Epilog Driver/Windows 7 glitch news

[Dee Gallo]

Hi all, I just got off the phone with Brian at Epilog - this morning I had a weird issue and he told me it is a known issue.

I sent a job to engrave and cut some 1/8" cherry pieces, no color mapping used. My settings were confirmed on the laser control screen but when I pushed GO the vector reset to 50sp/50p, which did not do much of course. I tried again, I shut down and restarted. I sent the job again. No impact. It seems that sometimes the driver sends color mapping defaults (50-50-50) when it feels like it.

The temporary fix is to make sure that color mapping is unchecked, but of course you'd only know it after the job starts to cut... but you can tell because it's going way too fast. And not cutting.

He says they are looking into this and will email me when there is a home remedy... but I thought I'd let everyone know in case this happens to someone else.

I'm using Windows 7: 64 bit, driver v8.07, firmware 1.0.3.0 and CorelDraw X3

cheers, dee

[John Noell]

There is so little to be gained by using the 64 bit version of Windows, and the bugginess of the 64 bit driver I tried cost me about $2,000 in damages - so given the awful unsupportive response from Epilog on my problems it will be a l-o-n-g time before I try the 64 bit driver. I simply uninstalled the 64 bit Win7 and used the same key code to instal the 32 bit version. Why use a known buggy driver at all???

[Paul Phillips]

To bad about the buggy driver, they should fix that pronto as the 64 bit version of windows is quickly becoming the standard on all new computers, you definitely want it if possible because the price of RAM (memory) is so cheap that 8gb is now the minimum on a new PC (costs less than $40 to upgrade) with 16gb being the easy upgrade (less than $80) and can give you a definite advantage if you use other programs on your computer such as Photoshop or other CAD or design programs (I use EnRoute 5 pro). For those not aware, the 32 bit version only allows you to access up to 3.5gb of memory.

[Bob Davis]

I really can't see that the 64 bit versions have any advantages over the 32 bit, but I'm willing to be persuaded if anybody can mount a case.
The idea of having a mountain of RAM available is fine, but I haven't been able to get actual RAM usage on my (32 bit) machines much over 2Gb according to the resource monitor, even with lots of programs and files open. What's the point of having loads of RAM that are not required? From my observations of it you would have to be doing a series of gigantic jobs to require more than the 32 bit limit of around 3.5 Gig.

[Curt Harms]

I have no experience with this - I use Windows very infrequently - but there IS a way to use 32 bit O.S.s and access > 4 GB. RAM. I don't know what problems may arise from this patch never having used it. PAE enabled linux kernels are the default in current *buntu linux distros and no issues except for those with 32 bit processors.

http://superuser.com/questions/52275/how-can-i-enable-pae-on-windows-7-32-bit-to-support-more-than-3-5-gb-of-ram

[Paul Phillips]

Curt, that's a great fix but some people may not be technical enough to attempt that.
My point was that 8gb is now standard on most PCs so why not take advantage of it?
Bob, I'm no super tech or even much of a power user but look again, from what I understand, windows 7 makes better use of the page file, (caching data).
http://superuser.com/questions/315347/16gb-ram-force-windows-7-to-use-as-much-ram-as-possible
Not that it justifies 16gb, and realistically most people won't use near that much. I do however remember back in the day when 1mb was standard seeing an add for the fastest new Dell with up to 8mb and my boss saying, "who in the world would ever need 8mb of RAM!" We laugh at that now, but eventually we'll say, "you only have 16gb!" ;)
FWIW though, when I'm doing large 3d files in EnRoute it can still take several minutes to process and render a file and it uses all my 8gb! It used to take 15-20 minutes in XP.