ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread - page 409.

jimrome

sr. member

Activity: 434

Merit: 250

Quote from: bobsav2121 on July 23, 2014, 09:52:54 AM

Wow it really looks like Bitmain dropped the ball on these.
ALL the S1's were rock solid and everybody got the same hash rate. Plus everyone could overclock if you so desired.

Bob

Let's not repaint history: there was a lot of variablility in the S1 as well - hash rate, error rate, function of thermal management (fans didn't always rev up properly as the unit got hot).

Quote from: CryptoGuy on July 23, 2014, 10:01:26 AM

They did say they had an issue with the DC/DC converter. To what extent I don't know. With that said, it's better they ship what they have and deal with giving some sort of % refund (which they already have offered) than to sit on the miners and tell us "next week" like other hardware companies do. They haven't opened B4 so one can assume they intend to fix the issue before opening sales again.

Yeah, they have an issue with the DC/DC converter all right: they are pushing it too hard to begin with (which is causing it to heat up) and are supplying insufficient cooling. As it heats up it gets more inefficient, and the current begins to drop. Eventually the part hits a temp which causes it to shutdown, cooldown, and fire back up.

Then they put a box on: hot air rises from the components/heatsinks below and mixes with the already hot air around the DC/DC where it is trapped due to insufficient airflow.

From the datasheet:

Note the line for natural convection, and how current begins to drop off as ambient temperature rises.

PlanetCrypto

sr. member

Activity: 462

Merit: 250

Quote from: Opnsrc on July 22, 2014, 11:25:02 PM

Quote from: PlanetCrypto on July 19, 2014, 08:08:30 AM

Got the email that my first 2 B2 orders shipped.
Order Date: 2014-07-02 06:32:18 (paid for within minutes).
Order on website listed as "shipped".
Opted for the refund, that is still listed as "Init".

Right on schedule.

Orders of magnitude better than Butt F*&^%$g Laboratory (BFL).

Right ON Bitmain!

I was Batch 1 and did not get my Tracking number until the 20th. Did not arrive until Today. Seems I was on the ass end of that deal lol.

Sorry to hear that.

My B2 order got stuck in Chinese customs over the weekend, UPS will deliver those tomorrow (24th).
Got the email my B3 order had a UPS label printed today (23rd).
Both refunds (B2 & B3) still listed as "Init".

BITMAIN Rocks!!

Biodom

legendary

Activity: 3892

Merit: 4331

moderately beeping ants-found at least one cause: when pool switches difficulty setting-they beep.
100% correlation (>3 occasions). At least mine only beep for this and also when mining commences at reboot.

aztecminer

legendary

Activity: 1092

Merit: 1000

Quote from: Biodom on July 23, 2014, 10:46:47 AM

Quote from: CryptoGuy on July 23, 2014, 10:38:00 AM

Quote from: aztecminer on July 23, 2014, 10:11:48 AM

Quote from: daddyfatsax on July 22, 2014, 09:39:37 PM

Quote from: Biodom on July 22, 2014, 06:49:13 PM

Quote from: halcy0n3 on July 22, 2014, 06:43:59 PM

Quote from: Biodom on July 22, 2014, 06:33:00 PM

Quote from: jonnybravo0311 on July 22, 2014, 05:30:50 PM

Quote from: bobsav2121 on July 22, 2014, 05:28:13 PM

Quote from: daddyfatsax on July 22, 2014, 04:24:00 PM

Found out why one of my units was not hashing and having X's on the chips. Paste was everywhere on the inside. Even the screws holding the heat sink on had thermal paste on them.
images removed

Messy paste wont effect anything but poor cooling, unless your units are overheating, that's not the problem

His look far better than mine did... lol. I had paste on the chips, on the pcb, on the connectors... everywhere.

correct me if i am wrong, but if others suggest that paste is there to provide a thermal connection between a chip and a heat sink, then with heat sink sitting on the top of the chips in s3, I don't see how it could be done by anything other than having paste on the top of the chips (but not necessarily on connectors, I get that).

not sure what you are asking there...

are there other ways to have a thermal connection between chip and heat sink? sure, you can buy thermal pads. search ebay. youll see in the specs that they are massively electrically resistant. need 1000's of volts to make them conduct. Same goes for thermal paste. Its very unlikely that swimming in thermal paste (even on connectors) would cause any problem at all...

yep, but the OP said that cleaning paste improved his machine. If what you are saying is 100% correct about swimming in thermal paste not causing any problems, then why his S3 was improved by removing excess and reapplying some? I just want to understand and from what I heard here, it seems that paste should be on the top of the chip in S3.

After cleaning all the paste off the chips and surrounding PCB, the unit is working at 440 GH/s after 6 hours. All that extra paste can mess with the voltages on a chip and cause hardware issues. Thermal paste should always be on top of the chip with none running over the sides. On a full sized CPU an amount the size of a pea should be applied. On a small ASIC chip the paste should be just a tiny amount and let the heat sink spread it out. If mine is not that bad, all I can think is some dude with a Taco Bell sour cream gun filled with thermal paste is shooting this stuff on.

what ?? your saying taco bell uses thermal paste ?? you are right the thermal past should not be gooped on the chip covering the entire chip connectors and other nearby electronic components. i always replace stock thermal paste on pretty much everything anyways: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835426035

Best practice to ensure you don't get too much is to put a small amount on the chip then spread it evenly with a business card, drivers license or the like. The layer of paste in most cases only needs to be a couple mils thick. It's only intended to take up any air gaps between the chip and heatsink, nothing more. Additionally, thermal paste such as Arctic Silver have silver particles in it so yes it will conduct electricity.

what is the point of thermal paste to conduct electricity? I think that you are incorrect. silver is there to conduct heat better. Because silver particles are surrounded by non-conductive filler, electricity is NOT conducted.
see:
http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm

there are some thermal pastes that are conductive hence why i only use non-conductive thermal paste. using a high quality thermal paste can reduce temps and increase efficiency of the chip too. so i think is good too replace stock thermal paste on everything. i have two asus R9 290x's i replaced thermal paste and they run GREEEEAAAT! (tony the tiger great). greeeeeaaat!

CryptoGuy

hero member

Activity: 524

Merit: 500