Found the source of one issue on the card that fails to initialize...
Chip #5, (#1 being the closest to the power-connection), was not surface-flush. Thus, it overheated, tarnishing the copper heat-sink. Even with the card not operating (not hashing), it was glowing bright white and seared my finger.
Power side <--
1 8
2 3 4 (5) 6 7
Left unattended, with the rest of the cards running, it would surely have "popped", and heated to the point of destroying the bond with the copper-heat-sink.
This same exact chip location...
All the neighboring components above, were also abnormally hot... I assume feeding voltage into the unit, or attempting to try to limit the amperage or internal short-circuit on the chip.
The same chip that "popped" on RikKhaos's miner... But I assume, if he inspects it, he will find that the chip has a slight gap on one corner, lifted off the PCB. That non-flush mounting causes all the heat to distribute to the smaller heat-sink. Which, obviously, does not have the capacity to handle that level of heat dissipation. (Even if it did, it would have only prolonged the inevitable failure of that chip.)
In conclusion, the chips are not being set-up adequately. Either there is something like an obstruction, causing it to not pull-down in the reflow process, or there are contaminants in the reflow itself, or the reflow process is not getting complete. (Thus, being stopped before this specific component, or other components have had time to become "pulled-down", by the process of the liquefied surface-tension of the reflow solder.)
I will be pulling the heat-sink from this board, to use on another board, which may or may not work. This board will be sent-back to be reworked and tested. As I am not sure if the failure has caused other damage. Since it was heating-up, even without the card "hashing". No traces look seared or tarnished, so I am confident that a simple rework of that chip, to make it flush, would alleviate the issue. I would assume the initialization was not occurring, because of the internal detection of the chips temperature. Thus, causing the whole board to shut-down, out of protection.
I would rework it myself, however, I fear that the bond to the heat-sink may be compromised in the process. As a similar situation has been recorded.
I assume his heat-sink would not have fallen-off in normal operation, and thus, it was not the heat-sink causing the overheat, is was the overheating which caused the heat-sink to fall off. (In my opinion, looking at his photograph, and having experienced a nearly similar situation directly myself. Catching it before it had gotten to that point.)
Still, the V3.0.A series of the boards, otherwise seems robust and flawless, with the boards I have tested thus far.
I have prepared a specific report for this board, but will not RMA it, until I have tested the others, completely.
Still have only 3 cards up and running, at the moment... (Due to testing and lack of another free PSU at the moment.) They are operating at roughly 193GHs each, operating outside in 81F ambient air, without issues. Other than the one bad mounted chip, on that one card, mentioned above.
580GHs @ 760w total using only 6 fans for cooling the three cards inside a ducted cardboard shroud.
Rougly $2.92 a day, to run them, with a mining-reward of about $14.53 USD a day, leaving about $11.61 a day, for profit.
$11.61 a day * 30 = $348.30 USD a month. (Would be 2x that, if I had 6x cards running.)
That is just shy of 1 BTC a month. (2 BTC with 6x cards running.)