Gravity Waves

T.E. Austin
T.E. Austin
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Topic 214021

Not sure if there is already a discussion of this problem but I need to ask about it. I disabled Gravity Wave packets because many are not completed before the due date. My BOINC interface says they should take around 1 day but mine always take at least 2 days. Can I change the anticipated time to process?

 

I didn't realize I needed to uncheck the box for allowing non-preferred projects. I thought I might get one or two tasks if there were no Gravity Waves available but I am getting 10 or so each time. I had to abort most of the ones I got so I could complete the two other projects. (SETI and Asteroids).

 

I would like to participate in the study but can't handle the load on my home computer. Before you ask, Intel I-3-6100U CPU @ 2.30 GHz Windows 10 with 6 GB RAM and a standard on board GPU. I only use it for email and surfing mostly, serious streaming on Roku. It runs 24 a day processing BOINC most of the time. Thanks in advance for any help.

Betreger
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How big is your cache, I keep

How big is your cache, I keep mine at about 1 day.

Zalster
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How many cores are in your

How many cores are in your computer?

Richie
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You can use "micro-managing"

You can use "micro-managing" method to avoid that. It takes about 1 minute. Set 'No new tasks' for Einstein and normally leave it like that. Then once in a while you could change computation settings so that Boinc will cache only 1 day of work. You could try other values there, depending on how often you want to go through this manual procedure.

Then set 'Allow new tasks' for Einstein and let it download a few tasks. Set 'No new tasks' for Einstein again and leave it like that. Change work cache back to what it was for other projects. Repeat when necessary.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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T.E. Austin wrote:I disabled

T.E. Austin wrote:
I disabled Gravity Wave packets because many are not completed before the due date.

If you want to crunch those type of tasks, just make sure you have a relatively low work cache size when you request them.  The current run is a 'tuning run' to sort out any problems before the main run starts.  These are regarded as test tasks and normally you need to 'allow' test applications in order to get them.  Your computers are 'hidden' so it's not possible for us to really see what is going on unless you 'unhide' them or tell us the hostID of the machine you want help with.

Quote:
My BOINC interface says they should take around 1 day but mine always take at least 2 days. Can I change the anticipated time to process?

No you can't - nor should you need to.  If you just allow 1 task to complete, and it took two days, BOINC would immediately correct all the other 1 day estimates to show 2 days.  The estimate is set by the project at the time the workunit is generated.  BOINC will always refine the estimate by itself based on local crunch times. It will be quick to increase the estimate (if needed) so as to avoid overfetch of tasks.  You need to play your part by not setting a large work cache until you see how long the first tasks really do take compared to the estimate.

 

Quote:
I didn't realize I needed to uncheck the box for allowing non-preferred projects.

Do you mean non-preferred applications?  My understanding is that this box is not checked by default. If you tick it, you give the project permission to send whatever work it wants to send you rather than work for the search you want to participate in.  Perhaps that is how you managed to get GW tuning run tasks in the first place.  It may have changed more recently, but initially to get tuning run tasks, you needed to 'allow' test tasks to be sent, as mentioned above.

Quote:
I thought I might get one or two tasks if there were no Gravity Waves available but I am getting 10 or so each time. I had to abort most of the ones I got so I could complete the two other projects. (SETI and Asteroids).

When you first decide to try out a new and unknown search, you should always lower your work cache setting (you can do it locally in BOINC Manager) so as to get one or two tasks only, and see how they go.  You can easily ask for more if they go quite quickly.  As has already been mentioned, it's just a simple click to set 'no new tasks' for Einstein if you get too many at the first request.  With a 1 day estimate, you must have had a large work cache setting to get so many at the first request.

Quote:
I would like to participate in the study but can't handle the load on my home computer. Before you ask, Intel I-3-6100U CPU @ 2.30 GHz Windows 10 with 6 GB RAM and a standard on board GPU. I only use it for email and surfing mostly, serious streaming on Roku. It runs 24 a day processing BOINC most of the time. Thanks in advance for any help.

Please realise that an i3-6100u is a low power, low frequency CPU designed for mobile devices.  It has 2 cores and 4 threads so (in theory) you can run 4 separate CPU tasks.  That might be OK for low demand 'office' type applications but not for scientific number crunching.  This draws a lot of power and generates a lot of heat.  If your cooling system is just standard notebook grade, it won't be able to cope with heat dissipation and you risk doing damage by running it 24/7 with all cores crunching.  At best it will throttle and tasks will take a very long time to complete - which you seem to be seeing already.  You should be paying close attention to temperatures and tailoring the load so as to avoid overheating and throttling.  You could experiment with turning off HT so that it will only run two tasks at a time.  They should run a lot faster that way.  The added benefit is that BOINC will know to fetch for just 2 threads and not for 4.  You haven't told us how you operate the machine - I'm just assuming the worst case scenario.

 

Cheers,
Gary.

T.E. Austin
T.E. Austin
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Was 5 days have changed to 1.

Was 5 days have changed to 1. Thanks.

T.E. Austin
T.E. Austin
Joined: 25 May 07
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I realize this laptop is not

I realize this laptop is not a "real" crunching machine but has worked fine except with the gravity waves. My problem came from the software decision to work on other tasks and not allocate enough time to complete the gravity wave before the deadline. I have eliminated those tasks and all seems back to normal.

Just downloaded the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. It shows my temperature in the 130s. The utility doesn't show that temperature as a concern. I am running three tasks as I usually do.

Thanks for the help.

mikey
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T.E. Austin wrote:I realize

T.E. Austin wrote:

I realize this laptop is not a "real" crunching machine but has worked fine except with the gravity waves. My problem came from the software decision to work on other tasks and not allocate enough time to complete the gravity wave before the deadline. I have eliminated those tasks and all seems back to normal.

Just downloaded the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. It shows my temperature in the 130s. The utility doesn't show that temperature as a concern. I am running three tasks as I usually do.

Thanks for the help.

As long as that's 130F it's not a problem, but if it's 130C that IS a MAJOR problem. One thing to consider is some kind of laptop cooler, there are good and bad ones, like everything, but I use a thing with a few fans in it that sits under my laptop and plugs into a USB port to run. Something like this is what I use:

https://www.amazon.com/Tree-New-Bee-Cooling-15-6/dp/B016PMVM7Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1522320296&sr=8-4&keywords=laptop+cooler+cooling+pad

T.E. Austin
T.E. Austin
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It is 130sF. 130C would be a

It is 130sF. 130C would be a problem particularly for the wood table under it. I had some heat problems a few computers back but solved that with some compressed air to get rid of dust and dander (cats and dogs).

T.E. Austin
T.E. Austin
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Changed show computer to yes.

Changed show computer to yes.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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Thanks for that.  I had a

Thanks for that.  I had a quick look and all seems to be going well.

The FGRP5 tasks are running a lot faster than the GW tasks.  There are only a small number that are close to deadline so there shouldn't be any problem in finishing those well before they expire.  Everything should settle down very nicely with the current settings.

 

Cheers,
Gary.

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