ACADEMY
MINING EDITION
MODULE 3
LESSON 5
Troubleshooting Advanced Mining Issues
Even experienced miners encounter issues. This final lesson covers common advanced problems and how to solve them, so you can keep your Qubic mining operation running smoothly.
Authentication Failed / Access Token Errors
If your miner’s log or console shows an error like “ERROR AUTHENTICATION FAILED”, it means the pool rejected your token or address . This can happen if your access token expired or was revoked, or if you mistyped your wallet address. Solution: If you’re using an access token (for a Qubic.li account), log into the pool website and generate a new token, then update your miner config . If you’re mining with just a wallet address (no login), double-check that the address is correct and corresponds to an actual Qubic wallet (addresses start with qubic_...). Also check your internet connection – occasionally a connection issue can cause auth errors if the miner can’t reach the pool reliably . Once corrected, restart the miner.
GPU Not Engaging (or GPU errors)
If you have a GPU but notice it’s not being utilized (e.g., no speedup over CPU-only, or an error loading CUDA/OpenCL), a few things could be wrong. On Windows, ensure you have the latest NVIDIA or AMD drivers installed. On Linux, if using NVIDIA, install the proprietary driver (e.g., sudo apt install nvidia-driver on Ubuntu) . The Qubic miner needs proper driver support to use the GPU. Another issue on Windows arises if you’re using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) – GPUs can be tricky under WSL. Some community solutions involve installing CUDA for WSL or using particular Windows builds , but the simpler fix is to run the native Windows binary of QLI client if you want GPU, or run a full Linux OS. If you have an integrated GPU plus a discrete GPU, Windows might be trying to use the wrong one for rendering. One workaround: set your OS to use the iGPU for display and dedicate the discrete GPU to mining (you can do this in Windows Graphics Settings by assigning Qubic miner to “High performance” GPU, which is usually the discrete one). This prevents UI or desktop rendering from interfering with the mining GPU’s compute tasks, and can resolve freezes or low GPU usage issues.
AMD GPU not mining
Qubic’s GPU trainer availability can vary by epoch – sometimes only NVIDIA CUDA code is provided if AMD support isn’t ready . If you have an AMD card and it’s idle, it might be because the current epoch’s neural network doesn’t have an AMD-optimized trainer. Solution: Unfortunately, in that case you may have to wait until an AMD version is released (devs aim to support AMD as much as possible, but it can lag). You can still mine with your CPU in the meantime. Keep your AMD drivers updated and watch announcements; as soon as AMD support is live, your miner should auto-download the AMD trainer and utilize your card .
Mining Slows Down Unexpectedly
If you notice a sudden drop in performance (iterations per second) without any config change, investigate thermal throttling and background processes first. High CPU temps can cause slowdowns – check if your cooler or fans failed or if thermal paste needs reapplying. Also ensure Windows didn’t revert to a balanced power plan after an update (it happens!). On Linux, check CPU frequency scaling. Another culprit can be other processes hogging resources – maybe Windows Update or a scheduled antivirus scan kicking in, or another program using the GPU (e.g., a game or video playing). Solution: Keep your mining rig as clean as possible – disable unnecessary startup programs, use taskmgr or top to spot CPU hogs. For GPUs, ensure no monitors are attached if you can avoid it (headless operation), or use an HDMI dummy plug if needed to keep the GPU at full clocks.
Miner Crashes or Exits
If the Qubic miner crashes, go to the log/ folder in the miner directory. The client writes error logs there with details . Common crashes could be caused by running out of memory (check if your system started swapping – maybe reduce threads), or an unsupported CPU instruction (rare, but if you try to force AVX512 on a CPU that doesn’t have it, it could exit). If a log shows something like “Illegal instruction”, try setting a more compatible cpuVersion (like AVX2) in config. If you see a .NET error or similar (since QLI client is .NET-based), make sure you have all dependencies installed (.NET runtime, VC++ redistributables for Windows – the QLI documentation lists these). Solution: For persistent issues, a full reset can help: stop the miner, delete or rename the appsettings.json to start fresh, and also delete any cached trainer binaries (files named qli-worker* in the folder) so they re-download clean . Then start the client again and reconfigure. This often clears any corrupted state.
“AVX not working” issue
Some users on older Intel CPUs found the miner not picking the best code path (e.g., it might default to a generic trainer when AVX2 was available). If your CPU supports AVX2 or AVX-512 but Qubic isn’t using it, you can manually override as mentioned earlier: edit appsettings.json to add "cpuVersion": "AVX2" (or "AVX512" or "SKYLAKE" as appropriate) under the trainer section . Then restart the miner. If it still fails, that CPU might have a quirk – check Discord for specific advice, as the community may have a tailored fix.
Idle but No XMR Mining
If you turned off the XMR idle mining intentionally (or it’s off by default in some custom setups) and you see your miner frequently “idling” with no fallback, remember that during those times you are not earning anything. It’s not exactly an error, but an advanced user might do this to reduce power usage. Just be aware of the trade-off: disabling idle mining means when there are gaps in Qubic tasks, your hardware rests (cooler and lower electricity, but no reward). If you notice long idle stretches and didn’t disable XMR, something might be wrong. Check if the XMR module is running – the console usually prints a line when it starts “Mining Monero during idle…”. If it’s not, ensure xmrSettings.disable is false in config . Also, check firewall settings – the XMR module connects to a different pool (xmr.qubic.li on port 3333) ; if that’s blocked, the miner might silently idle. Open the port or allow the connection and you should see the XMR kicks in.
Strange Hashrate or score reporting
If the pool shows a wildly fluctuating performance or a flat zero, but your miner seems to be working, it could be a backend issue. Occasionally, the pool stats might lag or a display bug might show incorrect numbers. Solution: A simple fix often is to restart your miner and/or the system , which re-establishes the connection. If the issue persists, check Discord – there might be an ongoing pool maintenance or other miners reporting the same. The Qubic devs usually resolve any server-side issues quickly. Remember, your actual contributions are still counted on the blockchain side even if the pool UI misbehaves, so minor display glitches won’t cost you rewards as long as your miner was indeed doing work.
Joining the Community for Help
Many advanced issues have been solved by fellow miners. If you’re stuck, don’t hesitate to ask in the Qubic Discord’s mining channel . Provide details like your hardware, OS, miner version, and any log snippets. The community or dev team can often pinpoint the problem (whether it’s an obscure Linux dependency or a known bug with a workaround). As Qubic is a cutting-edge project, collaborating on solutions is part of the experience!
With these lessons, you now have a comprehensive understanding of advanced mining mechanics in Qubic. You know how uPoW makes your work useful, how to fine-tune your hardware and software for maximum performance, ways to configure the miner to your liking, strategies to keep the network secure & decentralized, and how to troubleshoot like a pro. Qubic’s mining is truly a blend of blockchain tech and AI research – and as an advanced Qubic Academy graduate, you’re at the forefront of this revolution in mining! Happy mining, and see you on the leaderboards.