I am running BOINC on Windows 10. When I run the manager, it displays the message "Unable to connect to the core client". After Googling the problem, I have added the client and manager executables to the Windows firewall, but this has no effect. I have tried running the manager as Administrator, but that doesn't work either.

When I run the client manually, a command window seems to show everything running correctly. It goes through a lot of setup including running CPU benchmarks and then starts a SETI@home task. The task suspends and resumes from time to time as it finds the CPU is busy with other things. i.e. The client seems able to run normally.

If I run the manager with the client still running in the command window, the manager still can't connect to it.

I have the latest version 7.14.2 (x64).

The stdoutdae file has nothing in it since 9-Nov-2018, which I assume is because the output that would normally go there is going to my command window with the running client. Did anything happen around 9-Nov that could have caused it to stop working then?

Any ideas gratefully received.

Julian

The client has two parts, one the actual manager and the other the GUI.
If SET@Home is running in the manner you are describing then that is "normal behaviour"
It would appear that the GUI bit is failing to connect to the manager bit. This can mean that there are two copies of the GUI attempting to run at the same time - I've had that happen a few times, normally when it hasn't started cleanly.
A wild guess - did Windows do an update of its security settings around then?

It seems the most recent patch Tuesday was 13-Nov, so does not correspond.

I have tried rebooting and have downloaded the latest version since first seeing the problem, so it seems unlikely there are two copies of the GUI running. If I run the manager (boincmgr.exe) after a boot, it produces the error message after a few seconds. Task Manager just shows the manager running, no boinc.exe.

Interestingly, if I run the client (boinc.exe) by double clicking it (as I said before, this seems to run correctly), exiting the manager kills this process too (if the checkbox is checked). It therefore seems the manager knows the client is running, it just can't connect to it.

Julian

Another option is that the BOINC Manager GUI (boincmgr.exe) runs from a different directory than the client (boinc.exe)
You should be able to check that by enabling the "Command Line" column in Windows Task Manager. See these steps on how to do that in Windows 10.

Both boincmgr.exe and boinc.exe should have the same path, e.g. C:\Program Files\BOINC\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\BOINC\
If either starts from a different spot, that's the problem.
In that case, uninstall BOINC, manually delete the other directory, reinstall BOINC and make sure in the installer - third screen in click Advanced - that the path to the Programs directory is the correct one for the installer you use:
BOINC_version_windows_x86_64.exe is a 64bit version that should be installed in C:\Program Files\BOINC\
BOINC_version_windows_intelx86.exe is a 32bit version that should be installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\BOINC\

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I have the 64 bit version and all the executables are in C:\Program Files\BOINC. I just downloaded the install file and ran it. I haven't tried to do anything non-standard.

When I run the manager, it's command line shown in task manager is exactly as above. As the client (boinc.exe) doesn't run, it isn't shown in task manager.

Julian

I would try running the install program, then selecting the remove option. I would then use the Windows uninstall program if that shows anything left. Then check to see if any directories are left and manually rename or delete them. Then run the install again from scratch.

Reasons for above is I suspect there may be a second boinc.exe somewhere around on your system. (Of course, having only used the Windows version of BOINC under WINE in the past ten years, I may be talking total rubbish.

This is a fairly new build of Windows 10 (less than a year old). I've tried uninstalling and deleting the BOINC folders from Program Files and ProgramData, and starting again. I've even gone back to the previous version, and forward to the current version again. The problem is still there :(

This is a little annoying as I've been running seti@home for almost 20 years.

Julian

I've now uninstalled it again and deleted all the BOINC folders. This time, I've searched the registry for boinc and "space sciences" and deleted every key and entry that contains those.

On reinstalling, it asked me to connect to a project (seti@home) and log in. It works! No idea why it happened, but I'll leave it at that.

Thanks to those who responded with help and suggestions.

Julian

Do you anything in c:\users\julian7\appdata\roaming\BOINC\stdoutgui.txt or stderrgui.txt?
How about c:\programdata\boinc\stderrdae.txt?
When you started the client from console what data directory it said it was using?

edit: nevermind

Exactly the same problem here!

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I had the same problem for a view weeks now, this exactly helped me and i had this issue on 2 Pcs at the same time....

THX a lot Julian you are my hero ;)