Missing Com Question

[sevans]

I have been getting a missing comm pretty much every day since switching to a windows 7 machine and updating to current control software. I realize that it may be the computer...don't really think its grounding because I didn't have the problem before. The weird thing is, when I get the error, I am forced to close out of control software. Upon reopening, my x, y, and z move speeds are different....very slow. What would cause this? I have stripped this computer down to bare bones...Can anyone lend some advice? Are there any services in particular that you would recommend disabling? Or any other tweaks that could assist? Thank you all for your time and support. Sincerely, Sarah Evans

[adrianm]

Have you got any USB devices other than the ShopBot connected?

Might be worth checking the Power Settings in the Windows control panel, edit the plan and have a look at the advanced settings. If USB selective suspends setting is on and you've got a device connected that supports it that can cause issues. While you're there it's a good idea to set everything to stay on all the time.

I use the AutoRuns program (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx) to make sure that there aren't any startup CPU hogs running in the background that I might have missed. It's also a good one stop place to check for services that you might have missed as well.

[sevans]

Well, I did what you said and I have not had a problem yet. I have to say that I did a few other things as well so am not sure exactly what cured it....KNOCK ON WOOD. I went into the Task Scheduler and disabled some things (checking first to see that they were not important to the system), I changed monitors (was having a bit of a problem with other one), deleted ALL unused programs, kept refreshing task schedule and being sure there was nothing scheduled to run during my cut....not a Missing Comm since. I have run the machine for 3 straight days, 8 hrs a day. So thank you for your good advice. Like I said, this is all a knock on wood sort of thing so I may be back but I hope not. :)