BOINC version: 7.6.9 x64
OS: Windows 7
Project: Einstein@Home

How do I know if my GPU is being used? I'd like to know as I'd like to contribute as much as possible. I'm not a complete noob regarding computers but enough of one that I can't say whether I installed BOINC as a Service or not. Any help would be appreciated.

Look in the BOINC Manager Event Log (Ctrl-Shift-E), especially the first 20-30 lines after BOINC starts up. If that doesn't answer your questions, copy and post them here, so others can help you analyse them.

Thank you for the quick reply! Here is the stuff from the Event Log:

11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Starting BOINC client version 7.6.9 for windows_x86_64
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Libraries: libcurl/7.39.0 OpenSSL/1.0.2a zlib/1.2.8
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Running under account Jens
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | CAL: ATI GPU 0: ATI Radeon HD 5500/5600 series (Redwood) (CAL version 1.4.696, 2048MB, 2016MB available, 1040 GFLOPS peak)
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Host name: Jens-HP
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Processor: 8 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93GHz [Family 6 Model 30 Stepping 5]
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt syscall nx lm vmx smx tm2 pbe
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Home Premium x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Memory: 7.96 GB physical, 15.92 GB virtual
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Disk: 916.29 GB total, 839.42 GB free
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | Local time is UTC +2 hours
11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | VirtualBox version: 4.3.12

Does the bit in bold mean the GPU is being used?

11-10-2015 14:50:58 | | CAL: ATI GPU 0: ATI Radeon HD 5500/5600 series (Redwood) (CAL version 1.4.696, 2048MB, 2016MB available, 1040 GFLOPS peak)

Which drivers do you have installed?
For OpenCL support and to be able to run Seti/Einstein tasks on it, you need at least Catalyst 11.12, which isn't available anymore, so go for Catalyst 12.1. Or just any later Catalyst, bar 13.1, which has a bug in the APP runtime compiler.

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Just installed Catalyst 12.2. Here is the Event Log again:

11-10-2015 17:40:05 | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
11-10-2015 17:40:05 | | Starting BOINC client version 7.6.9 for windows_x86_64
11-10-2015 17:40:05 | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
11-10-2015 17:40:05 | | Libraries: libcurl/7.39.0 OpenSSL/1.0.2a zlib/1.2.8
11-10-2015 17:40:05 | | Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
11-10-2015 17:40:05 | | Running under account Jens
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | CAL: ATI GPU 0: ATI Radeon HD 5500/5600 series (Redwood) (CAL version 1.4.696, 2048MB, 2016MB available, 1040 GFLOPS peak)
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Host name: Jens-HP
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Processor: 8 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93GHz [Family 6 Model 30 Stepping 5]
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt syscall nx lm vmx smx tm2 pbe
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Home Premium x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Memory: 7.96 GB physical, 15.92 GB virtual
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Disk: 916.29 GB total, 838.51 GB free
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Local time is UTC +2 hours
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | VirtualBox version: 4.3.12
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 11901335; resource share 100
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | Einstein@Home | General prefs: from Einstein@Home (last modified 21-May-2015 20:42:28)
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | Einstein@Home | Host location: none
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | Einstein@Home | General prefs: using your defaults
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Reading preferences override file
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | Preferences:
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | max memory usage when active: 4075.54MB
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | max memory usage when idle: 7335.97MB
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | max disk usage: 20.00GB
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | don't use GPU while active
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25%
11-10-2015 17:40:07 | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
11-10-2015 17:40:08 | | Not using a proxy
11-10-2015 17:40:08 | | Suspending GPU computation - computer is in use
11-10-2015 17:40:12 | Einstein@Home | Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
11-10-2015 17:40:12 | Einstein@Home | Requesting new tasks for AMD/ATI GPU
11-10-2015 17:40:13 | Einstein@Home | Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
11-10-2015 17:40:13 | Einstein@Home | No work sent
11-10-2015 17:40:13 | Einstein@Home | see scheduler log messages on http://einstein5.aei.uni-hannover.de/EinsteinAtHome/host_sched_logs/11901/11901335

Thoughts?

Clean out the drivers with something like Driver Sweeper (from Windows Safe Mode) before installing them again.
Always uninstall the previous drivers, before installing newer ones.
And after uninstalling, it's a good idea to run Driver Sweeper or a similar cleaner as that will remove old remnants of the drivers left behind by the uninstaller.

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I downloaded the Driver Sweeper but...this is getting a bit hairy. I have no idea what to select in the Driver Sweeper start-up window or what my choices might do to my otherwise well functioning computer. Some questions:

a) Presumably you can tell from the Event Log that my GPU is not running. May I ask how?
b) Which drivers should I uninstall?
c) What should I select from the Driver Sweeper start-up window?
d) How do I install drivers again after using Driver Sweeper?
e) Should I simply stop here and accept that I can only contribute with my computer's CPU?

I want to help as much as I can, but as a non-specialist in computers I'm a bit worried about what I'm getting in to.

The meaning is to be sure there isn't any remnants of the old driver left and that the fresh GPU driver installation goes perfectly, resulting in a completely functional environment.

Another good software that you could use to clean up the GPU drivers is Wagnard Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU):
http://www.wagnardmobile.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=123

If you choose to use that...

1. Start the computer in Safe Mode.
2. Run DDU and select AMD in the "Select Graphic Driver".
3. Click the "Clean and restart".
4. Let computer restart and then install the new GPU driver (Catalyst 12.2... or any other of the good ones).
5. Reboot the computer one more time. Then the GPU drivers should be in a nice'n fresh state for BOINC.

Have you chosen to run GPU applications... in the Einstein@Home preferences ?

Your page should be here:
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/prefs.php?subset=project

"Use ATI GPU" ... and good would be "Yes"

"Run only the selected applications" ... and good would be "(all applications)" or at least some of the applications that have work for AMD GPU.

Information about all the current Einstein@Home Applications:
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/apps.php
Some of them might have a version available for CPU, some for GPU (AMD or Nvidia or Intel...) or for both.

And here you can see which Applications have work available at all, at least for some hardware (Tasks to send):
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/server_status.html

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In the end, after you get your GPU to run some work, you can see it working also if you open Windows Task Manager. You will be able to see also the GPU application instances there... running and using some resources (memory + a little bit of CPU time).

Another thing you will notice is your GPU temperature will rise a leap, if compared with basic desktop usage. Here's a nice software to look up how your GPU is doing:
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
While your GPU is crunching BOINC work that will reflect quite clearly also in the "Sensors" graphs.

You should be able to tell from the "tasks" tab whether your GPU is being used or not... Your task will say "Running (0.2 CPUs + 1 NVIDIA GPU)" or something similar. If you're not getting any tasks, that's when you need to look into things like driver versions and what have you... Not sure if you checked there or not, seems like the other suggestions may be a bit deeper than you needed at this point.

If you want to know about the exact GPU utilization percentage (like you would get in Task Manager for CPU) you'll have to use a third-party utility like GPU-Z. Not all projects will make maximum use of your GPU, like nearly all CPU applications do. One issue with GPU units, is keeping the I/O going between your GPU and storage, which for some projects and fast cards may require you to leave an entire CPU core open.

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