Help! Are my GPU cards starting to fail?

mikey
mikey
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Keith Myers

Keith Myers wrote:

Quote:

Do you guys get rolling blackouts? If so Generac, and others, have a 'power wall' they are selling now that connects to your solar panels and then is a battery backup for your home if the power goes out. I wish that was around near me when I bought my generator a few years ago as I would have done that instead!! It's modular so you can add battery packs as needed depending on how much power you need when it's out.  With your panels you can charge them for free.

I avoided all the rolling blackouts last year.  All around me but my town escaped them. I got two quotes for more solar and Powerwall storage and was going to proceed until the news of Seti shutting down, pretty much shot that idea down.  Would have had to replace both house and garage roofs first before proceeding.

I still want a Powerwall or two, but pointless until I have enough excess solar generation to charge them up during the day. Irks me that the city building code prevents me from adding another ground mount array, but the setback from the alley behind the property prevents it.

I sized the arrays to cover the initial two BOINC computers when I first got solar.  But the power consumption of the two current computers is about 150% of those initial ones of 2013. So not quite even-steven now. 

Can you ask for a variance? Is it even worth it?

Keith Myers
Keith Myers
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I haven't personally.  I had

I haven't personally.  I had the two solar contractors ask in the planning/quote stages and both got shot down.

So both put out proposals that occupied every square foot of both garage and house roofs.  Then claimed that so and so more panels would add the needed extra 29kw of generation to match my consumption plus enough to charge up two Powerwalls for night time usage.

I didn't believe either of them because I have a big fat 50' tall pecan tree that sits between the garage and the house and shades a big portion of the south side of the house and north side of the garage.

The second additional 2.9kw array I put on the south and west side of the garage roof in 2016 was the biggest I could install that wouldn't get shaded by the pecan tree. That put my total generation up to 11.2kw added to the original 8.3kw ground mount array installed in 2013.

Another ground mount array is really the only workable solution in my opinion that would have enough unshaded aperture. There was some ideas of building a flat canopy over the driveway to put panels on.  I was hesitant because I've always kept the driveway clear from the alley entrance to allow RV's to drive onto the property.  If you build it tall enough though to clear an RV, that still seems doable.

But as I said, the demise of Seti removed any urgent impetus to add the extra generation. I will see how I fare for a year with just the two computers and then revisit the idea of adding more solar.

 

mikey
mikey
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Keith Myers wrote: I haven't

Keith Myers wrote:

I haven't personally.  I had the two solar contractors ask in the planning/quote stages and both got shot down.

So both put out proposals that occupied every square foot of both garage and house roofs.  Then claimed that so and so more panels would add the needed extra 29kw of generation to match my consumption plus enough to charge up two Powerwalls for night time usage.

I didn't believe either of them because I have a big fat 50' tall pecan tree that sits between the garage and the house and shades a big portion of the south side of the house and north side of the garage.

The second additional 2.9kw array I put on the south and west side of the garage roof in 2016 was the biggest I could install that wouldn't get shaded by the pecan tree. That put my total generation up to 11.2kw added to the original 8.3kw ground mount array installed in 2013.

Another ground mount array is really the only workable solution in my opinion that would have enough unshaded aperture. There was some ideas of building a flat canopy over the driveway to put panels on.  I was hesitant because I've always kept the driveway clear from the alley entrance to allow RV's to drive onto the property.  If you build it tall enough though to clear an RV, that still seems doable.

But as I said, the demise of Seti removed any urgent impetus to add the extra generation. I will see how I fare for a year with just the two computers and then revisit the idea of adding more solar. 

Sounds like a plan

Jim Brossard
Jim Brossard
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Keith Myers wrote: Yes looks

Keith Myers wrote:

Yes looks correct assuming there is just the one card in the system.

Argh!  This cc_config.xml isn't working.  I'm still downloading and failing GW GPU work units on the 2 GB card in that system.

<cc_config>
    <exclude_gpu>
        <url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</url>
        <app>einstein_O2MDF</app>
      </exclude_gpu>
</cc_config>

That file is in C:\ProgramData\BOINC  please help.  That system isn't doing anything useful as all it is trying to do is those work units.

My other system with the 4 GB card is fine.

Jim Brossard
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Keith Myers wrote:Yes looks

Keith Myers wrote:

Yes looks correct assuming there is just the one card in the system.

Ah, never mind, I got it!  The proper format is:

<cc_config>
    <options>
        <exclude_gpu>
            <url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</url>
            <app>einstein_O2MDF</app>
        </exclude_gpu>
    </options>
</cc_config>

I was missing the options...

GW GPU units are now being excluded, and the ones in process said "GPU missing" so I aborted them.

It is now doing a Gama-ray binary pulsar GPU work unit.

Thanks for your help.

San-Fernando-Valley
San-Fernando-Valley
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James wrote: Keith Myers

James wrote:

Keith Myers wrote:

Yes looks correct assuming there is just the one card in the system.

...

...

I was missing the options...

 

Might be of interest or help for you or others reading this:

If you have more than one GPU in the same "system", you could use some even more specific

parms like

 

under   <options>   the   <use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>   if the GPUs are of different flavor and/or

under   <exclude>   the   <device_num>X</device_num>   to differentiate between same type GPUs and/or

                                        <type>ABCD</type>   to really be specific.

 

The "X" is the number of the device/gpu as the boinc manager shows it (starts with "0") and

the "ABCD" is the vendor/manufacturer name (i.e. "NVIDIA").

 

Happy crunching ...

 

 

Jim Brossard
Jim Brossard
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San-Fernando-Valley

San-Fernando-Valley wrote:

Might be of interest or help for you or others reading this:

....

Happy crunching ...

Thank you for the help.

This page is a good resource, a LOT of information:

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration

And now a word of warning.

My other system running BOINC has a 4 GB AMD card in it.  It is the only system I have that has, so far, offered to upgrade to Windows 10 2004.

What a disaster.  It seemed to work fine, but if left for a while (such that it would start running GPU tasks) I would return to find it frozen, requiring a reset.  Suspending the GPU tasks fixed this.  Then I was having black screen and TDR failures when simply browsing the web with Chrome.  I updated to the latest (2004 compatible) AMD driver, which was no help at all.  I restored a backup to 1909 and all is well again.

I did try using DDU and installing the latest driver, and that didn't help.

Please do a full backup before upgrading to the spring 2020 update.

Jim Brossard
Jim Brossard
Joined: 4 Apr 20
Posts: 8
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RAC: 34134

Jim Brossard wrote: Please

Jim Brossard wrote:

Please do a full backup before upgrading to the spring 2020 update.

Further update.  All my systems are now on Windows 10 2004.  After a motherboard replacement the system referenced above is healthy and processing work units.

 

Jim Brossard
Jim Brossard
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Jim Brossard wrote: Ah,

Jim Brossard wrote:

Ah, never mind, I got it!  The proper format is:

<cc_config>
    <options>
        <exclude_gpu>
            <url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</url>
            <app>einstein_O2MDF</app>
        </exclude_gpu>
    </options>
</cc_config>

I was missing the options...

GW GPU units are now being excluded, and the ones in process said "GPU missing" so I aborted them.

It is now doing a Gama-ray binary pulsar GPU work unit.

Thanks for your help.

Well, this used to work, but now I'm getting GW GPU work units again.

Has the name of the "app" changed?

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 11889
Credit: 1828183331
RAC: 203398

Jim Brossard wrote: Jim

Jim Brossard wrote:

Jim Brossard wrote:

Ah, never mind, I got it!  The proper format is:

<cc_config>
    <options>
        <exclude_gpu>
            <url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/</url>
            <app>einstein_O2MDF</app>
        </exclude_gpu>
    </options>
</cc_config>

I was missing the options...

GW GPU units are now being excluded, and the ones in process said "GPU missing" so I aborted them.

It is now doing a Gama-ray binary pulsar GPU work unit.

Thanks for your help.

Well, this used to work, but now I'm getting GW GPU work units again.

Has the name of the "app" changed? 

Check that the venue, home, work, school, is still correct. My pc's used to move everytime they felt like it.

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