Software/Hardware:
BOINC Version 7.0.8 (x64)
Quicktime version 7.7.3
Powerpoint 2007
Dell Studio XPS 1640 laptop
Windows 7 Premium, SP1, updates are all current

Observed Problem:
1. I loaded BOINC normally at startup.
2. I opened Quicktime, and played an MPEG-4 video clip normally.
3. I opened Powerpoint and was able to load and run the same video from within the presentation.
4. I exited BOINC using the taskbar icon and a right-click.
5. The clip would not run within Powerpoint, even if I exited Powerpoint and reloaded it. Quicktime did not even load.
6. Opening the file from Explorer could only be done using a righ- click + OPEN commend. Double-clicking did not work.
7. The video played with no sound.

Rebooting restored me to the original condition, and I could successfully reproduce this problem repeatedly. The video and presentation did not matter.

Anyone have any thoughts?

This is a critical issue to me. I give a lot of video intensive presentations, and I want the videos to run smoothly. BOINC is not as good about giving up the CPU as it should be, and I can get choppy videos as a result. I would hate to have to remove BOINC, but if it comes down to a choice, BOINC is gone.[/u]

So as I get it from what you say, the problem starts when you exit BOINC completely and it is no longer running? How can it be a BOINC problem then?

If everything works as it should when BOINC is running, why not keep BOINC running? Why not use the exclusive applications option to suspend BOINC when it automatically detects that you are using Powerpoint or Quicktime?

And why do you (still) use 7.0.8? Unless that's a typo and you meant .28

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I am presuming that BOINC is shutting down a needed process for Quicktime, interacting unexpectedly with my sound system or corrupting my memory. Any one of those I consider a problem with BOINC, not Quictime or Windows.

And I am asking nicely because I want to see if anyone else has had the problem and developed a solution.

Update to a Release Build, Boinc 7.0.8 was a very early Alpha Build, then see if the problem is still there.

Claggy

The only processes being shut down by BOINC when you do right-click BOINC icon->Exit->"Stop running tasks when exiting the BOINC Manager" check-marked->OK, are:
- Any tasks running.
- the boincmgr.exe process.
- the boinc.exe process.

Nothing else.
Now, perhaps that one of the projects you run uses a shared library somewhere, but that's very doubtful. So, which projects are you running?

Yet again, do consider putting the Quicktime and Powerpoint excutables as exclusive applications in BOINC Manager. Then BOINC suspends running work while those processes run and it'll continue the work when they exit memory. See the client configuration file, options-><exclusive_app> and <exclusive_gpu_app> for more information. That way you don't have to exit BOINC.

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