Resolving SIMATIC BATCH Start Coordinator Failure in PCS 7 v7.0

The SIMATIC BATCH Start Coordinator (bflaunchcoordinatorhostx.exe) is the Windows service that brokers communication between the PCS 7 OS runtime, the BATCH Control Center, and the batch process cell database. When the three taskbar tray icons appear for ~5 s and then disappear, the service has started, attempted to initialize against the runtime database, and aborted because the equipment phase database (.eqm) was not reachable. This document consolidates the field-proven resolution for the classic "A hardware I/O error was reported while accessing D:RT.eqm" failure path on PCS 7 v7.0 + SIMATIC BATCH v7.0, references the original Getting Started manual A5E00918236-01, and provides a commissioning sequence, permission check matrix, and a verification procedure that eliminates the failure on the first restart.

1. Problem Statement

A commissioning engineer working through chapter 2.2.12 of the Getting Started SIMATIC BATCH 10/2006 manual (document A5E00918236-01) reaches the step "Starting the BATCH Start Coordinator". The observed behavior is:

1. Three icons appear in the Windows taskbar notification area (tray): Start Coordinator, BatchCC launcher, BATCH OS server.
2. All three icons disappear after approximately 5 seconds.
3. Manually launching BatchCC.exe raises a dialog with the text: "A hardware I/O error was reported while accessing D:RT.eqm."
4. The BATCH Start Coordinator Windows service is no longer running in services.msc.
5. The user is a member of the local Administrators group, and the SIMATIC Shell network card selection is correct.

The same symptom can be reproduced whether the Start Coordinator is launched from the BATCH Control Center shortcut or from the Windows service BATCH Start Coordinator (Host) directly. The root cause is always the same: the Start Coordinator host process is unable to open the equipment phase database file referenced by the active batch process cell.

2. Environment & Affected Versions

The example project SIMATIC BATCH V7.0 Getting Started ships with the BATCH installation DVD under \\SIEMENS\BATCH\Examples\GettingStarted. It is the same project used in the field during the typical classroom exercise in which this failure is reproduced.

3. Root Cause Analysis

The error string "A hardware I/O error was reported while accessing D:RT.eqm" is emitted by the BATCH runtime layer when the Start Coordinator calls the database open routine against the equipment phase (.eqm) file of the active process cell. The diagnostic chain is:

1. The Start Coordinator host reads the path of the current batch process cell from the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\SIEMENS\BATCH\ActiveProject (or the per-user equivalent under HKCU). The value typically resolves to D:\<ProjectName>\RT\<ProjectName>.eqm.
2. The host attempts to open the file in shared read mode and validate the page header.
3. If the open call returns ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND (2), ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND (3), ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION (32), ERROR_LOCK_VIOLATION (33), or ERROR_DISK_FULL (112), the BATCH runtime translates the I/O failure into the generic user-facing message "hardware I/O error" and aborts initialization.
4. The BATCH Start Coordinator Windows service shuts down. Because the three tray icons are owned by that service, they vanish within the standard service stop timeout (5 s default on Windows XP/Server 2003, which matches the observed 5-second disappearance window).

For the Getting Started example project, the path D:RT.eqm is in fact D:\<Project>\RT\<Project>.eqm with the directory components collapsed by the error formatter. The most common underlying reasons for the open failure are:

Root cause A (no download performed) and root cause C (insufficient rights on D:\) account for the majority of field escalations of this exact symptom on PCS 7 V7.0.

4. Required Commissioning Sequence (Per A5E00918236-01, Ch. 2.2)

SIMATIC BATCH has a strict topological order: the process cell must be compiled, downloaded to the OS, and the OS runtime must be up before the Start Coordinator can resolve its database. Skipping any step reproduces the .eqm open failure because the file is simply not on disk yet. Execute the seven steps below in the order shown, from the Engineering Station first and from the Operator Station second.

4.1 Engineering Station (ES) Steps

1. Update batch process cell. In SIMATIC Manager, right-click the BATCH container in the component view and select BATCH > Update Batch Process Cell. Confirm the dialog "Process cell successfully updated".
2. Generate and propagate batch types. Open the BATCH Recipe Editor, choose Batch Types > Generate. The propagation step writes the generated types to the ES-side .eqm file under D:\<Project>\S7proj\<Project>\batches\ and registers them with the BatchCC catalog.
3. Merge batch instances. From the BatchCC menu, Batch > Merge Batch Instances. This collapses order/inheritance hierarchies into runnable instances.
4. Transfer messages to the OS. Batch > Transfer Messages to OS. This pushes the operator message texts to the WinCC message configuration of the target OS.
5. Download batch data to the OS. In BatchCC, select the OS server in the tree and execute Download Batch Data from the context menu. The download creates D:\<Project>\RT\<Project>.eqm on the OS and copies all batch types, libraries, and category data.

4.2 Operator Station (OS) Steps

6. Start OS runtime. Launch WinCC Runtime on the OS. Verify the OS picture tree is loaded and the @ prefix tags are updating.
7. Start BATCH Start Coordinator. From the Windows Start > SIMATIC > BATCH > BATCH Start Coordinator shortcut, or directly via bflaunchcoordinatorhostx.exe. The three tray icons must remain visible for more than 5 seconds. The BATCH Control Center can then be started from its shortcut or from Start > SIMATIC > BATCH > Batch Control Center.

5. File System & Path Resolution

The runtime database files of SIMATIC BATCH are organized as follows when the project root is D:\<ProjectName>:

Verify the path before the Start Coordinator is started:

1. Open BatchCC > Process Cell > Properties > Server tab and note the Path of the batch database entry.
2. On the OS, in Windows Explorer, navigate to the path. Confirm .eqm, .bdb, and .bcf all exist and have non-zero size.
3. Right-click each file > Properties > Security. The Windows user that runs the BATCH Start Coordinator service (see Section 6) must be listed with Read & Execute and Modify.

If the OS runs on a different physical PC than the ES, the RT\ tree on the OS is the result of a download that traversed either the local network or a project replicator. Do not assume that the OS can see the ES's D:\ by drive letter alone; verify via net use or UNC browse.

6. Windows Service & User Rights

On SIMATIC BATCH V7.0, the Start Coordinator runs as the Windows service BATCH Start Coordinator (Host). Its identity is configured once at install time and is rarely revisited. To inspect and correct it:

1. Open services.msc.
2. Locate BATCH Start Coordinator (Host) (display name; service name: BFLaunchCoordinatorHost or S7BATCHCoordinator depending on the install language).
3. Double-click > Log On tab. Three options are available:
   • Local System account — acceptable only on a single-machine lab setup; do not use in production.
   • This account — specify a dedicated Windows user, e.g. DOMAIN\BatchService. This is the recommended setting.
   • Local Service — not supported by SIMATIC BATCH; will fail to write to D:\<Project>\RT.
4. The selected user must:
   • Be a member of the local group Siemens TIA Engineer / SIMATIC HMI / SIMATIC Batch (the exact group name is created by the BATCH setup).
   • Have Full control on D:\<Project>\RT, D:\<Project>\S7proj, and the BATCH install directory (default C:\Program Files\SIEMENS\BATCH).
   • Have Log on as a service right (granted automatically when the service is configured; verify with secpol.msc > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment).

Membership in Administrators alone is not enough on Windows Server 2003 / Windows 7 when UAC is enabled: the elevated token used by the service is filtered, and the UAC virtualized write to Program Files may fail. Always configure the service to run as a dedicated service account with explicit NTFS rights.

7. Batch Database Download Procedure

The single most effective step in the field is to re-download the batch database to the OS, then restart the OS PC. A re-download rebuilds .eqm, .bdb, and .bcf atomically on the OS and clears any stale locks. Procedure:

1. On the ES, open BatchCC.
2. In the Process Cell tree, right-click the OS server node.
3. Select Download Batch Data > Complete. Do not choose Differential on the first attempt; a full download forces re-creation of all runtime files.
4. Wait for the dialog "Batch data download finished successfully".
5. Close BatchCC on the ES.
6. On the OS, open services.msc and stop the BATCH Start Coordinator (Host) service if it is in Starting state.
7. Reboot the OS PC. This is mandatory: the BATCH runtime holds a SHARED_DELETE handle on .eqm and a reboot is the only way to guarantee release.
8. After reboot, verify on the OS that D:\<Project>\RT\<Project>.eqm exists and its modification time matches the download time.

8. Step-by-Step Resolution

Execute the following in order. The sequence is structured to fail fast on each root cause and converge on the solution with a minimum of restarts.

1. Validate the runtime path. On the OS, run cmd /c dir "D:\<Project>\RT\*.eqm". If the file is missing, jump to step 5.
2. Validate NTFS rights. On the OS, run icacls "D:\<Project>\RT\<Project>.eqm". Confirm the service account has (M) Modify, (R) Read, (F) Full, or (W) Write. If not, run step 6.
3. Validate file lock state. Run openfiles /query /v | findstr /I .eqm on the OS. If any process is holding the file, identify and stop it; if it is a stale Start Coordinator, run taskkill /F /IM bflaunchcoordinatorhostx.exe.
4. Validate service identity. Open services.msc, BATCH Start Coordinator (Host) > Log On. Confirm the user is correct and the password is saved (the password field shows only asterisks, but if the value is empty the service will fail to start with "Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password").
5. Perform full batch data download. From the ES, BatchCC > right-click OS server > Download Batch Data > Complete.
6. Re-apply NTFS rights. On the OS, run icacls "D:\<Project>\RT" /grant "<ServiceUser>:(OI)(CI)F" /T to grant Full Control on the tree. Then icacls "D:\<Project>\S7proj" /grant "<ServiceUser>:(OI)(CI)F" /T.
7. Exclude AV scanning. In the antivirus policy, add D:\<Project>\RT\ and C:\Program Files\SIEMENS\BATCH to the exclusion list. Real-time scanning on .eqm open is a known cause of ERROR_SHARING_VIOLATION on slow disks.
8. Reboot the OS PC. This forces release of all SHARED_DELETE handles and re-creates the Start Coordinator service in a clean state.
9. Start OS Runtime in WinCC Explorer.
10. Start the BATCH Start Coordinator. Confirm that the three tray icons persist beyond 5 seconds. If they do, the failure is resolved.
11. Start BatchCC. Launch SIMATIC > BATCH > Batch Control Center. The process cell tree should load without prompting for the .eqm path.

9. Verification & Acceptance Test

After step 11 of the resolution, run the following checks to confirm a stable fix:

1. Tray icon persistence. All three Start Coordinator icons remain visible for > 60 s with no flicker.
2. Service state. services.msc > BATCH Start Coordinator (Host) > Status: Running, Startup Type: Automatic.
3. Event log. Event Viewer > Application > source SIMATIC BATCH shows Event ID 0 / Information — BATCH Start Coordinator started successfully. No Error events from BATCH or MSSQL$SIMATICBATCH in the last 5 minutes.
4. BatchCC connection test. From BatchCC, right-click the process cell > Test Connection. Returns OK.
5. Create-and-release test. Create a test batch, start it, hold it, release it, and complete it. Verifies the full .eqm + .bdb + SFC chain.

If the BATCH Start Coordinator tray icons still disappear after the full sequence, the cause is one of the rarer items in the troubleshooting matrix in Section 10. Proceed there before opening a Siemens support request.

10. Troubleshooting Matrix

11. Preventive Measures

• Pin the runtime path. Document the absolute path of RT\<Project>.eqm in the project handover document. Any change to the project drive letter must trigger a re-download.
• Use a dedicated service account. Never run the Start Coordinator as Local System in production. Provision a DOMAIN\SIMATICBatchSrv account with explicit NTFS rights and Log on as a service.
• Disable real-time AV on BATCH paths. Configure the antivirus to exclude RT\, \SIEMENS\BATCH, and the BATCH database paths.
• Schedule a periodic BATCH database consistency check. From BatchCC, Batch > Check Consistency on a weekly schedule. A corrupted .eqm shows up as a CRC error before the Start Coordinator fails on open.
• Take ES-side backups of the .eqm family. Snapshot the ES \S7proj\<Project>\batches directory on every project change. A re-build of the runtime .eqm from the ES master is the fastest recovery path.
• Update the Start Coordinator as a separate step. When applying PCS 7 service packs, install the BATCH Start Coordinator package on the OS before restarting the OS runtime.

12. Configuration Reference

The Start Coordinator reads the following registry values at startup. They are populated by the BATCH setup and by the Download Batch Data action. Do not edit them manually unless directed by Siemens support.

The EqmFile value is what the Start Coordinator passes to CreateFileW on the first call. If the value points to a non-existent file or a path the service account cannot read, the service returns the user-facing hardware I/O error string and shuts down. The 5-second disappearance of the tray icons is the standard Windows service stop timeout for a service that exits with a non-zero code within the first 5 seconds of its start cycle.

13. Diagnostic Commands (Copy-Paste)

For a quick field diagnostic of the entire chain, run the following on the OS as administrator:

rem 1) Does the equipment phase file exist?
dir "D:\<ProjectName>\RT\*.eqm"

rem 2) Who has the file open?
openfiles /query /v | findstr /I ".eqm"

rem 3) NTFS rights on the runtime directory
icacls "D:\<ProjectName>\RT"

rem 4) Service state
sc query "BFLaunchCoordinatorHost"

rem 5) Last 20 application events from BATCH
wevtutil qe Application /q:"*[System[Provider[@Name='SIMATIC BATCH']]]" /c:20 /rd:true /f:text

rem 6) Disk health
chkdsk D: /r /v

rem 7) Force release of a stale handle (only if step 2 names a process that is safe to kill)
taskkill /F /IM bflaunchcoordinatorhostx.exe

rem 8) Restart the Start Coordinator
net stop "BFLaunchCoordinatorHost"
net start "BFLaunchCoordinatorHost"

If step 1 returns File Not Found, the entire problem is a missing .eqm — the fix is a full Download Batch Data from the ES, followed by an OS reboot. No registry edit or service reconfiguration is required in that case.