Yep, yet another post about this.  I have the bitcoin client, I have guiminer 2011-05-01, I have followed the instructions for solo mining.  I have disabled my AV and firewall etc just in case.  I have followed the bits and pieces on the various forums.  No matter what I have tried I simply get the "Problems communicating with bitcoin RPC" message constantly.

Does guiminer actually work at all in solo (same machine) mode?  If so can anyone tell me what steps EXACTLY I have to do to get this working?

At this point.... wondering if bitcoin mining is worth this level of annoyance.