ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[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!

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.

Didn't take any pics when it was apart sadly (I didn't think of it to be honest) Good idea about the firmware, I'll probably give it a go tomorrow but I'm not liking my chances. I'll wait to hear back from Bitmain and see what they have to say also

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[Gogreen]

Who is having batch5  with ups and  has ups update their status? Any problem so far

[bluebottle73]

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...

Not feasible for me as my controller board's Ethernet interface is completely dead - so it's not even possible to get into it with the default IP address to configure anything let alone see the logs. 

Other people have comparatively minor issues and at least get some hashing out of their units.  Mine is completely dead in the water going on a week now, extending to at least another week.

I have 3 S1 units, and thought about swapping the controller from them, but they're still profitable and I don't want to muck anything up that is actually still running.

BITMAIN - PLEASE JUST SEND REPLACEMENT BOARDS TO THOSE WHO NEED THEM AND HAVE ESTABLISHED THAT IS THEIR PROBLEM.  WAITING 2+ WEEKS FOR A SOLUTION KILLS OUR PROFITABILITY.

But apparently the only thing that seems to matter to them is their own profitability.

[cjcole8]

Can someone explain all this talk on thermal grease? I've read a lot of this thread, but it isn't entirely clear to me.

From what I understand, you are taking off the heat sinks, adding thermal grease, and then putting them back. Why do you have to do this? It seems it makes it cooler - does that make them hash faster? Which heat sinks do you replace? Is this a problem only with Batch 1-3 or something, or would you recommend this for all of them?

[daddyfatsax]

Can someone explain all this talk on thermal grease? I've read a lot of this thread, but it isn't entirely clear to me.

From what I understand, you are taking off the heat sinks, adding thermal grease, and then putting them back. Why do you have to do this? It seems it makes it cooler - does that make them hash faster? Which heat sinks do you replace? Is this a problem only with Batch 1-3 or something, or would you recommend this for all of them?

Taking off the heat sink and removing the absurd amount of paste on the chips. Why? I had issues with units not starting and having X's on the chips. Replacing the paste will make them hash better ( a few GH/s)  and maybe a little cooler (1-5C). You are not replacing the heat sink itself, just the paste between it and the top of the chips.

[allcoinminer]

Can someone explain all this talk on thermal grease? I've read a lot of this thread, but it isn't entirely clear to me.

From what I understand, you are taking off the heat sinks, adding thermal grease, and then putting them back. Why do you have to do this? It seems it makes it cooler - does that make them hash faster? Which heat sinks do you replace? Is this a problem only with Batch 1-3 or something, or would you recommend this for all of them?

A lot of questions, I will try to answer them all with in my capacity.
If you have watch this thread you may already know why all are doing the heat sink hack.
In most of the miners various users found that the thermal paste is not applied correctly.
Some miners don't have enough thermal paste, others have a lot of them leaking to the pins of the chips.
That's why a lot of hash rate issues in S3, bitmaintech even advised to do it.

Chip throttled to lower clock frequency when they are overheated. When the thermal paste is not properly applied
this will lead to overheating due to lower heat conductance and the result is lower hash rate.
So removing the old thermal paste and applying a thermal grease of minimum conductivity of 3 will help the heat
to dissipate properly which will further lead to higher/rated hashrate.

The smaller heatsink attached to the outer side or front side or the chip side is what we are discussing here.
Since the opposite side is a flat surface chances of wrong application on that side is comparatively low.

We are not replacing heatsink but the thermal paste.
If you can apply to all miners its good. But generally fix those who are not working properly.
Keep an eye on temperatures, fans speed, hashrate.

[bonds]

Who is having batch5  with ups and  has ups update their status? Any problem so far

Looks like mine shipped this morning via UPS and will be here in TX on Wednesday afternoon

[CryptoCrane]

Who is having batch5  with ups and  has ups update their status? Any problem so far

I use UPS and have incoming batch #5 miners that have been updated today. Is there something specific you're looking for? Where are you located? (I'm in the US)

My previous order was for 50 batch 4 units and they arrived earlier than advertised. I had a call from customs to confirm my SSN/EIN, but that didn't seem to delay anything. I never get calls from customs unless the order on the invoice is over ~$10k.

My batch 5 miners will arrive Wednesday. We sell in the US and Canada if anyone's interested. We've already fulfilled over 100 AntMiner S3s to date with 100% satisfaction rate.

[jowaybea]

Who is having batch5  with ups and  has ups update their status? Any problem so far

Looks like mine shipped this morning via UPS and will be here in TX on Wednesday afternoon

I too got a batch5 UPS tracking # this morning with a Wednesday estimated arrival (in FL).

[Reynaldo]

Hey Cryptocrane, new batch of antminer s3 will need to have thermal paste change?

[allcoinminer]

Hey Cryptocrane, new batch of antminer s3 will need to have thermal paste change?

Thermal paste is changed if there is any hash rate or temperature or fan speed abnormality is seeing.
Its not batch depended.
As in every product later batches are of higher quality that older.

[9600]

Just received my early B5 order. I've already noticed SIGNIFICANT MODEL REVISIONS AND SPEED GAINS EVEN BEFORE PLUGGING THEM IN.

BEHOLD THE SECOND QC PASSED STICKER.



Seriously though, I'm plugging them in now.

[-droid-]

I initially replaced the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5, but after learning of its capacitive properties I replaced it with this: http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-IceFusion-Performance-RG-ICF-CWR2-GP/dp/B003AVMRQG

the thermal conductivity on the Cooler Master IceFusion is only 1.0 (W/m-K)

the specs say:
High Thermal Conductivity
Low Thermal Resistance
Non-Corrosive
Best Thermal Stability in
High Temperature

also does anyone know if its capacitive?  theres one review on amazon saying its electrically conductive.. it comes with a spreader stick so i spread a thin layer on each asic, but a couple times a little dribble sorta landed around the chip.. it was late so i didnt bother to clean it

[Biodom]

I initially replaced the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5, but after learning of its capacitive properties I replaced it with this: http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-IceFusion-Performance-RG-ICF-CWR2-GP/dp/B003AVMRQG

the thermal conductivity on the Cooler Master IceFusion is only 1.0 (W/m-K)

the specs say:
High Thermal Conductivity
Low Thermal Resistance
Non-Corrosive
Best Thermal Stability in
High Temperature

also does anyone know if its capacitive?  theres one review on amazon saying its electrically conductive.. it comes with a spreader stick so i spread a thin layer on each asic, but a couple times a little dribble sorta landed around the chip.. it was late so i didnt bother to clean it

low thermal conductivity for the paste that you used.
the paste below has great reviews, 8.5 thermal conductivity, and is both non-conductive and non-capacitive

4g http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-MX-4-Carbon-Based-Thermal-Compound/dp/B0045JCFLY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407170776&sr=8-1&keywords=mx-4
20g http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-MX-4-Thermal-Compound-Non-Electricity/dp/B004ULZITS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407170805&sr=8-2&keywords=mx-4
the latter page go to links on the right and there is a better price there ($18.42)

[rhj12345]

Anybody have any S3 coupons they are willing to sell?

I need to buy 4 units today.

Anybody? What price?

How much is the discount???


Thanks
Rob

[-droid-]

I initially replaced the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5, but after learning of its capacitive properties I replaced it with this: http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-IceFusion-Performance-RG-ICF-CWR2-GP/dp/B003AVMRQG

the thermal conductivity on the Cooler Master IceFusion is only 1.0 (W/m-K)

the specs say:
High Thermal Conductivity
Low Thermal Resistance
Non-Corrosive
Best Thermal Stability in
High Temperature

also does anyone know if its capacitive?  theres one review on amazon saying its electrically conductive.. it comes with a spreader stick so i spread a thin layer on each asic, but a couple times a little dribble sorta landed around the chip.. it was late so i didnt bother to clean it

low thermal conductivity for the paste that you used.
the paste below has great reviews, 8.5 thermal conductivity, and is both non-conductive and non-capacitive

4g http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-MX-4-Carbon-Based-Thermal-Compound/dp/B0045JCFLY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407170776&sr=8-1&keywords=mx-4
20g http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-MX-4-Thermal-Compound-Non-Electricity/dp/B004ULZITS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407170805&sr=8-2&keywords=mx-4
the latter page go to links on the right and there is a better price there ($18.42)

what about this

http://www.amazon.com/Silver-CMQ2-25G-Ceramique-Tri-Linear-Compound/dp/B0056QHJ8E

its half the price

lol my wife is gonna kill me, having to open all these up again

edit: ended up ordering the MX-4

[hanti]

got my 5 antminers from batch 4 and all works great on p2pool but showing strange fanspeed 5000-9000RPM
ofc its a bug becouse it would be jumbojet noise. I flashed one with same firmware from 21 july (downlaoded from bitmaintech site) and fanspeeds didnt change ;p so its the same firmware not as someone above said that its diferent ;p

[bonds]

got my 5 antminers from batch 4 and all works great on p2pool but showing strange fanspeed 5000-9000RPM
ofc its a bug becouse it would be jumbojet noise. I flashed one with same firmware from 21 july (downlaoded from bitmaintech site) and fanspeeds didnt change ;p so its the same firmware not as someone above said that its diferent ;p

Did you have to add static difficulty to your username/payout address for P2Pool on the S3 like Bitmain mentioned?

[allcoinminer]

Balance : Change multipool strategy from failover to even share balance.
Load Balance: Change multipool strategy from failover to quota based balance.

Any one tried the Balance and Load Balance options in S3?

[pumaro]

got my 5 antminers from batch 4 and all works great on p2pool but showing strange fanspeed 5000-9000RPM
ofc its a bug becouse it would be jumbojet noise. I flashed one with same firmware from 21 july (downlaoded from bitmaintech site) and fanspeeds didnt change ;p so its the same firmware not as someone above said that its diferent ;p

Dang 5000-9000 rpm would be cointerra loud!
and even at those speeds the cointerra would be pushing 90-120C (cointerra tech says 120c is ok    )even with AC blowing directly on them. Soo glad I got rid of those abominations. The Bitmain are sooo much better, cost less, cost less to run and run cooler.