Pool and Solo Mining niggling question

[tonyfrost2020]

I have been mining for a few days now with different pools and I have had a question niggling at the back of my mind.

If I am solo mining or pool mining and neither of us have a block, what exactly is happening to my CPU's and GPU's to constantly be firing?
Where is all the the effort going?

Is there a way to only run my CPU's and GPU's once a block has been found?

I know it may seem like a simple question to most of you, it's just been really bugging me.

[miner29]

If you dont run the gpu (or cpu depending on coin/algo) then you will never find a block.  You run the hashes on the gpu/cpu attempting to find an accepted block.  Without all those tries your odds become ‘0’ (zero).  Even though you hash a lot only accepted shares count towards your pool....and blocks found in the case of solo mining.

There is no short cut.  You are constantly racing all the other miners out there to find a share/block.

[JayDDee]

Think of it like a lottery. Every hash is a lottery ticket, any one can be a winner.
You can't win if you're not playing.