Should I change Operating System to Win XP?

[HandyManBill]

I had installed the SB3 V3.8 and had a number of problems, I have tried many of the solutions to take care of the problem with the machine stopping (freezing up) on like the last cut..the one I thought that fixed that problem (static from DC) may or may have not have been the culprit...I completed that sign and then the next I went to it changed the Z depth from .12" to about .5" and shifted the cut along both X and Y axis.

After researching the Forum here I figured my problems started a while after I upgraded to to 3.8, so I uninstalled it and put 3.6 on it...now it will not find the "port" for the SB drivers...I uninstalled the drivers and have reinstalled 3.6 but the software will not load the drivers.

From what I have read on the forums is that the Windows 7 may be my issue and that Windows XP has not the problems...I would happily Buy the XP version and install that in the Win 7. Has anyone done this successfully?

I have work piling up and going to have some unhappy customers

[GlenP]

Hey Bill. I had same issues while back. If you are going to go back to XP just go on ebay and buy a older pc with XP on it. Tons of them out there dirt cheap. I had the issue of not finding the shopbot as well. Do you get a pop up that asks you to "find port" or shobot? If so can it find it when you click on it? When you installed the 3.8 did you turn off your firewall and antivirus software? If you run a dedicated pc to the bot and it isnt hooked up to internet they should be off anyway. Have you tried turning off prox switches to see if perhaps they are causing issues?? They were for me so I currently have them turned off.
These tools are great when all works well but man sometimes they can be a real pita.

[frank]

Hi Bill,

When you roll back to 3.6.46 you have to change the COM speed setting from 5 back to 4 by typing VI.

[ron_moorehead]

I would check out the Black Viper web site and shut down a lot of the process running in the back ground on Windows 7 that you don't need, I did this and have not had a problem since then.

[HandyManBill]

Frank, where do I change "Com speed"...never heard of this?

I do have a small laptop that I used before I got my desktop computer both were dedicated to running the bot..it was however running XP, I tried it to see if would work again but no dice. Re-installed 3.6.44 from your website and it says "com port OK but controller is not communicating" so could it be in the control box? How can you tell if the problem is the control box?

Thanks,
Bill

[gundog]

Did you unistall the firmware when you changed back to 3.6? I know 3.8 uses a different version of firmware.

[bleeth]

Franks instructions are concise and to the point.
Here's how to do it in A....B.....C
Open SB3.
Type "VI" into the command box.
Look at the fill in sheet
see "Com speed"
Make sure it is and/or change it to "4"
I would imagine there is much you have never heard of since the machine is new to you.
As you learn more by reading replies carefully and following instructions you will learn much. When Frank posts, which is rarely, it is generally best to pay attention to what he says.
Don't expect him to get involved in a lot of back and forth on the forum.
If you do what he says and it still doesn't work give him a call during business hours.

[GlenP]

I have never heard that before either. There has been numerous posts about issues with 3.8 and going back to 3.6 and having that exact issue. I know I had it and fought my way thru issues and had the exact same thing as Bill is describing. Sure wish I had known that then. Hope it works for you Bill and gets you going. Let us know if this solves or helps your issue. Going to write that one down in my book of things to check.

Cheers

[Ajcoholic]

I dont think it is a Win 7 issue - I have been running 3.8.6 since the early summer, and 3.8.8 for a few weeks now - all without any issues at all, and I am running Windows 7 on the laptop I bought to run my Bot' back in Jan 2012.

[Brady Watson]

Win7 or Win8 runs 3.6.46 or 3.8.8 just fine. XP is now nearly 12 years old and you may find that you'll have issues finding the proper drivers for the hardware you are running - which is why guys suggested a used box if you want to run XP.

Personally, I like Win7 and if you have a decent enough machine, 3.8.8 will run just fine.

Please avoid using ANY version of 3.8 other than v3.8.8 or later. Previous versions were clunky and buggy. 3.8.8 seems to be pretty solid and I have confirmed this on multiple new SB installations personally - on customer provided 'random' PCs. So if you are running any 3.8.x versions, make sure it is 3.8.8. Some may be running earlier versions of 3.8.x fine - but some PCs just don't work well with the earlier versions.

If you have an older computer, my advice would be to halt any SB3 upgrades beyond v3.6.46 - AND if you are running an older computer, make sure you have enough RAM in the machine. If you open up SB3 and look at how much RAM is commited/allocated for SB3 (via Windows Task Manager @ Processes tab), it seems to hover around 350Mb or so. So if you have a machine with only 512Mb, you don't leave much left for Windows to do it's thing or PartWorks. RAM is pretty cheap these days & a worthwhile upgrade on any PC you own.

Hope that helps.

-B

[denmanmarine]

Brady, Your comment saying Win 7 runs 3.8.8 just fine might be true but it seems 3.8.8 has issues. I am only a new user and my PC is custom built to run the machine with the following specs;

AMD FX 6300
twin SSD's
8Gb Ram
Win 7 Pro

The only other programs I have on the PC are the Shopbot software, V Carve Pro, Rhino 4 and a .pdf reader. The computer is not connected to the net or any network.

We have been having problems with pauses mid file and the the machine slows to a crawl. Nate from ShopBot advised this week;

This sounds like the issue our software team has been dealing with for some users. For some reason the file will get stuck on a low ramp speed value. My recommendation at this time would be to revert to 3.6.46 on our website. After installing you'll need to update the firmware. Also do a VI command and be sure the com speed is set to 4 - 460.8.

So this weekend it will be a revert and see how it goes. I would be nice to have confidence in the machine and software so not having used this earlier version I am hoping there are no issues with it.

Andrew

[Howley]

I had same issue with my brand new PRS standard 4x8 (just picked up my machine in October!!) I too am a little disappointed. My PC was not the issue, I had a high end HP with an i5, 8 gb of ram and a slower IBM with core two, 4gb of ram. Both had the same problem! I moved back to 3.6.4.6 and have had no problems!! I just hope when the next controller version comes out its a little more stable. I will say the Nate and Frank from shopbot have been GREAT and very supportive with all my questions!

Sometimes, depending on the order I turn on my CNC and my PC I get a comm error, but I simply unplug and plug back in the USB cable and it instantly finds my CNC!

Don't get frustrated, we have great support group and this forum, you are never alone!

[HandyManBill]

Brady, I checked which SB3 updated version I had on my computer and it was 3.8.4 which I had downloaded off the website (Sept), so I will try the 3.8.8 version. As for firmware...I know that it was on the original 3.8x upgrade but when I uninstalled it and re-installed the 3.6 version I was never prompted to "update" firmware, would it not automatically install or at least query you to install?

If it ain't broke don't fix it...or update your software.

[GlenP]

If having issues did you guys check the comm speed Frank mentions earlier in this post? I was having little issues with the 3.8.6 and turned my prox switches off to try and see if they were casing some issue and so far my issue and quirks are not happening. I should turn them back on and see if it is the prox switches or I just got lucky. I have new motors and the Oriental controls to install as a upgrade on my PRS and I am going to rewire my prox switches with shielded wire to see if it eliminates my prox switches from nusence tripping.

[GeneMpls]

It might be good to mention that a 32bit puter (xp or W7) can only use
4gigs of ram (actually slightly less). Gene

[Brady Watson]

Thanks all for the feedback regarding 3.8.8 - As a developer in a previous life, I'll say that it is hard to anticipate every variable out there in terms of computer hardware differences and little snafus like Windows updates that may vary from one machine to another. I'll pass this along to the development team.

Also, be sure that no matter what version of SB3 you run that you run the UI command to install matching firmware. I would not rely on the software prompting you to load it. The only way to be sure is to load it manually.

Thanks!
-B

[ted]

Hello All,

On the 3.8.8 and further (3.8.10 now) ... our idea has been to try and make the communication so much more efficient that communications issues are a thing of the past -- that is, that things like computer speed and programs running in the background should not be a problem; and that you should not need to specifically configure a computer for running ShopBot.

We may not be quite there yet. However, it is the case, that I just finished running many files over the last 2 weeks on a relatively slow tablet PC with little memory and Windows 8 and except for an interruption caused by Windows Update starting to run (maybe the automatic Windows update should be turned off to prevent problems in the middle of a file) had no problems. We would like to think this is the case for most XP, Win7 and Win8 systems ... but I know from reports that some people are having problems. (I personally have seen no reason to favor XP over any more recent Windows OSs.)

We're trying to narrow down what those problems might be. And, would be happy for any info you would like to send in to us at support. Just let us know, the version of software, what went wrong, the type of processor, what anti-virus you are using.

If we can get a problem to repeat here, we can usually get it fixed pretty quickly. At the moment, it is looking like AMD chips might be one where we are having problems; it is the case that we have not routinely tested with these processors and it is possible we have overlooked something.

Our idea is that you should not need a pristine or overly powerful computer. Of course, you don't want the computer constantly running background things on the internet or going into sleep mode -- but otherwise running ShopBot should be pretty straightforward.

For those who are going back and forth between software versions (and we apologize if you feel you need to do this), here are a couple of pointers. When you get to the install finished: start ShopBot and go to Preview Mode [SP]; update the firmware with UI; then do a UR to reset the default settings for your tool (this will take care of any of those comm speed issues and also make sure other settings are correct). That's all you should need to do.

You should not need to reload the USB drivers as they have been the same for many years. (I have sometimes had a computer seem to lose them, but a full, powered-off, reboot usually seems to make them re-appear.)

We run Trend Micro antivirus on company computers here and most of us use MS Security Essentials on our personal laptops for XP and Win7 (and just let Win8 do its own thing). We don't seem to have problems with any of these. I've never been happy with McAfee or Norton so we probably don't test them enough (issues there, anyone?).

Probably enough from me for the moment ...

Ted

Ted Hall, ShopBot Tools