When I purchased my crossfire I also bought the dell computer with the machine. My dell has been having problems loading and slow processing commands. After a tech friend went through it. We discovered that the hard drive was burning itself up. Only 50% left and it’s speeding up and slowing down instead of a constant speed. The cause is not a fault in the product. It’s caused by the high amperage and flux fields caused by the plasma cutter. My tech guy says he normally see this on higher amperage plasma cutters. My crossfire has about 4-5 thousand hrs of cutting. He said there’s nothing that can be done to fix the problem except but another computer. The same fields are also causing the motherboard to fail.
This is just to let people know that when start noticing a slower load time, it’s time to make sure your files are backed up. Once it started to fail it happened quickly.
This is the first I’ve heard of anything like this. To my mind the only plausible reason the high amperage would affect your computer is if you have your excess torch cable neatly coiled and in the vicinity of your computer. Unwind your torch cable to a more serpentine pattern and move it away from your computer.
With that many hours, I’d like to see a pic of the inside of the PC. Unless you have really good air handling, I just wonder if that PC has inhaled enough metal dust to affect any moving parts like the fan.
I worry about my table controller, cutter, and my laptop breathing in dust (yes, I wear resp). I need better air management.
So you know, my laptop is on the stand I purchased. My plasma cutter is about three feet from the table. The biggest problem I see is the location of the cable tube near the laptop stand.
He recommended that I purchase a pc with a solid state drive. That way there are no mechanical parts that can be affected by the field. My new laptop has really speeded things up. He did say that dells are notorious for having hard drives and motherboard failures (I have 3 failing and 2 dead ones). The plasma cutter only speeded up the process.
I had saved the email for my Mach3 license. I was able to resend it so I could have it for the new computer. I recommend that you copy the license (.dat) on to a flash drive as a backup in case your pc fails. If you resend it, when you move it to the proper folder you have to remove the”_(1)”. The space(1) will keep the license from working.
As far as evaluating the laptop the software he has isn’t available to the public. One thing that you can check is the drive space. My hard drive had lost 57gb of storage space.
As far as paying for a new laptop or two, the table has been a real work horse. I could have bought a new car to bring those laptops home.
One last item, not computer related. I zip tied a rubber glove over my handle to help keep the trigger area from getting wet.
I wish I hadn’t purchased the laptop stand. It’s flimsy and shakes when the table is in operation and the laptop was too close to the action for my taste.
I had one of these sitting around from before I bought a better welding table. I have it on wheels and use it to move my laptop back and forth from near the table to 10 feet away when cutting. Safer for the laptop, and me if I am going to stand there during a cut.
I don’t have anywhere near those hours. I run the machine with a dedicated HP low end laptop. No files are stored on it. Files are on USB. Keep the keyboard covered in “Stretch-N-Seal” plastic wrap. I’ll have not considered filtering the fan.
I built a booth for the table to help contain the dust. The laptop in on a bench nearby.
I wish my setup was that neat. I have my crossfire XL and Pro side by side. Not much room as I also my Bridgeport and bead blasting all in a 15 x 15 space. I may try the plastic wrap although I really like the touch screen. If I get a slow period I’m going to swap the support post to the other end.
As for hours I’ve had to replace my entire torch once and my head once. Hopefully the third one last as long as the others. My last order of tips and nozzle was 60 of each. I wish I had more time to play with settings.
