PC almost frozen and unresponsive when running E@H
12 Apr 2005 13:17:20 UTC
Topic 188941
(moderation:
I have been running into a problem with my PC being unresponseive. At first I thought that it was faulty hardware (since the PC wasn't responsding to keystrokes or Remote Desktop connection requests when trying to get in from home). As it turns out the CPU was almost entirely commited to E@H processing. With patience (and about one hour of waiting for mouse responses) I finally got the task manager up only to see E@H uusing 99% of the CPU cycles. The keyboard was not responding at all and the mouse was sporadic in response. My system config is HP compaq nc-6000 1.5Ghz with 1.0Gb. This system isn't under powered but it is experiencing problems with E@H not releasing control.
PC almost frozen and unresponsive when running E@H
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How is BOINC configured? Is it running as a service? Did you set "do work while computer is in use" in your preferences? I think that when running as a service BOINC doesn't get keyboard and mouse events, thus not recognizing the computer as being used.
BM
BM
I had similar experience.
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I had similar experience. with the program allowed to run while I work I noticed some significant delays with other CPU/hard disk intensive programs (a real time game would freeze for five to ten seconds at a time every minute or two while boinc was running)
at the same time I didn't want to have BOINC automatically disable processing when I used the computer since I often go to the keyboard for short checks of internet and/or computer files/programs and I observed that processing can lose many minutes reprocessing from the last checkpoint every time the processing is suspended
I eventually decided to continue to allow it to run at all times... and when I feel like playing the game(or have a memory intensive program I need to use, like GIMP) I manually change BOINC (via drop down menu or right click BOINC in system tray) until I am done
the only drawback is I may forget to restart (unsuspend) resulting in lost CPU time for BOINC (read E@H)
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a Chicago user who likes to be usefull
Also check out this
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Also check out this thread:
http://einsteinathome.org/node/188945
Perhaps an incompatible screen saver?
Am running E@H / BOINC 4.25 on 11 machines, all installed as a service with no degradation in performance of other programs. E@H should show up as using 99% in the task manager when no other significant work is going on.
As mentioned above you can also set it only to run when the computer is idle if you like.
I can't tell if E@H is set up
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I can't tell if E@H is set up as a service or not (tips welcome). I suspended E@H and response was OK. The settings are for "always on" config at work - I have now reset allowable hours to 22:00 till 06:00. This will keep it from conflicting with my work hours (hopefully). If there is a config that will allow it run all the time without ignoring new input events I will try them.
Note: I also has unresponsiveness when attempting remote desktop connection. This was sporadic and I wouldn't be surprised if this coincided with E@H time-share windows. WIll configuring for better input events also recognize remote connections tries?
> I can't tell if E@H is set
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> I can't tell if E@H is set up as a service or not (tips welcome).
Look under "Services" in "Administrative Tools". If installed as a service, you will see a Boinc service listed there.
I haven't seen any of this unresponsiveness personally, and have been watching for it. The machines I'm running E@H on are all AMD based and vary from the Duron 700 (Windows NT4 & Windows 2k) with 256MB memory at the low end to Athlon64 3400+ (WindowsXP) with 1GB memory. Performance of other programs is not negatively affected on any of them. I could see perhaps more of a problem with with DOS based Windows like Windows 95, 98 & ME, which don't multitask efficiently, or perhaps with machines that are memory constrianed and thus have to do a lot of swapping to disk. Your HP compaq nc-6000 1.5Ghz with 1.0Gb would certainly seem to have enough power. Maybe check to see if you have the latest BIOS update and service packs, and that intrusive programs such as "fast find" are turned off. Also make sure that "hibernation" is turned off and that "turn off hard disks" is set to "never" (both are found under "Power Options"). Anyone else have any ideas?
> I have been running into a
)
> I have been running into a problem with my PC being unresponseive. At first I
> thought that it was faulty hardware (since the PC wasn't responsding to
> keystrokes or Remote Desktop connection requests when trying to get in from
> home). As it turns out the CPU was almost entirely commited to E@H processing.
> With patience (and about one hour of waiting for mouse responses) I finally
> got the task manager up only to see E@H uusing 99% of the CPU cycles. The
> keyboard was not responding at all and the mouse was sporadic in response. My
> system config is HP compaq nc-6000 1.5Ghz with 1.0Gb. This system isn't under
> powered but it is experiencing problems with E@H not releasing control.
>
I seem to have similar problems. When I first started out using Boinc for the Seti project on the third of April , its screensaver seemed to work fine, but when I added the Einstein project two days ago my computer froze immediately on using the screensaver and I had to reset it. When I checked the regular 3D screensavers they had problems also. I'm running Boinc on a GenuineIntel Intel (R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz with 2 cpus and Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition with Service Pack 1. In the end I just switched off the screensavers and let Boinc run on the background.
Recently I read something about a software bug that caused problems with Ati video cards. And I happen to have an Ati Mobility Radeon 9000 in my notebook... Is there any news on a possible fix for this problem?
I have set the screensaver to
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I have set the screensaver to none. BOINC is not installed as a service. Checked Admin and msconfig. No stalls on the system yet since putting window of 22:00 to 06:00. WIll increase window at the end of the week and see what happens.
Also (not really a post for this site - but most people here are probably running as many projects as they can join up too - just like me)
Did anyone notice if SETI is still installed and running as standalone as well as a BOINC app.? Is it normal or should SETI only be running in BOINC once BOINC is installed (ie: not apparent as individual app. or in systray as an icon along with BOINC)?
> > I have been running into
)
> > I have been running into a problem with my PC being unresponseive. At
> first I
> > thought that it was faulty hardware (since the PC wasn't responsding to
> > keystrokes or Remote Desktop connection requests when trying to get in
> from
> > home). As it turns out the CPU was almost entirely commited to E@H
> processing.
> > With patience (and about one hour of waiting for mouse responses) I
> finally
> > got the task manager up only to see E@H uusing 99% of the CPU cycles.
> The
> > keyboard was not responding at all and the mouse was sporadic in
> response. My
> > system config is HP compaq nc-6000 1.5Ghz with 1.0Gb. This system isn't
> under
> > powered but it is experiencing problems with E@H not releasing control.
> >
>
> I seem to have similar problems. When I first started out using Boinc for the
> Seti project on the third of April , its screensaver seemed to work fine, but
> when I added the Einstein project two days ago my computer froze immediately
> on using the screensaver and I had to reset it. When I checked the regular 3D
> screensavers they had problems also. I'm running Boinc on a GenuineIntel Intel
> (R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz with 2 cpus and Microsoft Windows XP Professional
> Edition with Service Pack 1. In the end I just switched off the screensavers
> and let Boinc run on the background.
> Recently I read something about a software bug that caused problems with Ati
> video cards. And I happen to have an Ati Mobility Radeon 9000 in my
> notebook... Is there any news on a possible fix for this problem?
>
>
>I have the same video card (9600 model). I also have turned off the screen saver. I will increase the operational window of E@H at the end of the week and see what happens.
> I have set the screensaver
)
> I have set the screensaver to none. BOINC is not installed as a service.
> Checked Admin and msconfig. No stalls on the system yet since putting window
> of 22:00 to 06:00. WIll increase window at the end of the week and see what
> happens.
>
> Also (not really a post for this site - but most people here are probably
> running as many projects as they can join up too - just like me)
> Did anyone notice if SETI is still installed and running as standalone as well
> as a BOINC app.? Is it normal or should SETI only be running in BOINC once
> BOINC is installed (ie: not apparent as individual app. or in systray as an
> icon along with BOINC)?
About seti:
It should not be in systray. That's the old classic. I suggest you remove it. When running boinc these processes should be running:
boinc.exe
boincmgr.exe (only ver. 4.2x and ver. 4.3x)
and the app of what ever project you are attached to.
For seti this is setiathome_4.09_windows_intelx86.exe in my case, will vary depending on your OS.
This is kind of strange. I
)
This is kind of strange.
I installed boinc(4.24)+eah on few windows machines (winXP home or Pro) - always as a service(login as system without cooperation with desktop). All runned fine util yesterday.
Yesterday, computers become inresponsible. To swich between applications takes few seconds. The computer becomes frozen for few seconds from time to time (once per minute).
I checked that eah application runs with low priority.
Stopping boinc service makes all problems gone. Starting it again gains them back. The most strange is, that it happen on few computers in the same time!
What this could be? If it will not stop, I just stop crunching :(