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

[agentcash]

The first one I tried it on was having BC_write_timeout errors. I looked at the data cable while unplugging it and one of the wires seemed loose. I will swap cables later today and try more testing. This is looking promising though.

I'll kick over a tip for every board I'm able to resurrect RadekG, thanks for giving me hope.

Anyone know a source for the data cables? They seem awfully flimsy.

[tbonetony]

Guys, I ordered 2 r4b6 and one just failed after 20 hours running. The 2nd board [J8] can only show 45 chips instead of 63 but it produces 0 hash.

[fanatic26]

The boards are in a single long string, with that many chip failures you will not ever get it to hash. You will have to warranty it (after chinese new year)

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Guys, I ordered 2 r4b6 and one just failed after 20 hours running. The 2nd board [J8] can only show 45 chips instead of 63 but it produces 0 hash.

And in addition to ^^ I'll add that it is best to keep the bad board powered.

On my R4b6 with the bad board in (reports only 8 chips, no red power on light) the good board runs at 605MHz/4.4THs. Disconnect the bad board and the good one auto tunes itself to only 550MHz/3.9-4THs.

Personally, I will be sending it to Bitmain Warranty in CO for paid repair after I get back from a work trip late next week.

[tbonetony]

And in addition to ^^ I'll add that it is best to keep the bad board powered.

On my R4b6 with the bad board in (reports only 8 chips, no red power on light) the good board runs at 605MHz/4.4THs. Disconnect the bad board and the good one auto tunes itself to only 550MHz/3.9-4THs.

Personally, I will be sending it to Bitmain Warranty in CO for paid repair after I get back from a work trip late next week.

 :(I am in Canada.

I don't know how the costs compare
US shipping + paid repair
VS
Asia shipping

Either way, i am screwed .

[VRobb]

Hey tbone I feel your pain.  My R4B4 that's dropped a board is in a DC up there in the great white north ...  Waiting for CNY to finish and then off it goes.  We'll see how much $$ that takes once it happens.

[tbonetony]

Hey tbone I feel your pain.  My R4B4 that's dropped a board is in a DC up there in the great white north ...  Waiting for CNY to finish and then off it goes.  We'll see how much $$ that takes once it happens.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I have opened a ticket with Bitmain and see how it goes. Please keep me updated on your case too. I may be able to lower your shipping a little bit.

[philipma1957]

I get access to my older miner that dropped a board a few days ago.

Maybe dead maybe a reboot saves it.

[jamesb777]

I've lost an R4 hashboard to this issue as well.. reboot didn't resolve it fully:( only 40/63 asic found. 

No way this is a hardware issue, the board was hashing for only 2 days...  Bitmain please update your firmware for all these PIC/ICC bricked hashboards.

[captinkid]

Had my second R4 board fail today. Was working fine for three months, and just suddenly quit on me.

This one only reads 45 asics on one of the boards now, might try the firmware read / write trick that worked on some of the S9 boards. Although I'll have to pull the data from a pre autotune board to get it working back on the pre autotune firmware.

I already have an S9 hash board out to BitmainWarranty, once that comes back I'll consider sending this one in if I haven't fixed it by then.

[philipma1957]

Not sure what the f mine is doing???

I can get either board to work at 4th, but not both boards at 8 th.

I will play with this some more.

[captinkid]

Not sure what the f mine is doing???

I can get either board to work at 4th, but not both boards at 8 th.

I will play with this some more.

That's very odd indeed.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Not sure what the f mine is doing???
I can get either board to work at 4th, but not both boards at 8 th.
I will play with this some more.

Maybe PSU is failing under full load?

[captinkid]

Realized I don't have any pre autotune firmware for the R4, so that idea is out! Can't find any of the old firmwares online so I'll probably have to leave it on autotune.

Have one board running in the R4 now anyway, the other one is having some severe issues so it's likely something in the hardware. I rebuilt it's firmware but it didn't fix it.

Oh well, another failure.

 

[philipma1957]

Maybe PSU is failing under full load?

took it from my friends office two of three pcie cables were loose.  He won't admit it but I think he knocked  the cables loose.

I am running some tests but I am not sure if it is  the more common issue of not find asics  masked with a few loose power cables.

Still hopeful.

[boomin]

Has anyone spoken to Yoshi about fixing R4 boards yet?  I would much rather send to Colorado than China thru customs again.  In the early days they were one in the same - what happened?  They sent me power supplies and hash boards to s4 under warranty.  

I have tried to call MANY times just voicemail.  But I know that He travels to China alot.

Boomin

Bitmain R4 bring the Miner back home!  YEAH TO CHINA FOR FUCKING REPAIR!

[elokk]

Has anyone spoken to Yoshi about fixing R4 boards yet?  I would much rather send to Colorado than China thru customs again.  In the early days they were one in the same - what happened?  They sent me power supplies and hash boards to s4 under warranty.  

I have tried to call MANY times just voicemail.  But I know that He travels to China alot.

Boomin

Bitmain R4 bring the Miner back home!  YEAH TO CHINA FOR FUCKING REPAIR!

I shipped to Bitmain Warranty (Denver) a Batch 2 R4 for repair on January 4, arrived at their location on January 9, and arrived back to me on January 27.

I have not tested yet to confirm it works properly now (need to pick up from UPS)

Repair cost with return shipping $200. This is the same rate I paid for s9 repairs

I plan on shipping my INOP Batch 4 R4 to Denver on Monday

[flameruk]

Verrrry interesting.... I also got my bad R4 last Thurs the 19th...   Wonder how many other flaky ones were in that lot...

re: s9's, I have 16 of them from batch-1 on up and only have had 2 boards fail. One was from the b1 (failed last Oct.) and another was from a batch-12 and in-Warranty. Had both repaired/replaced by Bitmain Warranty in CO -- yes even the in-factory warranty one (was faster, fully insured, etc.).

Oh, and again: I highly recommend Awesome Miner. Free up to 4 miners and well worth the scaled price if you have more. It will check the miners and restart CGminer (BMminer) which sometimes hangs and if you set thresholds can also fully soft-boot the miner when hashrate drops or other things arise.

Yeah I purchased awesomeminer last week, it's a great front end for a mining farm!
Saves so much bother.....

[philipma1957]

I shipped to Bitmain Warranty (Denver) a Batch 2 R4 for repair on January 4, arrived at their location on January 9, and arrived back to me on January 27.

I have not tested yet to confirm it works properly now (need to pick up from UPS)

Repair cost with return shipping $200. This is the same rate I paid for s9 repairs

I plan on shipping my INOP Batch 4 R4 to Denver on Monday

So it was a non warranty repair and you paid 200 for a board plus shipping.

And 23 days time lost correct?

[elokk]

So it was a non warranty repair and you paid 200 for a board plus shipping.

And 23 days time lost correct?

This particular R4 stopped hashing on one board after a day or so. I unplugged that specific board and let it continue hashing at 4th/s until I got confirmation from Bitmain Warranty that they would repair. I could have shipped to China under warranty but instead I opted for paying Denver to repair.

$200 included return shipping, I paid original shipping to Denver ($35+/-)

Yes 23 days loss time once shipped back to Denver. Not very pleased with this which exactly why I will probably not buy anymore New Bitmain products directly from China. Used equipment that is verified to work is all I am willing to risk buying and there is still potential for problems. Repairs equal lots of down time waiting for slow Bitmain Warranty.

Yoshi, I know you are reading this. You should hire more help. Also, information on what was repaired would be nice to know.