Noob is frustrated with Bitcoin

[LH66]

OK I really want to believe in Bitcoin but I am starting to feel bad about it. My client crashed a couple days ago and I still cannot restart it, even after downloading and reinstalling again. 

Next I changed the pw at mybitcoin and now I cannot login. There is no link for resetting a password or for contacting them externally - you have to sign into the site in order to contact them. 

I am not an idiot, nor am I ignorant of website logins (I have my own website), installing and running programs, etc. I'm not an IT person but I have been on the internet since 2000 and I am a QB consultant, so I am not completley unaware of IT/internet stuff.

I keep reading how the people here want Bitcoin usage to expand, but my honest impression to this point is that one has to be a programmer to make Bitcoin work.

Can anybody help this noob get off the ground successfully with Bitcoin?

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[Drifter]

Do you have coins in your mybitcoin account? If not, just make a new one. You could even do that just so you can contact support.

[tlhonmey]

The important part of your bitcoin client is the wallet.dat file.    Make a backup of that file regularly.  (Or, at least, every time you generate a new address.)  It should be in the $HOME$\Application Data\Bitcoin directory on XP.  I forget where it is on Vista and later.  It's similar, but the directories are locked out through the file browser, not just hidden, so you'll have to use a command prompt to get to it.

Once you've done that, uninstall the program, and then wipe out the entire contents of the directory.  You've probably got a corrupted file somehow.  You'll have to redownload the entire block chain, but that shouldn't be too big a deal.  Once you've done that, reinstall, and copy your backed-up wallet.dat back into the settings directory.

If you need help doing any of that, let me know.  I help people with software faults like this all the time.

(I'm afraid I can't help much with the mybitcoin people.  Never used them, never will.)

[LH66]

Thank you, yes I have coins in both locations (wallet.dat and mybitcoin), not a lot but still.... these were both tests, and they are not going well at all.

Note to self: make sure sites have external "reset password" and contact info.

[FreeMoney]

The important part of your bitcoin client is the wallet.dat file.    Make a backup of that file regularly.  (Or, at least, every time you generate a new address.) 

You don't need to backup with every new address. There is a pool of 100 that are made before you need them so a backup will be good until you make 100 new addresses. This was not always the case.

[AmpEater]

I have a solution for you; go to

https://www.instawallet.org/

and enjoy bitcoin Couldn't be easier

then post your address here and I'll instawallet you the .27btc I was using to try it out myself

[LH66]

I have a solution for you; go to

https://www.instawallet.org/

and enjoy bitcoin Couldn't be easier

then post your address here and I'll instawallet you the .27btc I was using to try it out myself

Thanks but I am not willing to try something new until I get these other issues resolved. If I can't get them resolved them I don't think I'll continue... frankly I am beginning to wonder if it's just a well orchestrated scam... and trust me, I WANTED to believe, I really did. I looked up the whois for mybitcoin and sent an email to that address. We'll see how it goes.

[FreeMoney]

I have a solution for you; go to

https://www.instawallet.org/

and enjoy bitcoin Couldn't be easier

then post your address here and I'll instawallet you the .27btc I was using to try it out myself

Thanks but I am not willing to try something new until I get these other issues resolved. If I can't get them resolved them I don't think I'll continue... frankly I am beginning to wonder if it's just a well orchestrated scam... and trust me, I WANTED to believe, I really did. I looked up the whois for mybitcoin and sent an email to that address. We'll see how it goes.

Are you getting help in the technical board? Getting your client working will make you feel better. A bad experience with a bank wouldn't run you off of the dollar, it's separate things. And everything is still pretty new, merchants and services have a lot of room to improve. That means you can steal their market share easily!

I hope you get it worked out.

[AmpEater]

I have a solution for you; go to

https://www.instawallet.org/

and enjoy bitcoin Couldn't be easier

then post your address here and I'll instawallet you the .27btc I was using to try it out myself

Thanks but I am not willing to try something new until I get these other issues resolved. If I can't get them resolved them I don't think I'll continue... frankly I am beginning to wonder if it's just a well orchestrated scam... and trust me, I WANTED to believe, I really did. I looked up the whois for mybitcoin and sent an email to that address. We'll see how it goes.

Just visiting instawallet makes you a wallet address, keeps your balance, remembers your computer....perfect for you it seems

Then again, this whole forum is just A.I shill accounts having complex conversations to simulate human involvement.

Edit - re-reading your post it sounds like you changed, and then forgot your password? mybitcoin doesn't have any system in place for that, they even say so. Don't blame bitcoin for forgetting a password

[LH66]

Are you getting help in the technical board? Getting your client working will make you feel better. A bad experience with a bank wouldn't run you off of the dollar, it's separate things. And everything is still pretty new, merchants and services have a lot of room to improve. That means you can steal their market share easily!

I hope you get it worked out.

Thanks, I'm just frustrated becuase I really want this to be everything I've read. I would LOVE to move away from the dollar, I would love for everybody to be able to move away from it. I am a libertarian at heart so the idea of Bitcoins is just so so so very appealing. My biggest fear, besides it just being a scam (which wasn't even an issue until this morning) is that theUS government will try very very hard to crack down on bitcoin. Governments do not take kindly their money getting displaced.

But losing bitcoins in two different tests is very disheartening. I have to be able to store them, ya know?

[error]

Have you considered asking for technical support for your issue with your local Bitcoin client?

[tlhonmey]

If it makes you feel better, the open-source, P2P nature of Bitcoin makes it so close to impossible for the system as a whole to be a scam that the odds aren't even worth calculating.  There isn't any centralised authority that can be skimming money and planning to ditch the people who bought into it and leave them with nothing.  It will exist for as long as there are people willing to let their computers process transactions, and they will be worth whatever people are willing to trade for them.

About the only thing you have to worry about is that they may currently be over-valued.  Which really isn't any worse than any other currency or commodity.  The US Dollar, and gold currently being two, prominent examples. 

Of course, as with any currency, there will be scammers who use it.  So be as cautious about choosing who you do business with in Bitcoins as you would be about who you do business with in cash.

[LH66]

Thank you all for your kind support! I will plug away and try to resolve these problems before attempting some other way to hold bitcoin.

[cypherdoc]

I have a solution for you; go to

https://www.instawallet.org/

and enjoy bitcoin Couldn't be easier

then post your address here and I'll instawallet you the .27btc I was using to try it out myself

Thanks but I am not willing to try something new until I get these other issues resolved. If I can't get them resolved them I don't think I'll continue... frankly I am beginning to wonder if it's just a well orchestrated scam... and trust me, I WANTED to believe, I really did. I looked up the whois for mybitcoin and sent an email to that address. We'll see how it goes.

why so pessimistic?   heck, i don't have near the computer experience u do but i've made it all work with the basic client.  my biggest source of support are the guys here on the forum.  believe me, this is no scam.  how in the world could all these ppl coordinate to rip off everyone else?  open your eyes.  would all those videos of Gavin and others be orchestrated?  all the podcasts?  all the news articles?  wake up man and follow the directions and the software will work.

[SmokeTooMuch]

I forget where it is on Vista and later.  It's similar, but the directories are locked out through the file browser, not just hidden, so you'll have to use a command prompt to get to it.

That just isn't right. They aren't locked up and you don't have to use the command promt.
They are freely available via Windows Explorer.

[Ricochet]

Regarding the application directory, in both WinXP and Vista (probably 7 too), opening up a Windows Explorer window and typing "%appdata%" into the address bar will bring you directly to the appropriate application data folder.  From there just find Bitcoin and you've got your wallet.dat file.  And yeah, I don't know what tlhonmey means by the files being "locked out" - they're hidden by default I believe, but it only takes a single change in the options to make them viewable.

[tlhonmey]

What I mean is that Explorer goes to extra effort to keep you out of the Application Data directory as compared to other ones, even normal hidden ones.  Simply telling it to show hidden files, at least in my experience, is not enough to make it show up.  Nor will it auto-complete the path name for you if you start to type it.  I hadn't thought of doing the %appdata% thing though.  But then I don't tend to fight with the Windows GUI much since I started out with MS-DOS, and am usually faster in the terminal anyway.     (Especially where tab completion of the directory name works on the Application Data directory.    )

[RodeoX]

Sorry to hear about your woes. Part of the technical problem with bitcoin is that this is still all beta. Future releases of the software will surely be better. The same is true of a lot of services associated with BTC. You found bitcoin in it's infancy. Treat it well and it will grow into a robust adult.

[John Kirk]

OK I really want to believe in Bitcoin but I am starting to feel bad about it. My client crashed a couple days ago and I still cannot restart it, even after downloading and reinstalling again. 

I've had similar problems with the standard client (version 0.3.20.2 BETA) running on Windows 7.  Whenever this happens, there is a lingering zombie process running in the background and I can't re-run the client without first going into the Task Manager and killing the zombie.  (If I try to re-run, I end up with two zombie processes and have to kill both of them.)  You might want to check to see if you are having the same problem.

I've been keeping an eye out to try to get a hint as to what causes the client to crash, but haven't really figured anything out yet.

[LH66]

I love polls! I just saw that I could add one. please vote!