OpenCL causing display driver crashes?

Garry
Garry
Joined: 20 Feb 05
Posts: 20
Credit: 1011953
RAC: 0
Topic 201104

E@H:Background first: I operate with Windows 10 on a Toshiba laptop using "AMD A6-4400M APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics". I'm participating in three BOINC projects right now. One of the others is SETI. They believe some of their GPU tasks, or more specifically their tasks using OpenCL, have been causing display driver crashes. I'm willing to take their word for it, but I have no evidence what's causing the conditions.

Tonight, I experienced such a crash. SETI didn't have an OpenCL task running. Einstein had one running, though.

Is this familiar information to you?

Some of the SETI folks have taught me to go into a certain directory and tweak some command line settings that tasks read as they start up. They say that I can reduce the latency and crash problems, with the tradeoff that I'll reduce the speed of creating information for them.

Should I need it, does your code have such capability?

I say "Should I need it" because except for this crash tonight, I've never had reason to connect a crash with you folks. For SETI, the condition is typically preceded by high keyboard and mouse latency; I've never seen that when only your tasks are running.

Thanks in advance for reading! I get a kick from using these "idle" computers for science. I'll admit to wishing it had been our processing that picked out the first gravitational waves a few months back. It's also good to know we're identifying neighbors in our universe.

Garry
Garry
Joined: 20 Feb 05
Posts: 20
Credit: 1011953
RAC: 0

E@H: Please take this report

E@H: Please take this report as having no portion of a gripe. It's just a report of a condition. I seek to help. You'll establish whether this condition is also a problem.

This morning I experienced a two minute interruption of using my computer. I have no firm proof that it is related to the OpenCL library you and other BOINC projects are using, but others tell me it is likely. E@H was using OpenCL at the time; I'm not aware of any other use at the same time (no other BOINC project had an OpenCL task loaded on my computer, for example).

The interruption lasted roughly 2 minutes. Associated with it were two Event Type 4101 errors, roughly two minutes apart, shown in Event Viewer >> Windows Logs >> System. Those are the only Type 4101 errors since Sep 28, where my logs start. During the two minutes of the event, no windows on the screen updated (BOINC Manager, for example, did not update time elapsed), I was not able to move the cursor, and the system was unresponsive to any keyboard inputs (including CTRL-ALT-DEL). After the two minutes, system operation became normal again, apparently with no harmful effect on any running application.

The S@H task running at the time used application "Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Arecibo, GPU) 1.39 (BRP4G-opencl-ati)". It was at 8:41 elapsed, roughly 84.4%.

As of 25 minutes after the event, BOINC\slots\1\stderr.txt has a last entry roughly 3 minutes before the event started.

In case it helps: The SETI@Home project recently released a new set of applications (8.12 to 8.19). v8.12 caused similar problems on my computer, and also too much keyboard and mouse latency. v8.19 (so far) has neither caused Type 4101 errors nor caused appreciable latency (with my computer having downloaded two of the five 8.19 applications). One change I notice in their BOINC\slots\x\stderr.txt is a new line I don't remember seeing in 8.12 versions of the file, something like, "low capability GPU detected, period_iterations_num set to 500". (I can't give you exact wording because S@H doesn't have a task on my computer right now.) period_iterations_num serves as a throttle setting. Lower numbers (the previous default for my computer was 100) give them more data at increased risk of latency and Type 4101 events for me. Speculation: Maybe the new default setting of 500 for my computer and other changes in their 8.19 app have solved the problems I was having with their app.

I hope this helps. I value the opportunity to contribute (however slightly on this $400 computer) to your work. Every little bit helps; it's all I have to give. Thanks!

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