Windows 7

[TravisR100]

Before anyone goes flaming my post here, I'm not running a production machine. I'm in the process of retrofitting a machine and testing Mach 3. Because I had a laptop sitting around with a fresh copy of Windows 7 I thought I'd give it a try. I'm using a smoothstepper so no parallel port issues. It's a Dell Latitude XT. When trying to use Windows 7 with Mach and the smoothstepper it will lock up about every 10 minutes or so. Mach simply freezes. A check in the task manager will show Mach using between 48 to 50% CPU when it's locked. It only happens if the smoothstepper is plugged into the laptop. If I run Mach without the smoothstepper it runs just fine. Plug in the smoothstepper and it will lock up every time within 10 minutes.

I finally went ahead and took the time to put a fresh copy of XP on the machine and now it runs perfectly. Yes, I know Windows 7 is beta. I know Mach hasn't been written to run on it. I'm simply passing this along for anyone else who might can use the information.

[ger21]

Art posted on the Yahoo group last week that Mach3 runs fine on Windows 7 using the parallel port. My guess is that it has to do with the Smoothstepper driver? These are his instructions.

You need to go to the Mach3 folder, right click Mach3.exe , select properties, and set it to XP Compatibility, and "Run as Admin" , it will then run. Do the same with DriverTest.exe

[TravisR100]

I did the compatability mode thing, run as admin, etc. Mach seems to work just fine. It's only when the smoothstepper is plugged in will Mach lock up.

[PoppaBear10]

Greg needs to update the SS, FTDI driver to W7......... Your issue is a SS compatability.