Welcome!

Welcome!

FWIW, whenever I've seen hardware errors in cgminer it's been the result of the card overheating. Dial back the speed (and voltage) until the card is stable. Keep in mind that higher voltage means that the card consumes more power and that means more heat, but you need higher voltages for stable performance with higher frequency settings. Tweaking it is kind of an art form. Also, you should set the power setting to +20%. I don't know of any reason not to have that maxed.

Oh, and if you have an open rig, you might just point a large box fan at it to blow away all the heat.

Wow. That sounds painful. Here's my $.02:

1) Skip lunch for a week or two. Basically, save up $40 to $60 for a GPU.
2) Familiarize yourself with the Radeon cards here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison
3) Look for something like the Radeon HD 4870 on eBay or Craigslist
4) Do NOT overclock it until you've banked enough BTC for a real GPU

> Is Newbie Status Really That Hard?

With my 5th post, I say no, but it is annoying 

Welcome!

Welcome!

Hi!

Congrats!