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I have a S2 Antminer since April 2014, and has been on for 6 months and stopped working recently (oct-2014). I can turn it on and it shows power, but the LCD is blank and when opening the cover to see if there is anything loose, everything seems fine. I tried to take out the microsd card that is connected to the controller card inside and I cannot seem to be able to see it on my computer. It doesnt detect at all.

I tried following the instructions here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=671625

I purchased a Beaglebone Black Rev. C from Amazon. The instructions found on that page doesnt seem to be very clear as I needed to improvise on certain things. Does anyone have a better guide or tips on how to get this working?

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  • I tried to take out the microsd card that is connected to the controller card inside and I cannot seem to be able to see it on my computer What does dmesg show when you put the SD card in your computer?
    – Nick ODell
    Nov 1, 2014 at 19:52
  • Your microsd is most likely bad. I have the same issue, my computer cannot recognize the microSD at all. I thought it was just the microsd, but apparently the addon beagleboard is also bad which is why I had to buy another one. Nov 1, 2014 at 22:41
  • The original board just shows a constant RED light even with the verified working microSD i imaged that im using on the new beagleboard. Nov 1, 2014 at 22:48

3 Answers 3

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Page was updated so tools hard to find. Here's the latest since 2023.

https://shop.bitmain.com/support/download

On 1st DropDownBox scroll all the way down to "other". On 2nd DropDownBox choose "Flashing SD Card with Image". Ensure [Firmware] button (not [TF Card Service Pack]) is active. Under [Tools and Instructions to Image SD card.zip] press download.

It will flash an image for an s3. Default user-pass should be root/root.

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I have a S2 Antminer since April 2014, and has been on for 6 months and stopped working recently (oct-2014). I can turn it on and it shows power, but the LCD is blank and when opening the cover to see if there is anything loose, everything seems fine. I tried to take out the MicroSD card that is connected to the controller card inside and I cannot seem to be able to see it on my computer. It doesnt detect at all.

If you bought your S2 from bitmain, ebay or amazon, contact the seller as the S2's have a 1 year warranty from manufacturer.

Bitmain now has a repair center in Denver, so the unit would not have to be shipped back to Hong Kong.

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After following the instructions on the forum link provided, I have these additional notes for those that might run into this issue too:

Notes regarding the Beaglebone Black Rev C:

  • The Beaglebone Black is the same board used on the bitmain antminer S2, but it has alot of extra functions since I guess it was made for consumers.

  • I imaged the onboard memory with the Ubuntu image using these instructions: http://shrkey.com/setting-up-beaglebone-black-to-boot-off-the-microsd-card/ -- now it boots into ubuntu once u plug it in without an SD card.

  • Supposedly the Ubuntu image auto boots to the SD card if its inserted, but thats not the case from my tests. It still boots from the onboard even with the ubuntu image installed. It will boot from the internal memory once plugged in.

  • You need to image the original antminer s2 image onto an SD card. File is here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16075357/bitmain.img.zip (ver. 20140410 - 72MB file - hopefully its not taken down by the time u read this. Msg me if it is.) -- after the sd card is imaged you can goto the "upgrade firmware" page and load up the newest firmware from bitmain (currently 10/29/2014)

  • The Boot button is actually on the bottom of the board, i kept thinking it was to the left of the reset button. In order to boot from the SD card you need to UNPLUG/POWER OFF the board then hold down the BOOT button and power it back on and wait for the 2 lights then let go.

Note: When it boots from the SD card, you can tell by seeing the first 2 LEDs light up from the right. If it boots from the internal memory, the middle 2 LEDs light up!

  • I also soldered the Boot button 4 point contacts on the switch to auto boot it from the SD since it thinks the button is constantly pressed.

  • Seems not to boot if I don't used a class 10 64gb SD card. I tried a really old 1gb card and it didnt boot. Also tried a 2gb and that worked.

Note: Once working, what you should see is the following while you have the cover open: ALL cards should have a "constantly" green light blinking and a BLUE light on the beagleboard card.


So spent 2 days trying to figure this out after receiving my beagleboard black from amazon. Previous to that I spent like maybe a day trying to diagnose the issue without really googlging it until I found the forum post about just buying a consumer level beagleboard for the antminer s2. Overall it was a frustrating experience to figure this out since I had to go through 5 different SD cards I had laying around to see how to image, boot, modify, and hack my way through. First things first is try to get the antminer gui screen to pop up on the browser first without connecting to the s2. then once that works, upgrade the firmware, and then attach it to the s2. One major thing is MAKE SURE THERE IS A BLUE LIGHT on the board. This indicates that the board is running and make sure you can ping the IP address at all times to see if its alive.


Quick Summary of what I did:

  1. Image a new microSD with the original bitmain image (20140410)
  2. Configure settings while NOT connected to S2. (I had to set my IP to 192.168.2.99 since my router was on that subnet)
  3. Upgrade firmware of the bitmain image (latest 20141029)
  4. Connect to S2.
  5. Done!
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