Topic: Bitmain Announces the Antminer R4 and APW5 Power Supply, Designed for Silence - page 7. (Read 84827 times)

So we're now way past the date my replacement S9 should have been shipped for the crappy R4 that I shipped back to BiteMe twice on my dime.  They promised it would be shipped in October, so I've been politely asking where it is, where is any update, and it's been TOTAL SILENCE.
As far as I'm concerned, this is the last straw. Bad enough you can't buy a BTC miner with BTC, now they're just ignoring their own warranty promises.

Keep shoveling your money to these jackasses!  They SO deserve it!! 

Oh yeah!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kx3l24ubvxgptwe/R4-731.JPG?dl=0

Maybe it is a quality issue, I dunno. What I do now know is:

The original Factory Firmware defaults to 600 frequency. Later autotune Firmware runs at 560-ish.

My connectors died within a week of resetting to factory, thus unknowingly running @600. Previously had been running fine for c. 12months.

In short - the connectors in mine pretty definitely died as a result of the factory reset which upped the frequency.

If anyone else does use the factory reset option, I'd suggest manually underclocking immediately, unless upgrading burned connectors is your jam...

Firmware have nothing to do with cheap connectors that can't handle load.

Brand name connector ( Molex ) fixed the overheat issue, firmware would not.
Same load at the wall, 900W ish on 120V.

Good step-by-step instructions , that's exactly how I did it
Silver solder is a pain in the ass to work with.

I have one R4 board down. Mostly from a broken ASIC chain.
I had one flashing X when it was running. Now I can't revive it.

Can you fix it too ?
I emailed Bitmain Warranty in Denver, I may ship the board there for repair.
With BTC pumping, cost of repair will be absorbed more quickly.

Or you can send the boards to me for repair. I've been doing this on Avalons, Titans, and S7's for awhile now, and I've seen some poor attempts to do it which don't end well.

If you want me to fix bad connectors, drop me a PM and pack the boards in bubble wrap.

And since I believe information should be free and the skill of work be paid for, here are some tips on how to do it:

You have to get a pre-heater. Aoyue 853+ or better at minimum. Don't use a super big soldering iron, you will just burn the vias before you remove the part.

Cut the back three prongs on the connector before you start. That way you are removing them one at a time, not six at once.

And the super magic secret: Tin the leads with lead/rosin solder. This will lower the melting point of the crap ROHS solder a *lot* and make removal easier.

Use very good flux. Flux cleans connections and transfers heat.

Once off, use the solder wick to take up all the solder. Flux is good.

Clean everything up before installing the new one.

Flux the ends of the new plug before inserting. That way the new solder will flow.

Heat the board again then solder the back three pins.

Flip the hot board over in your lap and solder the front three.

Oh wear thick pants.

Clean everything up and admire your work.

But whatever you do, don't try to remove with just an iron. Or send it in to me for repairs, I take bitcoins :-)

C

I had 1x R4B1 that have very cheap PCI power connectors.
They overheated at stock speed, ruined my P/S cables. ( EVGA G2 1300W )
My second unit didn't have that issue.

Monitor your cables temperature, nothing should heat.
Bitmain lowered connector quality for some R4 batch, probably explaining lot's of defects.

I down clocked by haft speed ( 350Mhz ) to keep connector at reasonable temp until I
replaced my connectors with new one / better quality.

You can purchase Molex Mini-Fit Jr for around 1$ /each

It need a lot's of heat to desoldering, soldering iron alone won't be enough.
Pre-heating bed or hot air is mandatory to execute the job properly.

Also, you need Desoldering Braid ( 5$ ).
Heat soldering and apply braid over it to suck solder into it.

the controller may not do it some will some will not.

Hi guys!
I tried this several times but my R4 wont go back to the old firmware =(
I have the latgest firmware on my R4 now: Antminer-R4-all-201704280718-autofreq-user-Update2UBI-NF.tar.gz

Does somebody have an older firmware without this autotune settings?

Cheers!

Ja. Thass why I left Gimpy just running with the dead board unplugged when the board went titsup after just 25hrs. Wasn't about to send to China under Warranty and BitmainWarrenty in Co was having issues getting whatever for Paid repair/replacement.

Oh well, ja is down ~4.2THs  but just minor dip in the farm total, I'll live with it. Love my other 2 R4's tho, are perfect and like the majority of the Bitmain miners I have no surprises so far.

Yeah, well, much like Vegas don't play with money you can't afford to lose.  Not that I expect to lose anything, it's just not doing very much at the moment! 
Soon enough we'll be back on track. I think. 

wow that sucks, at this rate you would probably make more if you just had bitmain return your bitcoin.. since its almost 5000$ now.. it was only around 2300 when these came out?

....and we're back in delay mode!    Suddenly the S9 they had ready to ship turned into a T9, which is the wrong unit, and so the wait continues.  I thought they came back with good news a little too fast!  

Consider R4B4 only hashed full power for a few days to a week at most, ran at 1/2 power for a month or so before being unplugged to ship back in May, delay in getting shipped for a month or so, and after sitting at Bitmain for quite a while now I still wait...  Not cool at all.

So for all of you who still want an R4 for its quietness and efficiency, which is great if you get it, it's a 50/50 crapshoot as far as I can tell.

That's great to hear VRobb.  

Things are looking up!  Got an email this morning from Sarah at bitmain letting me know my S9-11THs is ready to ship!  I was hoping it might happen sooner than planned, and it did.  
Now if only there's some open capacity at the Hoth mines I'll be even happier!  

And to keep this on-topic, my R4B2 is still chugging away just great.  My favorite miner I've had by far, not that I've had so many tho...

Yeah, well you pays your money and you takes your chances.  Now that they got it I will must wait.  Hopefully not the full amount of time!

Well they didn't handle it well then after all. 
They can't put warranty orders in the same basket with new orders, that is not fair at all.

October? That kinda sucks... If you live stateside you should be able to send it to their USA based repair facility in California for expedited repair.

It took a bit more back and forth, and referencing the original emails with the offer of an S9 this one time, but it is now official: I will be getting a new S9 in swap for my 1/2 running R4B4.  Of course there's a catch...  No stock available until, get this, October!! 
Update to come in September sometime. 
Until then, $$ and hashrate wasting away.