Bitcointalk Avalon batch 2

WARNING to All Current Batch #2 Avalon Owners!

by fpgaminer on May 31, 2013

This is a WARNING to all current Batch #2 Avalon owners. Your Avalon could be at risk of early failure due to a hardware bug.

BitcoinTalk user ‘senseless’ posted about an issue with one of his controller boards. Various chips were overheating and melting plastic on the controller board, and the unit was constantly having issues. Here is a picture.

It turns out, there is a hardware bug with all controller boards shipped to-date in Batch #2. 5 volts got routed to the wrong pin on the USB hub chip on the controller board. This is causing overheating of that particular chip.

Yifu has stated that this should be “fine.” I personally suggest all current Batch #2 owners open their Avalon(s) and check their controller boards for signs of heat damage, just to be safe. Use the picture linked above as a reference on what to look for.

Solution

BitcoinTalk user ‘mrb’ suggests desoldering the F1 fuse. This will fix the overheating issue, and will not affect any functionality (it disables an unused USB port).

Personally, I have already checked my units, and do not see any heat damage yet. I’m going to leave them be, and check the controller boards from now on during my maintenance shifts.