Posts by mistakeprone

1) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC has taken over my PC! (Message 1796) Posted 11 Dec 2005 by mistakeprone Post: How come you give classic seti a big thumbs up and the less aggressive BOINC/Seti a big thumbs down? Blind prejudice is all I can think of. The answer to "how come" is that I experienced unusual performance problems on my computer after installing BOINC. Since the installation of BOINC was the only change I had made to my computer configuration recently, I had not experienced these problems before installing BOINC, and I had not experienced similar problems during the last several years of running SETI, I concluded that BOINC was responsible. You may call this blind prejudice, but I call it a logical troubleshooting process. After several days' experience with BOINC (mostly crunching data for the climateprediction project), I have to agree that BOINC behaves itself nicely most of the time. There is, however, a continuing problem of interference with other applications. The interference occurs when BOINC makes its repeated futile attempts to contact the non-responsive SETI@home server in order to upload finished work. I have an always-on broadband connection, so the communication attempts occur in the background, but when BOINC is trying to talk to the server, it seems to get in the way of other work. The problem is less severe now that I have set BOINC not to try to get new work from SETI, but there are several finished units that it is trying to upload.
2) Message boards : BOINC Manager : How to make it start minimized (in SysTray) ? (Message 1761) Posted 10 Dec 2005 by mistakeprone Post: open the manager using the Boinc systray icon while leaving the minimized version of the non-responding manager in the taskbar. Upon clicking the X the minimized version in the taskbar also disappears. That tip works (although the behavior is still annoying). Thanks!
3) Message boards : BOINC Manager : How to make it start minimized (in SysTray) ? (Message 1627) Posted 7 Dec 2005 by mistakeprone Post: I am having a different problem that I think is related. I have Win XP Pro, SP1. I have BOINC set up to run for all users of this computer (and only this computer), and BOINC is currently set up to start at boot-up and to always run. When I turn on my computer, the BoincMgr icon goes into the SysTray and it appears in the taskbar. After I maximize the Mgr program, I cannot do anything with it -- all side-menu items are grayed out because it is not connected to any computers or projects. Also, I cannot close the window with the X in the upper right. The only way I can find to change its status is by "Exit"ing from the File menu. When I exit, the program closes and the icon disappears from the System Tray. After I restart the program (from the file directory), all my project connections appear and the program works as intended. I suspect my problems probably could be avoided if the program did not load quite so early in the Windows startup sequence. Any advice on how to do this (other than using delayexec.exe)?
4) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC has taken over my PC! (Message 1531) Posted 5 Dec 2005 by mistakeprone Post: Yes, you correctly cite MS recommendations, but take them with a huge caveat - that was pre-sp1, sp2, and 3 years of other updates, and in the context of MS trying to sell upgrades. Well, this computer is less than 3 years old, was purchased with Win XP Pro installed, and was not a bottom-range machine at the time of purchase. I know plenty of home (and business) computer users who have far less computing power. If BOINC expects to recruit a diverse variety of contributors, the software needs to accommodate users with far less capacity than I have.
5) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC has taken over my PC! (Message 1527) Posted 5 Dec 2005 by mistakeprone Post: First thing is memory. 256MB is an absolute minimum for running XP Pro, I would suggest a minimum of 512MB for doing any "industrial-strength" processing. With only 256MB RAM, you're probably hammering that pagefile (virtual memory) awfully hard, which slows processing and can create a lag in switching out Boinc to make room for other processes. Boinc is designed to use all free processing power, so 99% when it is not competing with other work is considered normal. If you feel the need to limit the amount of CPU that Boinc uses, I've heard of (but have no experience with) an app called "threadmaster". You'll have to Google for it, unless you have other means of finding it. Wow, Microsoft recommends only 128 MB for Windows XP, and says that 64MB is the absolute minimum. I honestly didn't think I was attempting "industrial-strength" processing... Thanks for the suggestion about "threadmaster." It can be downloaded on http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_network.php -- I'll check it out.
6) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC has taken over my PC! (Message 1524) Posted 4 Dec 2005 by mistakeprone Post: Now that I have changed my BOINC preferences, BOINC isn't running so there are no conflicts with other apps. [Wink] However, I am running Windows XP Pro (service pack 1) on a Dell PC with Processor "x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7 GenuineIntel ~2657 Mhz". I have a total of 256MB RAM. There is one hard drive with about 80 GB of unused space. The only BOINC project that is installed is Seti@Home. Before I prevented BOINC from running while the computer is in use, the only other application that was running was Firefox 1.0.7 (but there were numerous open tabs in a total of 4 Firefox windows). Windows Task Manager showed 100% of CPU in use when both Firefox and BOINC were running, but only about 2% to 5% of CPU in use after I closed BOINC.
7) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC has taken over my PC! (Message 1517) Posted 4 Dec 2005 by mistakeprone Post: I am another longtime SETI@Home user who is having similar problems. I first downloaded BOINC back in March 2005, but then uninstalled it because it took over my computer. I continued running the old SETI@Home software, which never gave me problems, even though it ran in the background all the time. Today I downloaded and installed the current version of BOINC, and once again the program took over my computer -- apparently using every little bit of CPU not actively in use by another application, and sometimes preventing other applications from performing properly. Are there no "preference" settings that will actually work to force BOINC to limit its appetite for CPU? I have changed my preferences to prevent BOINC from running when the computer is in use. It would be OK with me if it also ran when I am using my computer, but not if it insists on hogging resources.

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