ok so just read the path in the diag output.
did a copy/paste from a machine that was working to the broken machine... BAM! works now.
WTF! AM should have tried to redownload the app, maybe its a bug? idk either way thanks for pointing me to the diag file which helped solve the issue!
Even if you resolved the problem already, I will still give an answer in case you or someone else run into a similar issue in the future.
"The system cannot find the file specified" is almost always an indication that Awesome Miner did download the mining software, but when it's about to get started, your security software already removed the mining software. That's why the file for the mining software cannot be found.
Awesome Miner will automatically try to download it every time you try to start the miner if the file is missing - but if it keeps getting removed it will not work.
I've quite recently added this
Troubleshooting GPU Mining guide on the web site, that will help with the most common issues that the Diagnostics might indicate:
http://www.awesomeminer.com/help/troubleshooting-gpu.aspxAlthough you already tried with disabling Windows Defender, sometime it activates itself again and simply continue blocking. I also have a guide on the web site how to configure exclusions in Windows Defender to solve this:
http://www.awesomeminer.com/help/defender.aspx