I think it’s a good idea to have a dedicated machine. My laptop only has the CAD/CAM software and arduino drivers.
Mine, too. But I fear the age might the case of some of the problems.
This is the one I’m looking at
http://www.frys.com/product/8231696?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
Right now I’m running my X-carve on a Brix I3.
If you are going to use something like UGCS or Easel for most of your X-carve work then you are probably Ok with that unit. I would max it out on memory though.
I don’t think that it would be adequate for third party design software like V-carve Desktop or Pro. Software packages like that would benefit from a better performing CPU than the Celeron.
My design system has an I7.
I can up the memory on it. They have other models, that’s just the cheaper one. The question is though, would that solve most of my problems, or should I just keep going with the suggestions on this thread?
Hard to say. I have some issues with the USB port on my I3, but I haven’t taken the time to find out why. My suspicion is that it’s the 15 foot USB extension cable I’m using.
At least if you continue with what you have it doesn’t cost money, just time. At this point from what you have already done I’m not convinced that your current machine is really the problem. I don’t have any experience with Windows 10.
How old is the machine?
Ugh… I wanna say it’s about 10 years old, at least 8.
Well, you’ve been trying to get this going for 18 days now. I’ll help you either way you want to go.
What are your plans for work flow? Are you going to primarily use Easel, or something else.
Do you have a fairly new USB hub?
It’s going directly to the laptop, if that’s what you mean.
I was going to start off with easel because of the ease of use and nice preview window. I like that I can design in Solid Works (which I use at work daily) and bring it in.
Having said that, I’d like to see what other programs are out there that will still allow me to utilize AutoCAD and Solid Works.
That was my thought. Compatibility with a new OS and an older machine, or a new machine up to date?
I’m just trying to exercise all options to get this damn thing up and running so I can get my hobby back on track.
Not sure what’s worse, that I’m getting frustrated on a daily basis at this point, or the fact that the stress got me down to my last bottle of scotch.
These programs won’t run very well on the Celeron. If you go with a new machine and want to run these programs on it I would go with an I5 unit.
I think Robert has the plan - old machine - Windows 7 - new machine Windows 10.
They’ll make more.
There is nothing else plugged into my laptop. Only things that have been plugged in is trandom flash drives throughout the years. It defaulted to COM6 when I reflashed the Arduino during one of the steps
So downgrade the laptop I have it get a new one
I think if it were me, I would take the laptop back to Windows 7 and see if you can get that to work. If everything goes well and you like it you can stay there. If you want to go with a new machine at least you will know that the X-carve works and you can concentrate on getting Windows 10 to work.
I think I will TRY to save some money and downgrade the o Windows 7 tomorrow and reload everything from scratch and see how that goes. If I get the same problems, I’m going to Fry’s and the laptop will go in the bonfire
Well crap. Tried to downgrade the laptop. Now, whenever the thing hibernates, it won’t wake up and I have to do a hard restart. Not good.
So I might have to run out and get that micro computer
IT’S ALIVE!!!
New computer and everything seems to be going smoothly so far. Loaded Arduino and Easel 2.2, plugged in the USB and everything was recognized right away. Was able to get to the set up page and did the axis test (i think some belt tensioning is in order), now i’m at the test carve stage.
I cannot begin to thank you guys enough for the help through this. If any of you travel to Houston, beers are on me.
I’ll let you know how the test and set up go from here
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Gotta love a problem solving thread with a happy ending! 
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All happy endings are good. Haha
Congrats!