Just a quick background to the above statement.

For a long , long time, I have used the Seti software client (the Kids keep trying to get me to chnage my screen saver, but I wouldn't). Any way, yesterday I recieved an email advising of the move to the BOINC client.

I duly followed instructions and "swopped" from one client to another.That was first thing yesterday.

The day passes by and the Kids come home and start to do their homework, only for them to complain that the whole computer is running slow, and then eventually it froze. I reset, and rebooted. Only for the same thing to happen within the next five minutes.

Using the CTRL,ALT - DEL option I found that my computers processor (An Intel Pentium 4) was running at 100% - and that ALL the clock cycles had been assigned to the BOINC client and the various projects. None of them appeared to be running in the background as I expected, they seem to have taken over.

As a temp measure I have removed the software, just to enable the other uses of the computer to function normally. Any help would be much appreciated

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Using the CTRL,ALT - DEL option I found that my computers processor (An Intel Pentium 4) was running at 100% - and that ALL the clock cycles had been assigned to the BOINC client and the various projects. None of them appeared to be running in the background as I expected, they seem to have taken over.

See this thread here for general information, and the Wiki is the in-depth source for all knowledge...

Taking 100% of the clock cycles is expected - IF nothing else is running. However, it is supposed to "get out of the way" and allow literally anything with a priority higher than "idle" to take precedence. I have seen a few postings similar to yours before, where it simply runs "too heavy", but it always seems the answer is different in each case, so I don't have just one suggestion for you. The first thing that _I_ would try is reinstalling it as a single-user install but telling it NOT to make BOINC the default screensaver - and setting your PC to 'blank' the screen rather than running any screensaver. See if BOINC then is properly running without affecting anything else. If so, then use the "Show graphics" command on the Work tab, and see if everything functions properly that way. If it works for some projects and not others, then the individual project boards are the place to ask. I know Einstein's default app has problems with one brand of graphics card, and they have a beta app you can download to fix that; SETI as far as I know is okay with just about any graphics card. If "Show graphics" works okay, then you can re-try the screensaver... At some point, either it will all be fine this time, or you'll be able to tell exactly when the problem shows up.

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