ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[rpandassociates]

Hi Guys

I've have an Antminer S4 running happily since early November without any real issues.

But yesterday, it didn't want to bootup. I think I've diagnose the problem as a faulty SD card. I've bought a new SD card but I don't have a backup (I had made one, but I've lost it)

How would I go about reloading the firmware on the SD card? I searched but can't seem to find a guide. Or where online can I find image of the SD card?

I stay in South Africa and have sluggish internet so to minimize down time I would prefer not to download an entire 4GB image clone.  

Why do you need to reload the firmware of the new SD?

I bought a cpl used and one would not boot, after checking all cables etc. I slide the SD card out put it back in and it booted. My theory the pins on the SD card reader are silver and the SD card contacts are gold. Oxidation due to dissimilar materials. All be it I did not observe any visible oxidation thats my theory, or maybe the contacts were just not seated properly due to shipping knocking them loose?

Who knows but it worked

[Marvell1]

Just picked up two from zoomhash at $499 each I wanted an sp20 farm but those are sold out.

[rpandassociates]

yup I got the email from zoomhash 499$ new hard to beat that well the $100 shipping was a turn off, i got a cpl used from gawminers a cpl weeks back for $475 shipping included. but definately a decent sale at zoomhash but they need to rethink that offer a bit $459 used versus $499 new well dont see many people buying the used ones at that rate haha BTW these have been selling on ebay all day long for $700+ I am so tempted to buy a bunch to resell them, people on ebay need to learn how to use a search engine

[waldofaldo]

Hi,

I will share my experience with my order, sorry if you are tired of reading same things.....but I need to share my feelings, hope that someone will be able to help me one way or other.

I bought 32 units on black friday, only after one week mining, 6 PSU gone, and one PSU fan.

I had to wait 20+ days to get the replacement PSU, didn`t send the fan ( I replaced myself and is not the fan so they should send another PSU).....and no compensation for all inconvenients coming from almost waisted miners they sent to us.

I said during that RMA that I was afraid cause 7 PSU broken on first week is almost 21,8% of mining power off, a whole month.

As is obvious we had to pay shipping costs and clearance for the PSU, again.

In the last week, 12 PSU gone away, one per day.....only some days before Bitmain warranty expires......

So, from 32 miners: 19 PSU failed....around ~30% of the order in the first trhree months.....wow.
Sadly four miners have got issues with:
 
 • Faulty chips, I made my own troubleshooting changing cables to isolate the problem, but Bitmain did not send anything......
 • Ethernet connection.
 • Fans in no working conditions.
 • Some of the cables, arrived broken, burnt, and full of dust and other rubbish. What kind of new is that? I have a video of that.
 • One ChipBoard has its Screwed 12V+  and GND- connectors  lost, cause the first time we had to screw off the cables they just got broken, just like if I had used a Katana and we were cartoon.
 • One miner only hashes if the initial Bitmain pool data is on the configuration, cause when we change it, the miner gets lazy, no hashing.
 
 I really enjoyed this order, my first order to Bitmain.....till now they did not solve any of my issues quickly....Mining Asic manufacturers.....I was dreaming that someone could make  the difference, not only on the technology, they should take care of their Customer department and the relationships they handle. Customer is the same as Future, why to renounce such way.

Best Regards.

[BITMAIN_YHQIN]

  PMed, please check.

Hi,

I will share my experience with my order, sorry if you are tired of reading same things.....but I need to share my feelings, hope that someone will be able to help me one way or other.

I bought 32 units on black friday, only after one week mining, 6 PSU gone, and one PSU fan.

I had to wait 20+ days to get the replacement PSU, didn`t send the fan ( I replaced myself and is not the fan so they should send another PSU).....and no compensation for all inconvenients coming from almost waisted miners they sent to us.

I said during that RMA that I was afraid cause 7 PSU broken on first week is almost 21,8% of mining power off, a whole month.

As is obvious we had to pay shipping costs and clearance for the PSU, again.

In the last week, 12 PSU gone away, one per day.....only some days before Bitmain warranty expires......

So, from 32 miners: 19 PSU failed....around ~30% of the order in the first trhree months.....wow.
Sadly four miners have got issues with:
 
 • Faulty chips, I made my own troubleshooting changing cables to isolate the problem, but Bitmain did not send anything......
 • Ethernet connection.
 • Fans in no working conditions.
 • Some of the cables, arrived broken, burnt, and full of dust and other rubbish. What kind of new is that? I have a video of that.
 • One ChipBoard has its Screwed 12V+  and GND- connectors  lost, cause the first time we had to screw off the cables they just got broken, just like if I had used a Katana and we were cartoon.
 • One miner only hashes if the initial Bitmain pool data is on the configuration, cause when we change it, the miner gets lazy, no hashing.
 
 I really enjoyed this order, my first order to Bitmain.....till now they did not solve any of my issues quickly....Mining Asic manufacturers.....I was dreaming that someone could make  the difference, not only on the technology, they should take care of their Customer department and the relationships they handle. Customer is the same as Future, why to renounce such way.

Best Regards.

[lovenlifelarge]

All companies have some issue, I am a HUGE Bitmain fan though, I have over 80 S3 a couple S2 and now 16 S4s running.  Never an issue with the S3's, couple small things with S2, but the S4's I am hoping is just the SD card reseat - they emailed me to try that out.

Other Bitcoin tech companies have a much more checkered past, with pre-sales, and over pricing to the extent you can't ROI on the gear.  Keep going Bitmain, and I'll keep buying.

Bitmain is guilty of pre-sales and some would argue their gear is overpriced.

Like the $425,000 "sale" for 1 PH/s of hosted power, plus electricity.

M

If u aint got nottin nice to say, Then u have no business being on this thread.

This is for sales & tech support not for u i ant got ones to trash something u don't have....

Go to the speculations section for crap talk & rumour spreading..

[gemstone]

Amended:
Quackers, did some reading ... AFTER posting questions
but still some input would be nice.

What is the CFM capacity of the stock fans?
found this one, I think... 238.09
but then it further states 27.6W Power consumption, 4300 RPM, and 60 DB-A
(my S4 at stock is running at 3600 RPM and the rear howlers are 74 DB-A so my Android tells me)
I don't want to imagine 4300 ... there has to be some relief, no?

Any recommendations of replacement fans?

Considering Delta 1212SHE-F00 ... guess only as possible front replacement... (know this one, works on S5 very nice, 51 DB-A)

Read through Digi-key catalog for Delta Fans... This seems to come closest to the stock one...
Delta Electronics AFB1212GHE-CF00 (scary 5200 rpm), but wait, there is more ;-)
this one at 1ST PC CORP. Delta QFR1212GHE-PWM (6000 rpm, 210 CFM and wait for it ... 64 DB-A at a 'cough' 39 bucks).

Does anybody know any of these fans? PWM working of the QFR?
(AFB 4 pin Molex power and RPM sensor TAC output through its 3 Pin) I need to modify something here? (I really suck at modding)

thank you

[cdjbolton]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

[taweesak]

if you have a dead PSU, please PM this account with your Bitmaintech.com OrderID and what happened to the PSU, please take some photos with your username on it.

Questions regarding using a different PSU while the original PSU is dead. Yes as long as it is a strong enough PSU, you can do so with your own risk. 

S4 is designed specific with this PSU, so if you use any other PSU, please consider how much watt each line would pull and power cord gauge)  If you modify PSU to fit with the connectors on S4, it could be hazardous to splice the wire without a proper process and it may create a fire hazard or electrical shock hazard.

i think my PSU dead then file ticket since 2015-02-25 03:46:16 (ID:#1179)

the support not answer me since 2015-02-25 07:12:45

then found this post , PM BitmainWarranty and not response , then post http://forum.bitmain.com/bbs/topics/1374 , and not response again , back to PM  BitmainWarranty  still not response , then post here and what can i do next?

thank you

[ZymurBits]

i think my PSU dead then file ticket since 2015-02-25 03:46:16 (ID:#1179)

the support not answer me since 2015-02-25 07:12:45

then found this post , PM BitmainWarranty and not response , then post http://forum.bitmain.com/bbs/topics/1374 , and not response again , back to PM  BitmainWarranty  still not response , then post here and what can i do next?

thank you

Try creating a ticket here:  https://bitmain.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

My 2-cents is to get an IBM 2kw PSU (208-240v only) and breakout board to replace it. http://www.gekkoscience.com/products/IBM2K_board.html is a good source for the breakouts and PSU's or check eBay for the PSU's. Together they should run around $75-80 total+ shipping.
I got 4 of the beasts for when my S4's croak...

[Prelude]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

My 2-cents is to get an IBM 2kw PSU (208-240v only) and breakout board to replace it. http://www.gekkoscience.com/products/IBM2K_board.html is a good source for the breakouts and PSU's or check eBay for the PSU's. Together they should run around $75-80 total+ shipping.
I got 4 of the beasts for when my S4's croak...

That's exactly what I'm doing with my 5 S4s, it's definitely the way to go.

[ZymurBits]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

My 2-cents is to get an IBM 2kw PSU (208-240v only) and breakout board to replace it. http://www.gekkoscience.com/products/IBM2K_board.html is a good source for the breakouts and PSU's or check eBay for the PSU's. Together they should run around $75-80 total+ shipping.
I got 4 of the beasts for when my S4's croak...

That's exactly what I'm doing with my 5 S4s, it's definitely the way to go.

Anyone know if this would work for an S2 as well?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

My 2-cents is to get an IBM 2kw PSU (208-240v only) and breakout board to replace it. http://www.gekkoscience.com/products/IBM2K_board.html is a good source for the breakouts and PSU's or check eBay for the PSU's. Together they should run around $75-80 total+ shipping.
I got 4 of the beasts for when my S4's croak...

That's exactly what I'm doing with my 5 S4s, it's definitely the way to go.

Anyone know if this would work for an S2 as well?

Certainly though is hefty overkill for the S2 as they 'only' pull a hair over 1kw. If you have >208v for feed then the HP 1200w CS (Common Slot) supplies would be a better match. Just have to do some soldering with those tp attach the PCIe power leads as breakout boards are not easy to find.

[Amph]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

cheap psu can cause that, never buy a cheap psu, is the important component, you can try to return it but in the end i would suggest a corsair or seasonic

850w should be enough for the s4

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

cheap psu can cause that, never buy a cheap psu, is the important component, you can try to return it but in the end i would suggest a corsair or seasonic

850w should be enough for the s4

850w for an s4???
Hate to tell ya this but my s4's running stock speed and Vcore draw between 1,250 and 1,375w from the wall as reported by my UPS's.
My S2's report 1,039w again @ stock speeds.

[cdjbolton]

Hi Everyone,

I think my S4 PSU died this morning, I have only had the machine 3 months or so and i think the psu is dead, could anybody help me figure out if it is and how i go about replacing the PSU

I woke up this morning to find one breaker on my board had tripped, I checked the S4 and the PSU doesnt show any signs of life at all, I have checked the fuse and thats ok, but the psu does not boot at all, is there anything i can do to fault find.

I know i had one of the newer PSUs that didnt have the issue the first batch did, and the S4 has been running flawlessly since i purchased it, just a bit depressing to see one of my best machines go down

Any help would be really appreciated.

My 2-cents is to get an IBM 2kw PSU (208-240v only) and breakout board to replace it. http://www.gekkoscience.com/products/IBM2K_board.html is a good source for the breakouts and PSU's or check eBay for the PSU's. Together they should run around $75-80 total+ shipping.
I got 4 of the beasts for when my S4's croak...

That's exactly what I'm doing with my 5 S4s, it's definitely the way to go.

So I thought id give you all a quick update, Used a link that was in a previous message and I was going to open a ticket, and noticed the live chat support.

Ended up speaking with yoshi and went through what was wrong, I spent 10 minutes on chat and in that time he had already arranged a replacement power supply for me 

He advised me it would be shipped from america overnight, I was over the moon he also said the tracking information would follow.

I honestly expected the replacement to take at least a week or so, but to my excitement i checked my email this afternoon in work and low and behold the power supply was in the Manchester UPS depot which was unbelievable.

It ended up being less than 24 hours shipping 

I still have to pick up the power supply from UPS tomorrow, but I will update everyone with my progress.

Just wanted to say a big thank you to yoshi and bitmain very happy with the service.

[cdjbolton]

Also thanks everyone one for your help just glad its sorted now. (Well until i test tomorrow)

I may end up buying the 2000watt ibm psu anyway, thanks for the link for the breakout boards, this was the thing i was struggling with as my soldering isn't the best  

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Also thanks everyone one for your help just glad its sorted now. (Well until i test tomorrow)

I may end up buying the 2000watt ibm psu anyway, thanks for the link for the breakout boards, this was the thing i was struggling with as my soldering isn't the best  

Glad that went well
Ja the 2kw PSU's are great, lots of reserve margin with a S4 and enough oomph to push overclocking pretty high if desired. I'd think hitting near 3THs would not be unreasonable.

and of course 2kw is perfect for 3 of the S5's @ stock speed, maybe even goosed a bit...

Oh, re: soldering. When it comes to server power supplies and their associated wiring the most common problem is using a soldering iron that is too low wattage (most are 25-35w). Due to the heavy wiring and large PSU contacts being very good at sucking the heat away you need at least a 65w iron with large flat tip for fast & decent joints

[RealMalatesta]

My second PSU died - and Bitmain sent the replacement faster than I could imagine. So while I'm normally a grumpy old man, this really was more than I ever expected. Thanks.