Think you are right Jazz.. Having revved up my y axis by re-wiring it as parallel, I am guessing that there are more pulses/second now and this may be why I am experiencing even more stalling, the y axis did not stall before and it is now... Your smooth stepper will surely prove this one way or another and I will do as you suggest and get another cable..
As we discussed before, I should probably think about a PCI PP but I remember your thoughts on this.. So, anyone out there know a tried a trusted PCI parallel port that they use on their CNC?

Steve..