Mining Help..... USB Block Erupter "No USB Devices Detected Error"

[TheWoodser]

This really should be posted to the "Mining Help" board but.....I am new so I am forced to post it here.

I am using a "known good" 333Mh USB Block Erupter.  It works fine in another machine and has hashed properly for a few days with no/little hardware errors.

Let me first say, I have read every tutorial on "Setting up Block Erupters" I could find.  Most of them are outdated regarding Windows 7 and CGMiner.  Additionally, I have searched the forums for the "No USB Device" error and have reviewed the trouble shooting on each thread that popped up.

Machine #1 is a Windows 7 SP1 64bit Machine with an Intel i5 processor.  The USB Erupter is plugged into a USB2.0 socket and I am running CGMiner version 3.7.2  It runs with no problems at this time.

Unplugging the Erupter and plugging it into Machine #2 and starting CGMiner gives me the error "No Devices detected!"  "Waiting for USB hotplug devices or press q to quit"
Machine #2 is also a Windows 7 SP1 64bit machine however, it has a newer motherboard and all the "on board" USB slots are 3.0.  I was able to verify that the USB ports are set to provide 500mA and are backward compatible to USB 2.0.   This PC case does have a front USB port that is USB2.0 and plugged into the motherboard via connector.  No matter what USB slot I plug the erupter into, the LED blinks 4 times then stays on.  I have ran all Windows Updates, Installed the Intel SDK for OpenCL, and ran the Zidag utility a million times and it still does not work.   The only other USB device plugged in during all my testing was an usb mouse.  I even tried it without the mouse and still no luck.  I also tried every single port on the motherboard and the front of the case.  I also tried using the latest version of CGMiner 3.8.1

My only other idea is to go buy a powered USB hub or internal USB2.0 PCI card and try to plug the erupter into that.

Does anyone have any other ideas before I go and potentially spend unnecessary money on more hardware?

Thanks in advance.

[Wipeout2097]

I believe that cgminer requires specialized usb drivers or libraries for low level/direct access. There's a package called "Zadig" that often provides such.

Do you see the Erupter in your device manager?

[El_Happy]

Try with administrator permissions or try use bfgminer.

[TheWoodser]

Thanks for the replies.....

I tried running it as an Administrator.   Both the Zadig Utility as well as CGMiner......I still get the same error.

The Erupter shows up in Windows and is in the System Tray as "CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller"

When I started I was using CGMiner 3.7.2 but yesterday I upgraded to 3.8.1 still with no luck.

Also, I should mention that this is a "Fresh Install" of Windows 7 with all Windows Updates run after install.   I really feel like this is a USB issue.  Either USB contacting Windows or an issue with the proper power.

[themrrobert]

Hate to be a broken record but did you try BFGMiner?

[TheWoodser]

I have not.....

[Gator-hex]

this is a "Fresh Install" of Windows 7

Did you try installing the driver disc that came with the motherboard?

Windows doesn't have a driver for everything, especially if it was a device made after it's release.

[TheWoodser]

this is a "Fresh Install" of Windows 7

Did you try installing the driver disc that came with the motherboard?

Windows doesn't have a driver for everything, especially if it was a device made after it's release.

I did run the MSI Drivers disk.   It has a "Install Everything" Option that pushed all the drivers into Windows.  I then ran the Windows Update and it even installed things I was sure I would have to install myself.  I am running an old 3ware 9500s-8 that I was sure I would have to configure separately......Nope, Windows grabbed it and rebuilt the 6 disk RAID5 array that was already there all by its self.....

[juggalodarkclow]

I never had luck running my block erupters with CGMiner, I would try running BFGMiner. I have 39 BE's running with no problems at all.

Drivers needed to run with BFGMiner: http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/pages/usbtouartbridgevcpdrivers.aspx

[TheWoodser]

themrrobert: I did try bfgminer.  I installed the latest version and it only found my GPU.  Also, it would run for almost 5 minutes between accepting work from the pool.

Gator-hex: I went back and reinstalled all the USB drivers from the manufacturer’s disk that came with the motherboard.  It still would not find the USB Erupter.  I also went to the manufacturer’s website and updated the USB drivers with the current ones from the website.  Still nothing.

I also went and purchased a PCIe USB add in card hoping that throwing another manufacturer into the mix might help, but that changed nothing as well.

All of these steps have been taken on my #2 machine.  The erupter works fine on machine #1 with no problem and right now is logging about a 334.6Mh average.

I really want to get this working on the other machine because that one normally stays on anyway.

Thanks for all your help so far.  I really think this is a USB/Windows problem at this point.

[bliss]

Check your bios settings.

[vm1990]

this is to get cgminer running and working and works 99% of the time

got into device manager and uninstall the devices making sure to tick the delete driver button

1. download both zadig and cgminer 3.8.2 (or 3.5) anything between this iv had trouble with
2. plug 1 erupter in and let windows faile to find a driver for it
3. change the driver using zadig tool
4. (important and dosnt seem to end up in many guides) unplug the miners and count to 5 (make sure you unplug them all)
5. plug the miners back in and check there showing under "Universal Serical Bus devices" in device manager
6. start cgminer and wait. it should look like its crashed for a few seconds and do nothing at all then it should start

[Armchair Miner]

I can't believe noone gave feedback to vm1990's post. I found it extremely valuable and working great if you follow it to the T. I neglected to make sure to tick the "delete" button on some of the uninstalls and I think that is why it took me an hour longer before everything was back to working, after just a small rearrangement of the USB hubs and miners, and upgrade of the CGminer to 3.8.2.

[HolyTemplar]

You should be able to install them using this guide from BTC Guild (which works on the 2 PC's I've set it up for):

https://www.btcguild.com/index.php?page=support&section=blockerupter

If this doesn't work, you may want to check 'Device Manager' from Windows to see if the Block Erupters are showing.