can the "TdrLevel" check be switched off?

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Erich56

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Joined: 30 Dec 14
Posts: 95
Austria
Message 87509 - Posted: 8 Aug 2018, 5:28:03 UTC
Last modified: 8 Aug 2018, 5:28:37 UTC

Boinc version 7.12.1 (x64), OS: Windows10 Home. 2 GTX980ti. Intel i7-4930k, running @ 3.9GHz

On a WinXP machine with which I have been crunching various BOINC projects for the past 2 1/2 years without any problems, I now installed Windows 10.
When crunching GPU projects (any one) on Windows 10, it happens in irregular intervals (maybe after 1 hour, or after 8 hours, or at some time inbetween) that all of a sudden the monitor freezes, and crunching stopps.
Neither keyboard nor mouse react any more, so all I can do is pushing the off-button on the PC and make a reboot.

Then, the Windows event log under "system" shows the warning "the graphic driver nvlddmkm does no longer react and was restored".
This notice shows up every 4 seconds, from the time on the crash happened until I switched off the PC. So if this happens during night and I notice it only next morning, this entry is logged a few thousand times.
Under "details" it shows "eventID 4101", and under event data "nvlddmkm".

In a forum someone pointed out that this may have to do with the TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery), part of the WDDM which is part of Windows Vista and later, but NOT XP. Hence, the advice I got was to "switch off" this feature in Windows10 by adding the following registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\GraphicsDrivers: QWord "TdrLevel" with value "0". This, so to say, imitates what I had in WindowsXP, i.e. NO Tdr at all.

However, the problem is that once I add this registry entry and restart the PC and Boinc, Boinc tells me "no usable GPU found" in the event log.
So, it seems that BOINC is making a check regarding presence or absence of TDR - is this correct?
If so, is there a way to eliminate this check?
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Erich56

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Joined: 30 Dec 14
Posts: 95
Austria
Message 87513 - Posted: 8 Aug 2018, 7:12:18 UTC - in response to Message 87509.  

In a forum someone pointed out that this may have to do with the TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery), part of the WDDM which is part of Windows Vista and later, but NOT XP. Hence, the advice I got was to "switch off" this feature in Windows10 by adding the following registry entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\GraphicsDrivers: QWord "TdrLevel" with value "0". This, so to say, imitates what I had in WindowsXP, i.e. NO Tdr at all.

However, the problem is that once I add this registry entry and restart the PC and Boinc, Boinc tells me "no usable GPU found" in the event log.
So, it seems that BOINC is making a check regarding presence or absence of TDR - is this correct?
If so, is there a way to eliminate this check?



Edit: I now tried this registry entry as DWORD (vice QWORD as before), and after this, BOINC did NOT complain about any "unsuable GPU".
So I am wondering whether DWORD or QWORD is correct. I have been told that 64-bit systems use QWORD. However, all the other entries I saw in this specific section of the registry were DWORD.

Maybe the reason why BOINC doesn't complain about this DWORD entry is that it doesn't have any effect. No idea.
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Richard Haselgrove
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Message 87514 - Posted: 8 Aug 2018, 7:54:09 UTC - in response to Message 87513.  

I'm always worried when I read "somebody told me...". Some very strange people have written some very strange things on the internet.

If you're making low level changes in an area you're not previously familiar with, always refer to the original source documentation: TDR Registry Keys. It's a DWORD.

BOINC doesn't concern itself with stuff like TDR - it leaves that to the operating system. Windows manages the drivers. If you break the driver, BOINC can't use it. If you fix the driver, BOINC uses what it's given.
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Message boards : Questions and problems : can the "TdrLevel" check be switched off?

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