FTDI driver update may brick some miners

[TheRealSteve]

As there are still some devices out there that use FTDI chips to perform USB<->UART Serial communication, a small note of warning:

If your miner uses a counterfeit FTDI chip as its front line communication, a recent update to the FTDI drivers supplied through Windows Update may brick your miner for use under Windows.

The details of how to fix it, work around it, identify products that use FTDI chips and whether or not they're counterfeit is beyond the scope of this post.  For further information, please see:

Windows Update pushed FTDI 2.12 drivers on Oct 1, which locks out some counterfeit FT-232RL chips
Arduino.cc: Unable to get FT232R drivers loaded under Windows 7 64bit
Hackaday.com: Watch That Windows Update: FTDI Drivers Are Killing Fake Chips
Slashdot.org: FTDI Reportedly Bricking Devices Using Competitors' Chips.

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[dogie]

Any idea what types of miners may be susceptible?

[TheRealSteve]

Any idea what types of miners may be susceptible?

Unfortunately that is not easy to divine, other than:
It would have to use a direct USB connection - so if it's using a network connection, it is fine.
The interface would have to be a direct USB<->UART interface - so if it's using custom drivers, it should be fine.

That should leave very few miners as it is.

The USB<->UART interface would have to be an FTDI one - so if it's using e.g. SI Labs' CP210x, it should be fine.  Unfortunately that's one of the parts that's not so easy to find out, other than looking at the USB device list or looking at the hardware directly.
Lastly, it would have to be using the FTDI vendor ID and product ID and the FTDI drivers and have a counterfeit FTDI chip.  For the former you could check the USB drivers list, but to figure out if an FTDI chip is a counterfeit one or not.. depends on how good the counterfeit was made

A google search - https://www.google.com/?#q=site%3Abitcointalk.org%20ftdi - yields some products that are at least associated with FTDI chips by virtue of requiring the drivers.

He deals with lots of stick miners and i would assume this would be mostly that but definitely need more confirmation.

Actually, I don't think any of the StickMiners use an FTDI chip, but I honestly wouldn't know without manually checking.

I do know that the NanoFury ones all use Microchip's MCP2210 ( I think the very earliest prototypes used the FT232 ).
The BlockErupter USB, AntMiner U2, iMiner and Avalon Mono use the Silicon Labs CP2102.
The Bi•Fury uses the NXP (LPC)11U24 (microcontroller with USB support)
The Fury Thumb uses some sort of Atmel microcontroller.
The Avalon Nano probably leverages its NXP (LPC)11U14, though I can't tell if that other chip is actually the comms and not the power management (its proximity to other components leads me to think it's power management).
I never did procure a Hex•Fury, and I can't tell from Dogie's guide picture what chip it uses - but the guide also suggests using the WinUSB drivers (via Zadig) for it, so that should be fine regardless.

The Twin Chip Fury and DualMiners do appear to use FTDI chips.  The Twin Chip Fury probably uses the FT232HL.  The DualMiner uses the FT2232HL and is not susceptible (the driver code specifically applies only to the FT232 line).

[kano]

Any idea what types of miners may be susceptible?

Not cgminer.

It doesn't use the FTDI driver for USB devices, we talk directly to USB devices ourselves.

[Soros Shorts]

Any idea what types of miners may be susceptible?

Not cgminer.

It doesn't use the FTDI driver for USB devices, we talk directly to USB devices ourselves.

I remember that several versions of cgminer became unstable when the switch to libusb was made - zombied devices, etc. I guess in the end it was worth the effort.

[wttbs]

If people do have issues regarding the FTDI problem with counterfeit FT232-chips on their miner, this might solve the problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPdSKT6KdF8

There is a tool with which you can program the PID back to 6001. Tool is called FT Prog, downloadable at: http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Utilities.htm

[thanks to schlumpie @ tweakers.net]

[defcon23]

As there are still some devices out there that use FTDI chips to perform USB<->UART Serial communication, a small note of warning:

If your miner uses a counterfeit FTDI chip as its front line communication, a recent update to the FTDI drivers supplied through Windows Update may brick your miner for use under Windows.

The details of how to fix it, work around it, identify products that use FTDI chips and whether or not they're counterfeit is beyond the scope of this post.  For further information, please see:

Windows Update pushed FTDI 2.12 drivers on Oct 1, which locks out some counterfeit FT-232RL chips
Arduino.cc: Unable to get FT232R drivers loaded under Windows 7 64bit
Hackaday.com: Watch That Windows Update: FTDI Drivers Are Killing Fake Chips
Slashdot.org: FTDI Reportedly Bricking Devices Using Competitors' Chips.

Thank you for this advice..

[TheRealSteve]

Slight follow-up:
FTDI has removed the drivers from Windows Update. If you didn't get hit by it at the time, you shouldn't in the future - although they have hinted at having a future driver update simply not work with the counterfeit chips; which, to me, is a reasonable measure.  Unfortunately they have not issued an apology of any sort whatsoever other than to their customers (not the end-users) who they may have inconvenienced (and of course would most directly impact their bottom line).  But that's a page-long rant for a different forum

Bitcoin and Scrypt mining are pretty solidly entering the domain of either A. cloud mining (small miners) or B. huge mining farms where the miners are typically controlled over network connections.  However, if there are hardware designers out there that want to make a USB miner (Stick/Cakebox/Desktop) and are considering alternatives to FTDI, there's a thread over at EEVblog that covers some of them along with a few gotchas that might make for a good preliminary foray into the matter:
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/alternatives-to-ftdi-usb-to-uart-converter/