Until this month I was running Boinc on several Windows machines without any problems but lately on one of them it made working impossible. When Boinc starts the applications (Rosetta or Poem) the computer freezes comletely, mouse is locked, task manager won't start, only turning off the power works. I tried to uninstall and reinstall it and it worked till I rebooted the computer. The problem was independent of the projects, it happened either with Rosetta or Poem alone.
Except for the problems the computer runs fine, even at full CPU&GPU usage no crashes or excessive heat.

Any ideas what could be the problem?


My settings:
Windows 7 64bit Ultimate, legal copy
Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.300 GHz
4 GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 8600
Boinc 7.0.25
all drivers updated to the latest version

The computers which are working are a mix of WinXP, Win7 32&64bit machines.

Running "with" or "without" BOINC Manager loaded? Hyperactive security software, scanning BOINC processes could also add to the problem.

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WITH boinc manager running.
My antivirus software is Avira Free Antivirus.

Are you suggesting to turn of Avira and give it a try?

Never uninstall your firewall or anti-virus software. These protect your computer. If need be, make an exception for the BOINC Data directory and its sub-directories in the anti-virus software.

But I suspect that won't make much of a difference.
What happens here is that when BOINC starts the science applications, these applications put your CPU under severe stress. Well, not just your CPU, but the memory and motherboard as well. Also GPU if any of the projects uses it for calculations.

Windows hanging or the computer hanging, so you need a hard reboot to fix that, usually indicates hardware trouble. Broken memory, a broken motherboard, that sort of thing.

Are there any warnings in Windows Event Viewer? (Start->type "event viewer" in the search, click Event Viewer under Programs. Next wait for it to load all logs. Then check the Critical, Error and Warning logs for clues. Any red and yellow flags are things you should look at.

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I don't think it's a hardware issue, even when the computer was running for several days at 100% CPU usage there weren't any issues. Also the GPU seems to be fine, no matter how demanding the applications is the computer never freezes, only Boinc manages to do so.
The only critical events are
Source: Kernel-Power
Log: System
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

But those appear after the computer crashed.
All the other errors are due to my university VPN client but it constantly produces error even when Boinc is not running.

The memory and hard disk seem to be fine, according to some diagnostic tools. Boinc crashes the computer withing a few seconds after being fully loaded, so I doubt that it's stress or heat.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Boinc crashes the computer withing a few seconds after being fully loaded, so I doubt that it's stress or heat.

Running science applications under BOINC is something different than running any other program at full force on your CPU & GPU. Most of the science applications out there use CPU specific optimizations, such as SSE, SSE2 or higher. These optimizations generate extra heat, they put your system under more stress than any game out there does.

There's an easy test though to see if it's truly just any of them science apps under BOINC, or your system. The test is called Prime95, another distributed computing program that stresses the CPU. In this case, it may even use AVX, if your i5 is a Sandy Bridge version.

Don't run BOINC and Prime95 at the same time, make sure about that.
Do run Prime95 for at least 24 hours, or however long your computer can stand it.
If your computer reboots quite quickly after starting Prime95, you have a hardware problem on your hand.

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Sorry for the delay, later you'll see why.

Run the stress test with Prime95, no problems.
Run an additional stress test to stress all components at the same time, no problem.
Next morning, computer reboots every 2 seconds, impossible to work, took the computer to the shops, they didn't find any issues with the hardware, at home I had the same problem, reboots, freezing, etc.
Changed the power supply cable and the electricity outlet, everything works fine, even Boinc. It seems that only under extremely demanding conditions the cable failed, not always but from time to time. Problem solved!

Thanks for all the help!

Changed the power supply cable and the electricity outlet, everything works fine, even Boinc. It seems that only under extremely demanding conditions the cable failed, not always but from time to time. Problem solved!

I've had some strange power supply related problems, but never the power cable! Strange things do happen... :-) One of my dual-core XP machines switches from running both cores to just one from time to time (see separate post) ... wonder if that might be power supply related??

I had similar problems, and saw this post, and thought, "what a bunch of n00bs. I don't have a hardware problem." I built this machine myself; I have 3 extra fans in this case, lots of RAM, I keep it dusted, etc... Not MY box!

So after a week or so of my machine still being unstable, I shut it down, dusted it, and went to re-seat my memory and such, and noticed my Graphics card was really warm. My GPU fan quit.

Thanks, y'all. If you have this problem, double-check your hardware.

Use TThrottle in the future to be warned and protected from overheating of CPU and GPU
http://www.efmer.eu/boinc/

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)

Scrap The FREE Anti-Virus Crap, and INVEST in a Full Security Suite such as TREND Micro Titanium Security. Remember the Old saying ..... "You get what You pay For!" ... "Pay nothing, Expect Nothing In Return". Just consider how much your Computer/s is/are worth, and then add the Value of all the Software and Data: And You Install FREE Stuff to Protect It !??!? ..... I have used FREE security Programs many years ago, and it was WORSE than a VIRUS Itself: Upon Installation, it Run an Auto Scan, and Deleted Things that it shouldn't, and then repeatedly refused to allow Legitimate Programs stcetera to work. No names mentioned, but it was a Well Known brand of Free Software.

We don't pay for BOINC but we expect something in return. BOINC projects don't pay us but hope for something in return. Many Linux users expect their free-of-charge entire operating system to work splendidly. Big-budget films are not necessarily better than minority-interest films made on tiny budgets.

Recently the UK consumer magazine Which? surveyed a large number of security suites. They took into account ease of installation, ease of use, how well they inform the user about threats to the computer, how well they handle day-to-day security tasks, how they deal with any problems they find, and how the software copes with new and emerging threats.

Microsoft Security Essentials, cost £0 got 87%
Bullguard Internet Security, £50 got 84%
Avira Internet Security, cost £35 got 80%
F-Secure Internet Security, cost £30 got 78%
ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite, cost £28 got 75%
Avira Free Antivirus, cost £0 got 75%
ZoneAlarm Antivirus and Firewall, cost £0 got 75%

These were all considered best buys. But if you want to see exactly where they allocated their stars to each software suite you'll have to pay a subscription to the magazine. This magazine's research shows that price and quality do not always or necessarily go hand-in-hand.