Mach3 Probe Error After Reinstall, Runtime Error 438 Explained

Hi mate,

That error is almost certainly coming from the probing plugin, not the probe hardware itself.

Quote:

Runtime error '-438' Object doesn't support this property or method

Is a classic VB script missing component type error in Mach3 after a fresh reinstall of windows, the screen set is trying to call something that either isn’t installed, isn’t registered properly, or is the wrong Mach3 version.

A few things to check first:

Mach3 version
MachStdMill is quite picky, some versions only behave properly with Mach3 R3.043.066 or R3.043.062 with later builds causing odd probing/script issues.

Run Mach3 as Administrator
Windows permissions after a reinstall can stop scripts/plugins accessing files correctly, try right click "Run As Admin" and see if that changes anything.

Check the MSM installation paths
Make sure, the .set screen file, macros, plugins and supporting folders all went back into the correct Mach3 directories after reinstalling. A very common issue is restoring only the screen set but forgetting the associated macro files. :)

VB Runtime / ActiveX Components
Mach3 and screen sets are old-school, they rely on legacy Windows components and sometimes reinstalling Microsoft Visual Basic runtimes ".NET Framework 3.5" or re-registering ActiveX components fixes these strange runtime errors.

Not sure whether you restored from backup or did a totally clean install on this?

I’ve seen this exact sort of thing happen after reinstalls where one tiny macro file was missing from the profile folder and probing just falls over in a tantrum...

Anyone else here still running MSM on Mach3 and remember the magic combination of versions?