What you see when a machine stops, who is already on it, the usual causes in plain words, and when to write to us.
Basics
Mining machines run hot, around the clock, for years. Every machine stops now and then. When one of yours does, you can see it at once, and the site team sees it too.
What you see
On My miners, Machines online drops by one and Hashrate now goes down.
The machine's tile turns from a green dot to an amber dot, and the status line reads Last seen with the time it last reported.
If the machine is taken out for work, the tile shows a blue dot and In repair.
With the Firsthand app, your phone gets the alert A machine goes offline once the machine has been stopped for about an hour, and It is back online when it is hashing again.
What happens on our side
You do not need to report it. Our monitoring reads every machine every few minutes, and the site team is notified when a machine stops. They check power and network first, then the machine itself. If a part has to be replaced, the machine is marked In repair until it is back on the rack.
The usual causes
Cause
What it looks like
What happens
Power cut at the site
Several machines at one site stop together
They restart when power returns
Network problem
Machines show Last seen but may still be running
They reappear once the connection is back
A part that needs replacing
One machine stops or runs well under its rated hashrate
A technician replaces the fan, power supply or board
Planned work
A short stop at one site
Machines restart when the work is done
Good to know: A short dip in hashrate is not an outage. Pool readings wobble during the day. Look at the 24-hour average on the machine's sheet before you worry.
Check it yourself
Open My miners and find the machine under Your machines.
Tap the tile to open its sheet. Status shows when it was last seen.
Set the hashrate chart to 24 h or 3 days to see when it stopped.
Look at the other machines at the same site. If they stopped at the same time, the cause is at the site, not in your machine.
For a site-wide view, open the public status page.
What it means for your figures
A machine that is not running mines no bitcoin for those hours. You will see the stop in its Uptime and in the day-by-day table on its sheet, and in the uptime on your monthly report.
When to write to us
The machine has been offline for more than a day and the tile does not show In repair.
It has been In repair for longer than you expected and you would like an update.
A machine shows Awaiting first data several days after its install date.
You see something that does not match, such as a machine listed at the wrong site.
Write to hello@firsthandbitcoin.com with the machine code shown on the tile. We answer with what the site team has found and what happens next.