hello help

[martinr]

hello chaps my name is martin im new to this cnc stuff so I sound like I don't know what im talking about that's because I don't
ive got a small milling machine id like to convert to cnc . ive brought a 3 axis cnc kit which all works ok with a small hand held controller ive also got mach 3 software on my laptop. ive plugged the laptop into cnc board with a 25pin cable down to a usb plug but it wont work I understand mach 3 wont work on some laptops . will it work on a desk top pc what sort of spec will the pc have to be
cheers martin sorry post is so long

[Polygonhell]

Wrong board really, you'd be better off asking on either the Mach 3 boards or the CNCZone boards.
However you can't use Mach3 with a USB to parallel port adapter, unless you have a separate motion controller like a smooth stepper Mach 3 requires a real parallel port. And even then depending on the rest of the electronics it may not work if the port uses 3.3V logic instead of 5V logic.
I'd also recommend running it on XP, it require additional drivers on Vista, 7 and 8 and will not work at all on 64 bit versions of the OS.
The easy solution is to pick up and older computer with a parallel port and a copy of XP on it, it doesn't need a lot of CPU.
The alternative is to go with a smooth stepper or similar, if you go that route buy the ethernet version and NOT the USB version.