really want to go into the long and bad political history I have had at the Hands of Anilam Uk.

I would appreciate if you professionals have a resolution to my control problems.


Many thanks in advance and kind regards,

[nelZ]

What sort of memory does it have? I mean hard drive or chips?

Good luck

Nelson

[scott0031]

Hi nelZ,

It has a hard drive, from memory its 1.6 gig. Its basically look like very much like an old 386 PC, although a supposed modern control.

Unfortunately Anilam here are no help at all( or the one service guy i should say)


For instance the hard drive was playing up some time ago, so i phoned Anilam to ask for the format sequence. The reply was' i can not tell you that'

So instead i was asked to cough up £325 for a new drive LOL, its literally a old standard 1.6 gig drive! Here is the funny thing another time i called them about another issue and the normal service guy was on holiday. So another member of staff was standing in, It happened this guy was one who actually did my retrofit. So i asked him about formatting the drive. The reply was no problem i will send you the pdf! So maybe you can see the problems we face here in the UK with this one main service guy being the one at the front.


It's exceptionally annoying indeed as this control was sold under the pretence that you can within reason repair most of it your self as its a totally pc based and they would talk you through any process that needs there input. What happens when it actually comes to it is this main service guy will not help you or give any information/ advice at all.

Again my understanding is the American arm of anilam is much more helpful and appreciates a lot of us are small business simply trying to survive.


Many thanks.

[nelZ]

Could you get a newer M.board and a decent OLD video card and try it? Unless there are some special inputs I don't see why it wouldn't work. The BIOS settings would be very important though.
As you see in my other post I have a 1100 with a severe glitch happening now.

Why is it ALUMINIUM and not ALUMINUM ????

Nelson

[scott0031]

Hi Nelson,

Those are exactly the questions I'm trying to get answered


As for the aluminium................... i have no idea and cant answer lol.......... Its the queens English... so ask her, she will know!



Kind regards