Antminer R4 - dead hash board? Shitty design, read before you send it back

[RadekG]

Just lovely.. got another R4 board now reporting 1 asic. ;(

Unplug whole working board (incl. datacable) and start miner with "bad" board only. There is no failing part, it is mess in IIC comunication and PIC firmware. Single board usually helps to bring it back.

[1715001389]

1715001389

[1715001389]

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[jamesb777]

If I unplugged this board, there'd be no boards left because the other one bit the dust as well. ;(

Unplug whole working board (incl. datacable) and start miner with "bad" board only. There is no failing part, it is mess in IIC comunication and PIC firmware. Single board usually helps to bring it back.

[jamesb777]

Because I'm not willing to bring my miner back home to China, I opened it up to try to see what happened.  

I learned a couple interesting things.  This failed hashboard definitely had a lot of prior usage on it, it's supposed to be the 7.5TH model but after removing some stickers I learned the board was a 8.7TH model in its previous lifetime.  I also found this strange thing..



Someone please tell me there is no way this dingy strand was actually doing anything?

Unplug whole working board (incl. datacable) and start miner with "bad" board only. There is no failing part, it is mess in IIC comunication and PIC firmware. Single board usually helps to bring it back.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Someone please tell me there is no way this dingy strand was actually doing anything?

Errant bristle from a brush used to clean it?

[jamesb777]

Upon inspecting my 2nd failed hashboard, I found another of instance of the strange plasticy strand.  It looks like this one was placed purposely as I see a bit of glue on the heatsink.  Strange that the strands on both boards are touching the capacitors as well??  Makes me wonder if this is some kind of method for disabling bad chips..

[VRobb]

Doubtful... no need to ascribe to conspiracy that which can more easily be explained by mere incompetence.     
I believe notfuzzy's got it right, leftover fluff from ramshackle processing. A shame, really.

[jamesb777]

You're right.. I tested it with a multimeter and it's a non-conductive material. 

So, this hashboard broke when my internet dropped out last night as I was asleep for around 4-5 hours.. strange that these miners continue to eat up full power while there's no connection or work to be done.  That I think is no conspiracy, or is it?

Doubtful... no need to ascribe to conspiracy that which can more easily be explained by mere incompetence.     
I believe notfuzzy's got it right, leftover fluff from ramshackle processing. A shame, really.

[jamesb777]

I think I found the issue..



Guess the chip (VRM?) decided to kill itself.  I tried to fix this bridge but the chip just disintegrated. ;(

[Longsnowsm]

I seriously think the T9 was introduced to address these reliability issues.  I have been waiting and watching to see how many of those units turn up with the same S9 and R4 issues.  So far it has been quiet on the T9 thread.  So if we give it a month or two and it is still quiet the T9 might be the only reliable Bitmain option in BTC miners.  Too early to know for sure. 

I got a really bad vibe from my R4 B4 so I sold it shortly after I got it.  I was able to update the firmware which appeared to help with some temp issues I had right out of the box.  But after that I just didn't trust it so I decided to sell it.  It was working fine, but I just chickened out.  I am glad I did when reading threads like this.  There is something seriously wrong with the S9 and R4 design and the autotune isn't successful in working around the problems.

Thanks guys for sharing your stories.  I hope you are able to find a way to patch up your miners. 

[philipma1957]

I seriously think the T9 was introduced to address these reliability issues.  I have been waiting and watching to see how many of those units turn up with the same S9 and R4 issues.  So far it has been quiet on the T9 thread.  So if we give it a month or two and it is still quiet the T9 might be the only reliable Bitmain option in BTC miners.  Too early to know for sure. 

I got a really bad vibe from my R4 B4 so I sold it shortly after I got it.  I was able to update the firmware which appeared to help with some temp issues I had right out of the box.  But after that I just didn't trust it so I decided to sell it.  It was working fine, but I just chickened out.  I am glad I did when reading threads like this.  There is something seriously wrong with the S9 and R4 design and the autotune isn't successful in working around the problems.

Thanks guys for sharing your stories.  I hope you are able to find a way to patch up your miners. 

in my case just hope that my 3 working blades continue to last.

every day they mine at  11.5  is worth it to me.

coin price is rising and while I may not roi in coin  I may roi in fiat.

[boomin]

I am so furious with this R4 situation.  I ordered 2 R4's B6 and out of 2 I have 3/4 boards running.  I had my brother that works for a huge company that ships BOOKS worldwide get me a quote to send back the r4.  OVER 300$  now let us not forget down time.  They expect us to PAY for return shipping of the defective unit?  NEVER in my life have I dealt with a company that would expect you to pay 300$ for shipping a 24hr defective product back to china!  There has to be a better way.  I am reading the beginning of this thread again and again thinking I am missing something, but the only thing that comes to play is the fact that these machines take a long time to come up anyway.  Is there any truth to the fact that the unit could "self heal" by reprogramming it's own Pic chip?  It sounds a little far fetched to me.  However, being a team player, I will waste 2 hours AGAIN on my machine to see if there is any truth to that.  I also read that someone copied the pic from a working board and duplicated it to a non working board.  That is all fine an dandy, however I can't imagine Bitmain being that ignorant as to not copy protect the data on the pic.  I do have a pic programmer *being an old PlayStation 1 mod chip installer! LOL

If anyone has ANY insight in to this situation feel free to message me and discuss.  I also have a friend that has 3/6 bad R4 B5  This is FAR from acceptable.

Thanks for tolerating my RANT!

Boomin

[captinkid]

I am so furious with this R4 situation.  I ordered 2 R4's B6 and out of 2 I have 3/4 boards running.  I had my brother that works for a huge company that ships BOOKS worldwide get me a quote to send back the r4.  OVER 300$  now let us not forget down time.  They expect us to PAY for return shipping of the defective unit?  NEVER in my life have I dealt with a company that would expect you to pay 300$ for shipping a 24hr defective product back to china!  There has to be a better way.  I am reading the beginning of this thread again and again thinking I am missing something, but the only thing that comes to play is the fact that these machines take a long time to come up anyway.  Is there any truth to the fact that the unit could "self heal" by reprogramming it's own Pic chip?  It sounds a little far fetched to me.  However, being a team player, I will waste 2 hours AGAIN on my machine to see if there is any truth to that.  I also read that someone copied the pic from a working board and duplicated it to a non working board.  That is all fine an dandy, however I can't imagine Bitmain being that ignorant as to not copy protect the data on the pic.  I do have a pic programmer *being an old PlayStation 1 mod chip installer! LOL

If anyone has ANY insight in to this situation feel free to message me and discuss.  I also have a friend that has 3/6 bad R4 B5  This is FAR from acceptable.

Thanks for tolerating my RANT!

Boomin

Yes, you can clone the data from one good PIC to another, but it only solves some problems with the boards. If it's a genuine hardware fault you're out of luck unless you have the equipment and experience to diagnose it.

I saved 1 out of 3 failed boards by copying the pic data. The other two boards have hardware faults that that didn't fix. And no the PIC won't self heal if it's munged up badly enough, but manually copying the data did work once at least. And no additional harm done to the other two busted ones.

Using a pickit3 reading from a good board and writing to a bad board seems to fix the boards that don't show up or communicate at all with the control board. Beyond that it's not so easy. Although you have to remove the little worthless warranty sticker to get to the pic header, so don't expect to get a worthless warranty after you try to fix it yourself.

Also it might be cheaper to send things to bitmainwarranty.com instead of for the warranty in Hong Kong. Not only is the full service cheaper than shipping back to China, but the turnaround is supposedly faster. As a caution I have one S9 board that's been out to them for almost a month now with no reply, so I haven't yet had a successful transaction with them. I still don't know if I trust them, but I certainly can't justify shipping back for a warranty repair.

[fanatic26]

I seriously think the T9 was introduced to address these reliability issues. 

I told people when the T9 came out that this was the case but since I couldn't reveal my source for the information of course the cynics didn't believe me lol

[GWhisper]

I told people when the T9 came out that this was the case but since I couldn't reveal my source for the information of course the cynics didn't believe me lol

My 3 x T9's haven't missed a beat with a current up time of 11 days.

[tbonetony]

I am so furious with this R4 situation.  I ordered 2 R4's B6 and out of 2 I have 3/4 boards running.  I had my brother that works for a huge company that ships BOOKS worldwide get me a quote to send back the r4.  OVER 300$  now let us not forget down time.  They expect us to PAY for return shipping of the defective unit?  NEVER in my life have I dealt with a company that would expect you to pay 300$ for shipping a 24hr defective product back to china!  There has to be a better way.  I am reading the beginning of this thread again and again thinking I am missing something, but the only thing that comes to play is the fact that these machines take a long time to come up anyway.  Is there any truth to the fact that the unit could "self heal" by reprogramming it's own Pic chip?  It sounds a little far fetched to me.  However, being a team player, I will waste 2 hours AGAIN on my machine to see if there is any truth to that.  I also read that someone copied the pic from a working board and duplicated it to a non working board.  That is all fine an dandy, however I can't imagine Bitmain being that ignorant as to not copy protect the data on the pic.  I do have a pic programmer *being an old PlayStation 1 mod chip installer! LOL

If anyone has ANY insight in to this situation feel free to message me and discuss.  I also have a friend that has 3/6 bad R4 B5  This is FAR from acceptable.

Thanks for tolerating my RANT!

Boomin

Where do you ship from? $300 seems pretty crazy. Have you spoken to Bitmain support yet?

[boomin]

24 lbs
24" x 8.15" x 13"

from anywhere in USA to Hong Kong is more than 300$

I'm Livid - I hope someone decides to make this right with me and the 4 other people I know that ordered r4's and the failure rate is EXACTLY 50%!

[tbonetony]

24 lbs
24" x 8.15" x 13"

from anywhere in USA to Hong Kong is more than 300$

I'm Livid - I hope someone decides to make this right with me and the 4 other people I know that ordered r4's and the failure rate is EXACTLY 50%!

I am not discounting their failure on R4 because I have one defective board on 2 of my R4B6s purchased.

The shipping weight for one R4 unit should be 15lb as per my shipment back to Hong Kong for warranty. Have you researched other smaller shippers like one I know of is uszcn ( I use them regularly for other personal purpose)? These small guys can offer you $3~5/lb rate but it would take about 2 weeks to reach destination.

And I have not heard back from you: have you proactively engaged in a "friendly" (not furious) conversation with Bitmain support yet? I might be lucky but I got them to cover my round trip shipping for this warranty shipment.

EDIT:
one more thing to add, $300 is not unusual for retail rate. If you are able to find someone with business rate, you may get a largely discounted rate.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Something else to keep in mind is the 'shipping weight' is not necessarily the weight of the package. Package dimensions enter  into that and there are trip points for HxWxL size = a certain minimum shipping weight and each carrier has different trip points. The R4 is a fairly large box.

[MyRig]

@captinkid,

Denver turn around time does not take that long.  If  you are waiting for that long, please send email with your repair ticket number to support@bitmainwarranty.com 

Something must be wrong... 

[captinkid]

@captinkid,

Denver turn around time does not take that long.  If  you are waiting for that long, please send email with your repair ticket number to support@bitmainwarranty.com  

Something must be wrong...  

I'm not worried yet, I wouldn't have sent it if I didn't have at least a little trust.

While it's been almost a month since the process started, they only received it on Jan 23rd. So they've only had it for two business weeks.

If I don't hear back by the end of next week, I'll send an e-mail requesting an update.

I'm not in a rush, I'd just like it to go smoothly so I can rely on them in the future if needed. It might not be cost effective or time effective, but I'll certainly give it a try. It's better than sitting on broken boards anyway.

Assuming that one comes back working for a reasonable price. It'll give me the numbers I need to calculate a ROI based on the repair costs and time. If they are favorable I have more boards to send.