ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[pikachuy]

Yes, you can do so, but you have to log in to S4 via SSH. 

Putty software can be downloaded from their website @  http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Modifying the config file value that is not modifiable via the web control panel, may voids the warranty.  Use CAUTION when you modify this setting.

Any file you attempt to make changes, please make a back up file first!!

cp originalfilename originalfilename.copy

then use command such as "vi" to edit the file. 

If something really goes wrong, you can always try to factory reset the S4 by using a paperclip to the bottom hole (left side bottom) next to the LCB screen.  Press and hold the button for at least 5 seconds and let it go.  Then wait for 2 minutes, power it off and power it back on!

If that doesn't work, you can always reimage the default image file from http://www.bitmaintech.com Support Page.


PSA: Tim.Shao19 is from Bitmain Tech

Would something like this apply to the S4 to mine multiple pools simultaneously? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395721.0

Or how would we achieve that for the S4?

How do we make changes like this via SSH to stay on reboots?

Thank you so much for the time you've invested to make the S4 more funtional, ckolivas. I'm going to send you a donation tomorrow morning.

I'd like to try ck's new version tomorrow, but I have no idea how to go about updating cgminer. Can anyone shed some light, or point me towards a guide?

Assuming your S4's IP address was say 192.168.1.99:

Code:

ssh -l root 192.168.1.99 (or equivalent with putty)
wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141018/cgminer
mv /usr/bin/cgminer /usr/bin/cgminer.bak
chmod +x cgminer
mv cgminer /usr/bin/cgminer
/etc/init.d/cgminer.sh restart

I think that might not keep across a power cycle though.

Updating cgminer gets defaulted back to it's original cgminer on reboots.

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[Tim.Shao19]

Hi, yesterday I received an email about sending 3 new PSUs and information that other 7 will be shipped ASAP. I was really happy because I have had 3 miners without PSUs, but not for a long time. Nowadays I have 10 pcs S4 B1 and 10 pcs S4 B2 and a lot of S3+ miners.

Today morning when I arrived to work I smelled burnt stink. Employees were scared, called me and ran around. WTF I said for myself. I hoped that the reason for all arround was not caused by miners but I was not right. I looked at the miners and two of them were down. Immediately I switched off all breakers dedicated for miners. And yes, one miner had PSU burned down. It was very easy to find which miner was bad It was the fourth failed PSU. I checked all breakers and only one was switched off automatically.

When the smell disappeared from the building (after 2 hours) I started with switching on the breakers one by one. After that I switched on PSUs on S4s. But another one from B1 and also one from B2 could not start. Also fans were stopped. I tried to reconnect the power but nothing helped. I have not understood what happened. All miners were running more than one week continuously.
The PSUs do have really some problems. I hoped that PSUs in B2 were good, but....or today is only bad day for mining

Today status is 5 failed PSUs from 10 pcs from B1 and one failed PSU from 10 pcs from B2.

Truly sorry about that, Sir. This is Tim Shao from Bitmaintech. You may have received an email from info@bitmaintech.com asking you to specify the PSU type. And i wonder if you can provide some photos to show us the burned PSU, i'm not asking you to risk running the miner again. But it does help if we can glean some actual info from the affected customer and submit them to the PSU supplier, and this will also help us improve the product quality to prevent this from happening again. Thank you for your understanding.  
I have the following questions:

1.
"I looked at the miners and two of them were down. Immediately I switched off all breakers dedicated for miners. And yes, one miner had PSU burned down. It was very easy to find which miner was bad"
Two were down, and one miner had PSU burned down? Which one was burned down? And what about the other one? Stop running? cannot power it up?

2.
And you mentioned in the following posts that your B2 has barcode on it and you are sure it's not from the defective batch, can you provide me your order id for this miner, or would you please send me a photo of it? Thanks.

Hi all, yes I have received the email. I am sure that the PSU is from batch 2 (have sticker and SN). 
Answers for Tim.Shao19:
1. My miners are connected in pairs to single breaker(2xS4 to 1xC20 breaker). When one PSU burnt down and breaker for this miner went down also another miner switched off. Is it clear?
2. Order is 00120141014004349482tuQeQyd106EE from 2014-10-14 00:43:50.0. PSU SN:188A410120045 PSU don't have visible changes outside and also inside.

Hi there, we may have sent replacement PSUs to you, have u received any tracking no for the replacements? or you can provide me your email address or order id, then i will double check and keep you informed. And can you please provide any proof on your burned PSU if possible? (i know it may be difficult to tell the burned PSU from the appearance.) we need to glean some real info from customers and feedback with the PSU supplier rather than just claim that we got bad PSUs.  Thanks.

[Tim.Shao19]

This is Tim Shao from Bitmaintech.

At last! A real Bitmaintech employee who can offer some real support, not a moment too soon either.

I hope he cleans up all the dogie poo left on this thread......

hi, dogie is the right person to help u with the operation guide and technical support.
please understand that sometimes customers may come across problems with your miners due to various combinations. And it did happen before we received the so-called faulty items or even the whole unit and found it was actually running well.
And if you found some hardware problems, like the faulty hashing PCBs, controller boards,etc, you can send an email with your RMA request to this email address: info@bitmaintech.com or contact Bitcoinwarranty directly. We will arrange a return accordingly.
Anyway, we will try to improve our aftersales service.
 

[deleterase]

This is Tim Shao from Bitmaintech.

At last! A real Bitmaintech employee who can offer some real support, not a moment too soon either.

I hope he cleans up all the dogie poo left on this thread......

hi, dogie is the right person to help u with the operation guide and technical support.
please understand that sometimes customers may come across problems with your miners due to various combinations. And it did happen before we received the so-called faulty items or even the whole unit and found it was actually running well.
And if you found some hardware problems, like the faulty hashing PCBs, controller boards,etc, you can send an email with your RMA request to this email address: info@bitmaintech.com or contact Bitcoinwarranty directly. We will arrange a return accordingly.
Anyway, we will try to improve our aftersales service.
  

I would rather deal directly with Bitmain than go through a paid off messenger boy with a bad attitude who's committing tax fraud, thank you.

Can you tell us why you still haven't released the S2 firmware you promised 9 weeks ago to fix the security issues & update cgminer?

Why have you not fixed the latest S3 firmware that actually breaks the S3 & lessens its performance - surely you should take it off your support page?

Will S4 users also have to wait over 9 weeks for a firmware fix & so allow them to use a pool of their choice?

I notice Spondoolies are now issuing compensation payments to their customers for lost mining time & underperforming units - will Bitmain be doing the same?

Thanks.

[Tupsu]

Today received a new PSU for S4. To custom.
with the invoice 140 USD But you can not marked the cost of shipping.

Thanks a lot - BITMAINTECH - for stupidity.
For sending 2,5kg PSU in 1 kg   UPS shipment.  Do not have the option of weighing ? UPS does.

And now I have to pay custom duty for the shipment weight per volume. 3,5kg.  Declared value total 240EUR.
Only 48 EUR + 22.80 EUR for the custom declaration to UPS.

A total of 70 euros for the fact that you have sent me with the S4 a  piece of shit, not PSU

Thanks a lot, for new PSU.

[lanfeusst]

Hi everyone,
Does anyone have a S4 coupon that they won't use ?
I want to buy my first miner to try it for the winter and the S4 seems to be good. 
My user name on the bitmain website is lanfeusst (same as here)
and the user id is lanfeusst (at) hotmail (dot) fr

Thanks a lot your help will be appreciated 

[Tupsu]

Hi everyone,
Does anyone have a S4 coupon that they won't use ?
........

All my 200USD coupons expired 2014-09-23 22:28:00~2014-10-25 21:09:00

[dlowings]

can someone answer a question about all this firmware exploit talk …

Question one, if you revert back to "FLASH to the last released firmware" would it clear the exploited box ? I get that the Firmware has a hole that MAY be exploited, but could this be stopped by closing a network hole in your own network ? I'm not looking at pointing fingers or debating who's responsibility this is … I manage S2 and S4 box's and I have yet to see any of them exploited . so the next question is, how are these box's being set up so that they can get access to the outside world to be exploited ?

[neo9436]

My new PSU just arrived, no duty, tax, etc.

I'll install it when I get home tonight.

[dlowings]

My new PSU just arrived, no duty, tax, etc.

I'll install it when I get home tonight.

Got my first replacement last Friday, put it in and it works great so far… Still no refund on the 10 days mining compensation , I was down for far more then 10 days but at least I'm up and running now … The other two PSU's for the two units that were not impacted should arrive today … On the down side I have to unrack those units and take them apart to make the replacement..

Bitmain, im glad you sent out new PSU's but you forgot to put in a few additional zip ties … just saying lol …

[PatMan]

can someone answer a question about all this firmware exploit talk …

Question one, if you revert back to "FLASH to the last released firmware" would it clear the exploited box ? I get that the Firmware has a hole that MAY be exploited, but could this be stopped by closing a network hole in your own network ? I'm not looking at pointing fingers or debating who's responsibility this is … I manage S2 and S4 box's and I have yet to see any of them exploited . so the next question is, how are these box's being set up so that they can get access to the outside world to be exploited ?

It's a stratum exploit in older versions of cgminer & others, not in the firmware itself. The only way to fix it is by upgrading cgminer. Also, just because you haven't noticed it - it doesn't mean it hasn't/isn't happening 

[dlowings]

can someone answer a question about all this firmware exploit talk …

Question one, if you revert back to "FLASH to the last released firmware" would it clear the exploited box ? I get that the Firmware has a hole that MAY be exploited, but could this be stopped by closing a network hole in your own network ? I'm not looking at pointing fingers or debating who's responsibility this is … I manage S2 and S4 box's and I have yet to see any of them exploited . so the next question is, how are these box's being set up so that they can get access to the outside world to be exploited ?

It's a stratum exploit in older versions of cgminer & others, not in the firmware itself. The only way to fix it is by upgrading cgminer. Also, just because you haven't noticed it - it doesn't mean it hasn't/isn't happening 

Guess I should set up wire shark to check it out ...

[allcoinminer]

Today received a new PSU for S4. To custom.
with the invoice 140 USD But you can not marked the cost of shipping.

Thanks a lot - BITMAINTECH - for stupidity.
For sending 2,5kg PSU in 1 kg   UPS shipment.  Do not have the option of weighing ? UPS does.

And now I have to pay custom duty for the shipment weight per volume. 3,5kg.  Declared value total 240EUR.
Only 48 EUR + 22.80 EUR for the custom declaration to UPS.

A total of 70 euros for the fact that you have sent me with the S4 a  piece of shit, not PSU

Thanks a lot, for new PSU.

The impact of so-called minor quality problem and "zero issues" as per Comprehensive Manufacturer Trustworthiness Guide by dogie's,
the BitMainTech Employee and Bitcointalk forum member.
See how hard its for the customer side.

[PatMan]

Today received a new PSU for S4. To custom.
with the invoice 140 USD But you can not marked the cost of shipping.

Thanks a lot - BITMAINTECH - for stupidity.
For sending 2,5kg PSU in 1 kg   UPS shipment.  Do not have the option of weighing ? UPS does.

And now I have to pay custom duty for the shipment weight per volume. 3,5kg.  Declared value total 240EUR.
Only 48 EUR + 22.80 EUR for the custom declaration to UPS.

A total of 70 euros for the fact that you have sent me with the S4 a  piece of shit, not PSU

Thanks a lot, for new PSU.

The impact of so-called minor error as per Comprehensive Manufacturer Trustworthiness Guide by dogie's,
the BitMainTech Employee and Bitcointalk forum member.
See how hard its for the customer side.

+100

I'm sure it's nothing to do with the "great" communication he awarded himself.......

[NotFuzzyWarm]

just got my tracking number too.. but here's the question, do they expect us to pay for the import duty? and same with sending their psu back to them as suggested in the last email? cause thats gonna hurt my wallet if i have to pay for that again..

Duty? Not in the US at least. Is part of the shipping cost.
As for returns/replacements. No duty as long as parts are marked as warranty replacements. Even if Bitmain wants to old one back as long as marked as a Return no duty applies (plus if any did would be their problem, not yours)

the last time i had an issue with the s2 they took the old hashboard back, they were meant to pay the duty, they didnt pay it, and ups were up my ass for the money, so in the end i had to pay for that too

... We ship things to/from Asia all the time and never came across that before. I'd try and go after Bitmain for the monies. If anything to make it more palatable to them (though it IS their responsibility) email support an offer to buy a set of s3's if they deduct the current btc value of the duty you paid?

[lanfeusst]

Hi everyone,
Does anyone have a S4 coupon that they won't use ?
........

All my 200USD coupons expired 2014-09-23 22:28:00~2014-10-25 21:09:00

All right, that's too bad, thanks anyway.
I think nobody has any valid coupons for a S4 anymore then 
I will try to wait a few days for the value of BTC to go up to make the price of the S4 go down we never know.

[dlowings]

just got my tracking number too.. but here's the question, do they expect us to pay for the import duty? and same with sending their psu back to them as suggested in the last email? cause thats gonna hurt my wallet if i have to pay for that again..

Duty? Not in the US at least. Is part of the shipping cost.
As for returns/replacements. No duty as long as parts are marked as warranty replacements. Even if Bitmain wants to old one back as long as marked as a Return no duty applies (plus if any did would be their problem, not yours)

the last time i had an issue with the s2 they took the old hashboard back, they were meant to pay the duty, they didnt pay it, and ups were up my ass for the money, so in the end i had to pay for that too

... We ship things to/from Asia all the time and never came across that before. I'd try and go after Bitmain for the monies. If anything to make it more palatable to them (though it IS their responsibility) email support an offer to buy a set of s3's if they deduct the current btc value of the duty?

The sender has the responsibility as marking it "warranty replacement part" .. I think if you do that the duty should be waved . mark the value of the defective part "0.00"

No?

[Prelude]

Got my replacement today, no duties to pay.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

just got my tracking number too.. but here's the question, do they expect us to pay for the import duty? and same with sending their psu back to them as suggested in the last email? cause thats gonna hurt my wallet if i have to pay for that again..

Duty? Not in the US at least. Is part of the shipping cost.
As for returns/replacements. No duty as long as parts are marked as warranty replacements. Even if Bitmain wants to old one back as long as marked as a Return no duty applies (plus if any did would be their problem, not yours)

the last time i had an issue with the s2 they took the old hashboard back, they were meant to pay the duty, they didnt pay it, and ups were up my ass for the money, so in the end i had to pay for that too

... We ship things to/from Asia all the time and never came across that before. I'd try and go after Bitmain for the monies. If anything to make it more palatable to them (though it IS their responsibility) email support an offer to buy a set of s3's if they deduct the current btc value of the duty?

The sender has the responsibility as marking it "warranty replacement part" .. I think if you do that the duty should be waved . mark the value of the defective part "0.00"

No?

yes that is how it goes.
Sender of the replacement still has to list the correct value or Customs gets upset but also identify it as a no-cost warranty replacement to nullify import duty and taxes. Defective part being returned is to be labeled as 'defective' with zero value.

[manitu]

Hi, yesterday I received an email about sending 3 new PSUs and information that other 7 will be shipped ASAP. I was really happy because I have had 3 miners without PSUs, but not for a long time. Nowadays I have 10 pcs S4 B1 and 10 pcs S4 B2 and a lot of S3+ miners.

Today morning when I arrived to work I smelled burnt stink. Employees were scared, called me and ran around. WTF I said for myself. I hoped that the reason for all arround was not caused by miners but I was not right. I looked at the miners and two of them were down. Immediately I switched off all breakers dedicated for miners. And yes, one miner had PSU burned down. It was very easy to find which miner was bad It was the fourth failed PSU. I checked all breakers and only one was switched off automatically.

When the smell disappeared from the building (after 2 hours) I started with switching on the breakers one by one. After that I switched on PSUs on S4s. But another one from B1 and also one from B2 could not start. Also fans were stopped. I tried to reconnect the power but nothing helped. I have not understood what happened. All miners were running more than one week continuously.
The PSUs do have really some problems. I hoped that PSUs in B2 were good, but....or today is only bad day for mining

Today status is 5 failed PSUs from 10 pcs from B1 and one failed PSU from 10 pcs from B2.

Truly sorry about that, Sir. This is Tim Shao from Bitmaintech. You may have received an email from info@bitmaintech.com asking you to specify the PSU type. And i wonder if you can provide some photos to show us the burned PSU, i'm not asking you to risk running the miner again. But it does help if we can glean some actual info from the affected customer and submit them to the PSU supplier, and this will also help us improve the product quality to prevent this from happening again. Thank you for your understanding.  
I have the following questions:
1.
"I looked at the miners and two of them were down. Immediately I switched off all breakers dedicated for miners. And yes, one miner had PSU burned down. It was very easy to find which miner was bad"
Two were down, and one miner had PSU burned down? Which one was burned down? And what about the other one? Stop running? cannot power it up?
2.
And you mentioned in the following posts that your B2 has barcode on it and you are sure it's not from the defective batch, can you provide me your order id for this miner, or would you please send me a photo of it? Thanks.

Hi all, yes I have received the email. I am sure that the PSU is from batch 2 (have sticker and SN). 
Answers for Tim.Shao19:
1. My miners are connected in pairs to single breaker(2xS4 to 1xC20 breaker). When one PSU burnt down and breaker for this miner went down also another miner switched off. Is it clear?
2. Order is 00120141014004349482tuQeQyd106EE from 2014-10-14 00:43:50.0. PSU SN:188A410120045 PSU don't have visible changes outside and also inside.

Hi there, we may have sent replacement PSUs to you, have u received any tracking no for the replacements? or you can provide me your email address or order id, then i will double check and keep you informed. And can you please provide any proof on your burned PSU if possible? (i know it may be difficult to tell the burned PSU from the appearance.) we need to glean some real info from customers and feedback with the PSU supplier rather than just claim that we got bad PSUs.  Thanks.

Hi Tim.Shao19,
I sent you  video with burned PSU last Friday. I really do not understand the purpose of that video you asked me for, as the burned  PSU is not feasible to switch on, the fan is out of order. If there was a visible black burned component, I would have sent you a photo. But on this PSU are not visible changes.
Today I have received information from customs office that I have two shipments. One with 3 PSUs and second with 7 PSUs. I was really happy, but...
BITMAIN encloses invoice for 3*140=420USD and 7*140=980USD. The customs officer asked me for 280USD tax and 133USD duty. Great help Bitmain!!!
Now I have 5 days to submit relevant documents that the shipments include only "warranty replacement parts" and the invoices with ZERO values!
TIM, if you want to help me send me ASAP the invoices with zero vales and RMA documents that will be a prove for customs office. I refuse to pay any additional money  your products related. I have spent a lot of time by the resolving problems with S4 miners.