ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[MrTeal]

But he did say:

They just need to get off their arses and fix their driver which appears broken.

Yeah, he did. Not sure what you're disagreeing with, the issue isn't resolved at this point and is contingent on Bitmain fixing their driver.

Alternately, when you talk to them you should bring up the possibility of open sourcing their chip protocol and driver source. It would solve a lot of their problems.

[1714025135]

1714025135

[SFMiner]

These S4 miners are horrible. I am having nothing but issues.   The pool is showing half the speed of what the gui is showing.  I updated to the latest bitmain firmware and that didn't help.  Any suggestions.  Thanks. 

What pool and what difficulty are you using?

BAN and its variable diff.

Its a problem while we're waiting for a firmware fix / hack. For now, put it onto BTCGuild / Ghash / Slush's and set difficulty manually to 2048.

Manually setting diff to 2048 at my pool worked for both of my S4s.  Increased my hash rate from 1.7 to 1.95TH... maybe the new PSU will get me to 2TH.  

Thanks Dogie!

And thanks to Bitmain for your transparency with the PSU-related issues.  I'm looking forward to the updated firmware, so I don't have to manually set difficulty.

Hey SeriousCoin, why don't you and the massive chip on your shoulder create your own anti-Dogie thread?  You can rant to your heart's content there.  I don't know about anyone else, but I read this thread for information relevant to the S4, not for the latest accusation against Dogie.

[dogie]

But he did say:

They just need to get off their arses and fix their driver which appears broken.

Yeah, he did. Not sure what you're disagreeing with, the issue isn't resolved at this point and is contingent on Bitmain fixing their driver.

Alternately, when you talk to them you should bring up the possibility of open sourcing their chip protocol and driver source. It would solve a lot of their problems.

Just disagreeing with the people saying it can't be fixed with firmware. Open sourcing is a decision which someone higher would have to do.

[seriouscoin]

I've already said this is off topic 10x but he won't stop spreading lies about me, so I have to disprove them.

If you were able to read english, you would understand that I was replying to the statement "why don't you have lots of money". I was saying that those two degrees are expensive to attain. I have attained one of them so far.

Why you're randomly [and badly] bringing up 18 month old posts I have no idea. Go post in scam accusations.

NO you did not you little lying piece of shit. You got a master degree in less than a year? from MIT? while living in your mom's basement in UK?

The fact that you lied to get ppl to "donate" money while fcking brag about building a $1Million company at age of 13 does not make you a scammer? There is a reason why the forum prohibits begging now, to block fcking pathetic liar like you. There is nothing random about you, everyone here long enough knows what a joke you are.

More off topic stuff, but forced to reply to the lies...

1) Yes, I have a masters in mechanical engineering - you just repeating "no" does not remove my degree :/
2) No its not from MIT
3) I've been financially independent from my parents for the last 7-8 years.
4) I never lied that I was/am/will be paying for college....
5) I've never forced anyone to donate, even for any of my guides...
6) If people want to donate, they can do. In the last 18 months donations have not exceeded $200 or so.
7) It was in £
It was sales. I don't know about you but I don't want around donating companies by their net worth.
9) Post a scam accusation, this is all off topic.

You need to script your lies little better asshole

1) repeating that you HAVE Master degree WHILE begging for a college fund = you're a lying cunt

You have a BEng in Mechanical Engineering? I have a Masters (MEng) in Mechanical Engineering, you are a million miles away being qualified for this - you're going to have a rude awakening once you do more research. [I too I am unqualified for this....]

Note the date of that post?

Then stop complaining. I had £12 in my bank account. Was bored, started my own £1M company at 13. Do something about it other than complain. In either case, why do we have to hear the QQ?

Paying for college: 15UhE4x7d1hD2o2YKCcdddzuhymsTKdeuz

Ah internet...

4 years of engineering and a 2 year MBA at Harvard/MIT = big bucks. Your attempt at logic was a good try though.

Yet still lying....?

2) But you said Master degree from MIT is expensive. Are you admitting your lies to get donation?

3) Ofcourse you've been financially independent.... right....  . My point is you never attended or even got admission to MIT/Harvard like you said when you looked out for donation

4) Every liar says they dont lie. Whats new?

5) Scammers ofcourse dont force their victims to send them money do they? They lie and mislead ppl to send them money. Thats how it works Mr. Master degree

6) Nobody knows how much was "donated" to you, so why bother saying X while you're already caught lying?

7) Thats not the point

8 ) Sorry i cant comprehend gibberish.

9) Lets not have everyone here know about me, i'm not a liar.

[neo9436]

Okay so my B2 S4 arrived yesterday, plugged it in, manually set difficulty and I'm off to the races - no problems.

Got the email about the PSUs - confirmed shipping just now for a new one, but in the meantime, do I need to be worried about the PSU I'm currently running burning my place down??

[seriouscoin]

Okay so my B2 S4 arrived yesterday, plugged it in, manually set difficulty and I'm off to the races - no problems.

Got the email about the PSUs - confirmed shipping just now for a new one, but in the meantime, do I need to be worried about the PSU I'm currently running burning my place down??

As long as you can have watch your miner..... Better safe and get Fire hydrant and smoke detectors. Dont leave the house unattended.

[MrTeal]

But he did say:

They just need to get off their arses and fix their driver which appears broken.

Yeah, he did. Not sure what you're disagreeing with, the issue isn't resolved at this point and is contingent on Bitmain fixing their driver.

Alternately, when you talk to them you should bring up the possibility of open sourcing their chip protocol and driver source. It would solve a lot of their problems.

Just disagreeing with the people saying it can't be fixed with firmware. Open sourcing is a decision which someone higher would have to do.

Well, that it can be fixed with firmware remains to be seen, but hopefully it doesn't drag on too long. I would be surprised if they can't optimize it to the point where it can be made to work, but it's unfortunate that they went with the controller they did and didn't get this issue sorted out before release. It's really a little surprising since a stock BBB should have more than enough muscle to push through the shares, unless something else on the board is bottlenecking things.

Really, both sides of this debate are getting a little ridiculous. For your part dogie, you seem very quick to jump on anyone suggesting that there is a hardware issue which only exacerbates the problem now that you're a paid rep for the company. I'm having a hard time faulting you for being a little defensive given the vitriolic attacks against you that are unrelated to the issues at hand, but not everyone that comments on these posts is attacking you or Bitmain. People just want to see the problem resolved.

[neo9436]

Okay so my B2 S4 arrived yesterday, plugged it in, manually set difficulty and I'm off to the races - no problems.

Got the email about the PSUs - confirmed shipping just now for a new one, but in the meantime, do I need to be worried about the PSU I'm currently running burning my place down??

As long as you can have watch your miner..... Better safe and get Fire hydrant and smoke detectors. Dont leave the house unattended.

Unfortunately I set it up and went to work, finding out about the PSUs afterwards. Hopefully I still have a home to go to. lol

[Brunic]

Power supply replacement for the Antminer S4

Dear loyal customers,
Today we have found out that the batch of power supplies shipped out in batch 1 and the first part of batch 2 Antminer S4s contain a critical defect. The customized power supply produced by AplusPower Co. Ltd is suffering from an unacceptably high failure rate and will be replaced with immediate effect.
We take full responsibility for the problems caused and had not anticipated the unique loading conditions of a miner when selecting and testing the suitability of these power supplies. You can read more about the defect in the post below.
We are now taking steps to ensure that customers are impacted as little as possible. The rest of batch 2 S4s will come with the improved power supply as standard.

The following actions are being taken for miners already delivered:
1)  If your PSU has already failed:
•   Submit a RMA request with some pictures and proof [ie with your username in the photo] of your PSU’s failure to info@bitmaintech.com.
•   We will then ship a new PSU out as soon as possible.
•   We will also issue compensation to the value of 10 days of mining profit calculated starting from shipping date
2) If your PSU has not failed and the miner is running normally:
•   We will ship a new PSU to you.
•   Please do not contact support yet, you will receive an email asking to confirm your shipping.
      

Analysis of power supply failures within the first batch of Antminer S4s

We are sorry for the inconvenience you may have experienced regarding power supply failures, or even sporadic events of smoke from our first batch of Antminer S4s. We immediately set out to investigate the reports of failed power supplies from customers, and have made immediate changes to improve the quality of future deliveries. What happened with these power supplies is not acceptable.



The power supplies failed by two different mechanisms:

1) Failed TR1 or TR2 MOSFETs on the power factor correction (PFC) circuitry.

After investigations, it was found that the unusual service conditions a miner puts on its power supply was the cause of the failure. The repeated abrupt, dynamic loading generated significant current through the PFC circuits, eventually leading to the failure of the TR1 or TR2 MOSFETs.

The replacement power supplies have significantly upgraded PFC circuits in order to improve performance and prevent a recurrence of the problem.


2) Failed MOSFET on the output Synchronous rectifier circuit

A MOSFET on the output Synchronous rectification circuit was also found to be failing, due to the repeated and sudden load changes during the miners’ operation.

During normal operation, the output MOSFET is expected to carry a current of approximately 30A and operate at a surface temperature of around 80C. The failing MOSFET was found to be heating up significantly further than this, causing the carbonized black PCBs and smoking thermal pad.

It is worth noting that although a failed output MOSFET at high temperatures may result in some smoke from the PCB and thermal pad, it will not start a fire. All internal components of the PSU meet the requirements of the UL94-V0 flame retardancy standard, which certifies that any ignition will self-extinguish within a maximum of 10 seconds.

In response to this problem, the sample filter in the Synchronous rectifier circuits have been altered to erase the excessive current, and so the MOSFET will not fail again. In addition, several high temperature prevention circuits have been added which will better protect the power supply from overloading and excessive temperatures.


Moving forwards

We always perform significant dynamic testing on chosen power supplies, however in this case we failed to recognize the special conditions and specific loading characteristics the miner would place on the power supply. Our testing has been altered to replicate and include these loading characteristics on any power supplies introduced in the future. Once again, we are sorry.

This is outstanding customer service and a great reason to continue to do business with you.

[seriouscoin]

Okay so my B2 S4 arrived yesterday, plugged it in, manually set difficulty and I'm off to the races - no problems.

Got the email about the PSUs - confirmed shipping just now for a new one, but in the meantime, do I need to be worried about the PSU I'm currently running burning my place down??

As long as you can have watch your miner..... Better safe and get Fire hydrant and smoke detectors. Dont leave the house unattended.

Unfortunately I set it up and went to work, finding out about the PSUs afterwards. Hopefully I still have a home to go to. lol

In my early mining days, ppl actually burned their home with GPU mining due to PSU failures. You should look into fire detection at least. I would personally not risk mining unattended until the new PSU come.

[PatMan]

For your part dogie, you seem very quick to jump on anyone suggesting that there is a hardware issue which only exacerbates the problem now that you're a paid rep for the company. I'm having a hard time faulting you for being a little defensive given the vitriolic attacks against you that are unrelated to the issues at hand, but not everyone that comments on these posts is attacking you or Bitmain. People just want to see the problem resolved.

This.

Thank you MrTeal! Couldn't say it better myself 

[dogie]

Okay so my B2 S4 arrived yesterday, plugged it in, manually set difficulty and I'm off to the races - no problems.

Got the email about the PSUs - confirmed shipping just now for a new one, but in the meantime, do I need to be worried about the PSU I'm currently running burning my place down??

No you don't need to be worried.

It is worth noting that although a failed output MOSFET at high temperatures may result in some smoke from the PCB and thermal pad, it will not start a fire. All internal components of the PSU meet the requirements of the UL94-V0 flame retardancy standard, which certifies that any ignition will self-extinguish within a maximum of 10 seconds.

[dlowings]

I assume you will be replacing the underpowered controller in the next batch also?

can you give us details on this ? only reason I ask, the Bitmain tech is asking me to switch boards from one of my working miners .

Ckolivas was quoted a few pages back about it:

It turns out the controller is so low powered that it can only process ~30 shares per second which mean that unless diff is set higher, they work their way into a death spiral before diff catches up. Great...

EDIT: Which presumably means that it can't be fixed by any new firmware releases - it's a hardware issue.

Thats interesting, I wonder if as a work around you could use something like a RbPie to offload some of the work from a daughter board perspective .

[pikachuy]

2) If your PSU has not failed and the miner is running normally:
•   We will ship a new PSU to you.
•   Please do not contact support yet, you will receive an email asking to confirm your shipping.

How can we confirm if we have the defective PSU if it hasn't failed yet? And how would it work if we are buying from a reseller, do we still get the new PSU ship directly to us or the reseller gets it?

Please describe how we can tell the difference from a defective PSU S4 model, and a non defective PSU S4 model, before they get defective.

The new, good PSUs have a barcode on the outside of the case. Old ones don't.

Can that barcode difference from batch 1/pre-batch 2 and good batch 2 be confirmed by BITMAN? Or would that barcode also be on pre-batch 2 even with PSU problems? Or is that barcode only on the good PSU? Can a BITMAIN user account confirm please???

Also, why still use the same power supply company that created issues with the old PSU again? Are they reliable to trust this time? Has a stress test been ran? I see the picture and it says it's from AplusPower Co. Ltd...

[HerbPean]

My faith in BitmainTech has been renew ...

[neo9436]

Okay so my B2 S4 arrived yesterday, plugged it in, manually set difficulty and I'm off to the races - no problems.

Got the email about the PSUs - confirmed shipping just now for a new one, but in the meantime, do I need to be worried about the PSU I'm currently running burning my place down??

No you don't need to be worried.

It is worth noting that although a failed output MOSFET at high temperatures may result in some smoke from the PCB and thermal pad, it will not start a fire. All internal components of the PSU meet the requirements of the UL94-V0 flame retardancy standard, which certifies that any ignition will self-extinguish within a maximum of 10 seconds.

I must have missed that, thanks Dogie!

[mindtrip]

I received my replacement PSU today from bitmain I can confirm the batch 1 bad PSU had no barcode or markings on it at all the new unit has the barcode and markings on it as I saw in a previous picture post. I will install it today and hopefully were back up and running without a hitch

[pikachuy]

I received my replacement PSU today from bitmain I can confirm the batch 1 bad PSU had no barcode or markings on it at all the new unit has the barcode and markings on it as I saw in a previous picture post. I will install it today and hopefully were back up and running without a hitch

Can you take side by side photo comparisons pretty please.

[mindtrip]

Sure as requested. They both look like there beat up with a lot of scratches but as long as they work and dont catch on fire its all good 

[Prelude]

I know this doesn't necessarily mean anything, but APLUSPOWER not having every certified any PSUs for 80+ certification kind of bugs me. Do they operate under any other names?

http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80pluspowersupplies.aspx