ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[tt_1111]

Thanks a lot for the fast reply!

Just uploaded it and will report about success or failure the next time my Antminer bothers itself down to bog down at 10%.

Is there another way to check the miner's current condition and trigger the reboot if needed?

I have not tried this, but it uses the api to get the average hash rate, if it falls below mingh (505) then it reboots.

Code:

#! /usr/bin/ash
mingh=505
var=$(`cgminer-api lcd|grep -o '\[GHSavg\] => .*$'|cut -d' ' -f3|cut -d'.' -f1`)
if [ $var -lt mingh ]
then
/sbin/reboot
fi

[IITravel01]

A few days ago I got myself an Antminer S3+.
Upgraded it to latest available firmware 20141126

It's basically working fine — apart from the fact that after some hours of mining at full speed it might happen the hashing speed decreases to about 10% of what it should be (i.e. ~45 GH/s instead of ~450 GH/s).

As I learnt within this forum I'm not the only one having such problems. However I haven't found a solution in this thread, thus this post.

Rebooting seems to resolve the issue, but the usual AM user has neither time nor patience to babysit his mining device all the time. And yes, it may happen he wants some hours of sleep.

In an old post regarding the Antminer S1 a Cron job is suggested:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=588253.0

The procedure:
(1) Loading up (or creating) a script ('hashcheck') to/on the Antminer

#! /usr/bin/ash
var=$(cat /proc/loadavg | grep . | cut -c 1)
if [ $var -lt 1 ]
then
/sbin/reboot
fi

(take care linebreaks are only <LF>, not <CR><LF> if you choose the
upload variant.)

(2) chmod 775 to the hashcheck script.

(3) Entering hashcheck into the list of Cron jobs:
System -> Scheduled tasks:
*/5 *  *   *   *     /usr/bin/hashcheck

The script is definitely running, it shows up every five minutes in
Status -> System log

However it does exactly nothing, even when the miner has slowed down to a crawl.

A closer inspection (looking into the Antminer's file system with WinSCP) shows that the grepped file
/proc/loadavg
always seems to have exactly 0 Bytes on the Antminer S3+, no matter in which condition the miner is running — 100% or 10%.
No output, nothing to cut, thus the reboot condition never becomes true.

Is there another way to check the miner's current condition and trigger the reboot if needed?

Or have I missed another solution for this apparently well known problem despite reclaiming / sending in the whole Antminer?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Set to default frequency and the voltage under advanced settings to 0725, save and apply and cycle power, should take care of it.  

[dogie]

Thanks i will wait a couple more days and if no luck i will try those emails above, And i couldn't agree more about the way that answer came across, as i have only come one here to try and get some support, I would understand if these were free or used products. I only wanted a resolution.

I have to say it because although it should be pretty obvious, it keeps happening. People email the same problem in via 10 different places, 3x each. Then no one can action anything because its impossible to track if its been actioned already or who should then deal with the case. There's a unified ticket system being developed but its still possible to spam it. If you have a problem, contact one person via one method and it will get sorted. In your case, the UK location is overseen by Yoshi's team.

[tt_1111]

Hi,

in the meantime one slowdown occured, hashcheck script run, no reboot. As I'm not overclocking my device mingh is 405 in my case.

I also adjusted the voltage to the suggested 0.725 V (a bit below standard, right?).

I'm not very good in Unix / Linux bash commands, thus I played a bit around in a putty terminal session (using half a dozen of example and help URLs) and reworked the var=$ ...  line till the output matched exactly the average GH/s — basically just taking the end of the line containing [GHSavg].

Code:

#! /usr/bin/ash
mingh=405
var=$(`cgminer-api lcd | grep '\[GHSavg\]' | cut -c 16-`)
if [ $var -lt mingh ]
then
/sbin/reboot
fi 

When I try to run the script in the putty box it gives me:
-ash: hashcheck: Permission denied
In the system log no error is mentioned, thus I assume it's just my missing knowledge of how get elevated rights in a terminal session.

Edit: No reboot after next slowdown.

Looks like I should revert to the August firmware, too — see next post.

I have not tried this, but it uses the api to get the average hash rate, if it falls below mingh (505) then it reboots.

Code:

#! /usr/bin/ash
mingh=505
var=$(`cgminer-api lcd|grep -o '\[GHSavg\] => .*$'|cut -d' ' -f3|cut -d'.' -f1`)
if [ $var -lt mingh ]
then
/sbin/reboot
fi

[IonHammer]

So decided to upgrade my units to use the extranonce patch at westhash, step one was to upgrade you firmware, was using antminer_S320140826.bin moved to antminer_S320141126.bin, well had a great day trying to work out wtf happened to my units.

So glad this site is here, anyhow cut a long story short, tried most of the fix's suggested here to no avail and my unit were sleeping every 10-20 minutes in the end went back to original firmware, so far no issues. Great way to waste a Sunday afternoon.


Will look forward to the new firmware that works as it sure seemed better to browse with and keen to run some of those voltage frequency settings.

[ATCkit]

I flashed the firmware on all my S3s yesterday to the Nov 24th release (antMiner_S320141126.bin). It created problems like someone else mentioned above.

So i decided to flash them to the October release (antMiner_S320141024.bin). All except one completed the process. It just kept saying flashing for about 30 minutes....like it had stalled.

I tried to re-connect to it using the static address I've been using for 2 months. I got this message: " This webpage is not available".

So i used the reset button and connected it directly to my PC. When I tried to connect to the original IP address (192.168.1.99), I got: "This webpage is not available".

long story short, it seems my computer and router can not see the miner anymore. Also, The green light for the internet connection only comes on for a second after turning on the miner. I also noticed that only the red light blinks. None of the other LED lights come on.

Did the november firmware release (antMiner_S320141126.bin) kill my miner?

Pls help!  

EDIT: I also tried using an IP scanner to try to find that miner in case its IP address had changed. The IP scanner showed all my other devices  but also reported that  there was a dead device.

[chinesebob]

If anyone still running the new firmware, would you please post here the line used to start cgminer? It "should" be in the System Log (under Status) immediately after starting up (I think that is where I saw it before, but may be wrong!) or even better, if you SSH into the rig open the file /etc/init.d/cgminer with vi editor and scroll down to the line that starts PARAMS= (not #PARAMS=). I think the issue of dropping hash-rate may be due to the setting of auto-voltage / frequency (and the startup line may reveal that!).

You can extract the filesystem from the new firmware like this

Code:

dd if=antMiner_S320141126.bin of=kernel bs=1 ibs=1 count=1015116
dd if=antMiner_S320141126.bin of=filesystem.squashfs bs=1 ibs=1 count=2448854 skip=1015116
unsquashfs filesystem.squashfs
ls -1 squashfs-root

[pekatete]

If anyone still running the new firmware, would you please post here the line used to start cgminer? It "should" be in the System Log (under Status) immediately after starting up (I think that is where I saw it before, but may be wrong!) or even better, if you SSH into the rig open the file /etc/init.d/cgminer with vi editor and scroll down to the line that starts PARAMS= (not #PARAMS=). I think the issue of dropping hash-rate may be due to the setting of auto-voltage / frequency (and the startup line may reveal that!).

You can extract the filesystem from the new firmware like this

Code:

dd if=antMiner_S320141126.bin of=kernel bs=1 ibs=1 count=1015116
dd if=antMiner_S320141126.bin of=filesystem.squashfs bs=1 ibs=1 count=2448854 skip=1015116
unsquashfs filesystem.squashfs
ls -1 squashfs-root

Do you happen to know the Windows commandline equivalent too? I ask as I do not have a linux installation at hand .... unless of course that'd work in MinGW as well.

[Biodom]

Bottom line of my antminer S3 experience (NOT S3+; have just one left out of 10 purchased). I bought them as b1, b3, b5 and b7

I made more BTC than i paid for each and every one of them.
Upon recent re-sale, I got more $$ than I used for electricity throughout, making this a positive ROI case.
Performance was great-one slightly below par, one at par and eight overclocked to 478GH (never tried 500).
they never came down with the case of lost "marbles", kept hashing day in and day out, sometimes longer than a month without reset.
I never bothered downloading latest and "greatest" software, was stuck at second or third iteration because why doing it if the production is great.
Thanks, Bitmain!
Now waiting for S5, which, hopefully, will be as solid as S3 has been.

[macgyver007]

Whoever wrote the firmware on November 26th was definitely having a bad day...not only for S3 but C1 firmware from same date is just as "impressive"  

As others have reported (wish I checked here first now) hashrate drops with latest firmware...I tried to replace the cgminer with the ckolivas version from 20141020 and the miner wont start to hash ...I thought maybe that would help fix things...so much for that theory..but why wont that work if they are both 4.61?
Moving forward, I flashed again and didn't keep settings ...still cant use the ckolivas cgminer with this firmware, not to mention the other issues others have reported...luckily I don't have too many of these flashed ...only 2 for testing...epic fail bitmain!

[ATCkit]

You can return a defective unit to the following address with printed order confirmation page from Bitmantech.com (to include the original shipping address) and a printed note stating what is wrong with the unit.

Bitmain Warranty
3700 Quebec Street #100239
Denver, Colorado 80207
USA

Tel: +1-844-248-6246 Option 2

average turn around time is 1-2 business days after receiving the defective items, the functioning item be shipped out to you

Thank you!

yeah im thinking its going to have to be returned because ive tried everything. How do i start an RMA, i cant find an email form or anything on their site?

@Biitmain Warranty,

I can't reset one of my S3s after the Nov firmware issue I mentioned.  It seems there's no way to connect to it anymore.

Is there an RMA location in Canada?   

or

Should I use the Denver location?

[aarons6]

Bottom line of my antminer S3 experience (NOT S3+; have just one left out of 10 purchased). I bought them as b1, b3, b5 and b7

I made more BTC than i paid for each and every one of them.
Upon recent re-sale, I got more $$ than I used for electricity throughout, making this a positive ROI case.
Performance was great-one slightly below par, one at par and eight overclocked to 478GH (never tried 500).
they never came down with the case of lost "marbles", kept hashing day in and day out, sometimes longer than a month without reset.
I never bothered downloading latest and "greatest" software, was stuck at second or third iteration because why doing it if the production is great.
Thanks, Bitmain!
Now waiting for S5, which, hopefully, will be as solid as S3 has been.

i hope they dont come out with faster machines in a really long time.
you know as soon as faster machines come out, the difficulty will double and we will be right where we are now.

its a vicious circle.. more hash, increased difficulty, making the same btc as before with lower hash..

if these companies are smart, they wouldn't release faster machines and just keep using the ones they have now or sell at a premium cost so nobody buys them.
if they dont come out with faster machines we might even get lucky and the difficulty will go down a few times..

[Biodom]

Bottom line of my antminer S3 experience (NOT S3+; have just one left out of 10 purchased). I bought them as b1, b3, b5 and b7

I made more BTC than i paid for each and every one of them.
Upon recent re-sale, I got more $$ than I used for electricity throughout, making this a positive ROI case.
Performance was great-one slightly below par, one at par and eight overclocked to 478GH (never tried 500).
they never came down with the case of lost "marbles", kept hashing day in and day out, sometimes longer than a month without reset.
I never bothered downloading latest and "greatest" software, was stuck at second or third iteration because why doing it if the production is great.
Thanks, Bitmain!
Now waiting for S5, which, hopefully, will be as solid as S3 has been.

i hope they dont come out with faster machines in a really long time.
you know as soon as faster machines come out, the difficulty will double and we will be right where we are now.

its a vicious circle.. more hash, increased difficulty, making the same btc as before with lower hash..

if these companies are smart, they wouldn't release faster machines and just keep using the ones they have now or sell at a premium cost so nobody buys them.
if they dont come out with faster machines we might even get lucky and the difficulty will go down a few times..

You don't quote another very important parameter-BTC price.
If we suddenly jump to $1000, then ALL machines will evaporate from sales (will go on backorder), people will bid up stuff on ebay to crazy numbers: even the lowly S1 will bid up to $200.
As of right now-it is a long game, and I am happy with flat difficulty since equipment is still quite pricey (especially from Bitmain and Spond).
Re no faster machines for a long time-it is NOT going to happen, since we already know for sure that AM will have such machines by March. Others had not announced yet (Bitmain, Spond), but, surely, they are coming. Enjoy the relative lull while it lasts...

[aarons6]

Bottom line of my antminer S3 experience (NOT S3+; have just one left out of 10 purchased). I bought them as b1, b3, b5 and b7

I made more BTC than i paid for each and every one of them.
Upon recent re-sale, I got more $$ than I used for electricity throughout, making this a positive ROI case.
Performance was great-one slightly below par, one at par and eight overclocked to 478GH (never tried 500).
they never came down with the case of lost "marbles", kept hashing day in and day out, sometimes longer than a month without reset.
I never bothered downloading latest and "greatest" software, was stuck at second or third iteration because why doing it if the production is great.
Thanks, Bitmain!
Now waiting for S5, which, hopefully, will be as solid as S3 has been.

i hope they dont come out with faster machines in a really long time.
you know as soon as faster machines come out, the difficulty will double and we will be right where we are now.

its a vicious circle.. more hash, increased difficulty, making the same btc as before with lower hash..

if these companies are smart, they wouldn't release faster machines and just keep using the ones they have now or sell at a premium cost so nobody buys them.
if they dont come out with faster machines we might even get lucky and the difficulty will go down a few times..

You don't quote another very important parameter-BTC price.
If we suddenly jump to $1000, then ALL machines will evaporate from sales (will go on backorder), people will bid up stuff on ebay to crazy numbers: even the lowly S1 will bid up to $200.
As of right now-it is a long game, and I am happy with flat difficulty since equipment is still quite pricey (especially from Bitmain and Spond).
Re no faster machines for a long time-it is NOT going to happen, since we already know for sure that AM will have such machines by March. Others had not announced yet (Bitmain, Spond), but, surely, they are coming. Enjoy the relative lull while it lasts...

knowing how they did it last time, they will pre-order the heck out of these faster machines.. using them the whole time.. after the difficulty bumps up so you can just break even they will release them.

[charles2k]

Bought 17 units S3+ (all with November firmware). Almost all units very often slowing down to around 30-50Ghash, so average hashrate is much lower than 453GHash.
Also it seems that units are not new unlike previous deliveries, dust inside, sometimes scratches on the top...

I am not satisfied.

What is interesting - that PCB inside are much different (green, other capacitors) than PCB in units purchased in September (blue).

[pekatete]

Bought 17 units S3+ (all with November firmware). Almost all units very often slowing down to around 30-50Ghash, so average hashrate is much lower than 453GHash.
Also it seems that units are not new unlike previous deliveries, dust inside, sometimes scratches on the top...

I am not satisfied.

What is interesting - that PCB inside are much different (green, other capacitors) than PCB in units purchased in September (blue).

Whoa! Did you buy those directly from Bitmain? If so, looks like they are offloading some of the units they had up in their hosting facility.
PS. Just downgrade the firmware to the October one and you should be good to go. The fixes flying around (with your 17 units) will just give you more head-aches.

[patriotminer76]

My brand new S3+ (batch 10 I believe) was running great until an hour ago when I changed one of the pool settings.   Since that re-start neither of my boards show up.  Its on its own power supply (EVGA 650).

HELP!  Is it dead?  How?  What can I do?  I lowered the frequency, took off the cover and checked all the connections.  nothing.

http://patriotpunks.com/images/s3kaput.png

[pekatete]

Hi,

in the meantime one slowdown occured, hashcheck script run, no reboot. As I'm not overclocking my device mingh is 405 in my case.

I also adjusted the voltage to the suggested 0.725 V (a bit below standard, right?).

I'm not very good in Unix / Linux bash commands, thus I played a bit around in a putty terminal session (using half a dozen of example and help URLs) and reworked the var=$ ...  line till the output matched exactly the average GH/s — basically just taking the end of the line containing [GHSavg].

Code:

#! /usr/bin/ash
mingh=405
var=$(`cgminer-api lcd | grep '\[GHSavg\]' | cut -c 16-`)
if [ $var -lt mingh ]
then
/sbin/reboot
fi 

When I try to run the script in the putty box it gives me:
-ash: hashcheck: Permission denied
In the system log no error is mentioned, thus I assume it's just my missing knowledge of how get elevated rights in a terminal session.

Edit: No reboot after next slowdown.

Looks like I should revert to the August firmware, too — see next post.

How are you starting this from the scheduled tasks? If you saved the script as /sbin/checkHash (made it executable by chmod +x), and want it to run every 15 minutes past the hour, you'd have added to your scheduked tasks as line as follows:

Code:

*/15 * * * * root cd /sbin && ./checkHash >/dev/null 2>&1

That "should" take care of the permissions (though I have not tried it either!)

[Biodom]

My brand new S3+ (batch 10 I believe) was running great until an hour ago when I changed one of the pool settings.   Since that re-start neither of my boards show up.  Its on its own power supply (EVGA 650).

HELP!  Is it dead?  How?  What can I do?  I lowered the frequency, took off the cover and checked all the connections.  nothing.

was DHCP checked or unchecked?
If not, Use advanced IP scanner (PC) to see its IP address.

[Codemeister]

Is it brand new or was it indeed batch 10? What firmware was it running?