ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[Bitkoinzz]

Hello, I need some help with my S4. Sometimes when is mining the hash power shown in the LCD, for example 1989.3 GH/S, it´s not the same that the hash power in the pool. In fact the pool seem like it´s dead. So I have to turn off and turn on the S4 and problem solved but its very annoying do this 3 or 4 time per day.
What can I do? What is wrong with the S4? I have 2 weeks with it

Hello. You need to set the minimum difficulty ON YOUR POOL ACCOUNT to 2048. Also you should update your firmware on S4 to the newest version. https://bitmaintech.com/support.htm?pid=00720140930114518599JXGHWWD80660.  The file is initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz.   Log into your S4 and go to "System" then " upgrade" then flash the downloaded newest firmware image onto your S4. . Doing these two things will increase your pool hashing to almost 100% of what it shows on the LED screen on the S4.

[Bitkoinzz]

I have been speaking to Yoshi about S4 issues but wanted to get an opinion here since I imagine he is not working on weekends.

One of my units is being shipped back because something burnt. It also had an issue with Fan#2 which is what I posted about earlier.

Looking at my second unit I noticed that Fan#2 in this unit only runs at 240 RPM and the others are about 4000. What caught my attention is other screenshots showing fan speeds and Asic chain temps that are close.

My temps are

chain 1 60
chain 2 48
chain 3 60
chain 4 51

Both of my units have been like this since they arrived. It seems odd to me that both units behave the same way. Anyone else having similar issues? Is there a Fan#2 issue?


BTW - temp in the hashing room is 22C.

Those temps are in line. I wouldn't worry about the the fan speed unless the unit is showing extra hot temps on the LED screen. 68C is about as hot as you want to see. Anything more than that and they may slow down a bit or some chips might shut off and turn to X's. But remember, if you get X's on the chips just reboot the S4 and the chips will all be back to O's. I have never lost a chip permanently on S1's , S3's or S4's.

[Bitkoinzz]

Hello, I need some help with my S4. Sometimes when is mining the hash power shown in the LCD, for example 1989.3 GH/S, it´s not the same that the hash power in the pool. In fact the pool seem like it´s dead. So I have to turn off and turn on the S4 and problem solved but its very annoying do this 3 or 4 time per day.
What can I do? What is wrong with the S4? I have 2 weeks with it

P.S. what pool are you using? Some work better than others with the S4.

[Bitkoinzz]

     10% discount has been offered to Second Hand S4, 0.3465$/Gh and shipping out within a week after full payment

This is a good deal people. You cannot buy this much hashing power for this price anywhere in the world. Bitmain consistently out prices everyone. These S4's will be good to run for 10 months at least with underclocking later on.  We need 50 more S4's. P.S. Thanks for the rapid PSU replacements. We had several go out right away and Yoshi took care of us fast. GO BITMAIN

[dogie]

I have been speaking to Yoshi about S4 issues but wanted to get an opinion here since I imagine he is not working on weekends.

One of my units is being shipped back because something burnt. It also had an issue with Fan#2 which is what I posted about earlier.

Looking at my second unit I noticed that Fan#2 in this unit only runs at 240 RPM and the others are about 4000. What caught my attention is other screenshots showing fan speeds and Asic chain temps that are close.

My temps are

chain 1 60
chain 2 48
chain 3 60
chain 4 51

Both of my units have been like this since they arrived. It seems odd to me that both units behave the same way. Anyone else having similar issues? Is there a Fan#2 issue?
BTW - temp in the hashing room is 22C.

Chain 2s for *some reason* are cooler than the rest, its likely just due to its positioning in the case, and so the corresponding fan runs slower. It is nothing to worry about,

[etile]

Does anybody see 0.5W/GH with undervolting AntminerS4 ?

What about noise level?

[mdude77]

     10% discount has been offered to Second Hand S4, 0.3465$/Gh and shipping out within a week after full payment

This is a good deal people. You cannot buy this much hashing power for this price anywhere in the world. Bitmain consistently out prices everyone. These S4's will be good to run for 10 months at least with underclocking later on.  We need 50 more S4's. P.S. Thanks for the rapid PSU replacements. We had several go out right away and Yoshi took care of us fast. GO BITMAIN

No offense, but sounds like fan boy speak.  How do you know they'll be profitable for 10 months? 

Also remember S4s don't work well on all pools.

And they are prone to drive failures because of cheap components.

In other words, you get what you pay for.

M

[n3rvi0zz0]

Hi about the fans i found a solution, run without the case.

here are pictures of my room




they are all underclocked all the units run at 137.5 and 0690 721w

anyway with 10th you do 0.10 btc per day more or less in antpool

at the current price of btc my order of 16 antminer was totally a bad idea

today mining at home an be profitable its impossible.

my experience its nobody go to sell one machine if they can do money first KNC BITMAIN all want the same Money.


Bitcoin going to suffer a big fall soon. the current difficulty and the prices go to make the people dump and dump more coins for pay the bills.


Today im swich off the rig, i start to loss money only after 6 days of activity.

[pak13]

     10% discount has been offered to Second Hand S4, 0.3465$/Gh and shipping out within a week after full payment

This is a good deal people. You cannot buy this much hashing power for this price anywhere in the world. Bitmain consistently out prices everyone. These S4's will be good to run for 10 months at least with underclocking later on.  We need 50 more S4's. P.S. Thanks for the rapid PSU replacements. We had several go out right away and Yoshi took care of us fast. GO BITMAIN

No offense, but sounds like fan boy speak.  How do you know they'll be profitable for 10 months? 

Also remember S4s don't work well on all pools.

And they are prone to drive failures because of cheap components.

In other words, you get what you pay for.

M

Have to agree. The ONLY reason you'd want to buy an S4 at that price is if you had FREE power and a guarantee for replacement power supplies and Fan's for the next 10 months.

[mdude77]

anyway with 10th you do 0.10 btc per day more or less in antpool

If that's all you're making at Antpool, it's time to fine find a new pool.

M

[n3rvi0zz0]

doesnt matter, i spend 20£ in electricty, in the moment dont cover me the cost i dont swicht on this monsters

which pool its better discus? slush?

[mdude77]

doesnt matter, i spend 20£ in electricty, in the moment dont cover me the cost i dont swicht on this monsters

which pool its better discus? slush?

IIRC Discus is PPS and has a high fee.
Slush's payout algorithm is flawed which allows pool hopping and dedicated miners suffer.
BTCGuild is rock solid, with a 2% fee.  However also merged mines NMC to somewhat compensate for the fee.
Eligius is always up, with glitches every so often that delay payouts and stats.  But it always pays out, eventually.  And is no fee.  And merged mines NMC.
p2pool is reliable, however it's difficult and time consuming to get Bitmain hardware to work reliable with it.  Some people have better luck than others.  (I gave up trying.)  Smaller pool, so blocks are less frequent, but more valuable.  If you can run your own local node, you can merge mine if you think you might get a block.
ckpool is a newer pool, and smaller, with 0.9% fee.  Does not merge mine.  Blocks are less frequent, but more valuable.  Run by the authors of cgminer.
some people like mmpool.  I don't understand why.  All the transaction fees go to the block winner, which is contrary to what Bitcoin stands for.

Me, I have my S4s pointing to ckpool, and my Spondoolie pointing to p2pool.

M

[n3rvi0zz0]

doesnt matter, i spend 20£ in electricty, in the moment dont cover me the cost i dont swicht on this monsters

which pool its better discus? slush?

IIRC Discus is PPS and has a high fee.
Slush's payout algorithm is flawed which allows pool hopping and dedicated miners suffer.
BTCGuild is rock solid, with a 2% fee.  However also merged mines NMC to somewhat compensate for the fee.
Eligius is always up, with glitches every so often that delay payouts and stats.  But it always pays out, eventually.  And is no fee.  And merged mines NMC.
p2pool is reliable, however it's difficult and time consuming to get Bitmain hardware to work reliable with it.  Some people have better luck than others.  (I gave up trying.)  Smaller pool, so blocks are less frequent, but more valuable.  If you can run your own local node, you can merge mine if you think you might get a block.
ckpool is a newer pool, and smaller, with 0.9% fee.  Does not merge mine.  Blocks are less frequent, but more valuable.  Run by the authors of cgminer.
some people like mmpool.  I don't understand why.  All the transaction fees go to the block winner, which is contrary to what Bitcoin stands for.

Me, I have my S4s pointing to ckpool, and my Spondoolie pointing to p2pool.



which its the average to find a block in on ckpool?

M

[Bitkoinzz]

     10% discount has been offered to Second Hand S4, 0.3465$/Gh and shipping out within a week after full payment

This is a good deal people. You cannot buy this much hashing power for this price anywhere in the world. Bitmain consistently out prices everyone. These S4's will be good to run for 10 months at least with underclocking later on.  We need 50 more S4's. P.S. Thanks for the rapid PSU replacements. We had several go out right away and Yoshi took care of us fast. GO BITMAIN

No offense, but sounds like fan boy speak.  How do you know they'll be profitable for 10 months? 

Also remember S4s don't work well on all pools.

And they are prone to drive failures because of cheap components.

In other words, you get what you pay for.

M

Ha ha aha nice. I been running Bitmain products for almost a solid year now. The S1's ran for about 10 months before they were not making anything above electric costs. And I pay $.13 a KWH. I guarantee you I will make thousands of dollars in profit from the 9 S4's I am running now. Then I will underclock at the end, and then harvest the power supplies for other gear  when they done... Thousands....

[macgyver007]

I have been speaking to Yoshi about S4 issues but wanted to get an opinion here since I imagine he is not working on weekends.

One of my units is being shipped back because something burnt. It also had an issue with Fan#2 which is what I posted about earlier.

Looking at my second unit I noticed that Fan#2 in this unit only runs at 240 RPM and the others are about 4000. What caught my attention is other screenshots showing fan speeds and Asic chain temps that are close.

My temps are

chain 1 60
chain 2 48
chain 3 60
chain 4 51

Both of my units have been like this since they arrived. It seems odd to me that both units behave the same way. Anyone else having similar issues? Is there a Fan#2 issue?


BTW - temp in the hashing room is 22C.

I made 3 orders of S4, 1 was for 4 units and 2 for 1 unit as a test for various reasons....6 in total

Of the 6 units, 4 have dead intake fans (3 were front left and 1 front right) all seeming to die within a week of each other...and 1 has a dead hash board....Im calling in for warranty tomorrow and am not impressed to say the least....

Of all the miners Bitmain has come out with I think S4 is the biggest piece of junk of them all....all the machines vibrate and are not put together with care as seen by the lack of thermal grease, and the fact that 2 power posts broke off while tightening them by hand speaks for the lack of quality....
Last of all...whats this about second handed all of a sudden....don't insult your customers BITMAIN I don't see how my NON-SECOND HANDED S4s ended up with marks from the mounting brackets...please  

I almost laugh but just shake my head seeing PetaHash of now worthless miners available from a company who had no stock to ship for the 2 months while the difficulty more than doubled...anyone remember august? Greed at its finest....keep mining Bitmain decentralization is that 1PH at a time ....

[RealMalatesta]

     10% discount has been offered to Second Hand S4, 0.3465$/Gh and shipping out within a week after full payment

This is a good deal people. You cannot buy this much hashing power for this price anywhere in the world. Bitmain consistently out prices everyone. These S4's will be good to run for 10 months at least with underclocking later on.  We need 50 more S4's. P.S. Thanks for the rapid PSU replacements. We had several go out right away and Yoshi took care of us fast. GO BITMAIN

No offense, but sounds like fan boy speak.  How do you know they'll be profitable for 10 months? 

Also remember S4s don't work well on all pools.

And they are prone to drive failures because of cheap components.

In other words, you get what you pay for.

M

Additionally, you could buy S4 for 800 US$ with coupons. All my coupons have expired per end of the year, so basically, they are only 30 US$ cheaper than they were for "old" customers until December 31. So no, it is _not_ a good deal.

[mdude77]

which its the average to find a block in on ckpool?

Not sure.  It's about 3.6 PH/s right now pool wise.  Check out the stats, www.kano.is.

M

[dogie]

Antminer S4 warranty request 05.januar.2015

My S4 constantly overheats and stop hashing.
I opened it and one fan is broken.

S4s are quite overcooled at normal ambients, you can swap out the front two fans with two Corsair SP120s's. [Affiliate link] [Non affiliate link]. In your case, swap one of the working front fans with the broken rear and add an SP120 in. I've done exactly that change as it also reduces noise levels with very similar cooling levels. In a layout like this, the rear fans are doing almost all of the work.

[macgyver007]

Antminer S4 90-day warranty is a big joke

Antminer S4 warranty request 05.januar.2015

My S4 constantly overheats and stop hashing.
I opened it and one fan is broken.
I will send pictures.

Order ID ----------------------
Data 2014-09-30 22:35:26
Shipped : UPS
Tracking No. --------------------------

Recieved 13/10/2014

What to do next ?
I need a new fan.

Best Regards




Hi,
Sorry to hear that.
Are all the other parts working well?
Please try to find one in your local market, below is the detailed
parameters:

​

Best Regards

BITMAIN

Hi,
My local markets are not a fan with so long cable 45cm
See attached image

I still have the miner's 90-day warranty
Please send a new fan.

Best Regards



Hi,
do you have new order recently? We may consider to ship out an extra fan to
you together with it.
But your miner has been out of warranty since a week ago.
We only offer 90 days warranty after ship out.
Thanks.

Best Regards

BITMAIN

Hi,

Your math is wrong.


Tracking No. -------------------
Shipped Date 2014-10-08 08:12:16

23 day okt
30 day  nov
31day  dets
5 day januar

Total 89 day

And I do not currently plan to other orders. But i am  paid a total of
more than 80 BTC for last year Bitmaintech orders .

Please fill out my warranty request  and send me a new  fan.

Best Regards

No more answer,  only Silence

They may consider??? what are they doing you a favour by telling you to source a fan locally  I cant wait to call for warranty because I have 4 DEAD FANS 1 DEAD BOARD and I AM NOT ORDERING ANOTHER THING WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE LIKE THIS.....
Its this type of garbage runaround I got from bitmain myself regarding S2...still waiting on Yoshi to check the miner log I emailed from how many months ago...time to make a phone call  
Also regarding warranty I am pretty sure it applies from the time an item is RECEIVED...so if its never used once and lost in shipping for 3 months no warranty?? this is a joke
I also consider it to be a defect in workmanship and materials when the power posts BREAK when tightened by hand, and YES I was even MORE careful with the second one....at least now I know why they were loose in the first place  
That is like suggesting me to desolder the unbroken power posts from my dead S4 board to put them on the 2 working ones with broken posts..... 1 of the machines has 2 sets of boards from different dates...oddly its the NEW one with the mounting bracket scuffs and dings....
With that said...if you have boards with date 201401004 on the posts are prone to snap when tightening by hand...not to mention all the rattling in the rest of the case  
Also for what its worth...the machine with the dead board had some clear liquid underneath It and had hardly any thermal grease ...pics to follow







I didn't bother taking a pic of the dead fans...nothing to see there although mine didn't fall apart like that  

Also to be noted is how the top heatsinks come in contact with board components and I don't only mean the asic chips ...I don't think those blue caps are meant to be pressed against the heatsinks by design, also the clear liquid still has not evaporated a week later...what is that?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

<snip>

I didn't bother taking a pic of the dead fans...nothing to see there although mine didn't fall apart like that  

Also to be noted is how the top heatsinks come in contact with board components and I don't only mean the asic chips ...I don't think those blue caps are meant to be pressed against the heatsinks by design, also the clear liquid still has not evaporated a week later...what is that?

re: clear liquid. It is most likely the carrier for the thermal compound. Typically it is either a silicon oil or Xylitol (a sugar). Was perhaps not thoroughly mixed?

As for 'not much thermal compound' - don't know your particular circumstance but thermal compound is to be used SPARINGLY to only fill in minor surface irregularities. Filling large gaps uses an entirely different composition than typical thermal grease/compound. From what I see in the pics it looks like there are matching areas where the compound peeled off between the boards and sinks and thickness looks right.

As for the sinks touching the caps - as long as the caps don't get dented , no problem.