BOINC Manager problem

Darren · Post by **Darren** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 8:53 am

I have join proteins & been a member of Malaria for a while.
When my BOINC Manager tried to download work for the above projects it downloaded a load of workunits just fine but....

Proteins would not download pah_data.zip and Malaria would not download a couple of dll's.
When, after 24 hours of trying, I aborted the download then all of the workunits also failed.

I guess these files must have been the libraries needed to crunch the data.
I am using BOINC Manager 5.4.11 so I am unsure why I am having these problems.
Another PC has downloaded the proteins stuff fine just not this one.

Anyone got any ideas?

Note: I have two CPDN units crunching on this machine and am worried that if I re-install the BOINC Manager they will abort!

Post by **UBT - Mikee** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 9:16 am

My first inclination would be to 'reset project'. If that failed then 'detach' then 'reattach'. If that failed...

Wait for the Guru - Halifax--lad!

Darren · Post by **Darren** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:18 am

Cheers, detached & reattached.
Will find out if it works after I have got rid of some of my other work!

UBT - Halifax-lad · Post by **UBT - Halifax-lad** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:31 pm

Its always fine to overwrite a copy of BOINC with another, you won't lose any work I have never lost any, and that's from updating by BOINC version every few weeks

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 8:51 pm

Thought I'd use this thread as it is a Boinc Manager problem.

I noticed today whilst twiddling my thumbs that Boincmgr.exe uses between 30 to 40% of my cpu if I am on the Tasks tab, but switch to the Projects tab and it drops to 1%, I've checked all my other systems and they seem fine.

I'm still using 5.8.8 on all my systems. Anyone have any idea as to why this is happening?

Gary.

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:05 pm

Mine uses 5% at most when switching between tabs, might be worth trying a repair ?

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:08 pm

why not install as a service, then you don't need to run boincmgr all the time.

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:12 pm

Gary wrote:Mine uses 5% at most when switching between tabs, might be worth trying a repair ?

Repair? Anyone got a monkey wrench?

Quik Fit Froggi

UBT - Terry · Post by **UBT - Terry** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:13 am

Hi Gaz i tend to leave it as service when i'm not fiddleing so as not to use any more cpu time than is nessasary beings my pc isnt the fastest thing in the team. And i'm using 5.15. Prob no help but hey ho...

Terry

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:08 am

UBT - Terry wrote:Hi Gaz i tend to leave it as service when i'm not fiddleing so as not to use any more cpu time than is nessasary beings my pc isnt the fastest thing in the team. And i'm using 5.15. Prob no help but hey ho...

Terry

Like I said, it's only the one system that's playing up and I've updated it to 5.8.15 and it seems worse, even with Boinc Manager closed Boinc.exe is now taking 50% of my cpu every 30 seconds or so.
I've scanned everything for a virus or maleware but as its Boinc.exe doing the hogging it has to be something else.

Guess I'll keep fiddling until I break something.

Gary.

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:47 am

Rockinfroggi wrote:Thought I'd use this thread as it is a Boinc Manager problem.

I noticed today whilst twiddling my thumbs that Boincmgr.exe uses between 30 to 40% of my cpu if I am on the Tasks tab, but switch to the Projects tab and it drops to 1%, I've checked all my other systems and they seem fine.

I'm still using 5.8.8 on all my systems. Anyone have any idea as to why this is happening?

Gary.

It's a simple answer....

You have to be aware that when you are switched to the "Tasks" tab, you are seeing a live and continuously updated "display" of every task. And the CPU has to spend time updating the display every second or so......

Whereas the "Project" tab is NOT updated in real time and hence uses less CPU power.

The upshot of this: to maximise crunching ability, always leave BOINC manager displaying the "Projects" tab....

(as then no CPU effort is being wasted on updating the Task display ).

Simple, innit?

regards,

Tim

DJH@GB-Ro · Post by **DJH@GB-Ro** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:49 am

Slightly off topic, but am I the only one who sees a Black box where Gary's UBT sig should be? :?

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:51 am

DJH@GB-Ro wrote:Slightly off topic, but am I the only one who sees a Black box where Gary's UBT sig should be? :?

Not strange...I can see a black box as well....!

I think Darren had a problem with the "signature" website. Not sure if it's fixed 100%.

regards,

Tim

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:46 am

UBT - Timbo wrote:It's a simple answer....

You have to be aware that when you are switched to the "Tasks" tab, you are seeing a live and continuously updated "display" of every task. And the CPU has to spend time updating the display every second or so......

Whereas the "Project" tab is NOT updated in real time and hence uses less CPU power.

The upshot of this: to maximise crunching ability, always leave BOINC manager displaying the "Projects" tab.... (as then no CPU effort is being wasted on updating the Task display ).

Simple, innit?

regards,

Tim

Yes I am simple, thanks for clearing that up for me Tim, must be because my HT has so many more WU's than the other PC's as they only seem to take between 1/5% of the cpu.

Gary.

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:51 am

DJH@GB-Ro wrote:Slightly off topic, but am I the only one who sees a Black box where Gary's UBT sig should be? :?

Would you mind leaving my black hole out of this :oops:

I think I must have tried logging into Darrens page when it went down and until it's up and running again I can't sign in and refresh it. Guess that's why everyone else is OK and mines not.
Still I like to be different.

Gary.

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:27 pm

Rockinfroggi wrote:Yes I am simple, thanks for clearing that up for me Tim, must be because my HT has so many more WUs than the other PC's as they only seem to take between 1/5% of the cpu.

Gary.

I s'pose that if you have lots of different projects all active on the one PC, then Boinc Manager is taking it's time figuring out which project has to be run at any one time....

Might be an idea (on this machine) to set most projects to "No new work" and just leave say two proects active (as you have 2 "CPUs" on a HT machine)....then you may find things settle down a bit...

You can still re-enable projects manually, of course, so you can switch projects on and off as and when the mood requires.

(PS On my P4 HT machine, I normally only have 2 projects active at one time - then I'll switch one project off and activate another, by disabling/enabling the "no new work" switch).

regards

Tim

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:49 pm

Sorry for prolonging this thread but with the exception of 2 systems which share resources with CPDN (the HT is not one of them) I only ever run one project at a time on each system setting others to no new work and running down WUs before changing to another project.

Sad as it may be sitting here watching Task Manager I've noticed it's Boinc.exe that's taking 50% and that's even with Boinc Manager window closed. And with projects that d/l masses of WU's I tend to allow it to d/l enough to keep me going a day or 2 then set to no new work until I've worked my way through them.

Gary.

Post by **UBT - Timbo** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:02 pm

Rockinfroggi wrote:Sorry for prolonging this thread but with the exception of 2 systems which share resources with CPDN (the HT is not one of them) I only ever run one project at a time on each system setting others to no new work and running down WUs before changing to another project.

Don't worry 'bout it....gives me something to do/think about as well....!

And I think I mis-interpreted this:

Rockinfroggi wrote:Yes I am simple, thanks for clearing that up for me Tim, must be because my HT has so many more WUs than the other PC's as they only seem to take between 1/5% of the cpu.

Which lead me to assume that coz you had loads of WUs, that you must therefore be running lotsa projects!

So, if on this machine (the HT one), BOINC.exe is taking a lot of CPU resource, then I can only assume that something isn't quite right.
Unfortunately, you've hidden all your hosts, so no-one can advise if the HT machine is doing somethign strange.

As such, can you let us know what the spec of the HT PC is?

regards

Tim

DJH@GB-Ro · Post by **DJH@GB-Ro** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:27 pm

I think it is more likely to be a problem with a project seeing as you've had the problem on more than one version of BOINC. I had severe problems with chess WUs on a computer, I could only tell by looking in task manager that chess was causing problems.

What project is it crunching?

Maybe try finishing those and trying a different project for a while to see if you still get it?

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:50 pm

Okie dokie, here goes.

Intel P4 Prescott 3.0 (over clocked to 3.8 )

Mobo ASRock P4i65G

2GB Crucial 3200 DDR CL1

Sapphire Radeon X1950pro with 512Mb (AGP)

Seasonic S12 600W PSU

Windows XP Home fully updated

And a partridge in a pear tree

I've gone through all services and running tasks and disabled any not required. As I said before, I've also now updated this system to 5.8.15.

Let me know if I've missed anything out and thank you for your time.

Gary.

Rockinfroggi · Post by **Rockinfroggi** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:00 pm

DJH@GB-Ro wrote:I think it is more likely to be a problem with a project seeing as you've had the problem on more than one version of BOINC. I had severe problems with chess WUs on a computer, I could only tell by looking in task manager that chess was causing problems.

What project is it crunching?

Maybe try finishing those and trying a different project for a while to see if you still get it?

You could have a point there Doug, it did seem to happen after I signed up to Riesel and although I am not crunching it now I did d/l a couple of WUs on each system just to get me started. All the other systems as I say are fine so maybe Riesel has issues with HT cpu's?

It's crunching Xtreme now and Boinc still hogs 50% every couple of minutes now which is an improvement on the every 30 seconds before.
This by the way is with Boinc Manager window closed.

Gary.