The problem is that when there is limited computing time available things go wrong because we run the risk of no task completing on time (being weeks late).

That is no problem, because of the redundancy built into BOINC. It would be a problem if the only option projects had was to send out one task to one computer and nothing more, but they don't. When your computer does not send back a result by the deadline, that task is just sent out to another computer, all the way until one or more computers return the result file that the project is waiting for.

What i want ?: I want boinc to start and complete ONE task at a time

Then either allow BOINC to learn your schedule, without forcing it to do things your way. Stop micromanaging BOINC. Just set preferences correctly and allow BOINC to use them.

BOINC 7 is on its way, it will change the way that work is being fetched and stored. Minimum work amounts will truly be minimum work amounts. So a minimum work amount of 0.1 days will probably be a couple of tasks at the most, depending on the project.

And otherwise, as I said in this post in this thread, add the appropriate debug flags (<rr_simulation/> and <cpu_sched_debug/> and possibly <work_fetch_debug> in this case) and send a report in to the BOINC alpha email list (registration required).

It truly is that brilliantly simple. It's the direct way into the developers' email boxes. Others use it, so why can't you?

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I'll try and get the debug files sent over. I don't have a problem with receiving more than one task but actually starting more is the problem, if they were just done one at a time it would be fine. I shudder when I hear you bleat on about redundancy and not to worry. I do, there is so much work and so many projects to do and i resent people saying "oh well who cares if you miss a deadline someone else will do it instead". So the precious little time some computers are on is being wasted because boinc insists on running too many tasks at once. I don't play about with my dads pc, I left last night with 4 jobs on the go ! why ? it is a 2 core processor, it will only do 2 at a time.

I really don't understand the don't care attitude and the willingness to see resources wasted just so boinc can run badly, I know that the resources are "free" but if you don't mind i pay for my electricity and I'm happy to pay the extra used due to my (quad core) processor and graphics card running full blast all of the time if it is doing something useful, I resent people telling me it's fine if i do that to no good end because we want to be inefficient with free resources.

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An analogy:

You start work tomorrow, on a completely new job.
* You don't know how long the job will take precisely, you've only been given an estimate.
* You don't know how long you will be there, you only know that the work you have needs to be done in 14 days exactly.
* Due to circumstances beyond your control, 3 hours into the work, the power goes down. This power outage lasts another 3 days. You can't work in the pitch black dark.
* When the power has returned, you start working again. Now after 5 hours the power goes down and it doesn't return for another 7 days.
* You do know that when all the work is done, you will get 75 million pieces of gold.

Some questions:
. Will you finish the work?
. How do you know that you will finish the work?
. Will you try to do as much of it as possible, or mosey on and shrug at the world?

You're doing the same to BOINC.
You decide that it needs to do this big amount of work, that it really needs a couple of days for, in an as short amount of time as possible. You turn the power off on it and don't return for hours, if not days.

At the same time, you don't want BOINC to learn either, but instead decide for it what work it should run and when to do so. We call that micromanaging, and it's totally not necessary.

You have the prior knowledge of how long the computer with BOINC on it is going to be on, or at least a good guess. You have the prior knowledge if BOINC is allowed to work on while the computer is in use, or not. So you can decide for BOINC to run with as lean a cache as possible, but also need to learn to have the patience to allow BOINC to learn about this.

So you set as minimum an amount of cache as possible. Not a Minimum of 7 days and a maximum of 10 days, when you know up front that the computer is only going to be on for 3 days out of those 17.

And if you can't do that, but instead keep nagging about things you resent, and how BOINC should do things your way and everyone who's trying to teach you how it works should go the high way, well, then you get to that point where you're going to be ignored. Which from this moment onwards, I am going to do.

Your personal attack on me was unwarranted. You've shot yourself in the foot, as I will no longer help you, ever. Arriverdeci, so long.

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I have not tried to "micromanage" boinc. it is working in this way all on its own particularly on my dads pc that I rarely use. It is because the pc may or may not be turned on in the next few days that trying to start too many tasks at once is dangerous, I thought this was a simple concept ?

I left my dads pc yeasterday with 4 tasks half done, it could have completed 2 in the same time and they would be complete. If that pc is not turned on for another 3 weeks that time will be wasted as all 4 tasks will not complete and they will be sent to another user. do you or do you not acknowledge this situation ?

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