Using:
BOINC 7.0.25 (x64) on windows 7
AMD Catalyst drivers: 12.4 (including OpenCL)
GPU: AMD Radeon 5670

Note: This problem also occurred for several months with the latest 6.x windows release and 11.5 drivers but today I updated to the above.

Put simply, BOINC isn't using my GPU. I've done the following:

• Associated Collatz Conjecture and the Milkway project assigned to my BOINC.
  
• Confirmed that "Use ATI GPU Enforced by version 6.10+ " for Collatz is set to "yes". For good measure I've disabled CPU usage for this project
  
• Tested the OpenCL driver against both the GPU and the CPU using GPU Caps Viewer - both worked fine.
  
• checked "Use GPU while computer is in use".
  

I've been running Collatz on the CPU for months (> 250,000 work done) but now I've disallowed it to use CPU, its not running at all. Any suggestions? The basic FAQ page suggests that's all I'd need to do. Googling brings up other things but none of them relate to it simply not working.


One thing I do note - on the help it says: "Run BOINC, and look at the Messages. If BOINC reports a GPU, your current driver is OK." - where are the "messages"? I have notices, but can't find anything in BOINC about messages.

Any suggestions?

Milkyway won't use your GPU, as it doesn't have double precision. Only these GPUs (link to thread on their own forums) will work. But at the moment the project is down.

For Collatz, start in this thread. Read through it what they say is their minimum requirement, and if in doubt just ask them.

BOINC 6.12 and later have the Event Log (CTRL+SHIFT+E on Advanced view) which shows the messages. Check first that your GPU is even detected by BOINC. It's all fine and well if external programs tell you that you have OpenCL capability, but if BOINC hasn't detected the GPU, then it won't use it either.

There have been complaints that 12.4 'hides' the GPU from BOINC. You may want to try older drivers first. Or completely uninstall these drivers, before reinstalling them or others.

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I see the following in my logs: "No useable GPUs found" in the event log. I will investigate further with driver stuff. Thanks!


Also - May I suggest updating this page - http://boinc.berkeley.edu/gpu.php - to specify what it means by "messages". If you can only get there with a shortcut key 99% of people will never find it and it would have saved me message around with Collatz.

I've changed the Wiki, http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/GPU_computing. The other page is deprecated as it says at the top. I'll see if I can get the developers to remove it. Thanks for the report.

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Well, I downloaded the 12.3 drivers, uninstalled the 12.4's, booted to safe mode and used the driver cleaner to remove the last vestigates. I then installed 12.3, rebooted again and... BOINC still isn't detecting any GPU's. :-(
I've restarted both the manager and client a few times and still nothing

Tested with the GPU Caps Viewer again (12.3) and its working fine there. Any suggestions?


(I missed the "this page is deprecated" bit at the top, though I had seen the new page too but that too isn't able to help with this).


Also, for semi-unrelated bonus confusion, despite having set CPU usage to "no" for collatz and forced "update" several times, its now using my CPU! Though it wasn't before. :-S I've confirmed its still set online to "no".

Also, for semi-unrelated bonus confusion, despite having set CPU usage to "no" for collatz and forced "update" several times, its now using my CPU! Though it wasn't before. :-S I've confirmed its still set online to "no".

There's also an option at the project options that says "If no work for selected applications is available, accept work from other applications?" and when that's checked, you get what you experience.

How did you install BOINC? As a service (protected application execution in the installer)? For then it won't detect the GPU, as Microsoft has separated the drivers from the services, making it impossible for either to know about the other.

Check in your messages in Event Log, at the top.
Does it say "Running as daemon" anywhere? Then you've got BOINC installed as a service. The only way out of that is uninstall, reinstall, 3rd screen in the installer click Advanced, then uncheck the PAE option, continue installation.

While you're going to be working with installers anyway, best update to 7.0.28, the latest development version that has a load of bug fixes.

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Weird. It says "running as a daemon" but I absolutely definitely made sure the checkbox for that wasn't ticked.

Yep, just uninstalled it and then installed 7.0.28 making absolutely definitely postivily certain I didn't tick that box (none of the boxes were ticked actually)>I then deleted everything in my BOINC directory except "data" and "ca-bundle.crt".

Yet when I start BOINC I still see "running as daemon". It apparently started with "...\boinc.exe -daemon"
Huh?

There's also an option at the project options that says "If no work for selected applications is available, accept work from other applications?" and when that's checked, you get what you experience.

That says "no" next to it, so unchecked.

May I suggest updating this page - http://boinc.berkeley.edu/gpu.php - to specify what it means by "messages".

May I ask how you got to that link? As the BOINC download pages link to the Wiki. The developers want to know if they missed a link someplace.

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Search engine. It's the top result for "https://duckduckgo.com/?q=amd+gpu+boinc" - second on google

Sorry for the late continuation of this thread, real life got in the way.

Weird. It says "running as a daemon" but I absolutely definitely made sure the checkbox for that wasn't ticked.

Yep, just uninstalled it and then installed 7.0.28 making absolutely definitely postivily certain I didn't tick that box (none of the boxes were ticked actually)>I then deleted everything in my BOINC directory except "data" and "ca-bundle.crt".

Yet when I start BOINC I still see "running as daemon". It apparently started with "...\boinc.exe -daemon"
Huh?

I'm going to ask you to do a manual delete of BOINC.
Uninstall BOINC through Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features

Next open regedit.exe
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley and delete the BOINC Setup key.

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley and delete the BOINC Manager and BOINC Screensaver keys.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and delete the boincmgr and boinctray entries.

Exit regedit.exe

Then navigate to your C:\Program Files\ directory. Is there a BOINC directory here? If there is, delete it.
Then navigate to your C:\Program Files (x86)\ directory. Is there a BOINC directory here? If there is, delete it.

Leave your BOINC Data directory (default at C:\ProgramData\BOINC\) well alone. It doesn't need to be deleted!

Now reboot your computer.
When back logged in, and if you didn't yet, get BOINC 7.0.28 64bit and install it. In the third screen of the installer, when you see this screen:

Click the Advanced button.
In the next screen, when you see this:

Check the path to the data directory if you changed it to another place and uncheck the Protected application execution, then continue the installation.


Your BOINC should now run not as a service, and with GPU detection.

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Thanks Jord, that did it.

However, even after I'd followed your uninstall instructions, I double checked and there was still a BOINC service installed. I manually deleted it with
"sc delete BOINC" on the command line.
I guess previous uninstalls didn't remove it either.

Installed 7.0.28 and it pretty much instantly started using my GPU with no further effort on my part.

Thanks again.

Science here I come! ;-)

A recently built machine running XP 64 bit used the GPU fine (first GPU I've actually had!). Software compatibility convinced me to go back to XP 32 bit - no GPU found! All latest drivers etc. Sapphire 5450 2GB, Pentium dual core. I will experiment further and report back.

Hi Jord,

I tried the manual uninstall as you describe it and I even installed 7.0.42 for a Nvidia Geforce 9400 GTin different directories, but it still shows me "Running as a daemon". Do you have any further ideas?

Thanks in advance,
René

- Uninstall BOINC through Add/Remove Programs (XP) or Uninstall a Program (Vista/7/8).

- Start the BOINC installer of the BOINC you want to install.
-> Click Next.
-> Put the radio button on "I accept.." and click Next.
-> Click Advanced.
-> Uncheck Protected application execution and click Next.
-> Click Install.
-< Click Finish.

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