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Of course I have all my card settings removed as thats indivdual for each person.
This way has worked for everycoin I solo mine - and I prefer solo mining. Some do fail and I give up and move on, but not all.
Good luck and let us know how you go.
Thank you for that helpful response!!
I thought the server=1 line in the conf was enough - I didn't append the -server to the shortcut.
Now I get this message though:

The file exists in the folder and looks like that:
rpcuser=somesecretuser
rpcpassword=themegaultranooneknowpassword
rpcport=17772
addnode=213.229.0.41
addnode=193.77.159.166
addnode=113.168.158.16
server=1
listen=1
daemon=1
rpcallowip=*
gen=0
Do you see anything obvious that I can't find right now?
Yes in your screenshot of the error I see 1 -
You need 2 -- before server --server. So chuck it on the end of the exe. Should be fine then.
Honestly I am not sure if server=1 does the same thing, I could look into it but alas it just works. If it works like most switches then yeah probably wouldnt need --server. BTW this isnt the only way to do it, it is longish but the basics are there, you can make bat files that does it all without needing a shortcut and --server. Just if you get errors at least you know where to look.