The file you emailed to me seems to have made the problem much better. the miner got sick once since the upload but that may have been pc related. is the file you uploaded "https://www.dropbox.com/s/i4rj2k1m9vrj00e/Chili14e1V1.hex" the same as the one you emailed?

Also i tried the FT_Prog utility http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Utilities/FT_Prog_v2.8.2.0.zip and it was not able to find that miners usb chip either so i am going to order a replacement for the ftdi chip today or tomorrow from digikey or mouser. which part number is the correct one "FT232HL" or something else?