I'm a n00b and need help

[Snake X]

I just want to be able to solo mine by myself using poclbm as a gpu miner. However, I can't seem to get it working! It keeps on telling me that bitcoin is downloading blocks.. and at the bottom right hand corner it says '114649 blocks' and the number is rising. What does this mean? Also how will I know when bitcoin is done downloading blocks so I can generate coins? I'm so confused, thanks in advance!

Also what does it mean 'error connecting to RPC server'? I get that a lot too.

edit: sorry, i think i posted in the wrong category :s

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[matt.collier]

Hi Snake X, welcome the the forum.

I recommend you consider joining a mining pool.  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Pooled_mining.  At this point, it could be many years before you ever made any bitcoin mining on your own.

At this moment, the block chain is 127657 blocks, so if your system is showing any less than that, it has not managed to download the entire block chain yet.

[jimbobway]

poclmb and bitcoin.exe are separate programs.  Get all the blocks first so you can confirm transactions.  I don't think you need to run both at the same time to generate coins but you do need a bitcoin address that your miner's pool can send coins to.

[Serge]

your bitcoin client/server won't do anything until it updates blockchain locally.  current block 127658, got to wait until all blocks downloaded

[PLATO]

You will see much more consistent returns in a pool; low or medium end hardware will take months to generate blocks nowadays.

If you do decide to mine solo, you need to have Bitcoin running as a server. There are two ways to do this - 1, start bitcoind.exe (found in a subfolder) or pass an argument to bitcoin: bitcoin.exe -server.

Once you do this, you have to set up a username and password in a config file somewhere. Check mining forum and/or www.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining for details. You will give this information to your miner, along with the IP to connect to (probably localhost or 127.0.0.1). RPC = 'remote procedure call', i.e. the miner is trying to talk to a server.

[Snake X]

thanks guys now I know what to do

edit: this is what im running atm:

http://i54.tinypic.com/2hxrtys.png

[Cryptoman]

Unfortunately, it will take you nearly a year with your current hardware to find a block if mining solo. 

[Snake X]

ok but with that, how long will it take me to find a bitcoin runing in a pool?

[grue]

thanks guys now I know what to do

edit: this is what im running atm:

lol, +100% voltage?

[Snake X]

yeah but still, how much do you think that I will make with using that in a pool though? atm im at 64.5 Mhash/s

[hazek]

yeah but still, how much do you think that I will make with using that in a pool though? atm im at 64.5 Mhash/s

0.13 BTC/24h is what the calculator on deebit.net says

[Snake X]

Ok I have another question. On my profile at http://mining.bitcoin.cz/ it says i have Unconfirmed award: 0.02558796 BTC

What does this mean? How do I aquire those bitcoin pieces?