Strange problem with dual core AMD system

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w1hue

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Joined: 28 May 10
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Message 44422 - Posted: 7 Jun 2012, 23:46:41 UTC

I have two HP computers with dual core AMD processors that have been running BOINC projects for the past couple of years or so. BOINC preferences are set to use 100% of the available CPUs and they each have been running two tasks simultaeously without problems. Now, all of a sudden, one of them has decided that it only wants to run 1 task! If I restart BOINC manager, it runs two tasks for awhile and then drops down to 1 (and the task manager shows CPU usage around 50% rather than 100%). Both machines are running version 7.0.25 -- and have been for awhile. I updated the problem machine to 7.0.27 and it behaves in the same manner -- running two tasks for awhile and then dropping down to one. It is not a temperature issue; I am running TThrottle on both machines with the temp limit set to 60 deg. C and they rarely exceed that limit (with two tasks running, CPU temp is typically between 52 an 58 C -- these are small case machines). Of course when the problem machine drops down to one task, the CPU temp drops by a few degrees. Any ideas? Anyone??
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w1hue

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Message 44423 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 0:02:56 UTC - in response to Message 44422.  

UPDATE: The machine is now back to running two tasks!! What the ... ??
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w1hue

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Message 44427 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 4:48:47 UTC - in response to Message 44423.  
Last modified: 8 Jun 2012, 4:49:37 UTC

Another Update: about four hours later and the machine has gone back to executing only one BOINC task! An yes, there are several other tasks either waiting to run or waiting to start (just in case you were going to ask...). The the preferences still show that 100% of CPUs should be used (maximum CPU usage is also set at 100%). Driving me nuts!!
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Claggy

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Message 44434 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 20:51:17 UTC - in response to Message 44427.  

May i draw your attention to this thread, if you don't supply enough information you're unlikey to get many answers:

When requesting help on these forums...

Claggy
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w1hue

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Message 44435 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 21:30:38 UTC - in response to Message 44434.  

May i draw your attention to this thread, if you don't supply enough information you're unlikey to get many answers:

Gee... I thought my first post was very complete in describing he problem! Perhaps you failed to read it...
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Claggy

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Message 44436 - Posted: 8 Jun 2012, 21:47:52 UTC - in response to Message 44435.  

May i draw your attention to this thread, if you don't supply enough information you're unlikey to get many answers:

Gee... I thought my first post was very complete in describing he problem! Perhaps you failed to read it...

Which project(s) is this on? which app is it from that project?, maybe you're only got one task left, maybe one of your projects has misconfigured a single core app to be a multicore app,
maybe Boinc 7 is configured to only use a small amount of memory and you haven't got enough to run two at once, maybe you're got a GPU and one of your projects needs a lot of a CPU core to feed that GPU.

At the moment it's anybodies guess what the problem with your host is.

Claggy
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Claggy

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Message 44438 - Posted: 9 Jun 2012, 8:35:27 UTC - in response to Message 44435.  

May i draw your attention to this thread, if you don't supply enough information you're unlikey to get many answers:

Gee... I thought my first post was very complete in describing he problem! Perhaps you failed to read it...

Please post the the first 20 to 30 lines of the Boinc startup messages,

Claggy
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w1hue

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Message 44442 - Posted: 9 Jun 2012, 20:36:27 UTC - in response to Message 44436.  
Last modified: 9 Jun 2012, 20:43:58 UTC

Which project(s) is this on? which app is it from that project?,

Sorry, I didn't write that info down.

maybe you're only got one task left,

Nope - as stated in my original post, several tasks were waiting to run or start.

maybe one of your projects has misconfigured a single core app to be a multicore app,

Don't think so...

maybe Boinc 7 is configured to only use a small amount of memory and you haven't got enough to run two at once,

Well now, that is a definite possibility! It is configured to use up to 85% of memory when idle and 50% when in use ... but the machine only has 1GB of memory. It's 'twin' machine, which has never exhibited this (single task) behavior, has 2GB of memory. However, here was no 'waiting for memory' in any of the non-active task's status entry.

maybe you're got a GPU and one of your projects needs a lot of a CPU core to feed that GPU.

The GPU in the machine is not recognized by BOINC, hence there are no GPU tasks.

The machine has been happily crunching two tasks now for the past 15 hours or so, so maybe there was a memory hogging task that finally completed and now all is well...
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Message boards : Questions and problems : Strange problem with dual core AMD system

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