dueling screensavers

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Eric Myers
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Message 21848 - Posted: 16 Dec 2008, 1:14:35 UTC

In the past few days I've seen something really strange: two screensavers running at the same time. It's always been CPDN and Einstein. The screen flashes between the two, as if each is drawing one frame, then the other, then the first.

This is on Windows XP with BOINC 6.2.19 recently installed.

It doesn't happen all the time, but I've seen it more than once. I haven't yet interrupted it to see which app was actually running.

Anyone else seen this?

-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
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Bob Weidman

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Message 21988 - Posted: 21 Dec 2008, 23:54:20 UTC
Last modified: 21 Dec 2008, 23:56:32 UTC

My PC just started doing this exact same thing a few moments ago. I am running windows VISTA premium home edition and BOINC 6.4.5 (the latest version.)
My screen first shows the BOINC screen, then one project's graphics....then the BOINC screen again followed by another project's graphics. It continues this endlessly.
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Bob Weidman

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Message 21991 - Posted: 22 Dec 2008, 0:01:45 UTC - in response to Message 21848.  

Eric, do you have a project suspended while this is happening? I had ClimatePrediction suspended, due to a Fortran run-time error with it. I just started it again and the weird screensaver switching ended.
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Profile Gundolf Jahn

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Message 21994 - Posted: 22 Dec 2008, 0:21:57 UTC - in response to Message 21848.  

Could the problem described in this thread cause the screensaver behaviour? Don't know the answer, just saw the similarity.

Gruß,
Gundolf
Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)
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Eric Myers
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Message 21995 - Posted: 22 Dec 2008, 2:10:30 UTC - in response to Message 21991.  

Eric, do you have a project suspended while this is happening? I had ClimatePrediction suspended, due to a Fortran run-time error with it. I just started it again and the weird screensaver switching ended.

Neither project is suspended, as far as I can tell, but I will try to examine the logs more closely for a clue.

-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
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Eric Myers
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Message 21996 - Posted: 22 Dec 2008, 2:12:42 UTC - in response to Message 21994.  

Could the problem described in this thread cause the screensaver behaviour? Don't know the answer, just saw the similarity.

I don't think these are the same thing. In that thread the apps change every few seconds (which is also strange), but in my case it seems like two graphics programs are running at the same time, interleaving frames over and over again many times within a single second.

-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
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Eric Myers
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Message 22089 - Posted: 26 Dec 2008, 20:53:55 UTC - in response to Message 21996.  

I've just seen the same thing, but now with CPDN and Pirates@Home showing the Xmas cube. When I interrupted the screensaver I found that the Pirates app was the last thing started (with CPDN and Einstein suspended in memory). I confirmed this by changing to "Run Always" and the Pirates app was the one that started, while Einstein and CPDN were "Waiting to run".

So it seems like maybe the CPDN screensaver is not being stopped when that app is suspended. Yet while CPDN is "waiting to run" and I highlight it in the list of tasks the "Show graphics" button is not live, while if I do the same for Einstein the "show graphics" button actually works. Strange.

I have no idea what's happening here, I'm just writing down my observations in case it helps someone else figure it out.

-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
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Profile Jord
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Message 22144 - Posted: 28 Dec 2008, 22:55:38 UTC - in response to Message 22089.  

Remember that conversation I had with David and Charlie? According to them, the graphics (as in Show Graphics) shouldn't quit after the science application stops running. Perhaps that the screen saver application doesn't stop running when you leave applications in memory on the switch over time.

Something to test?
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Les Bayliss
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Message 22145 - Posted: 28 Dec 2008, 23:00:53 UTC

Tolu (cpdn), is away at the moment, but I'll PM him to look at this thread.
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Eric Myers
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Message 22233 - Posted: 1 Jan 2009, 23:58:03 UTC - in response to Message 22145.  

I have more observations to record, though no solution. I've seen this mixing of screensaver graphics between CPDN and Einstein, and between CPDN and Pirates. When I interrupt it and look at the logs I see that the non-CPDN app was running.

Also, I have checked the preference to have suspended applications remain in memory.

I don't know if any of this helps but I like to record such observations in case it does.

-- Eric Myers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
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Message boards : Questions and problems : dueling screensavers

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