ANTMINER S2 Discussion and Support Thread

[BITMAIN]

New price for AntMiner S2 1 TH/s Miner Batch 4: 2564 USD each one, shipping cost included.
Coupons for recent orders are released to accounts.

BITMAIN

[1714686915]

1714686915

[1714686915]

1714686915

[Biffa]

I must have been one of the last purchasers from Batch 3, I feel a little hard done by when they announce a 4th batch $600 lessor in price when they hadn't even dispatched my order yet... Anyway moving along, I don't if this has been raised but I'm curious about the Quality Assurance standards are with Bitmain. I just received my S2 and its been running for 8hrs now and I've been monitoring it for the last couple of hours and the hash rate has been falling about 10gh an hour for the last 3 hours and its now sitting @ 935GH/S (avg). What this the tolerance of hitting the target? Because >-5% doesn't seem acceptable.

Could be temperature related. What are the temps on the 10 Chains?

[BeZerKaNZ]

I must have been one of the last purchasers from Batch 3, I feel a little hard done by when they announce a 4th batch $600 lessor in price when they hadn't even dispatched my order yet... Anyway moving along, I don't if this has been raised but I'm curious about the Quality Assurance standards are with Bitmain. I just received my S2 and its been running for 8hrs now and I've been monitoring it for the last couple of hours and the hash rate has been falling about 10gh an hour for the last 3 hours and its now sitting @ 935GH/S (avg). What this the tolerance of hitting the target? Because >-5% doesn't seem acceptable.

Could be temperature related. What are the temps on the 10 Chains?

Theyre all sitting between 47-53 with the exception of one @ 31.

[visdude]

I haven't really followed the terahash miners closely (I have S1s and U1s) but excluding the S2, which of the other 1T miners out there is/are considered the best deal at this point in time?

[krfighter]

dragon miners are quite good. I have both S2 and dragon, they seem equivalent, so it is a matter of which one you can get cheaper

[tzortz]

I haven't really followed the terahash miners closely (I have S1s and U1s) but excluding the S2, which of the other 1T miners out there is/are considered the best deal at this point in time?

Also, Spondoolies, excellent product SP10. Is actually 1.5T.

See there https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=598502.msg6583077#msg6583077

[BeZerKaNZ]

I must have been one of the last purchasers from Batch 3, I feel a little hard done by when they announce a 4th batch $600 lessor in price when they hadn't even dispatched my order yet... Anyway moving along, I don't if this has been raised but I'm curious about the Quality Assurance standards are with Bitmain. I just received my S2 and its been running for 8hrs now and I've been monitoring it for the last couple of hours and the hash rate has been falling about 10gh an hour for the last 3 hours and its now sitting @ 935GH/S (avg). What this the tolerance of hitting the target? Because >-5% doesn't seem acceptable.

Could be temperature related. What are the temps on the 10 Chains?

Theyre all sitting between 47-53 with the exception of one @ 31.

OK the S2 now has been running for 16hrs and the (avg) has dropped down to 903gh/s. I've emailed Bitmain about getting a replacement but haven't heard back yet. Has anyone had any experience with Bitmain when it comes to warranty issues, or how supportive they are in resolving these types of issues?
 

[tzortz]

Are you sure all blades working well?

[jamesc760]

I must have been one of the last purchasers from Batch 3, I feel a little hard done by when they announce a 4th batch $600 lessor in price when they hadn't even dispatched my order yet... Anyway moving along, I don't if this has been raised but I'm curious about the Quality Assurance standards are with Bitmain. I just received my S2 and its been running for 8hrs now and I've been monitoring it for the last couple of hours and the hash rate has been falling about 10gh an hour for the last 3 hours and its now sitting @ 935GH/S (avg). What this the tolerance of hitting the target? Because >-5% doesn't seem acceptable.

Could be temperature related. What are the temps on the 10 Chains?

Theyre all sitting between 47-53 with the exception of one @ 31.

OK the S2 now has been running for 16hrs and the (avg) has dropped down to 903gh/s. I've emailed Bitmain about getting a replacement but haven't heard back yet. Has anyone had any experience with Bitmain when it comes to warranty issues, or how supportive they are in resolving these types of issues?
 

You'll need to RMA your current S2 back to bitmain and they will send a replacement out to you. Could take 2 or more weeks.

[samsonn25]

2 weeks.

Therein lies the dilema

[kano]

The lulz worthyness of buying an S2 and it being shipped to Sydney (via Melbourne) which is probably a lot closer than anyone in the USA?

Oh well, not a single board survived in place:
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509125727-S2FirstOpen.jpg
(yes the left one is simply out of the socket as can be seen below, but the right one is right out)

And ... 7 out of 10 "PCI" backbone connectors are bent
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509130144-S2Lulz.jpg

Note this was provided to me by someone who paid the usual online ordering but had it shipped to me direct.
It was NOT provided by bitmain.

Gonna be fun putting this together ... sigh.

[mdude77]

The lulz worthyness of buying an S2 and it being shipped to Sydney (via Melbourne) which is probably a lot closer than anyone in the USA?

Oh well, not a single board survived in place:
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509125727-S2FirstOpen.jpg
(yes the left one is simply out of the socket as can be seen below, but the right one is right out)

And ... 7 out of 10 "PCI" backbone connectors are bent
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509130144-S2Lulz.jpg

Note this was provided to me by someone who paid the usual online ordering but had it shipped to me direct.
It was NOT provided by bitmain.

Gonna be fun putting this together ... sigh.

Yuck.  Batch 3?

M

[kano]

The lulz worthyness of buying an S2 and it being shipped to Sydney (via Melbourne) which is probably a lot closer than anyone in the USA?

Oh well, not a single board survived in place:
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509125727-S2FirstOpen.jpg
(yes the left one is simply out of the socket as can be seen below, but the right one is right out)

And ... 7 out of 10 "PCI" backbone connectors are bent
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509130144-S2Lulz.jpg

Note this was provided to me by someone who paid the usual online ordering but had it shipped to me direct.
It was NOT provided by bitmain.

Gonna be fun putting this together ... sigh.

Yuck.  Batch 3?

M

Not sure - it just arrived an hour or so ago.
It's one of the group that was shipped and due to arrive this week.
In my case UPS sent it via Melbourne for some reason ... possibly due to having to pay duty on it.
It was shipped:

Code:

Changi, Singapore 	05/06/2014 	7:06 A.M. 	Arrival Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/06/2014 	3:14 A.M. 	Departure Scan
	05/06/2014 	12:15 A.M. 	Export Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/05/2014 	12:20 A.M. 	Arrival Scan
	05/05/2014 	12:10 A.M. 	Departure Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/04/2014 	8:51 P.M. 	Origin Scan
	05/04/2014 	6:21 P.M. 	Pickup Scan
China 	05/04/2014 	2:03 A.M. 	Order Processed: Ready for UPS

The UPS web site said it'd arrive 2 days ago then they changed it to unknown, then to today.

Edit: N.B. it is ~1:30pm Fri here.

Edit2:
Oh and in case anyone was wondering ... yes it has the rubber things in the lid that are supposed to hold it all in place:
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509125734-S2Lid.jpg

[tzortz]

So it is a batch 3.

But still problematic.

[freebit13]

OK the S2 now has been running for 16hrs and the (avg) has dropped down to 903gh/s. I've emailed Bitmain about getting a replacement but haven't heard back yet. Has anyone had any experience with Bitmain when it comes to warranty issues, or how supportive they are in resolving these types of issues?

Are you sure all blades working well?

As tzortz said above, are you sure all blades are working well? Do you see green lights flashing on all of them?

You might just have a faulty board or 2. Try by taking them out: take one out, boot up and see if it runs at 900 Gh/s or 800Gh/s. If it runs at 800, then put that board back in and take out another one and try again... that way you can narrow it down to which boards are faulty and send those ones instead of sending the whole machine... that way you can still mine at 800-900 Gh/s while you wait.

I emailed Bitmain about my faulty machine, it took 2 days to reply, but they sent all the necessary details to RMA, with postage at their cost.

[freebit13]

Not sure - it just arrived an hour or so ago.
It's one of the group that was shipped and due to arrive this week.
In my case UPS sent it via Melbourne for some reason ... possibly due to having to pay duty on it.
It was shipped:

Code:

Changi, Singapore 	05/06/2014 	7:06 A.M. 	Arrival Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/06/2014 	3:14 A.M. 	Departure Scan
	05/06/2014 	12:15 A.M. 	Export Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/05/2014 	12:20 A.M. 	Arrival Scan
	05/05/2014 	12:10 A.M. 	Departure Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/04/2014 	8:51 P.M. 	Origin Scan
	05/04/2014 	6:21 P.M. 	Pickup Scan
China 	05/04/2014 	2:03 A.M. 	Order Processed: Ready for UPS

The UPS web site said it'd arrive 2 days ago then they changed it to unknown, then to today.

Edit: N.B. it is ~1:30pm Fri here.

Edit2:
Oh and in case anyone was wondering ... yes it has the rubber things in the lid that are supposed to hold it all in place:
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509125734-S2Lid.jpg

Yeah, this is a batch 3, nothing has changed but the hole in the side of the lid for the PSU.

Mine looked similar when it arrived (even had parts broken off), but surprisingly I've managed to get it up to 1Th/s... good luck!

[kano]

Not sure - it just arrived an hour or so ago.
It's one of the group that was shipped and due to arrive this week.
In my case UPS sent it via Melbourne for some reason ... possibly due to having to pay duty on it.
It was shipped:

Code:

Changi, Singapore 	05/06/2014 	7:06 A.M. 	Arrival Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/06/2014 	3:14 A.M. 	Departure Scan
	05/06/2014 	12:15 A.M. 	Export Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/05/2014 	12:20 A.M. 	Arrival Scan
	05/05/2014 	12:10 A.M. 	Departure Scan
Shenzhen, China 	05/04/2014 	8:51 P.M. 	Origin Scan
	05/04/2014 	6:21 P.M. 	Pickup Scan
China 	05/04/2014 	2:03 A.M. 	Order Processed: Ready for UPS

The UPS web site said it'd arrive 2 days ago then they changed it to unknown, then to today.

Edit: N.B. it is ~1:30pm Fri here.

Edit2:
Oh and in case anyone was wondering ... yes it has the rubber things in the lid that are supposed to hold it all in place:
http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509125734-S2Lid.jpg

Yeah, this is a batch 3, nothing has changed but the hole in the side of the lid for the PSU.

Mine looked similar when it arrived (even had parts broken off), but surprisingly I've managed to get it up to 1Th/s... good luck!

It seems that the backplane isn't very happy - I've been testing it with each single board in the right slot to see if the boards are all OK.
All but one seem fine. Also testing with multiple boards and it's not happy.
Though in the picture before ( http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509130144-S2Lulz.jpg ) you can see part of the reason why, the cap between 3 and 4 is missing (I found it on top of the PSU)

I contacted Bitmain in the USA (I know someone there) and he'll be sorting it out for me.
They are sending a replacement backplane and card asap
I think this number might have been mentioned on the forum here before, but bitmain has a support number also: 844-BIT-MAIN

[BeZerKaNZ]

OK the S2 now has been running for 16hrs and the (avg) has dropped down to 903gh/s. I've emailed Bitmain about getting a replacement but haven't heard back yet. Has anyone had any experience with Bitmain when it comes to warranty issues, or how supportive they are in resolving these types of issues?

Are you sure all blades working well?

As tzortz said above, are you sure all blades are working well? Do you see green lights flashing on all of them?

You might just have a faulty board or 2. Try by taking them out: take one out, boot up and see if it runs at 900 Gh/s or 800Gh/s. If it runs at 800, then put that board back in and take out another one and try again... that way you can narrow it down to which boards are faulty and send those ones instead of sending the whole machine... that way you can still mine at 800-900 Gh/s while you wait.

I emailed Bitmain about my faulty machine, it took 2 days to reply, but they sent all the necessary details to RMA, with postage at their cost.

Thanks for the advice, I wasn't quite sure what to do but that is a pretty sound solution there. I was fearing that Bitmain would just ignore me and I'll be stuck with a faulty rig.

I'll post some results in a couple of days as it takes a few hours for the hashing speed to start falling.

Test so far was restarting it about 6.5hrs ago and its already fallen down to 958.14(avg).

[freebit13]

OK the S2 now has been running for 16hrs and the (avg) has dropped down to 903gh/s. I've emailed Bitmain about getting a replacement but haven't heard back yet. Has anyone had any experience with Bitmain when it comes to warranty issues, or how supportive they are in resolving these types of issues?

Are you sure all blades working well?

As tzortz said above, are you sure all blades are working well? Do you see green lights flashing on all of them?

You might just have a faulty board or 2. Try by taking them out: take one out, boot up and see if it runs at 900 Gh/s or 800Gh/s. If it runs at 800, then put that board back in and take out another one and try again... that way you can narrow it down to which boards are faulty and send those ones instead of sending the whole machine... that way you can still mine at 800-900 Gh/s while you wait.

I emailed Bitmain about my faulty machine, it took 2 days to reply, but they sent all the necessary details to RMA, with postage at their cost.

Thanks for the advice, I wasn't quite sure what to do but that is a pretty sound solution there. I was fearing that Bitmain would just ignore me and I'll be stuck with a faulty rig.

I'll post some results in a couple of days as it takes a few hours for the hashing speed to start falling.

Test so far was restarting it about 6.5hrs ago and its already fallen down to 958.14(avg).

Sounds like you might only have 1 board that's faulty, just pull them out one by one (obviously power down in-between) and wait till you see it stable at 900Gh/s, then the board that's out is faulty.

Also check the boards carefully, one of mine was missing one of these little yellow pieces from between the chips and it still worked, but wasn't very stable. I just put it back in place and painted the ends with silver conductive paint and the board seems fine now:

[freebit13]

It seems that the backplane isn't very happy - I've been testing it with each single board in the right slot to see if the boards are all OK.
All but one seem fine. Also testing with multiple boards and it's not happy.
Though in the picture before ( http://198.245.60.111/Pix/20140509130144-S2Lulz.jpg ) you can see part of the reason why, the cap between 3 and 4 is missing (I found it on top of the PSU)

I contacted Bitmain in the USA (I know someone there) and he'll be sorting it out for me.
They are sending a replacement backplane and card asap
I think this number might have been mentioned on the forum here before, but bitmain has a support number also: 844-BIT-MAIN

My backplane looked similar, with bent pci slots and fan connection, but luckily no missing caps. I bent the pci connectors straight without too much effort, but the pins inside were also bent, so it took quite a while straightening those out:

but it seems ok now even though some aren't properly fixed.

I don't think I'll get a replacement backplane until I send off the 2 damaged cards, but I'm not willing to do that until another difficulty increase or 3.