Bitcoin Forum

copy OpenCL.dll from 2.1 to cgminer's directory.

Has anyone found a way to have new drivers installed, To fix the cpu bug and play games, Without losing mh/s performance?

Why yes, all you had to do was look: AMD Stream SDK 2.6 (Catalyst 11.12/12.1) - Get your performance back! (Phoenix) (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56521.0)

.. Really?.. And could you elaborate just a bit more, Simply in the base directory and nothing special? No driver changes or commands to tell CG to detect it?, It'll just go off without any issues?

win7x64

The first directory searched is the directory containing the image file used to create the calling process

i know from msdn that placing a dll in the same directory as a executable will cause the program to load that dll instead of the one in system32 or syswow64.
and i made an educated guess that if the dll for opencl was replaced, the opencl version would effectively be replaced as well. Not entirely sure though. the only real way is to try it yourself  ;D

if you want, i can send the dlls from 2.1 sdk

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg688286#msg688286 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg688286#msg688286)

i know from msdn that placing a dll in the same directory as a executable will cause the program to load that dll instead of the one in system32 or syswow64.

Not so fast, Cowboy :)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682586%28v=vs.85%29.aspx (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682586%28v=vs.85%29.aspx)

Pay close attention to the folowing point:
If a DLL with the same module name is already loaded in memory, the system uses the loaded DLL, no matter which directory it is in. The system does not search for the DLL.


Copying the file into application directory is not enough if the library from SDK 2.6 has already been loaded into memory. System reboot is mandatory.
Only then can you guarantee that the correct library will be used.
There are of course ways to forcefully unload a library without rebooting the machine but they are geeky, thus hard to recommend to the general public.

In my experience, the DLLs are only locked and loaded when an OpenCL application is running. You can shut down your miner, replace the files, restart your miner, and immediately see the different hash rate of the other SDK.

hi there,

I'm not sure this is going to work for you, however on my linux rig I was affected by the 100% bug when using Catalyst >12.1 and AMD APP 2.6. I noticed on a quick glance that the problem was pyOpenCL(I got suspicious when running hashkill, which did not have the bug). So I tried using an older version of pyOpenCL which I compiled myself, and it resolved the issue without any impact on my mining performance. I then had a friend mining on windows who complained about the 100% issue himself, and I told him that using a selfcompiled pyOpenCL did solve the problem. He then went on and installed python, a self built windows version of pyOpenCL and ran poclbm himself on windows. (manually without GUIminer). this solved the 100% bug for him as well, without hurting performance. So you might just try doing that if you have some beer and experience to do this. However, no guarantee here, since I only have what my pal reported back to me ...

Goodness.

Install newest drivers.

Go here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54693.msg651989#msg651989 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54693.msg651989#msg651989) and get the files.

Go to C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and replace the appropriate files. Save the originals if you want to switch back to sdk 2.6. You should run windows explorer as administrator and not have any mining software running when replacing. Sometimes there are only 2 files per folder, sometimes 3.

Download the newest cgminer. Or use the cgminer you already have but browse to the folder and delete the .bin files before starting it.

Start cgminer and enjoy good hash rates and no CPU usage.

Shut down cgminer.

Replace the .dlls with the originals if you want sdk 2.6 back.

Run cgminer again. DO NOT delete the .bin file. You should still have your good hash rate and no CPU usage.

If you update cgminer, you will probably have to repeat this process as it will build new binaries with the newer, slower sdk. So save the 2.5 .dlls.

Are you saying it worked?

If so, and if you are offering me a reward, I ask instead that you switch from wherever you are mining to p2pool for at least a week. It's fairly easy to set up, even easier if you already have the newest version of Bitcoin installed with an up-to-date block chain. I could even attempt to help you if you ran into trouble, but I'm not very knowledgeable on the subject (although I am mining in p2pool).

If you are opposed to this idea, I will accept your donation at 14NwYbaZ8D3NNyUSVN4z357k9BhZBErjYd and redistribute it to the miners of P2Pool.

Thanks.

The pool is small, because of the very reason you bring up. Miners don't switch, so the pool stays small. It's around 70Ghash/s and solving approximately one block a day. But there are also a few people making daily donations to the miners of P2Pool according to how many shares you've submitted in a certain time frame.

I understand if you don't want to switch. But miners need to realize that putting the majority of the mining power in the hands of a few could potentially hurt the network in the future, resulting in paychecks for no one.

so what's the point of replacing the system32/syswow64 dlls? doing that forces every application to use the older sdk, which may reduce performance for other programs, like games. placing the dlls with the miner executable is the safest option, imo.

In my experience, the DLLs are only locked and loaded when an OpenCL application is running. You can shut down your miner, replace the files, restart your miner, and immediately see the different hash rate of the other SDK.

They build when you first run cgminer. If you haven't ran a new version of cgminer yet, you won't have a .bin file yet.

Anyway, you want to run cgminer the first time with the 2.5 sdk .dlls in the folders.

After you do that, you can replace the 2.5 sdk .dlls with 2.6, but cgminer will run as if you still have the 2.5.

In the cgminer folder.

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/5661/77991639.jpg

See the .bin files?