Sometimes when I start up Boinc, it simply says `Connecting to localhost` in the bottom right, and none of my projects/tasks load.

The only workaround I've found so far is to restart my PC, but that is annoying to do everytime I just want to run Boinc. Any ideas how to fix this?

I am using Boinc 7.20.2 x64 on Windows.

You could open Task Manager and kill the Boinc Manager process. Then restart the Manager. Normally reconnects on the second try.

You could try setting a delay in the startup so that system processes have settled before starting the client and Manager. Try 30 seconds. Parameter is in the cc_config.xml file.

<start_delay>0.000000</start_delay>

---

Next time it happens, the first thing to check is "Which BOINC components are actually running?".

Open the Windows Task Manager. You should see three BOINC programs running:

• boinc.exe
  
• boincmgr.exe
  
• boinctray.exe
  

boincmgr.exe is the thing you're looking at; boinc.exe is the thing it's trying to connect to; and boinctray.exe you can ignore (it's a small, invisible, helper application).

It sounds like boinc.exe isn't running. There are controls in the BOINC manager ('Options' menu, 'other options...'): make sure they're set the way you want them: otherwise, something external like an anti-virus program may be blocking it.

The only workaround I've found so far is to restart my PC, but that is annoying to do everytime I just want to run Boinc. Any ideas how to fix this?

run boinc.exe

should start the client without your having to reboot.

But, worth following the other two replies which potentially lead to resolving the problem rather than just finding a work around.

The only workaround I've found so far is to restart my PC, but that is annoying to do everytime I just want to run Boinc. Any ideas how to fix this?

run boinc.exe

should start the client without your having to reboot.

But, worth following the other two replies which potentially lead to resolving the problem rather than just finding a work around.

Where do I type in "run boinc.exe" ?

You could open Task Manager and kill the Boinc Manager process. Then restart the Manager. Normally reconnects on the second try.

You could try setting a delay in the startup so that system processes have settled before starting the client and Manager. Try 30 seconds. Parameter is in the cc_config.xml file.

<start_delay>0.000000</start_delay>

Where is this `cc_config.xml` file?

Next time it happens, the first thing to check is "Which BOINC components are actually running?".

Open the Windows Task Manager. You should see three BOINC programs running:

• boinc.exe
  
• boincmgr.exe
  
• boinctray.exe
  

boincmgr.exe is the thing you're looking at; boinc.exe is the thing it's trying to connect to; and boinctray.exe you can ignore (it's a small, invisible, helper application).

It sounds like boinc.exe isn't running. There are controls in the BOINC manager ('Options' menu, 'other options...'): make sure they're set the way you want them: otherwise, something external like an anti-virus program may be blocking it.

All 4 options are already checked. I've also tried disabling my firewall (ESET), but even if it was my firewall, it doesn't make sense that my firewall would choose to block it later rather than at startup.

Where do I type in "run boinc.exe" ?

click on start, then type in

boinc.exe

Where do I type in "run boinc.exe" ?

click on start, then type in

boinc.exe

Is this what's expected? https://i.imgur.com/GV5lldZ.png

I don't have `boinc.exe`.

I don't have `boinc.exe`.

You do or restarting wouldn't get BOINC working but for some reason windows isn't seeing it. I haven't used Windows for quite a few years so don't know where the exe file is stored.

I wonder if running the install program again and clicking on repair might help. (You do need to ensure that the version number you do this with is the same as the original installation.

There are others who can probably suggest other things to check what is happening.

BOINC its directory path isn't automatically added to the Windows %path% variable, which is why Windows search can't find it.

I am sure Jord will correct me if I am wrong but the file should be in c:\program Files (X86)\BOINC or the same without the brackets and X86. putting the path into the search from Start should let you run the command. I am however too rusty on Windows to aid in tracking down why it isn't starting without having to do it manually.

On more recent versions of Windows (7, 64bit onwards) BOINC program (not project data & programs) default to c:\program Files\BOINC

Project files (data and applications) may be in user specific areas or in c:\ProgramData\BOINC. Common control files are in root of this structure, with project data in sub folders from the "projects" sub-folder.

Okay, before we give you the runaround on paths and such, let's just first focus on the message. "Connecting to localhost" means that BOINC Manager (the GUI) has started, but the BOINC client may not have, or it is too busy starting up tasks, loading them in memory, to immediately connect with BOINC Manager to show what it's doing.

Keith told you to open Task Manager and kill the BOINC Manager process, instead I want you to open Task Manager and see if both boinc.exe and boincmgr.exe are running in the Processes tab. If only BOINC Manager is running, that means the client hasn't started. In that case restart the computer and see if that fixes the problem for now, then open BOINC Manager -> Options -> Other options... -> General, make sure "Run Manager at login?" and "Run the client?" are checked, then press Save and maybe that just already fixed it.

If both were already checked, then can you please tell us which projects you have added and which ones have work, and what kind of work?
Can you also give some details about your computer, or better yet, post the first 30 or so lines of the BOINC Event Log (CTRL+SHIFT+E)?

Let's just start there. Adding start delay and other fancy options to cc_config.xml is always an option, but it shouldn't be necessary for geenral users.

Okay, before we give you the runaround on paths and such, let's just first focus on the message. "Connecting to localhost" means that BOINC Manager (the GUI) has started, but the BOINC client may not have, or it is too busy starting up tasks, loading them in memory, to immediately connect with BOINC Manager to show what it's doing.

Keith told you to open Task Manager and kill the BOINC Manager process, instead I want you to open Task Manager and see if both boinc.exe and boincmgr.exe are running in the Processes tab. If only BOINC Manager is running, that means the client hasn't started. In that case restart the computer and see if that fixes the problem for now, then open BOINC Manager -> Options -> Other options... -> General, make sure "Run Manager at login?" and "Run the client?" are checked, then press Save and maybe that just already fixed it.

If both were already checked, then can you please tell us which projects you have added and which ones have work, and what kind of work?
Can you also give some details about your computer, or better yet, post the first 30 or so lines of the BOINC Event Log (CTRL+SHIFT+E)?

Let's just start there. Adding start delay and other fancy options to cc_config.xml is always an option, but it shouldn't be necessary for geenral users.

I agree. I highly doubt that the issue is simply "you need to run Boinc". My installation directory is "C:\Program Files\BOINC" and I've tried most of the .exe files in there, including:
boinc.exe
boinccmd.exe
boincmgr.exe
boincscr.exe
boinctray.exe

About the Task Manager part, I did try manually killing all boinc*.exe processes, and then starting either boinc.exe or boincmgr.exe. Still did not solve the issue.

About "Other Options", I've mentioned that I already have all 4 options checked. Here's an example screenshot of my settings:


About projects, I have Einstein@Home, SiDock@Home, and World Community Grid. WCG has had their servers down for like a month now. I am running tasks from the other two.
Einstein@Home: I'm currently running CurieMarieDock 0.2.0 long tasks 2.02
SiDock@Home: I'm currently running Binary Radio Pulsar Search (MeerKAT) 0.12 (BRP7-opencl-ati)
I don't recall what specific types of tasks I signed up (probably mostly the defaults), so it's likely possible that these aren't the only types of tasks my PC runs.[/img]

Here's the first 30 lines of the BOINC Event Log:

3/21/2023 12:10:09 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished upload of LATeah4021L05_868.0_0_0.0_27721029_0_0
3/21/2023 12:10:09 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished upload of LATeah4021L05_868.0_0_0.0_27721029_0_1
3/21/2023 12:16:15 AM | Einstein@Home | Computation for task Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_156_850000_0 finished
3/21/2023 12:16:15 AM | Einstein@Home | Starting task Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_286_500000_1
3/21/2023 12:16:17 AM | Einstein@Home | Started upload of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_156_850000_0_0
3/21/2023 12:16:19 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished upload of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_156_850000_0_0
3/21/2023 12:22:28 AM | Einstein@Home | Computation for task Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_286_500000_1 finished
3/21/2023 12:22:28 AM | Einstein@Home | Starting task Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_275_400000_1
3/21/2023 12:22:30 AM | Einstein@Home | Started upload of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_286_500000_1_0
3/21/2023 12:22:32 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished upload of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_286_500000_1_0
3/21/2023 12:26:38 AM | Einstein@Home | Sending scheduler request: To report completed tasks.
3/21/2023 12:26:38 AM | Einstein@Home | Reporting 11 completed tasks
3/21/2023 12:26:38 AM | Einstein@Home | Requesting new tasks for AMD/ATI GPU
3/21/2023 12:26:41 AM | Einstein@Home | Scheduler request completed: got 10 new tasks
3/21/2023 12:26:41 AM | Einstein@Home | Project requested delay of 60 seconds
3/21/2023 12:26:43 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_23532222.dat
3/21/2023 12:26:43 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_16_dms_400_263.binary
3/21/2023 12:26:45 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_23532222.dat
3/21/2023 12:26:45 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_16861677.dat
3/21/2023 12:26:46 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_16861677.dat
3/21/2023 12:26:46 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_16_dms_400_202.binary
3/21/2023 12:26:47 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_16_dms_400_263.binary
3/21/2023 12:26:47 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_16_dms_400_268.binary
3/21/2023 12:26:48 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_16_dms_400_202.binary
3/21/2023 12:26:48 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_16_dms_400_268.binary
3/21/2023 12:26:48 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_16825935.dat
3/21/2023 12:26:48 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_16862454.dat
3/21/2023 12:26:49 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_16825935.dat
3/21/2023 12:26:49 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of templates_LATeah4021L05_0876_16862454.dat
3/21/2023 12:28:41 AM | Einstein@Home | Computation for task Ter5_4_cfbf00057_segment_15_dms_400_13200_275_400000_1 finished

Granted I haven't re-experienced the issue yet. It seems to happen sporadically, particularly when I have exited Boinc for awhile and then start it up again.

The thirty lines you posted are a fair time after BOINC started to run and some work has been completed and results returned to the project.
The sort of thing I would expect to see in the first few minutes of running BOINC are:

22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Starting BOINC client version 7.20.2 for windows_x86_64
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task, http_debug, sched_op_debug
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Libraries: libcurl/7.84.0-DEV Schannel zlib/1.2.12
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Running under account rob
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (driver version 511.65, CUDA version 11.6, compute capability 6.1, 8192MB, 8192MB available, 8186 GFLOPS peak)
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (driver version 511.65, CUDA version 11.6, compute capability 6.1, 8192MB, 8192MB available, 8186 GFLOPS peak)
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (driver version 511.65, device version OpenCL 3.0 CUDA, 8192MB, 8192MB available, 8186 GFLOPS peak)
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (driver version 511.65, device version OpenCL 3.0 CUDA, 8192MB, 8192MB available, 8186 GFLOPS peak)
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Windows processor group 0: 16 processors
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Host name: gaw-win-64
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Processor: 16 AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor [Family 23 Model 113 Stepping 0]
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 htt pni ssse3 fma cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movebe popcnt aes f16c rdrandsyscall nx lm avx avx2 svm sse4a osvw ibs skinit wdt tce topx page1gb rdtscp fsgsbase bmi1 smep bmi2
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | OS: Microsoft Windows 10: Professional x64 Edition, (10.00.19044.00)
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Memory: 31.93 GB physical, 55.82 GB virtual
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Disk: 930.76 GB total, 632.08 GB free
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Local time is UTC +0 hours
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | No WSL found.
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | VirtualBox version: 6.1.34
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | DENIS@home | Found app_config.xml
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | Einstein@Home | Found app_config.xml
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | LHC@home | Found app_config.xml
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | SiDock@home | Found app_config.xml
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | World Community Grid | Found app_config.xml
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | DENIS@home | Max 4 concurrent jobs
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | Einstein@Home | Max 2 concurrent jobs
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | LHC@home | Max 4 concurrent jobs
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | SiDock@home | Max 4 concurrent jobs
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | World Community Grid | Max 4 concurrent jobs
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Config: don't compute while Cities.exe is running
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Config: event log limit 20000 lines
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | Config: use all coprocessors
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | climateprediction.net | General prefs: from climateprediction.net (last modified 16-Feb-2023 15:33:31)
22/03/2023 07:32:12 | climateprediction.net | Computer location: home
22/03/2023 07:32:12 |  | General prefs: using separate prefs for home

As you can see there's a pile of information about what has started, how things are configured. The easiest way to get this is very soon after a re-boot of the computer, say five minutes, or (as in my case) have a very large event log.

Depending on the number of projects and total number of file in the projects data folders, it can show for several minutes the "waiting message", before it disappears and you have control of BOINC.

You need to get the first 30 or so lines from the stdoutdae.txt FILE located in the BOINCDATA folder a few minutes after BOINC is restarted, not from the ,BOINC Manager console. The file is by default located in C:\ProgramDats\BOINC\ which might be a hidden folder.

Use a text editor to open the file such as notepad.exe

Highlight the first 30 lines, copy and paste into a new message in this topic and post your reply.

I frequently have a blank Boinc Manager when starting my Epyc hosts up. That is because they are extremely busy running 128 cpu threads and 3 gpus. My solution is to kill the Manager and restart it and it then populates because the system has had enough time to settle down loading all the currently running tasks.

Could solve the issue with a BOINC delay but just killing the Manager is easiest for me as I don't leave it running anyway since the hosts are accessed remotely.

---

CORRECTION TO MY POST ABOVE on where the stdoutdae.txt is located >>>
... C:\ProgramData\BOINC\ which might be a hidden folder.