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Topic: T17/S17 malfunction: cases, solutions, remedies, RMA history - page 16. (Read 7043 times)

legendary
Activity: 4256
Merit: 8551
'The right to privacy matters'
Well the s9. had a lot of bad batches say 4 to 11 way back say. sept 2016.

It came out in April 2016. batches 1,2,3 were decent. Then a drop off.

but in feb 2017 on they got their shit together.  They put out a lot of s9's they worked for 2 years or more.

The s15 and t15 came and gone quick under a year
The s17 and t17 lasted a year- 14 months . say April 2019 to  June 2020

Now the s19 are out.

So no time spent on bettering the gear has been spent.

Also. I am willing to bet that. a ton of s17 gear was burnt due to too much over clock.

But that is another guess.
legendary
Activity: 3892
Merit: 4331
Hello, I have been reading every single answer to this interesting post. This is because I have also been framed by Bitmain with those S17+ antminers. I have some background in electronics and analyzing those intermittent failures that these miners have just got me a little confused, specially during a time that I checked control boards and data cables by disconnecting back and forth. At times the miner was full throttle mining just to drop after few hours. That in electronics is called a "cold soldering". Although there are not visible cold solderings I discovered that the soldering material that is being used on this S17 have 2 problems.

First, high amount of lead and low proportion of tin, and of course zero silver in the soldering material. This can be observed under the microscope used to soldering circuit boards. All of the solderings showed a greyish mate color and no shinning finish.
 
Second, below normal temperature of the soldering material, also leaves traces, specially on the hashing board chips. Also analyzed under the microscope there are traces that look like an sponge along with tiny cracks surrounding the chip's area at the surface of the hashing board.

So, this takes me into the conclusion that somebody at Bitmain's is trying to cut ends and by doing this they have compromised 50% of the S17, T17 series. The use of soldering with high percentage of plumb just tells me that they are throwing the cheapest crap they have to solder the components on those miners. Also they are trying to reduce electricity costs by not heating well enough the soldering material melted at the trays and this is specially true because the soldering material with higher proportion-ratio of lead instead of tin and silver takes colder temperatures to melt.

So taking all this into consideration I really recommend to all of those that are willing to throw the money into shipping costs, customs fees and no mining income, just don't do it because Bitmain still uses the same bad quality materials to fix it.

Since that soldering material is all over the hashing and controller boards is just a matter of time chips keep coming off the boards, the only and costly solution is to desoldering them all and soldering back with a good quality soldering flux, other than that those miners will keep failing over and over.

Basically most of the S17 series are doomed.

Since S9 had a pretty good reliability/longevity (on average), I wonder what is the cause of the apparently shoddy work done on these machines?
legendary
Activity: 2394
Merit: 6581
be constructive or S.T.F.U
It's complicated, so bear with me, the machine was DOA,  I replaced the control board and the gear was hashing away, before changing the control board I sent them an email describing the issue hoping they would give me the recovery files to fix it, but no luck with the recovery, so I stopped talking to them and simply went along with replacing the control board (took a while for me to get the replacement), and I was busy then, so I didn't bother about it.

Later on, in March I was like hey, I think Bitmain owe me a control board, so I sent them an email demanding all three points above, and this was their first reply

Quote from: Jessica L. (Bitmain)
Mar 5, 18:20 CST

Dear *************

Thanks for your consultation!

why did you not ship it back in Feb we found you consult with us in Feb if you send back to us at that time it will meet the DOA
We checked your miner did not belong to the DOA now, due to you did not create the repair ticket  and send it back to us in time which we have advised you before
4. Please ship back them within 30 days from Order Ship out date, otherwise the devices cannot be treated as DOA.
we checked your SN which is exceed 30 days warranty
and for the DOA the 30 days is calculated from shipping date to creating repair ticket date ,but you still not created the repair ticket in our system

So to them and according to their rules, it was not DOA, so they wanted me to bear all costs, apparently, I didn't give a flying **** about that and went on with my daily negotiations, a few emails back and forth resulted in a new control board shipped from China and a coupon to compensate the shipping cost to the Netherlands.

If it was considered DOA (me creating the repair ticket within 30 days from when they shipped it out) would they compensate the shipping cost without having to send Jessica a few emails?

As I explained above, I don't know much about their warranty and DOA stuff, not even sure if what I got was a good deal or should I have asked for more?
jr. member
Activity: 43
Merit: 59
Wait was it a DOA ( dead on arrival ) ? Or did they work for some-time?
legendary
Activity: 2394
Merit: 6581
be constructive or S.T.F.U
Wait, you can actually get a coupon because you had to cover shipping expenses to their service location?  Grin I haven't read that info anywhere.

You can, if you know how to negotiate, in fact, i asked for

1- A new control board
2- A compensation for my shipping fee
3- A compensation for the downtime caused by their irresponsible actions.

I got 1 and for 2 I got a coupon, and nothing for number 3.

You see in reality when you pay for a brand new mining gear and it arrives broken, they should be responsible for all 3 points,  but because of lack of competition and people not demanding their rights - Bitmain can keep treating their clients like shit.

I have bought hundreds and hundreds of gears directly from their website, some are mine and some are for clients, maybe I get slightly better treatment than those who bought only 10 or 20 gears, but this doesn't stop anyone from demanding their rights from Bitmain, in the end, all you lose is a few emails back and forth.
legendary
Activity: 4256
Merit: 8551
'The right to privacy matters'
I wtb a couple of psu fans for my t17, two of then are not working

w40s12bmd5 from nidec

12vdc 0.64a

https://www.nidec.com/en/product/search/category/B101/M111/S100/NCJ-W40S12BMD5-5/

Anyone knows where to buy?

delta makes one that should work it is 40x40x28. same size. it is .81 amp which is close to your spec.

it is four pin. 

ebay item 283157645798

even if you dont order it from that seller you can look for part number.
jr. member
Activity: 43
Merit: 59
Wait, you can actually get a coupon because you had to cover shipping expenses to their service location?  Grin I haven't read that info anywhere.
legendary
Activity: 2394
Merit: 6581
be constructive or S.T.F.U
[...]

Ok my bad I thought he only sent the bad boards, this means he didn't get any special treatment, in fact I got a better deal on the faulty control board of my S17+

Despite them sending me this



I insisted on sending only the control board and not the whole unit because I already had another control board to replace the bad one and I didn't want the gear to stop mining, and after a ton of "polite" arguments with them, I managed to get them to accept my request.

They asked me to create a repair ticket to HongKong but send it to the Netherlands since it was the cheapest to send to from where the miner was located, once it was delivered I guess in 2-3 days they sent me an email with the tracking number for a control board from China at their expense, and then they refused to pay me for the shipping to the Netherlands but after being consistent - I managed to get a coupon from them.  Grin

With that being said, I still think they treat us terribly by sending us dead machines in the first place.

[...]

You can get it on aliexpress for $12 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32825983768.html or if you are in the U.S you can check with scott if he doesn't have them he would probably be able to tell you where you can find them, make sure you get another spare those fans are not the best quality one can get and they eventually you will lose another fan.
member
Activity: 71
Merit: 17
I wtb a couple of psu fans for my t17, two of then are not working

w40s12bmd5 from nidec

12vdc 0.64a

https://www.nidec.com/en/product/search/category/B101/M111/S100/NCJ-W40S12BMD5-5/

Anyone knows where to buy?
sr. member
Activity: 604
Merit: 416
[...]

Either I am reading it wrong or you know something I do not, but I think he sent a both machines that were faulty.

Since I posted this a short while back, I feel it is only fair to post an update since the response from Bitmain has been reasonably impressive.

After a few days of initial troubleshooting (back and forth communication with Bitmain where they asked me to try various things to fix the problem), they asked me to send the units to their repair centre in Europe. I know from following the tracking number that the faulty units arrived at the repair centre on Wednesday 3rd June. On Thursday 4th June I received a notification from Fedex of 2 brand new replacement units being shipped from China, which duly arrived here on Tuesday 9th June. They would have been here Monday 8th if it wasn't for a delay in customs.

The replacement units are working perfectly. Whilst it's not good that I received two faulty units initially, in their credit they have replaced them very quickly and with no complications.
legendary
Activity: 2394
Merit: 6581
be constructive or S.T.F.U
Well, let's call it a terrible choice of words on my behalf Grin. As far as I know, they hardly allow you to send the hashboard separately, and they will ask you to ship the whole machine, a few weeks ago someone complained about the same thing somewhere in this board, so it doesn't seem like they will always give you the option of sending the bad board while keeping the other working boards to reduce the loss, is it now okay to disassemble the miner without voiding the warranty? or is it a VIP thing? Grin

I don't claim to be an expert in this warranty process, I probably know the least about it among you guys, given the circumstances and the shipping cost to the nearest repair center, to me it has almost always been best to try to

1- Claim a coupon from them.
2- Fix the board by myself.
3- Throw them away.
sr. member
Activity: 604
Merit: 416
How was that a pretty good service?  Grin, did they refund the shipping fees he paid to send those faulty hash boards to Europe? did they compensate him for the days of mining he lost? ya "pretty good" is a bit of a broad word, but for Bitmain to do it, I guess it's outstanding because we are not used to that kind of "okay service".

With that being said, and despite that not being the best thing one would expect after paying a fortune for mining gear, I consider danieleither to be a lucky client who got VIP treatment, your chances of receiving the same thing are not so high.

danieleither, glad you got your gears to run with all three boards, wish you luck with them.

I fully agree with you (bolded part). But I do not think that danieleither got a VIP treatment as I had the same treatment (twice for same unit) from Bitmain.

But do not get me wrong, I do not think that is the best they could've done, but it was AWESOME comparing to what they have been doing over last few years.
legendary
Activity: 2394
Merit: 6581
be constructive or S.T.F.U
That was pretty good service on their part. 

How was that a pretty good service?  Grin, did they refund the shipping fees he paid to send those faulty hash boards to Europe? did they compensate him for the days of mining he lost? ya "pretty good" is a bit of a broad word, but for Bitmain to do it, I guess it's outstanding because we are not used to that kind of "okay service".

With that being said, and despite that not being the best thing one would expect after paying a fortune for mining gear, I consider danieleither to be a lucky client who got VIP treatment, your chances of receiving the same thing are not so high.

danieleither, glad you got your gears to run with all three boards, wish you luck with them.
legendary
Activity: 4256
Merit: 8551
'The right to privacy matters'
That was pretty good service on their part.  Thank you for the follow up info.
full member
Activity: 219
Merit: 426
Recently purchased 2 x S17+ 70TH, April batch but delivered in May due to delays at Customs. Both machines worked fine initially, then dropped a hashboard. One machine after just 1 hour and the 2nd unit after approx. 2.5 hours, very disappointing Sad Spent several days back and forth with Bitmain support doing everything they asked but to no avail and now both units have been shipped back for repair.

Since I posted this a short while back, I feel it is only fair to post an update since the response from Bitmain has been reasonably impressive.

After a few days of initial troubleshooting (back and forth communication with Bitmain where they asked me to try various things to fix the problem), they asked me to send the units to their repair centre in Europe. I know from following the tracking number that the faulty units arrived at the repair centre on Wednesday 3rd June. On Thursday 4th June I received a notification from Fedex of 2 brand new replacement units being shipped from China, which duly arrived here on Tuesday 9th June. They would have been here Monday 8th if it wasn't for a delay in customs.

The replacement units are working perfectly. Whilst it's not good that I received two faulty units initially, in their credit they have replaced them very quickly and with no complications.
jr. member
Activity: 43
Merit: 28
I also have a complete coorespondence with Bitmain tech support, Jessica L. I can post it if you guys are interested. All they have done is given me a generic trouble shooting list and not answered any of my specific questions...

This is pretty normal... such a waste of time.
legendary
Activity: 2394
Merit: 6581
be constructive or S.T.F.U
Mikeywith, what really disturbed me is the part the guy says, "Because new miners rarely have such problems in China, it is likely that they have been injured during transportation"

That is another lie, a while ago i linked an article which was likely translated from a Chinese one, that talked about Chinese miners complain about the exact same problem we all have 'heatsinks/chips falling apart', apparently the mining whales in China have some private WeChat groups, and that's where Jihan Wu hangs around, Jihan Wu begged the Chinese miners to give bitmain another chance with the S19 after admitting the 17 series had some major quality issues, those reports came from CHINA from CHINESE miners, so saying "new miners rarely have such problems in china is a straight out lie" unless he thinks that 30% or higher failure rate is considered "rare".

This, of course, does not negate the fact that the Chinese miners get a special pass, Jihan Wu never apologized or begged us, he probably never bothers about the forum, or other non-Chinese groups on telegram and Facebook, but when the Chinese miners complain he listens, heck he even offered to send them staff on site to have the faulty 17 series fixed at NO cost.
sr. member
Activity: 604
Merit: 416
Mikeywith, what really disturbed me is the part the guy says, "Because new miners rarely have such problems in China, it is likely that they have been injured during transportation"

So how do they transport the miners within Mainland China? By teletransportation as in Star Trek? Scotty beam up the miners to Shinchong farm? Nahhh they ship them the same way the do to other parts of the world.

So thinking about the way that people operates, cheating and lying all the time, I have come into a conclusion that Bitmain have two assembly lines, one for their own farms and customers within China, the other for the rest of the world which is low quality and compensates the extra costs invested into the "domestic production assembly line".

Moreover, they don't want more competition so they take your hard earned money, send you a crappy machine and in 3 months max you are out of the business either because you ran out of money or you are not willing to spend more in some other brand of equipment and in the top of that you have no working miners either.


Come to think of it. That could be true (Bolded Italic). I am a small sample but all the gear I ordered via friend in China is working even OC-ed after year and more. And only units I had problem with were shipped from Bitmain directly to Europe.
newbie
Activity: 11
Merit: 50
Mikeywith, what really disturbed me is the part the guy says, "Because new miners rarely have such problems in China, it is likely that they have been injured during transportation"

So how do they transport the miners within Mainland China? By teletransportation as in Star Trek? Scotty beam up the miners to Shinchong farm? Nahhh they ship them the same way the do to other parts of the world.

So thinking about the way that people operates, cheating and lying all the time, I have come into a conclusion that Bitmain have two assembly lines, one for their own farms and customers within China, the other for the rest of the world which is low quality and compensates the extra costs invested into the "domestic production assembly line".

Moreover, they don't want more competition so they take your hard earned money, send you a crappy machine and in 3 months max you are out of the business either because you ran out of money or you are not willing to spend more in some other brand of equipment and in the top of that you have no working miners either.
legendary
Activity: 2394
Merit: 6581
be constructive or S.T.F.U
This guy knows a lot more than those bots who usually reply to most of us, but the logic behind his explanation is plain stupid, saying "The advantage is that easy is easy to disassemble" is like saying "We made this car with a strong engine but we hang it using a zip-tie so you can remove it whenever you need", so if that guy is not lying, he is simply stupid, simply because how often do you need to disassemble those chips?  almost NEVER, how often do you need them to stick and not drop? ALWAYS!

The only advantage I can think of is that low-temperature solder paste cost way less than high-temperature solder paste, making thousands of gears, it means soldering millions of chips, 100,000 miners with 30 chips each, using a cheaper paste saves you hypnotically 1.1 cents per chip or 1$ per miner, that's a $100,000, you make 200,000 miners, you save twice as much, this assumes $1 cost reduction per miner which of course is just a random number that could potentially be a lot higher.

If there is really any advantage (related to the subject) aside from cost reduction for low-temp paste vs high-temp paste, I would like to know about it.
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