[Sticky] What should new miners learn first before buying hardware in Currency Eexchange?

I ran into this after changing pool settings and thought the machine was the problem. In my case the miner was fine, but the network path was unstable and the shares started coming through only after I fixed DNS and restarted cleanly.

For anyone still troubleshooting this, the most useful sequence I found was: confirm the wallet and worker format first, then verify the stratum target, then check miner logs, then look at temperature and uptime, and only after that start changing firmware or network settings. Doing it in a clean order saved me a lot of time because I stopped guessing and started isolating the real problem.

For anyone still troubleshooting this, the most useful sequence I found was: confirm the wallet and worker format first, then verify the stratum target, then check miner logs, then look at temperature and uptime, and only after that start changing firmware or network settings. Doing it in a clean order saved me a lot of time because I stopped guessing and started isolating the real problem.

I had a similar situation on a smaller setup and the lesson for me was not to assume profitability or stability from one short test window. Watching behavior over a longer period gave me a more realistic picture.

This is more common than people think, especially with new firmware or rushed setup changes.

I think the most helpful answers here are the ones that explain what to check first, not just the final fix.

A practical comparison with real setup details would make this thread much more useful for future readers.

It helps a lot when people include what symptoms they saw, what they tested, and what actually changed the result.

This is a strong SEO-style topic because it matches the real questions miners keep asking again and again.

This is exactly the kind of question many new miners search for before they commit money or hardware.