UK BOINC Team Forum

I've just installed an ATI Radeon 5700 in a new system. Everything seems okay, and the drivers installed without any problem. However, although my Windows 7 is happy with the card BOINC says there is no usable GPU installed.

Anyone any ideas, please?

All my NVIDIA cards have the same problem too. Don`t know what the answer is though.  :(

I know that with the 9.12 drivers in winxp, you had to copy & rename 3 .dll files in windows\system32
It was either copy atical*.dll to amdcal*.dll or the other way round. Then restart boinc.

try it, it won't hurt anything and it might just work

hgblade wrote:I've just installed an ATI Radeon 5700 in a new system. Everything seems okay, and the drivers installed without any problem. However, although my Windows 7 is happy with the card BOINC says there is no usable GPU installed.

Anyone any ideas, please?

I had this a couple of weeks ago. Been trying to think what cured it. I think I had to roll back the drivers. My 32 bit system is running version 258.96, 64 bit is 266.88.

Temujin wrote:I know that with the 9.12 drivers in winxp, you had to copy & rename 3 .dll files in windows\system32
It was either copy atical*.dll to amdcal*.dll or the other way round. Then restart boinc.

try it, it won't hurt anything and it might just work

I remember doing that with an earlier, now dead, system. Unfortunately it hasn't made any difference this time.

I've posted a message on the BOINC website - hopefully someone will have come across this.

Let`s hope that a future BOINC Manager might sort this out automatically.

what boinc versions are you both running?

Temujin wrote:what boinc versions are you both running?

I`m running 6-10-58 Vista 32 bit, and 6-10-58, 64 bit Win 7

UBT - Rick Horn wrote:

Temujin wrote:what boinc versions are you both running?

I`m running 6-10-58 Vista 32 bit, and 6-10-58, 64 bit Win 7

Similar here. My 2 machines with NVIDIA cards are working fine (6.10.58, one on Vista, one on Windows 7) - just the new one, 6.10.58 on Windows 7, with the ATI that's giving me grief.

@both

boinc versions look ok then

did you install the gpu drivers that came with the cards or download generic drivers from ATI/Nvidia?

Can you check if you installed boinc as a service or not (not is good, service is bad)

Are these the only gpus in the machines? and they're definately active in windows ie have monitors attached?

Try downloading GPUz and see if that can help

Temujin wrote:
did you install the gpu drivers that came with the cards or download generic drivers from ATI/Nvidia?

Can you check if you installed boinc as a service or not (not is good, service is bad)

Are these the only gpus in the machines? and they're definately active in windows ie have monitors attached?

Try downloading GPUz and see if that can help

This was my sequence of events:

Started from scratch, with new motherboard, new cpu, new hard drive, new video card. Installed all hardware.

As I was replacing system with a dead motherboard I'd only got a Windows 7 Upgrade version - so had to install the original Vista, but followed this immediately with Windows 7 Upgrade.

After final reboot I noticed that Windows said it had installed drivers for the ATI card. At this point I logged onto the BOINC site and downloaded/installed the current version.

Now looked for an ATI GPU project on the BOINC list and saw Collatz and Primegrid first, both with the ATI logo by them - so attached to them both. Both projects downloaded 1 GPU WU, which immediately failed with "Computation Error". I assumed this was because I needed to reboot after installing BOINC - so I rebooted now.

At this point BOINC simply refuses to acknowledge the GPU exists.

I installed the drivers that came with the card - full ATI Catalyst Control Centre.

Still no luck.

Windows is happy with the card, though - everything seems fine other than BOINC not acknowledging it's presence. BOINC is otherwise functioning - running cpu projects without problem.

I still say it's a driver problem!

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

Looks like Mikee is right!!!

I've been onto ATI's website and downloaded the latest drivers. Primegrid is now running!

Thanks, Mikee  :occasion5:

hgblade wrote:Looks like Mikee is right!!!

I've been onto ATI's website and downloaded the latest drivers. Primegrid is now running!

Thanks, Mikee  :occasion5:

See! I do have my uses sometimes!

Mmmm, don't seem to be out of the woods yet!  

I've had to switch the screensaver off, otherwise, as soon as the screen goes blank, all BOINC processing stops - including CPU processes. The screen then won't come back on, and a reboot is necessary (I left the screen blank for about an hour, having noted the elapsed time of all running processes just before the screensaver activated - and after rebooting they'd all rolled back to, presumably, their last checkpoint, even though some of them should have completed well within the hour).

Fortunately the system runs on a KVM switch, so I don't have the screen glaring out at me all the time!  :roll:

Hmm. Can't help too much with this one. Thought it not have been a oddball project causing the problem but you're doing standard projects. Have you tried an alternative screensaver? Minimise all open windows > right click desktop > personalize > 'bottom right icon' . Select a screensaver that isn't BOINC.

If it works then it must be a BOINC/BOINC manager problem, if it doesn't er... don't know!

Have a look at your Windows Power Save settings - is standby enabled?

Something turned off the CPUs, its highly unlikely to be a screensaver doing it.  

The uptodate graphics drivers resolved the application issue because the drivers handed out by default with new cards are always way way old, and on initial of a new card on a new motherboard, updating is needed to the latest drivers if the CD that came with the card is used initially.

Similarly, there is a series of defaults with new motherboards and new windows installs, its possible that standby after X mins is one of them - its worth a check. (right click desktop - select personalise - screen saver - power options - look at detailed items in the power mode enabled)

Regards
Zy