This started a couple months ago. Instead of loading the actual screensaver, the BOINC logo will drift around the screen with "BOINC screensaver loading" spelled out underneath and the screensaver will never load. It is finally bugging me enough that I made an account here to ask about it. The projects I'm subscribed to are SETI, Milkyway, and Einstein. My screensaver settings are:

Blank screensaver after: never
Run BOINC screensaver for: never
Run project screesavers for: 1 hour
Switch between project screensavers every: 1 hour

To be honest I'm not 100% sure what any of these actually mean but it's been working for years until a few months ago. I'm running Windows 10 with the latest updates and the latest version of BOINC. My PC specs are:

Intel Core2Quad Q9650 3.0GHz
8GB DDR3 1,333MHz
Nvidia GeForce GTX 570

I have hwinfo running at all times lately to see if maybe the hardware is being utilized even though the project screensavers aren't loading. What it shows is that the CPU temp is actually increasing on all cores by 10-15C although I vaguely remember it getting even hotter when the screensaver used to work. The GPU temperature isn't increasing at all, it stays at idle temps. Was there a change in the BOINC software that has rendered my old hardware incompatible or something?

I also run BOINC on my gaming PC which consists of an all water cooled Ryzen 7 3700x, GTX 980ti, and 32GB of RAM and it runs fine with the same settings.

Well, you can forget SETI to start with.
David suspended that project near the start of last year, and now that ARECIBO has collapsed, the main source of data is gone.

So, that leaves the screen saver to get data from the other 2 projects.

Have you checked your account pages on the other 2 to see if they are actually getting and running tasks?

Run project screesavers for: 1 hour

Also worth checking if your remaining projects have screensavers. CPDN doesn't had any on current task types for a long time partly because the person with a particular interest in programming them left for pastures new.

I checked my tasks regularly a couple weeks ago and it looked like they were expiring. I'll double check that though to make sure.

As far as screensavers for the remaining projects, Einstein@home project screensaver runs frequently on the gaming rig so I know that one's still active. Milkyway doesn't have a project screensaver but I still see tasks being completed when I check the manager.

I checked my tasks regularly a couple weeks ago and it looked like they were expiring. I'll double check that though to make sure.

As far as screensavers for the remaining projects, Einstein@home project screensaver runs frequently on the gaming rig so I know that one's still active. Milkyway doesn't have a project screensaver but I still see tasks being completed when I check the manager.

So does that mean, with swap between screensavers every 1 hour, that you’ll show trying to load for 2 hours in every 3 whilst it tries to show seti and MW?

No, it should only show the screen savers of those tasks that have a graphics app. Which in his case is only Einstein@Home, whose screen saver has the neat trick that it also works on GPU tasks.

I'm thinking more in the direction of Windows 10 having updated a driver and that has lost OpenGL support. Not sure if the WHQL driver from Windows Update has OpenGL on board, but it is required for the project screen savers. The BOINC screen saver will default back to DirectX if OpenGL is not found, but the project graphics applications are built against OpenGL 1.0, so they require OpenGL in the graphics drivers to work.

Well I'm using an old nvidia driver, something like 390.0 because that's the latest driver that will work with the GTX 570. I checked the tasks and it looks like Milkyway is still working. There were 3 MW tasks with 2 100% complete and ready to transmit. There were 3 Einstein tasks and 2 of them are overdue with the 3rd coming up soon. It shows that they're still being worked on though, the progress bars were at 76%, 43%, and 40%.

As far as the screensaver display, it will show the BOINC logo drifting around for a length of time, not sure how long. It will also swap to what I assume is the "BOINC screensaver" as opposed to the project screensaver where it fades in a summary of the running projects, then fades out. Then fades in the progress bars for the projects then fades out.

Maybe I'll try subscribing to another project or two and see what happens.

Adding more projects won't fix a driver problem.

If Windows has done an update, then it may have replaced the Nvidia driver with one of it's own.
Try re-installing the Nvidia driver, restarting BOINC, and see if that fixes it.

I checked the driver and it's 391.xx, downloaded and installed from nvidia website in June 2019. I left the computer and went to the kitchen to make some food. I can see the computer from the kitchen so I saw the screensaver start as usual with the drifting BOINC logo. Then after about 20 minutes, it actually started the Einstein project screen saver! I haven't seen that in months. It stayed on for a good hour until I left for work. I don't believe it's fixed but does this help narrow down what could be going on?

I've been keeping an eye on it the last few days and it's been loading the Einstein project screensaver with no issues. I didn't do any interventions though! Is it possible that it had a string of bad tasks? Even on the gaming rig, sometimes Einstein will cause the computer to lock up and I have to use the reset button. I always figured it was the particular task it was working on because it happens so rarely. Could a particular task have been preventing the project screen saver from loading and now that it's past the due date it's not trying to load it any more and now it's working?

I've been keeping an eye on it the last few days and it's been loading the Einstein project screensaver with no issues. I didn't do any interventions though! Is it possible that it had a string of bad tasks? Even on the gaming rig, sometimes Einstein will cause the computer to lock up and I have to use the reset button. I always figured it was the particular task it was working on because it happens so rarely. Could a particular task have been preventing the project screen saver from loading and now that it's past the due date it's not trying to load it any more and now it's working?

Another possibility is that not all task types have the screen saver code. I have never run Einstein tasks so have no clue about how likely this is.

I have never run Einstein tasks so have no clue about how likely this is.

Both their CPU and GPU tasks have a graphics app thus screen saver. They're the only project that I know of that has a graphics app for their GPU app(s). Or did at least some years back.

I have never run Einstein tasks so have no clue about how likely this is.

Both their CPU and GPU tasks have a graphics app thus screen saver. They're the only project that I know of that has a graphics app for their GPU app(s). Or did at least some years back.

The Einstein GPU tasks don't have graphics. https://einsteinathome.org/content/star-sphere-not-loading-windows-10-home-edition#comment-182168

Well, then they changed that. They always did. On the normal tasks that is, I can't tell if their Arecibo tasks did. It's been years since I ran Einstein.
Then again it's been years since I ran BOINC on anything else than Android.

Some do.

    <file_ref>
        <file_name>einsteinbinary_BRP4_1.34_windows_x86_64__opencl-intel_gpu-Beta.exe</file_name>
        <main_program/>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
        <file_name>einsteinbinary_BRP4_1.00_graphics_windows_intelx86.exe</file_name>
        <open_name>graphics_app</open_name>
    </file_ref>
    <coproc>
        <type>intel_gpu</type>
        <count>1.000000</count>
    </coproc>

But I don't think the ones for the 'big' GPUs do. I could look them up, but I don't use them myself.

I think I've found a configuration error at Einstein.

<app_version>
    <app_name>hsgamma_FGRP5</app_name>
    <version_num>108</version_num>
    <platform>windows_intelx86</platform>
    <avg_ncpus>1.000000</avg_ncpus>
    <flops>4502389234.875296</flops>
    <plan_class>FGRPSSE</plan_class>
    <api_version>7.3.0</api_version>
    <file_ref>
        <file_name>hsgamma_FGRP5_1.08_windows_intelx86__FGRPSSE.exe</file_name>
        <main_program/>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
        <file_name>einstein_S5R6_3.01_graphics_windows_intelx86.exe</file_name>
        <open_name>graphics_app</open_name>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
        <file_name>fftwf-wisdom_FGRP5_1.08_windows_intelx86.exe</file_name>
        <open_name>fftwf-wisdom_FGRP5_1.08_windows_intelx86.exe</open_name>
    </file_ref>
</app_version>

<app_version>
    <app_name>einstein_O2MD1</app_name>
    <version_num>208</version_num>
    <platform>windows_x86_64</platform>
    <avg_ncpus>1.000000</avg_ncpus>
    <flops>4502389234.875296</flops>
    <plan_class>GWnew</plan_class>
    <api_version>7.3.0</api_version>
    <file_ref>
        <file_name>einstein_O2MD1_2.08_windows_x86_64__GWnew.exe</file_name>
        <main_program/>
    </file_ref>
    <file_ref>
        <file_name>einstein_O2MD1_2.08_graphics_windows_intelx86_64.exe</file_name>
        <open_name>einstein_O2MD1_2.08_graphics_windows_intelx86_64.exe</open_name>
    </file_ref>
</app_version>

The second one lists a 'graphics' application, but doesn't declare it as a "graphics_app". I think that means that the 'Show graphics' will work while a LAT task is running, but not while an h1 task is running. Time will tell.

I've sent a PM to Oliver, but probably not before he went home for the weekend. Today, they've got a 504 Gateway Timeout error to deal with on uploads - that will get priority.

I've had a positive response from Oliver this morning, and he confirms the problem.

They've re-issued the Gravity Wave application as v2.09 (for CPUs only, for Windows only) and the graphics should work properly now.

Wow good job Richard! I was going to say that the screensaver has been working perfectly since my last post and this is probably why. I didn't know that Einstein had CPU-only tasks. I was going to ask why even though the screensaver works every time, the GPU temperature still only increases by 5C at most. I think that answers my question. The CPU is getting as high as 63C from 30C at idle so that old silicone is definitely putting in some work. Thank you so much to everyone that posted in this thread!

So I have had a similar problem for a few weeks now. Running Einstein@home on an older Win 7 machine. Screensaver and program previously was working fine and I was cranking through data. I did not change any settings on the machine. I tried re-installing the BOINC software with no change in the issue. Is there something that you had to do to get the screensaver to load?

No I didn't mess with anything. I think it depends on the specific task because I will still rarely get stuck with the floating "BOINC screensaver loading". I even caught my gaming PC glitching out in an infinite loading loop where the screen would keep flashing white as if the Einstein screensaver was about to load but it wouldn't. You might just try deleting the task it was trying to load so it moves on to the next one.