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

[Swimmer63]

Should have read this thread before buying an R4.  But I couldn't help myself.
So I have one from batch 5.  7.5 TH/s.  It actually runs about 7 Th/s.

The first board tends to go dead about every 12 hours.  But to look at the Miner Status screen it's hard to tell.  See below.  Everything looks fine.  But Board 1 is not actually hashing.  The only giveaway is the temps.  But everything else about it is bogus!  We re-flashed the firmware to see if that will help.  Anyone else see anything similar?

[1714021243]

1714021243

[1714021243]

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[jamesb777]

For anyone contemplating updating your 7.5th firmware, even though it should be the same, there are differences withe the one installed on the antminer and the one available on Bitmain's website.  I highly recommend you don't update, I did and one of my hashboards died not 30 minutes after...

From this screenshot it looks like the lower average must have come from a lost internet connection.  Do you have any screenshots that shows that the board actually stops hashing?

Should have read this thread before buying an R4.  But I couldn't help myself.
So I have one from batch 5.  7.5 TH/s.  It actually runs about 7 Th/s.

The first board tends to go dead about every 12 hours.  But to look at the Miner Status screen it's hard to tell.  See below.  Everything looks fine.  But Board 1 is not actually hashing.  The only giveaway is the temps.  But everything else about it is bogus!  We re-flashed the firmware to see if that will help.  Anyone else see anything similar?

[...]

[jamesb777]

BTW, the control board has 3 ports for hashboards.  Try swapping the cable of the the flaky hashboard to the unused port.

Should have read this thread before buying an R4.  But I couldn't help myself.
So I have one from batch 5.  7.5 TH/s.  It actually runs about 7 Th/s.

The first board tends to go dead about every 12 hours.  But to look at the Miner Status screen it's hard to tell.  See below.  Everything looks fine.  But Board 1 is not actually hashing.  The only giveaway is the temps.  But everything else about it is bogus!  We re-flashed the firmware to see if that will help.  Anyone else see anything similar?

[...]

[qctechno]

I had a good laugh on your story. Thanks! but yea, that really sucks if 20 degC is considered cold.... My S9 has been hashing stably and quietly (fans < 2k rpm) on my balcony while it's -25 degC.

Temp problem confirmed. Run strong when hot enough. I re-tested low temp and nope ... need to be in-house.

[soldout]

one of my boards dies after hashing for 8.7 for a few mins.  Tried rebooting and it will always hash at like 8.7 for maybe 10mins and then drop to 4.3

Code:

Chain# 	ASIC# 	Frequency(avg) 	GH/S(ideal) 	GH/S(RT) 	HW 	Temp(Chip1) 	Temp(Chip2) 	ASIC status
								
7
	
63
	
605.85
	
4,350.66
	
4,395.01
	
0
	
90
	
82
	
oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo ooooooo
8
	
63
	
605.87
	
4,350.76
	
0.00000
	
0
	
73
	
58
	
oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo oooooooo ooooooo
Total
	
126
	
605.86
	
8,701.42
	
4,395.01
	
	
	
	
Fan# 	Fan1 	Fan2 	Fan3 	Fan4 	Fan5 	Fan6 	Fan7 	Fan8
Speed (r/min) 	0 	0 	2,160 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0

[captinkid]

Got the repaired board back from Colorado, took a little longer than expected, but it's running fine, and their service was informative and helpful the entire time.

Arrived at Bitmain warranty: Feb 23
Returned repaired: Mar 8
Cost $175 + $25 return shipping + $25 outbound shipping to CO

Have another dead R4 board to send, but you can't keep running the other half if you send one in like you can on the S9 (downclocked to 500 to keep the temp stable) Too much of the air pressure escapes on the open side. I suppose that space could be filled with something fire retardant to make it work, but I haven't figured that out yet.

So I either wait until another R4 board dies, so I can send in two at once. Or I send it in and power down the other board until it's fixed.

I think I'll wait and see. But at least we have a repair service in the states that works.

[blockops]

question for you all. One of my guys "upgraded" an Antminer R4 batch 6 to the latest Antminer S9 firmware. That upgrade went through just fine....and now it won't hash, of course.

It won't let me replace the Antminer S9 firmware with the correct Antminer R4 firmware.

Anyone know where in the R4 filesystem there might be a file or setting to change to get it back on track?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

question for you all. One of my guys "upgraded" an Antminer R4 batch 6 to the latest Antminer S9 firmware. That upgrade went through just fine....and now it won't hash, of course.

It won't let me replace the Antminer S9 firmware with the correct Antminer R4 firmware.

Anyone know where in the R4 filesystem there might be a file or setting to change to get it back on track?

Have you tried this? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1597639.msg18267781#msg18267781

EDIT: I can confirm that it resets a R4 batch-6 back to BMiner v1.0 file system date Tue Aug 9 21:00:51 CST 2016.
It also resets all pool info back to Factory so you will have to re-enter it.

Good bit is: Auto-tune is GONE! IT GIVES BACK FREQ and FAN SPEED CONTROL!

To do:
Power off miner
Press and hold in the IP REPORTER button.
While holding the button in, turn ON the miner power
Continue to hold in button for 5-7 sec and release
Wait a few min an you should be able to re-enter your pool info.
Enjoy!

Caveat: Since it runs BOTH boards at the same freq, if one is er, weak, you would have to downclock the good one until the weak one is happy....
Or apply the correct R4 update and get Auto-tune back...

[captinkid]

Have you tried this? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1597639.msg18267781#msg18267781

EDIT: I can confirm that it resets a R4 batch-6 back to BMiner v1.0 file system date Tue Aug 9 21:00:51 CST 2016.
It also resets all pool info back to Factory so you will have to re-enter it.

Good bit is: Auto-tune is GONE! IT GIVES BACK FREQ and FAN SPEED CONTROL!

To do:
Power off miner
Press and hold in the IP REPORTER button.
While holding the button in, turn ON the miner power
Continue to hold in button for 5-7 sec and release
Wait a few min an you should be able to re-enter your pool info.
Enjoy!

Caveat: Since it runs BOTH boards at the same freq, if one is er, weak, you would have to downclock the good one until the weak one is happy....
Or apply the correct R4 update and get Auto-tune back...

That's very helpful! I reset mine back to the default Aug 9th firmware using that method and it's much better now. One board still isn't reading properly (45 of 63 chips), but if I downclock it enough  (533mhz) the bad board gives me back about 1TH/s not quite as good as new, but at least it's helping. 5TH/s with one bad and one downclocked good board, vs 4TH/s with one 600Mhz good board.

[lazypolarbears]

7 out of 20 are defective with all kinds of issues. Just figured out that one has bad controller. Bitmain will send me a replacement.
I am trying to try your approach for issues like one hard board was shown. I wonder whether your approach works for bad ASICs? Thanks!

Sorry if my explanation is too complicated.

1) turn off the miner
2) unplug working board
3) start miner until it hashes.
4) if you are lucky, it will recover bad board
5) turn off miner
6) plug good board back
7) start miner until it hashes.
if you are lucky, you have both working boards
9) if you have bad luck, try it again. You can also try start "single-board-test" program via Putty several times.

NEVER stop or apply changes before miner start hashing. It killed my board, but I recovered it by previous steps.

[captinkid]

Bitmain Warranty fixed another R4 board for me, faster turnaround and worked well.

Kind of sad when one bad chip messes up the chain, but I suppose that's a tradeoff for the design. At least Denver has a faster turnaround and cheaper repair than going to China, plus no customs or international shipping madness. Much better.

Also patched the antbleed bug on my systems, hopefully that won't be an issue in the future either.

[xuy]

Bitmain has warranty repair in US now so you don't have to send to China Turnaround is super fast. I sent in a few R4 for warranty repair. They offered me T9 or repair. I prefer R4. With summer coming, I favor quiet and cool. I have 20 R4's. Some have been running for a few months without any problem. The ones that had problems usually showed problem immediately. I suggest Bitmain to redesign and improve R4. I still don't understand why they make T9. People will buy S9, instead of T9.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Bitmain has warranty repair in US now so you don't have to send to China Turnaround is super fast. I sent in a few R4 for warranty repair
<snip>
 I still don't understand why they make T9. People will buy S9, instead of T9.

You referring to https://bitmainwarranty.com ? Unless they recently changed, they are PAID repairs only. While connected with Bitmain they are NOT part of Bitmain and do not do warranty repair for them in the US. Has that changed very recently?

As for the T9 - one word: Reliability. As in near-zero complaints/problems.
Yes I like the slightly better eff/speed most s9's have but am also very willing to pay for better reliability. Been buying Avalon's as well for the very same reason.

[xuy]

Bitmain provides warranty repair in Los Angeles, CA in US .
They can save return shipping and maybe in future they can make money from out of warranty repair. It's really easy for them to repair.

You referring to https://bitmainwarranty.com ? Unless they recently changed, they are PAID repairs only. While connected with Bitmain they are NOT part of Bitmain and do not do warranty repair for them in the US. Has that changed very recently?

As for the T9 - one word: Reliability. As in near-zero complaints/problems.
Yes I like the slightly better eff/speed most s9's have but am also very willing to pay for better reliability. Been buying Avalon's as well for the very same reason.

[VRobb]

Bitmain provides warranty repair in Los Angeles, CA in US .

What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

[HagssFIN]

Actually Bitmain Warranty has a repair service location in Denver, Colorado.

I've never heard about any Los Angeles location.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Actually Bitmain Warranty has a repair service location in Denver, Colorado.

I've never heard about any Los Angeles location.

A few months ago during the heyday of R4's and s9's dying on the vine I *think* I remember brief mention about Bitmain opening a warranty-repair depot in the US. However, looking at Bitmains RMA instructions there is no mention of an option to send to a North America location. Nor have I seen any mention since about people having that option.

Yes, it would be great if Bitmain did that. OTH, since shipping to China can be/is a rather daunting process I am sure it discourages a lot of folks from getting their gear fixed... Open a North America location and safe bet it would be very busy meaning more cost to Bitmain.

[xuy]

They have a repair shop in Los Angeles but you have to ask for US repair site.

What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

They have a repair shop in Los Angeles but you have to ask for US repair site.

Bitmain provides warranty repair in Los Angeles, CA in US .

What you talkin' 'bout Willis?

As you may have noted, news of a North American in-warranty repair depot is news to us! This is the first real mention of it by anyone so:

Got an address/contact info?
OOh Bitmain, How about letting folks know about this eh?

Must be because

OTH, since shipping to China can be/is a rather daunting process I am sure it discourages a lot of folks from getting their gear fixed...

It did me with my gimpy R4 batch-6. As noted elsewhere in this thread the top board died after 24-25hrs of running. Having shipped just some s7  boards to China cost about $140 as I recall. Only had to do that 2x and of course declared value of only $40.

Shipping the whole R4 there - not going to happen especially since you cannot insure/declare full replacement value without China's Customs stepping in and of course, charging a fee for it.

BitmainWarranty in Colorado - no issues so don't care if is paid-only.

Official Bitmain North American in-warranty repair depot I would use in a heartbeat : a) even if have to ship entire miner a helluva lot cheaper! and b) No problem insuring for replacement value if the miner goes a-wandering never to be seen again or such.

[philipma1957]

Have you tried this? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1597639.msg18267781#msg18267781

EDIT: I can confirm that it resets a R4 batch-6 back to BMiner v1.0 file system date Tue Aug 9 21:00:51 CST 2016.
It also resets all pool info back to Factory so you will have to re-enter it.

Good bit is: Auto-tune is GONE! IT GIVES BACK FREQ and FAN SPEED CONTROL!

To do:
Power off miner
Press and hold in the IP REPORTER button.
While holding the button in, turn ON the miner power
Continue to hold in button for 5-7 sec and release
Wait a few min an you should be able to re-enter your pool info.
Enjoy!

Caveat: Since it runs BOTH boards at the same freq, if one is er, weak, you would have to downclock the good one until the weak one is happy....
Or apply the correct R4 update and get Auto-tune back...

this works thanks..
I still have a dead board  but I like freq control and fan speed