ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[CroverNo01]

I know this will have been asked before but for some reason I'm not getting any results back.

What is the UK VAT on Average for the 2X S3 ?

Thanks

Around GBP 110-120 IIRC (edit: including the GBP 11 brokerage fee for UPS, others may vary).

Thanks for confirming

[heslo]

Thanks, I've tried the PCI-E connectors and still the same problem. I've now set up the other miner and I can't get either one to mine. Under "Miner Status" it just shows all empty readings and says "This section contains no values yet" From what I've read it's a DNS issue, are you able to instruct me how to rectify this and where to place the DNS values? I'm a bit of a noob at this and would appreciate the help

Try the other steps given in my above post for the faulty miner.
For the other one go to, Network>Diagnostic Page and click on the ping button and check whether it successfully ping.
Else change DNS to 4.2.2.2 and add one more as 8.8.8.8 on the WAN page.
Then again do the ping test on your diagnostic page if again fails,
change your default gate way to the default gate way of your modem/pc.
Again try ping now it may already started working.

It could ping no problem... I added in the DNS under the Network > Interfaces page > WAN > Advanced settings page where it says "Use custom DNS servers"

It now shows DNS 1: 4.2.2.2 and DNS 2: 8.8.8.8 under the Status > Overview pages but still nothing on the Miner Status page. It's very weird, I've compared all the settings just as the one with the broken chain and it just doesn't want to start. That being said the one with the broken chain doesn't have the DNS settings on it, I just had to leave it for a while and it started. This one.... nothing. I'm at a loss

DNS is set on control board not on blades.

So I'm entering in the DNS values in the wrong location? Could you please tell me exactly where they need to go?

[allcoinminer]

my mine drops down to 410-415GH. I would rather keep it running and pay a deposit so he would ship a new controller out and refund me after he receives the bad one than shut the miner down for a week or two.

It may not be a controller issues as from your description.
Are you seeing any "x" or "-" in you asic status page?
Give me your Ant S3-es fans speed, temperatures of miner and ambient temperature?.
Most probably its, the heat dissipation issue and the chip are throttling to lower clocks automatically as in GPUs.
As already advised by bitmaintech support engineers, unscrew the chip side heatsink and check the condition of thermal grease.
Remove it with a cloth and apply new thermal paste grease and it will be mining back at 441.
Use a good thermal grease which provide conductivity above 3.

sorry but I can not access my interface for this miner. It's still mining and Bitmain PM that he has turned my problem over to his engineer which I am waiting to hear from. I have not tried to reboot or use the reset button yet as I am afraid the miner may not start back up. But once I get thru that problem I will give what you suggested a try. But the last time I was able to get on the miners interface ( a couple days ago) I was seeing no x's and it all looked fine. Just starting out normal speed and slowing dropping down. Thanks

If you can occasionally access your miner web interface it may be a network configuration issue than a hardware issue.
Is there any network conflict between you miners?
Have you tried changing you S3 miners IPs earlier or your all miners are at same IP?
Connect your pc to the same Ethernet Switch/Router your miners are connected and try accessing them.
You have another option to install the M's Antmonitor and do a scan.
If starts at good hashrate and further slows down leads to think about replacing thermal paste.

[allcoinminer]

Thanks, I've tried the PCI-E connectors and still the same problem. I've now set up the other miner and I can't get either one to mine. Under "Miner Status" it just shows all empty readings and says "This section contains no values yet" From what I've read it's a DNS issue, are you able to instruct me how to rectify this and where to place the DNS values? I'm a bit of a noob at this and would appreciate the help

Try the other steps given in my above post for the faulty miner.
For the other one go to, Network>Diagnostic Page and click on the ping button and check whether it successfully ping.
Else change DNS to 4.2.2.2 and add one more as 8.8.8.8 on the WAN page.
Then again do the ping test on your diagnostic page if again fails,
change your default gate way to the default gate way of your modem/pc.
Again try ping now it may already started working.

It could ping no problem... I added in the DNS under the Network > Interfaces page > WAN > Advanced settings page where it says "Use custom DNS servers"

It now shows DNS 1: 4.2.2.2 and DNS 2: 8.8.8.8 under the Status > Overview pages but still nothing on the Miner Status page. It's very weird, I've compared all the settings just as the one with the broken chain and it just doesn't want to start. That being said the one with the broken chain doesn't have the DNS settings on it, I just had to leave it for a while and it started. This one.... nothing. I'm at a loss

DNS is set on control board not on blades.

So I'm entering in the DNS values in the wrong location? Could you please tell me exactly where they need to go?

Look at this image below. DNS setting need to be enter like in the image.
Go to Network->Interfaces->WAN
or Network -> Click Edit Button on WAN row.

[heslo]

Thanks, I've tried the PCI-E connectors and still the same problem. I've now set up the other miner and I can't get either one to mine. Under "Miner Status" it just shows all empty readings and says "This section contains no values yet" From what I've read it's a DNS issue, are you able to instruct me how to rectify this and where to place the DNS values? I'm a bit of a noob at this and would appreciate the help

Try the other steps given in my above post for the faulty miner.
For the other one go to, Network>Diagnostic Page and click on the ping button and check whether it successfully ping.
Else change DNS to 4.2.2.2 and add one more as 8.8.8.8 on the WAN page.
Then again do the ping test on your diagnostic page if again fails,
change your default gate way to the default gate way of your modem/pc.
Again try ping now it may already started working.

It could ping no problem... I added in the DNS under the Network > Interfaces page > WAN > Advanced settings page where it says "Use custom DNS servers"

It now shows DNS 1: 4.2.2.2 and DNS 2: 8.8.8.8 under the Status > Overview pages but still nothing on the Miner Status page. It's very weird, I've compared all the settings just as the one with the broken chain and it just doesn't want to start. That being said the one with the broken chain doesn't have the DNS settings on it, I just had to leave it for a while and it started. This one.... nothing. I'm at a loss

DNS is set on control board not on blades.

So I'm entering in the DNS values in the wrong location? Could you please tell me exactly where they need to go?

Look at this image below.

Yep! That's exactly how I had it and still nothing. Did a factory reset, re entered all the values and guess what? Works like a charm now! ASIC status on this one is all golden and hashing at an average of 460GH/S

Thank you so much for your help, you've been amazing. My first foray into some serious BTC mining hardware (I foiled with Block Erupters) and it was a little daunting. You gave me the help I needed

Now I just need to sort out this other stubborn unit!

[allcoinminer]

Now I just need to sort out this other stubborn unit!

Go with confidence and fix the other one, already guided you how to proceed.
Waiting for a repair and RMA takes time which is very precious for miners.
Any mining hardware profitability is heavenly in inverse proportion to time.
Me or someone else are always here to support as far as we can.
You may try overclocking after you gained much confidence with your S3 hardware.

[heslo]

Now I just need to sort out this other stubborn unit!

Go with confidence and fix the other one, already guided you how to proceed.
Waiting for a repair and RMA takes time which is very precious for miners.
Any mining hardware profitability is heavenly in inverse proportion to time.
Me or someone else are always here to support as far as we can.
You may try overclocking after you gained much confidence with your S3 hardware.

Legend! I'll go have some dinner (the missus is on my back) then I'll attempt a repair on this other unit. Wish me luck!

[allcoinminer]

Now I just need to sort out this other stubborn unit!

Go with confidence and fix the other one, already guided you how to proceed.
Waiting for a repair and RMA takes time which is very precious for miners.
Any mining hardware profitability is heavenly in inverse proportion to time.
Me or someone else are always here to support as far as we can.
You may try overclocking after you gained much confidence with your S3 hardware.

Legend! I'll go have some dinner (the missus is on my back) then I'll attempt a repair on this other unit. Wish me luck!

Good Luck, my all best wishes!

[kabopar]

Observation.
In one of the Batch 4 machines I got, there is a machine with a July 28 firmware date within the Kernel Log.

Anyone noticed that?  Is that an experimental firmware?

The cooling fans report constant 7000-9000 RPM range.  That doesn't look normal.  Recommendations?

Got my B4 S3's today.  Both of them have also the July 28 firmware ("Linux version 3.10.12 (xxl@ubuntu) (gcc version 4.6.4 (OpenWrt/Linaro GCC 4.6-2013.05 r38031) ) #140 Mon Jul 21 17:27:04 CST 2014").
Both of them run with very high fan speeds, much higher than the B1 units

3780 3960
4680 10560

The B1 units, at freq=225 run 1740 1620  and 1680 1500 rpm

The Bitmain support page does not mention this firmware.  Any clues why the high fan speed?

[heslo]

Just got my two S3's today! Setting up one however and ran into a problem, one chain is hashing away fine with oooooooo oooooooo but the other comes back with -------- -------- -------- -------o

What the hell does this mean?!? It worked ok on first run, restarted the machine and it's been doing it since. Any ideas?

Have you tried swapping PCI power connectors? Hope you have done it.
Then if not working, Open your faulty antminer S3 and swap the cables from blades to control panel.
You can also swap the control board of another working S3 for testing as a second option.
If now the other blades are working its a control panel or cable problem.

Now, open the front side (ASIC Chip side)heatsink and check for thermal paste lease or absence.
If its so, just buy some good thermal grease and apply, the blade will be ok.
Else its a clear case of RMA. Contact bitmaintech as soon as possible via email.
I assumed you are using a proper power supply.

Ok, so as I said before tried swapping PCI-E plugs to no effect...

Opened up the unit, swapped cables, and still the same problem.... Errors still occur on the same chain so it's either the chain itself that is dead or the control board itself. I'm not really keen to take out the control board out of the working unit just to test while it's running so well. I think I'll wait to hear back from support before I go further. Any ideas what the go is here? Do they send me a replacement part or do I need to send the unit back?

[allcoinminer]

Just got my two S3's today! Setting up one however and ran into a problem, one chain is hashing away fine with oooooooo oooooooo but the other comes back with -------- -------- -------- -------o

What the hell does this mean?!? It worked ok on first run, restarted the machine and it's been doing it since. Any ideas?

Have you tried swapping PCI power connectors? Hope you have done it.
Then if not working, Open your faulty antminer S3 and swap the cables from blades to control panel.
You can also swap the control board of another working S3 for testing as a second option.
If now the other blades are working its a control panel or cable problem.

Now, open the front side (ASIC Chip side)heatsink and check for thermal paste lease or absence.
If its so, just buy some good thermal grease and apply, the blade will be ok.
Else its a clear case of RMA. Contact bitmaintech as soon as possible via email.
I assumed you are using a proper power supply.

Ok, so as I said before tried swapping PCI-E plugs to no effect...

Opened up the unit, swapped cables, and still the same problem.... Errors still occur on the same chain so it's either the chain itself that is dead or the control board itself. I'm not really keen to take out the control board out of the working unit just to test while it's running so well. I think I'll wait to hear back from support before I go further. Any ideas what the go is here? Do they send me a replacement part or do I need to send the unit back?

We can try to solve it if possible.
Tell me clearly the result of the below you already did.
Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT1 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT2 in CP
You need to do this [1]
Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT2 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT1 in CP
Further steps after the result of this. If possible attach images of Miner Status page before and after this mod.

If you are ordering a new unit they may send the replacement if its control panel with that.
For blade replacement I think they will only send if you are sending yours first.
If a return courier facility is there that should be utilized.
You should discuss with bitmain about various options if you are not able to fix this here.
As said earlier, time is money. So insists them to send first, you may give them some money as escrow for that.
Hope they will carry the shipping charge, I have no experience in sending for RMA.

[heslo]

Just got my two S3's today! Setting up one however and ran into a problem, one chain is hashing away fine with oooooooo oooooooo but the other comes back with -------- -------- -------- -------o

What the hell does this mean?!? It worked ok on first run, restarted the machine and it's been doing it since. Any ideas?

Have you tried swapping PCI power connectors? Hope you have done it.
Then if not working, Open your faulty antminer S3 and swap the cables from blades to control panel.
You can also swap the control board of another working S3 for testing as a second option.
If now the other blades are working its a control panel or cable problem.

Now, open the front side (ASIC Chip side)heatsink and check for thermal paste lease or absence.
If its so, just buy some good thermal grease and apply, the blade will be ok.
Else its a clear case of RMA. Contact bitmaintech as soon as possible via email.
I assumed you are using a proper power supply.

Ok, so as I said before tried swapping PCI-E plugs to no effect...

Opened up the unit, swapped cables, and still the same problem.... Errors still occur on the same chain so it's either the chain itself that is dead or the control board itself. I'm not really keen to take out the control board out of the working unit just to test while it's running so well. I think I'll wait to hear back from support before I go further. Any ideas what the go is here? Do they send me a replacement part or do I need to send the unit back?

We can try to solve it if possible.
Tell me clearly the result of the below you already did.
Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT1 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT2 in CP
You need to do this [1]
Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT2 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT1 in CP
Further steps after the result of this. If possible attach images of Miner Status page before and after this mod.

If you are ordering a new unit they may send the replacement if its control panel with that.
For blade replacement I think they will only send if you are sending yours first.
If a return courier facility is there that should be utilized.
You should discuss with bitmain about various options if you are not able to fix this here.
As said earlier, time is money. So insists them to send first, you may give them some money as escrow for that.
Hope they will carry the shipping charge, I have no experience in sending for RMA.

Ok, so....

Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT1 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT2 in CP

This results in Chain1 working fine and Chain2 with all dash's but the final one which is all dashes and one "o"

I switched the cables and put them in the same ports and blades with no change. Am trying Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT2 in CP and Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT1 in CP now

[heslo]

I've now tried this...

Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT2 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT1 in CP

The result is swapped, now Chain1 shows all dashes with one "o" and Chain2 is working fine. My guess is the blade is gone?

[kabopar]

Observation.
In one of the Batch 4 machines I got, there is a machine with a July 28 firmware date within the Kernel Log.

Anyone noticed that?  Is that an experimental firmware?

The cooling fans report constant 7000-9000 RPM range.  That doesn't look normal.  Recommendations?

Got my B4 S3's today.  Both of them have also the July 28 firmware ("Linux version 3.10.12 (xxl@ubuntu) (gcc version 4.6.4 (OpenWrt/Linaro GCC 4.6-2013.05 r38031) ) #140 Mon Jul 21 17:27:04 CST 2014").
Both of them run with very high fan speeds, much higher than the B1 units

3780 3960
4680 10560

The B1 units, at freq=225 run 1740 1620  and 1680 1500 rpm

The Bitmain support page does not mention this firmware.  Any clues why the high fan speed?

I'm now getting fan speeds of ~14000, it 'sounds' like a software bug more that a super-sonic fan.... (the fans on the new B4 units sound similar to the older B1 units with the July 21 firmware) - BITMAIN what is happening with this July 28 firmware on the Batch 4 Antminer S3s?

Cheers

[allcoinminer]

I've now tried this...

Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT2 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT1 in CP

The result is swapped, now Chain1 shows all dashes with one "o" and Chain2 is working fine. My guess is the blade is gone?

Good to see the results. So now, we found who is the culprit in the couple.
The Blade1 is damaged. And I'm almost sure that its the heat sink - thermal paste problem.
Connecting the damaged blade like this and running the miner may harm the chip in your damaged blade.
So, the option is to unplug the damaged blades power supply from PSU and the cable from control panel.
Then run the single blade or shut down the S3 completely to save your chips in the non-working blade.

Same time unscrew the small lengthy heatsink which is attached to the front side of the blade(Chips)
and check the condition of thermal paste application. If its not good clean it and apply some new thermal paste.
If its good contact bitmain and tell them you did all these thinks, may link this post. Bitmain will probably do RMA your miner.

[allcoinminer]

Observation.
In one of the Batch 4 machines I got, there is a machine with a July 28 firmware date within the Kernel Log.

Anyone noticed that?  Is that an experimental firmware?

The cooling fans report constant 7000-9000 RPM range.  That doesn't look normal.  Recommendations?

Got my B4 S3's today.  Both of them have also the July 28 firmware ("Linux version 3.10.12 (xxl@ubuntu) (gcc version 4.6.4 (OpenWrt/Linaro GCC 4.6-2013.05 r38031) ) #140 Mon Jul 21 17:27:04 CST 2014").
Both of them run with very high fan speeds, much higher than the B1 units

3780 3960
4680 10560

The B1 units, at freq=225 run 1740 1620  and 1680 1500 rpm

The Bitmain support page does not mention this firmware.  Any clues why the high fan speed?

I'm now getting fan speeds of ~14000, it 'sounds' like a software bug more that a super-sonic fan.... (the fans on the new B4 units sound similar to the older B1 units with the July 21 firmware) - BITMAIN what is happening with this July 28 firmware on the Batch 4 Antminer S3s?

Cheers

Batch 4 Antminer S3 seems more stable than the Batch 1 to 3.
I think the manufacturer purposefully did this. Else there is no reason to have a higher fan speed.
Don't forget to take a backup of your firmware before doing any update.
since, the current so called different firmware is not available in bitmaintech website.
Any one here with B4 S3-es having lower fan speeds below 2000? Also post your ambient and clockspeeds.

[Red_Wolf_2]

Couple of points for those who might be interested...

Connecting the blades up to non-specific controllers...

Not easy to do. The blades are driven by a specific microcontroller (PIC of some sort) which is connected via USB to the AR9331. All of this is integrated onto the mainboard, and can't be removed. It also limits the number of blades you can connect to two, as the MCU in question doesn't have any connectors for more and likely lacks the resources to support them anyway.

As for the controller, it is already pretty much maxed out and would probably not be able to handle more even with the room to connect them. If you could get the MCU without the AR9331 board and also programmed with the appropriate firmware, you might be able to get it running on a generic PC or other more powerful host. You would however need access to the driver to compile it for a different architecture (not impossible, but difficult).

People having issues with controller boards...

Why not do as I do and post extracts from system logs here? Those who have worked with linux, and specifically OpenWRT might be able to help out, or at least give more specific diagnosis of issues...

[heslo]

I've now tried this...

Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT2 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT1 in CP

The result is swapped, now Chain1 shows all dashes with one "o" and Chain2 is working fine. My guess is the blade is gone?

Good to see the results. So now, we found who is the culprit in the couple.
The Blade1 is damaged. And I'm almost sure that its the heat sink - thermal paste problem.
Connecting the damaged blade like this and running the miner may harm the chip in your damaged blade.
So, the option is to unplug the damaged blades power supply from PSU and the cable from control panel.
Then run the single blade or shut down the S3 completely to save your chips in the non-working blade.

Same time unscrew the small lengthy heatsink which is attached to the front side of the blade(Chips)
and check the condition of thermal paste application. If its not good clean it and apply some new thermal paste.
If its good contact bitmain and tell them you did all these thinks, may link this post. Bitmain will probably do RMA your miner.

Already looked at the heatsink, had it off, paste looked like it was applied evenly and heatsink seemed fastened properly. I reattached it now but still no nice

Just my luck eh?

Thanks again for the help, you've been brilliant!

[allcoinminer]

Observation.
In one of the Batch 4 machines I got, there is a machine with a July 28 firmware date within the Kernel Log.

Anyone noticed that?  Is that an experimental firmware?

The cooling fans report constant 7000-9000 RPM range.  That doesn't look normal.  Recommendations?

Got my B4 S3's today.  Both of them have also the July 28 firmware ("Linux version 3.10.12 (xxl@ubuntu) (gcc version 4.6.4 (OpenWrt/Linaro GCC 4.6-2013.05 r38031) ) #140 Mon Jul 21 17:27:04 CST 2014").
Both of them run with very high fan speeds, much higher than the B1 units

3780 3960
4680 10560

The B1 units, at freq=225 run 1740 1620  and 1680 1500 rpm

The Bitmain support page does not mention this firmware.  Any clues why the high fan speed?

I'm now getting fan speeds of ~14000, it 'sounds' like a software bug more that a super-sonic fan.... (the fans on the new B4 units sound similar to the older B1 units with the July 21 firmware) - BITMAIN what is happening with this July 28 firmware on the Batch 4 Antminer S3s?

Cheers

Batch 4 Antminer S3 seems more stable than the Batch 1 to 3.
I think the manufacturer purposefully did this. Else there is no reason to have a higher fan speed.
Don't forget to take a backup of your firmware before doing any update.
since, the current so called different firmware is not available in bitmaintech website.
Any one here with B4 S3-es having lower fan speeds below 2000? Also post your ambient and clockspeeds.

Hey, I forgot to ask you some thing, which is your power supply and how you are connecting your miners.
Also tell how much load or miners connected to your Power supply.

[allcoinminer]

I've now tried this...

Blade 1 -> Cable1 -> PORT2 in CP
Blade 2 -> Cable2 -> PORT1 in CP

The result is swapped, now Chain1 shows all dashes with one "o" and Chain2 is working fine. My guess is the blade is gone?

Good to see the results. So now, we found who is the culprit in the couple.
The Blade1 is damaged. And I'm almost sure that its the heat sink - thermal paste problem.
Connecting the damaged blade like this and running the miner may harm the chip in your damaged blade.
So, the option is to unplug the damaged blades power supply from PSU and the cable from control panel.
Then run the single blade or shut down the S3 completely to save your chips in the non-working blade.

Same time unscrew the small lengthy heatsink which is attached to the front side of the blade(Chips)
and check the condition of thermal paste application. If its not good clean it and apply some new thermal paste.
If its good contact bitmain and tell them you did all these thinks, may link this post. Bitmain will probably do RMA your miner.

Already looked at the heatsink, had it off, paste looked like it was applied evenly and heatsink seemed fastened properly. I reattached it now but still no nice

Just my luck eh?

Thanks again for the help, you've been brilliant!

Hope you have the images of the heatsink and blade when opened.
Upload it here to have a look. Also as a last resort, do the below and if not working, get ready for RMA.
Backup the current firmware and update with the latest available from bitmaintech website.