Dead BitAxe Gamma 601: No chips detected

Well, here we go again. Another one’s down for the count. Looks like I’ll be trying to fix this one this week! Chips detected = 0 Out of the 7 BitAxes I’ve had, this makes 5 that ended up with dead ASICs. Definitely not the best track record for reliability, that’s for sure. I really think the main problem is the crappy heat sink mount, which probably led to this one’s demise. Is anyone else dealing with similar issues with their BitAxes?

yeah the heatsinks wobble basically the worst issue is they should have gone with 4 hole heatsinks and pcb  boards

Have you tried any of these? https://solomining.de/en/products/pimp-my-bitaxe-upgrade-kit Here we discuss cooler models that can be installed after modification instead of the stock cooling system. https://www.facebook.com/groups/bitaxeworldwide/posts/1840995093182969/ Is your chip dead or do you have a problem with the contacts between the chip and the board?

Yes, indeed poor co-planarity with the ASIC. This one the fixing pin failed completely snapped clean off and of course I didn't notice when I moved it so within a few hours it was game over. Thankfully I've got a few spare BM1370's so I should be able to repair it. The chip is dead. I've already tried re-flowing it. Unfortunately the heat sink mount failed and I didn't notice until it was too late. I cant access solomining.de it gets flagged as a scam site and facebook is blocked by my system. Anyway, I have a suitable replacement heat sink that I bought ages ago, I just never got around to fitting it. Thanks for the links anyway.

Damn, 5 of 7 dead sounds terrifying. History check reveals you are in since apr-2025 ... my 3 months older units still works, knock on wood. Could you please share more details about the other fails. All were mechanical issue like this mount? Great you have "few spare BM1370's" ... sounds like serious mining operation going on   I guess pro miner like you kept them in good condition/environment so dust clog was not the issue but what about overclocking. Any experiments, pushing the limits?

No overclocking to speak of I run all of them at 625MHz and around 1.14V-1.18V some variation on that from device to device which nets around 1.2TH/s I've bought them from various vendors, Zeus BTC, Aliexpress & Ebay. The build quality has been really hit and miss. The one I bough from Zeus had the best build quality of the lot it was branded BitSoloPlayer who also have an Aliexpress store. I think all of the failures have been heatsink related. The mounting pegs just give up after a while and either pull through the board loosing grip and reducing contact with the ASIC or in the last case it snapped clean break on the back of the board so wasn't visible I've manage to repair all of them and its always been a dead ASIC.

its a shame a 4 hole heatsink with a 4 hole pcb board and 4 nylon bolts, washers,nuts done and good. look how cheap they are https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B17JHRKV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1? the kit above has 20x m3 by 12 mm 20x m3 by 15 mm 20x m3 by 20 mm 20x m3 by 25 mm bolts and 140x washers and nuts all would be long enough so 80x would do 20 miners with your m3 x 6mm with your m3 x 8mm with your m3 x 10mm left over so $8.99 usd to do 20 miners or 45 cents a miner when I see this I get enraged at the manufacturers .  which is why I tell people buy 1 unit no more.

Yes, its a major design flaw for certain. Just cheaping out on the part that's probably the most important. To be honest, I wish I'd replaced all the heatsinks from the get-go, but they were working and stable right up until they weren't. So in that respect its my own fault.   There's a nice one from thermalright but they're a bit on the pricey side. £35 each probably cheaper if you shop around a bit.

I don't like to beat a dead horse but this one I will beat on some more. As it was so simple to do it correctly. You have solder skills and can repair for 75% of the buyers it turns into a brick and a lot of them just say fuck btc its a rip off. I truly would like to thrash not trash the builders that did them wrong.

Great info, thanks. I'm trying to keep low fan so currently at 490Mhz / 1.1V  (almost 1TH/s)  ... in winter I was around 1.2TH/s Probably will have to go even lower than 1TH/s  ... OR ... I'll start looking for better heatsink.

I totally agree, for the average user once its bricked that's the end of the road and the BitAxe just becomes a paperweight, recycling or landfill. All for the sake of doing the job properly in the first place. Lets face it a good heatsink for this design was a must. But so many chose to build with the crappiest junk they could find. Truth is I had exactly the same experience with Gekko Science Compac F USB sticks when I first got involved with mining BTC. They all died one after another until I was left with nothing. So, I eventually designed and built my own based on BM1397 and BM1362 This is just a 3D rendering:- And the final product As you can see I went overkill with the heatsink design and mounting. 120mm CPU heatsink and a solid aluminium mount for the heatsink. These have served me well but they're just no longer efficient enough which is why I ended up replacing all of it with NerdOctAxes. But let me say this, again with the NerdOctAxes, the thermal management is a total failure. The reported temperatures aren't the actual ASIC temperature, but a close approximation based on the PCB temperature from a sensor located 10mm or more away from the actual ASIC chips. Having discovered this the only sensible thing to do was set the fan speed to maximum and prey to the gods of BTC that the fan mount and thermal paste doesn't give up. The Thermalright heatsink looks good, given its heat pipe structure its going to be actively cooling the ASIC instead of passively cooling, so it'll definitely be better than all the rest and the mounting looks sensible on it as well. Once I repair the remaining BitAxe board I have I think I'll invest in one of these then I shouldn't have to worry about it breaking down again. Its pricey but probably worth it if you want the thing to last forever.

my 1 bitaxe was sent back to sidehack and he altered the heatsink with a better one it has worked since October. set to lowest clock fans at 80% volts at 1 notch over lowest possible super stable and I leave it alone

This website has good pictures and a description of the Bitaxe Basic Upgrade Kit. I think you'll find the same thing in reputable stores. People on Facebook don't want to pay $40-$60 for ready-made kits, so they make similar kits from standard PC coolers for much less and with just as good performance.

To be honest, I wish I'd not been complacent and had changed the heat-sinks on all of them from the get-go. I'd have probably saved myself a lot of hassle. I've ordered a thermalright heatsink, I'll see what that's like once I get the board back up and running.

Well, I've repaired the board and it was indeed a dead ASIC. I've also fitted a Thermalright heatsink. The performance of this heatsink is excellent. With 21°C ambient, 725MHz clock and 1.2V core giving 1.4-1.5TH/s. (so a little overclocked) The fan profile is about 35% on full auto resulting in an ASIC temperature of 46°C. That's the coolest I've ever seen a BitAxe run at. The only down side is the mounting plate on the reverse of the board prevents the stand from being attached, so it looks like I'll need to take the Dremel to the stand and make some cut-outs to clear the bolts. Otherwise I'm impressed, why wasnt this heatsink fitted as standard?!?

Yeah sad as the units would have been somewhat bulletproof. New people would be loyal buyers. BUT NO STUPID CHEAP PIG MOVE TO USE SHIT HEATSINKS.

Thermalright coolers are inexpensive, by the way. I've used them a lot. I think a cooler like this costs about $7. You should contact Thermalright so they can start selling ready-made cooling solutions for BitAxe devices.

I might contact them directly if I ever need to buy more. This particular heatsink isn't listed anywhere on their website. AXP60-50 Full "Copperzilla" and other than on Aliexpress I've not found it anywhere else. I'd be interested to know where you can buy these for $7, the cheapest I found was around $30 plus shipping. At $7 that has other possibilities.

A similar cooler for AMD socket AM4 costs about $7-8. Some miners then modify these coolers themselves and sell them for $20-30. If demand is minimal and no one wants to build their own cooler, then such a cooler will continue to sell for the price of a decent CPU tower cooler.

Who says spending more on a asic miner is a waste of money? This is why I don't feel at ease when I am seeing solo miners going 70oc and more I like keeping them on 60°C for longevity and some miners are cheap only because of bad heatsinks on them, any silver heat sink I go gold/copper heatsinks, I don't mind at all, bad fan? I'm changing it instantly, nothing sucks more than buying a miner and planning to mine for years only for them to die very young, it happened to me twice in the past but after buying extra parts things and turned out differently.