Both machines are core i7 64 running Win7 64. Both use a bunch of erupters and one has a BFL LS as well. At first I thought the instability was caused by the heavier load on one machine but now I'm pretty sure it is not load-dependent.
A Raspberry Pi would run ALL your stuff - load has got nothing to do with it, as there isn't any on an i7.
Shit, I have 30GH/s gong through a TPLink 703N (a £10 router powered off USB with a Dorito for a CPU and 8MB RAM).
Hehe - good one.
I should have expressed "load" more carefully. One machine has the BFL LS and two Anker powered hubs daisy chained and full of erupters, so I meant load as in more USB activity and power draw. The other machine has only one Anker hub with erupters. As it happens though the CPUs on both machines do run close to 100% with BOINC and a bunch of other stuff. Too many variables!
As luck would have it, everything has been running fine since my post, leaving me wondering if the issues have anything to do with CGMINER at all. I hate intermittent errors.