Selenium Webdriver Chromedriver timeout on startup in silent mode

I am using Selenium Webdriver, with Ruby 32-bit 1.9.3, Chromedriver v2.9.248315, Chrome 38.0.2125.111 m and local Jenkins 1.588 instance

Gems: cucumber (1.3.17), selenium-webdriver (2.43.0), watir-webdriver (0.6.11) (can provide a list of all the others if you see fit)

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

When starting a Jenkins job that starts Chrome using chromedriver and then tries to interact with it, I get a timeout error. When you do the same on my desktop via a command prompt window, it works great. Doing the same Jenkins job by running Firefox instead of Chrome it works great.

Simple example (C: \ test.rb):

require 'watir-webdriver'
require 'selenium-webdriver'
client = Selenium::WebDriver::Remote::Http::Default.new
$browser = Watir::Browser.new :chrome, :http_client => client
$browser.driver.manage.window.maximize
$browser.close

      

        
        
        
      

    

Jenkins task configured to run Windows command line:

cd \
ruby test.rb

      

        
        
        
      

    

Result when starting the task:

Started by user anonymous
Building in workspace C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\jobs\test chromedriver\workspace
[workspace] $ cmd /c call C:\Windows\TEMP\hudson3963234995624341455.bat

C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\jobs\test chromedriver\workspace>cd \ 

C:\>ruby test.rb 
C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:146:in `rescue in rbuf_fill': Timeout::Error (Timeout::Error)
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:140:in `rbuf_fill'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:122:in `readuntil'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:132:in `readline'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2563:in `read_status_line'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2552:in `read_new'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1320:in `block in transport_request'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1317:in `catch'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1317:in `transport_request'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1294:in `request'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1287:in `block in request'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:746:in `start'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1285:in `request'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.43.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb:83:in `response_for'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.43.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb:39:in `request'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.43.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/common.rb:40:in `call'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.43.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/bridge.rb:638:in `raw_execute'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.43.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/bridge.rb:616:in `execute'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.43.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/bridge.rb:236:in `maximizeWindow'
    from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.43.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/common/window.rb:98:in `maximize'
    from test.rb:5:in `<main>'

C:\>exit 1 
Build step 'Execute Windows batch command' marked build as failure
Finished: FAILURE

      

        
        
        
      

    

I tried to enable "Allow the service to interact with the desktop" in the Jenkins service and then see the window (in a more complex scenario) and open the Chrome window, but it doesn't do anything. I originally had a problem with "$ browser.cookies.clear" and after commenting out that line now I have the same problem with the $ browser.driver.manage.window.maximize line

I've run complex cucumber scripts with no problem using Chromedriver. Then I rebooted my machine and after installing Jenkins, Ruby, Chromedriver (adding both to PATH) and copying the old jobs to my new Jenkins installation, I got the problem above. Then I created a simple example above, tested it and created this post.

If anyone has any ideas on how I can get Chromedriver running again that would be great.