Posts by genes

1) Message boards : Questions and problems : Screen Saver - Windows 7 (Message 33411)
Posted 16 Jun 2010 by genes
Post:
Hi Deesy,

The latest driver for your card is 257.21, from the NVidia site. I mention this since Windows 7 will download and install a driver for your card automatically, but it's not going to be the latest. The GTX295 is a formidable-looking card, and should have no problems with Rosetta. I have a Quadro FX1800 in one of my Win7 systems (197.90 driver, BTW), nowhere near as powerful, and it has no problem with Rosetta screensaver. Right-click the desktop, select "Nvidia control panel" and then click "system info" to check what your version is.

That being said, I've seen Rosetta tasks get into a state where they don't advance, and they won't show graphics then either. At that point, I have to suspend then exit BOINC mgr (using 6.10.56) and then restart it and un-suspend.

Another thing -- since you are running only Rosetta, check your system memory usage with the Task Manager. Rosetta tasks can use a LOT of memory, and if you have multiple cores, you can easily run low on memory.

Another useful point to remember is that Microsoft changed the Display Driver model in Windows Vista and 7, and in addition to being generally slower, if you run the Aero desktop, it uses a lot more of the GPU resources just to display the fancy desktop. You can try the "Classic" theme to see if it helps. (I know, it doesn't look as pretty.)

2) Message boards : BOINC Manager : manager not responding (Message 16262)
Posted 1 Apr 2008 by genes
Post:
I'm using 5.10.45, not the debug version, but the stderrdae.txt log DOES have a callstack in it if that helps.

It does.

Is it of today's crash? Can you email it to Rom?

Anyone who has a stack trace of this happening, can you zip it up and email it to Rom Walton at romw at romwnet dot org


Sent. I chopped off all the stuff from before today, and there were several crashes from 5.10.42 and several from 5.10.45, all due to today's crash.
3) Message boards : BOINC client : segmentation violation (Message 16220)
Posted 31 Mar 2008 by genes
Post:
is it possible to change some preferences file, i don't think i manage to start the manager before the client crashes?

You can try to edit the client_state.xml file, scroll all the way down and edit the network option to show <user_network_request>3</user_network_request>

That means you suspended network activity.


That worked for me! It's now running. I have to leave now but I'll check it later in an hour or so.
4) Message boards : BOINC Manager : manager not responding (Message 16217)
Posted 31 Mar 2008 by genes
Post:
I'm using 5.10.45, not the debug version, but the stderrdae.txt log DOES have a callstack in it if that helps.
5) Message boards : BOINC client : segmentation violation (Message 16213)
Posted 31 Mar 2008 by genes
Post:
(Activity menu in BOINC Manager->Suspend network activity)

I can't seem to get to the Activity settings before it crashes, and setting it after that is forgotten the next time it starts.
6) Message boards : BOINC Manager : manager not responding (Message 16205)
Posted 31 Mar 2008 by genes
Post:
I seem to have a similar problem, if not the same one. I just noticed it today, on one machine.

Gene, do you have work for LHC that is finished and trying to upload?
If so, then that is most probably what is breaking BOINC at this time. if you're reading the Boinc_Dev/Boinc_Alpha email lists, see what JM7 posted about it today.


Yes, it is LHC, and I see this is also going on in the Core Client area as well in this thread

(no, I am not on those mailing lists)

Just noticed that LHC site is down for maintenance, so no answers there. Perhaps it is exactly this that is causing the problem, not something wrong with the LHC result.
7) Message boards : BOINC Manager : manager not responding (Message 16190)
Posted 31 Mar 2008 by genes
Post:
I seem to have a similar problem, if not the same one. I just noticed it today, on one machine. I went to check the machine and found the BOINC manager disconnected. The status bar says "connecting to localhost". If I stop it, and restart, I can momentarily see all my projects, then the status bar says "disconnected", then "connecting to localhost" again. I initially saw it with version 5.10.42, I upgraded to 5.10.45, and while it was doing the benchmarks, it remained connected, but once those finished, it failed again.

Looking at stdoutdae.txt, the last thing it tries to do before disconnecting is to upload an lhc@home result:

31-Mar-2008 16:48:43 [---] Starting BOINC client version 5.10.45 for windows_intelx86
31-Mar-2008 16:48:43 [---] log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
31-Mar-2008 16:48:43 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.18.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8e zlib/1.2.3
31-Mar-2008 16:48:43 [---] Data directory: C:Program FilesBOINC
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz [x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 4]
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 mmx
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] OS: Microsoft Windows XP: Professional Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Memory: 2.00 GB physical, 3.85 GB virtual
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Disk: 37.27 GB total, 23.10 GB free
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Local time is UTC -4 hours
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [rosetta@home] URL: http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/; Computer ID: 24538; location: work; project prefs: default
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [climateprediction.net] URL: http://climateprediction.net/; Computer ID: 846; location: work; project prefs: work
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [Einstein@Home] URL: http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID: 1021; location: work; project prefs: work
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [lhcathome] URL: http://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/; Computer ID: 2366328; location: home; project prefs: default
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [QMC@HOME] URL: http://qah.uni-muenster.de/; Computer ID: 23361; location: (none); project prefs: default
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [SETI@home] URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID: 1157146; location: work; project prefs: work
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [SETI@home Beta Test] URL: http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/beta/; Computer ID: 2496; location: home; project prefs: home
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [Spinhenge@home] URL: http://spin.fh-bielefeld.de/; Computer ID: 5054; location: home; project prefs: default
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [malariacontrol.net beta] URL: http://www.malariacontrol.net/; Computer ID: 81939; location: (none); project prefs: default
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] General prefs: from http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ (last modified 04-Dec-2007 22:41:45)
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Host location: work
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] General prefs: using separate prefs for work
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Reading preferences override file
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Preferences limit memory usage when active to 1023.21MB
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 1841.78MB
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Preferences limit disk usage to 18.63GB
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [---] Running CPU benchmarks
31-Mar-2008 16:48:44 [lhcathome] Started upload of wm72A_m72allA__18__64.276_59.306__4_6__6__54_1_sixvf_boinc342911_1_0

This pattern repeats every time I shut down and restart BOINC. I've also tried restarting the machine, and then shutting it down and restarting.

Looking at stderrdae.txt, it looks like a Dr.Watson log, but from the BOINC Runtime Debugger (5.10.45). The event seems to be an access violation of some sort. I have that available as well, though it's bigger...

Currently the machine is not running BOINC. Maybe I will try backing up the whole thing, then temporarily relocating each of the "slots" folders to see if one of those is causing the problem. The first one I'll try is the LHC.
8) Message boards : BOINC Manager : My Wish List - 2 (Message 12090)
Posted 15 Aug 2007 by genes
Post:
Running with 5.10.18, WinXP. Like the new icon! I have a minor issue with the Boinc manager, though. When it starts up, it does not remember its placement on the screen (it never has, even though it saves this info), and since 5.10.17 (maybe a version or two earlier), it no longer remembers its size.
9) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC 5.9.3 (Message 9663)
Posted 18 Apr 2007 by genes
Post:


That's been reported to the list, although I'm not sure the sent to microsoft pop up was.

Look in stderrdae.txt in the BOINC directory and see if there's a debugging dump. It's start with something like "engaging BOINC runtime debugger". If it's there, email it to me through this page.


I looked at stderrdae.txt, but it was last modified on 1/19/07. Tomorrow I will look on my work machines to see if I can find a relevant one where it hung. When it happens again, I can try to copy out the info it wants to send to MS.
10) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC 5.9.3 (Message 9621)
Posted 16 Apr 2007 by genes
Post:
I'm putting the new 5.9.3 on my machines. All are WinXP, SP2. I like the new look, esp. the reappearance of the progress bars for each WU.

I've been able to crash it twice so far on two different machines by playing around with the UI (adjusting column widths, etc). The symptom: you get an hourglass when mousing over the manager, and it is unresponsive. You can kill it with task manager, and you get the "send to Microsoft" message box. The individual project tasks remain running, and seem to be unharmed. If you restart the manager, it reconnects like nothing ever happened.
11) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc 5.8.0 installer fails. (Message 6971)
Posted 15 Dec 2006 by genes
Post:
I had some MP3 conversions running, and I could tell by the disk activity LED that it was still going, so I left it alone.

I know from experience that mp3 conversions take up quite some CPU and RAM. So it may have been that. If and when I do any conversions (video or audio) I usually stop BOINC so my system has all its resources free for doing that.

In my case it's usually then reading from CD, using lots of RAM (pre-caching), CPU (almost full) and of course disk writes. When the source file is already on the hard drive, you have disk reads and disk writes to content with.

When BOINC is using these resources at the same time... got my drift?


I've been running BOINC since it was in beta and Seti@Home was the only project using it. I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from it.
If I'm using BOINC on a work machine where *any* performance hit would be objectionable, then I not only suspend BOINC, but exit the CC and disable screensavers while performing the resource-intensive stuff. And believe me, even though BOINC runs at idle priority, it certainly has an effect, either through task switching, disk reads and writes, or just hogging memory. When I'm burning CD's or DVD's I usually suspend BOINC, but don't need to remove it from memory. If I'm just ripping CD's or converting to MP3's (or other formats), these activities can tolerate less than full performance from the PC. BOINC should gracefully surrender its CPU usage to the higher-priority processes, and mostly, it does.

I expect BOINC and applications running under BOINC to share the CPU resources nicely and behave properly. The problem we have here is that BOINC, like most other programs, has bugs, and these bugs cause bad behavior at times. That is why we are here, to report and discuss them and try to help the developers find solutions to the problems. That said, I'm happy to add that BOINC has been generally well-behaved for quite some time now (at least in my experience), and it's mostly the individual applications that cause problems.
12) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc 5.8.0 installer fails. (Message 6968)
Posted 14 Dec 2006 by genes
Post:
Jord,

I've just installed 5.8.0 on my other two multiprocessor machines, we'll see how that goes. Both of these have NVidia cards. At home, on the first system I tried it on, I haven't had any crashes yet, and I didn't see that screensaver problem yet. I *did* have a funny thing happen with the Seti Beta screensaver (using ATI card below) this morning:

The system had only CPDN and Seti Beta work. There was one CPDN and three Seti Beta WU's running, so the screensaver switched between CPDN and the first Seti. (I do wish it would cycle through ALL WU's, even those of the same type.) One of the times it came back to Seti, the ATI card got its screen settings messed up, and I saw what looked like a double image of the Seti graphic, and it froze. The cursor was still moving, and I could not get control with ctrl-alt-del. I had some MP3 conversions running, and I could tell by the disk activity LED that it was still going, so I left it alone. 10 minutes later, the CPDN screensaver came back as if nothing had happened, and the system responded to moving the mouse. ATI driver problem, maybe? I've seen it lose screen settings before. I'm using driver version 6-11_xp-2k_dd_37616, listed on their website as the current driver for this card (x850xt). I could go back to the NVidia fx5950 (driver 93.71), and see how that behaves. If I have time tonight, maybe I'll swap the cards again, since I haven't had that problem with NVidia.

13) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc 5.8.0 installer fails. (Message 6955)
Posted 14 Dec 2006 by genes
Post:
I am having a minor problem with 5.7.5 and screensavers (in general), and was looking to see if this version might fix it and also help somewhat with Rosetta's screensaver problems.

If you want to explain further, we can look into it as well. What's the problem you have? For which OS and on what kind of videocard?


I'm running WinXP, and I've tried both NVidia FX5950 and ATI x850xt cards, both with the latest release drivers. It doesn't seem to matter which video cards I use. Here's the machine: hostid=2016
14) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc 5.8.0 installer fails. (Message 6954)
Posted 14 Dec 2006 by genes
Post:
Hi Jord.

First, thanks to you and Rom. This new installer works.

The issue I was talking about on Rosetta: When you have a multi-processor machine, the Boinc manager will run the graphics for the various projects you are attached to for 10 minutes each, switching from one to the next. This is not anything you can set, it is built into the Boinc Manager.

With version 5.7.5, and I think 5.7.2 as well, the graphics would disappear before the 10 minutes was up, to be replaced by the default Boinc graphics, with the message "screensaver shutting down". at the end of the 10 minute period, the next project's graphics would appear momentarily (for maybe 30 seconds) and then get shut down the same way. This behavior would continue for the next project, etc.

I didn't see this happening with 5.6.5. Fluffy Chicken was working on compiling 5.7.6 and mentioned that there was a fix relating to graphics and wanted me to try it. At that point he started building versions for me to download (no installer) and drop into my Boinc folder. (I made a backup first!) None of these would run, and he was very frustrated since he apparently had no problem running them. I decided to wait for the official version to come out, so here I am.
15) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc 5.8.0 installer fails. (Message 6951)
Posted 14 Dec 2006 by genes
Post:
Hi Gene,

BOINC 5.8.0 has a problem. Everyone gets that error. Best to dump it and to return to your previous version for now. Until you see recommended behind it, it's still in beta testing.


No problem, it was recommended to me by someone on the Rosetta boards, and I've never had a problem before with test versions (installers, anyway), so I figured I ought to report it. I'm currently running a mix of 5.6.5 and 5.7.5, both of which install properly.

I am having a minor problem with 5.7.5 and screensavers (in general), and was looking to see if this version might fix it and also help somewhat with Rosetta's screensaver problems.
16) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc 5.8.0 installer fails. (Message 6948)
Posted 14 Dec 2006 by genes
Post:
I get past all the dialogs, and when I finally press "install", I get this error message:

Internal Error 2721. CAValidateSetupType

...and an "OK" button. The InstallShield wizard finishes, and nothing is installed. Fortunately, it hasn't uninstalled anything, either.

I tried both Shared install and Single User.

Then I tried unnstalling BOINC first. No difference. This has happened so far on three different machines, downloaded three different times. Has anyone tested this installer?



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