What Computer to USE?
What type of computer should I buy / importance of look-ahead lines
The computer is one of the most crucial components of your CNC machine, I often see many customers cheaping out and using a super old computer. This in my suggestion is not the way to go, as 60% of trouble shooting calls I have been on points back to the computer and not the mill / lathe.
If your computer has a on board parallel port, this is a good indication that it is a older computer and may not be my first choice. Having a good computer allows you to set Mach3's lookahead to a greater number, this number is directly related to how your machine will perform in complex programs. With a good newer computer you should be able to set the lookahead to 200, this means your computer will be processing 200 lines ahead of the current program line.
This can be changed in the general config menu in Mach3.
1) First, run the install as per normal.
2) Now you need to run memoryoverride.zip (found on this page) save it, unzip it to memoryoverride.reg, and just double click it, it modifies the registry to allow Mach3's driver to run.
3) Now you need to go to the C:\Mach3 folder, (or wherever you installed Mach3) and right click drivertest.exe, select "Run as Adminstrator". It should tell you to reboot. Do so, or you will crash. No question about it.
4) Now you should be able to run Mach3, try the drivertest.exe again, and it should run.
Note:
You may get errors reported when running DriverTest, in fact it may not run at all first time, then Vista will ask you if you wish to run it in compatibility mode. DO so, and it will run.