NightwatchJS - unable to create session when Selenium Server is run manually - selenium

Question

I have run in this strange problem that I can reproduce on 2 out of 3 machines... Nightwatch can not connect to Selenium Server if it is run manually. If I let Nightwatch handle Selenium Server there is no issue.
I have tried multiple Selenium and Chromedriver (required browser but issue reproduces with all other browsers) versions. Works on one machine, fails on other two.
This is my Nightwatch.json file:
{
"src_folders" : ["tests"],
"output_folder" : "reports",
"custom_commands_path" : "",
"custom_assertions_path" : "",
"page_objects_path" : "",
"globals_path" : "",
"selenium" : {
"start_process" : false,
"start_session" : true,
"server_path" : "./selenium-server-standalone-3.14.0.jar",
"log_path" : "",
"port" : 4444,
"cli_args" : {
"webdriver.chrome.driver" : "./chromedriver_2.41.exe"
}
},
"test_settings" : {
"default" : {
"launch_url" : "http://localhost",
"selenium_port" : 4444,
"selenium_host" : "localhost",
"silent": true,
"screenshots" : {
"enabled" : false,
"path" : ""
},
"desiredCapabilities": {
"browserName": "chrome"
}
}
}
}
I am running Selenium server with:
java -jar selenium-server-standalone-3.14.0.jar -debug
I am running the test with:
nightwatch -t demo_test_google.js
Results I get after running the test:
Selenium Server:
21:48:15.693 INFO [GridLauncherV3.launch] - Selenium build info: version: '3.14.0', revision: 'aacccce0'
21:48:15.694 INFO [GridLauncherV3$1.launch] - Launching a standalone Selenium Server on port 4444
2018-09-12 21:48:15.792:INFO::main: Logging initialized #371ms to org.seleniumhq.jetty9.util.log.StdErrLog
21:48:16.145 INFO [SeleniumServer.boot] - Selenium Server is up and running on port 4444
21:48:21.340 DEBUG [WebDriverServlet.handle] - Found handler: org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.commandhandler.BeginSession#774638b9
21:48:21.345 DEBUG [WebDriverServlet.lambda$handle$3] - /session: Executing POST on /session (handler: BeginSession)
21:48:21.469 INFO [ActiveSessionFactory.apply] - Capabilities are: {
"acceptSslCerts": true,
"browserName": "chrome",
"javascriptEnabled": true,
"name": "Demo Test Google"
}
21:48:21.471 INFO [ActiveSessionFactory.lambda$apply$11] - Matched factory org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.ServicedSession$Factory (provider: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriverService)
NightwatchJS test:
Running: Demo test Google
Error retrieving a new session from the selenium server
Connection refused! Is selenium server started?
{ value:
{ message: 'Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService\nBuild info: version: \'3.14.0\', revision: \'aacccce0\', time: \'2018-08-02T20:13:22.693Z\'\nSystem info: host: \'xxxxxxxxxxxx\', ip: \'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\', os.name: \'Windows 10\', os.arch: \'amd64\', os.version: \'10.0\', java.version: \'1.8.0_181\'\nDriver info: driver.version: unknown',
error: 'session not created' },
status: 33 }
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks in advance!