An update on the UPS/bfgminer problem (previous quotes below).
It was the conflict with the UPS monitoring software after all (ViewPower 2.1.1), which follows with PowerWalker UPS. After uninstalling ViewPower, the problem disappeared.
Having started and stopped bfgminer almost a hundred times, I can see a pattern. ViewPower seems to be locking a random COM port for a very short period of time to communicate with the UPS unit, and then releases it.
bfgminer has two start-up phases, which I would call phase A ("Found BESx at \\.\COMx") and phase B ("Opened Icarus on \\.\COMx"). So:
1. In most cases bfgminer would report the privilege problem on a random COM port during phase A, and then not use it in phase B, resulting in one BE not hashing. Meaning ViewPower still uses the same port between the phases.
2. The same as above, but bfgminer does not find any problems during phase A, but then gets an error during phase B. Meaning ViewPower was in-between communications during the first phase, but then opened one COM port just before phase B started.
3. In less frequent cases, bfgminer would report the problem on one port during phase A and then on another port during phase B, resulting in 2 BEs not hashing. Meaning ViewPower closed the first port and opened a new one between phases.
4. The least frequent case is when bfgminer does not report any problems during either phase A or phase B - all miners are hashing. Meaning the timing was just right for ViewPower to be in the in-between communication state in both phases.
This also seems consistent with the number of BEs, hosted by a machine and probabilities of one case or the other: a machine with 96 BEs has a greater chance of #1 and #2, with an occasional #3. A machine with 43 BEs would see an occasional #1 and #2 with a more frequent #4.
Luke-Jr, could you, please, implement a command-line switch controlled function to rescan a list of previously-failed ports on a time-interval basis? That way I would be able to use the UPS monitoring software, while still having all BEs hashing.Luke-jr, I have a problem with bfgminer on Windows 7 (both 32 and 64 bit builds), which appeared recently (possibly after I installed monitoring software for UPS units). It appeared on both machines, running about 60 BEs each.
The problem is that when bfgminer starts, I would get
Do not have user privileges required to open \\.\COMx
where 'x' is some random port (it tends to be in the range 1-15, but will sometimes pick ports in the higher range).
The port will then light solid green and will not hash.
Restarting bfgminer will yield another "failed" port. Sometimes all ports will get recognised and will not light green, but then all miners will blink a little and one port will light solid green again. I have double-checked and have enough power for all miners. I also tried with a smaller subset.
My request: could you for ports that give that "privileges" error, make a retry at a later point. It seems that time-out for failure is too short or something...
The thing is: it's not a specific port, but rather a random one, which will be different between bfgminer restarts.
Also I run bfgminer unattended in my
Crypto Miners in Tray with -T command line arguments, so an automatic rescan of failed ports with some command-line defined delay/interval would be welcome.
I also tried removing all USB-COM port mappings (
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/windows-many-usb-hubs-and-besfuries-clean-up-in-your-devices-manager-300638) and re-inserting the miners from scratch, allowing Windows to reinitialise all hubs and BEs.
In the meantime, I'll try uninstalling the UPS monitoring software and see if the problem goes away.
" in response to any questions.
