BOINC will not stay connected or keep running. After the screen-saver activates, shortly thereafter, the floating BOINC star message says "BOINC not running - reinstall BOINC so it will load at startup" (or words to that effect). I have done this several times with no improvement - with and without uninstall first, with or without system power down between tries - in all combinations. When I move the mouse, the screen-saver clears, and if I go to the BOINC manager icon, sure enough, everything is stopped. I can go to the FILE menu, choose "Select computer", a dialog box appears asking for host name and password (nothing filled in) and simply hit return, and BOINC will start. This is a single-user system, no network connection, no user password required at startup. BOINC is in the windows startup file, and is checked (msconfig, startup tab). A system restart will start BOINC, but as soon as the screen-saver activates, it fails again. I am running the Newest version of BOINC, system is Win 98SE, 2.4 GHZ CPU, 512 MB RAM, DSL always-on connection (1 Mbps). Projects are SETI, Einstein, Rosetta - all using equal slices.

Suggestions appreciated.

Jim in Alaska

The "select computer" problem occurs whenever BOINC Manager is running and boinc.exe, the background daemon, is not. V5.2.10 through 5.2.13 have various fixes to this and network connection issues, so the first thing to try is V5.2.13. (I know you say you are running 'the latest', but that one came out about 12 hours ago, so you may not be by now.)

Other things to look at are the Commands tab, set to "Run always" unless there is some problem where you can't do that. "Run based on preferences", if you have it set to not work when computer is busy, does NOT work well on Win98 - Win98 can't properly tell when you're "busy", and BOINC sometimes will just think you are always busy, and will never work; specifically, the screensaver itself seems to be enough to make Win98 think the computer is in use.

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OK, tried new version of BOINC (v. 5.2.13) with same results. Tried detaching all but one project, no help. (Detached SETI@home and rosetta@home, kept Einstein@home) - no difference. Program still complains of need to load at startup, but it IS loading at startup. Why the message if BOINC is loaded and in memory? BOINC still disconnects when screen saver activates. Interesting note: I have NEVER seen the screen saver from Einstein or SETI display "normally" - however, both show up fine when testing the screen saver. Also, noticing multiple instances of BOINC truing to fetch new work, and failing - Message log indicates "couldn't connect to hostname [boinc.bakerlab.org](or)[setiboinc.ssl.berkelyey.edu] but never a problem with Einstein. Also tried shutting down all running programs like browser, email, etc. - no help. Still BOINC fails whenever screen saver activates. BOINC is set to run always.

As before, bringing up BOINC to desktop and clicking on FILE > SELECT COMPUTER > then hitting return (nothing filled in) will restart BOINC. I think one time only I saw a message about wrong a password or something like that, but no password is assosiated with system. Zone Alarm Pro (v. 6.1.737.000) firewall is specifically configured to give BOINC access to the internet.

- Jim in Alaska

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OK, tried new version of BOINC (v. 5.2.13) with same results. Tried detaching all but one project, no help. (Detached SETI@home and rosetta@home, kept Einstein@home) - no difference. Program still complains of need to load at startup, but it IS loading at startup. Why the message if BOINC is loaded and in memory? BOINC still disconnects when screen saver activates. Interesting note: I have NEVER seen the screen saver from Einstein or SETI display "normally" - however, both show up fine when testing the screen saver. Also, noticing multiple instances of BOINC truing to fetch new work, and failing - Message log indicates "couldn't connect to hostname [boinc.bakerlab.org](or)[setiboinc.ssl.berkelyey.edu] but never a problem with Einstein. Also tried shutting down all running programs like browser, email, etc. - no help. Still BOINC fails whenever screen saver activates. BOINC is set to run always.

As before, bringing up BOINC to desktop and clicking on FILE > SELECT COMPUTER > then hitting return (nothing filled in) will restart BOINC. I think one time only I saw a message about wrong a password or something like that, but no password is assosiated with system. Zone Alarm Pro (v. 6.1.737.000) firewall is specifically configured to give BOINC access to the internet.

- Jim in Alaska

Jim,

One quick, important question - as best you can recall, was Einstein running in each case when Boinc went to screensaver or "show graphics" mode and quit?
If the answer to that is "Yes", then please post to Problems and bug reports/No screensaver. We will help you there. You will have to register with the messageboards there if you have not already, just as you registered to post here on the BOINC boards. I am not just trying to "shunt you off" somewhere else - I regularly work the Einstein messageboards, I have hundreds of posts there with the vast majority of them being of the help variety. The reason I ask you to post on Einstein instead of giving you the help here in Boinc is that in Einstein, we have more information available to us, firstly that we can "see" your computer (if you have not elected to have it hidden), see your work pattern (the Einstein portion of it), and most importantly, we can see what errorcode was generated at failure. Secondly, as you will see if you take a quick look through the Problems and Bug Reports forum there, you will see that the screensaver bug (better known as the "graphics bug" is very common, the primary fix well-known, and several people well-versed in helping you through it all.

Thank you.

Michael

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"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward Justice"

Michael -

Well the problem persists when I have only Einstein running, but it was happening with all the others too, so doubt if it is specifically an Einstein problem. I will dump Einstein and re-attach to only SETI@home and see what happens. If it fails, as I am almost sure it will, I will post those results tomorrow.

I noticed today that when the screen-saver activated (or tried to activate), it seemed to have trouble finding some sort of file, and then failed back to the "BOINC not installed - please install to run at startup" message. IT IS INSTALLED - AND IT RUNS AT STARTUP!!!!! I am starting to reach the end of my patience with this pig. The "Classic" SETI@home never gave a moment's problem - for some 43,000 hours of run time - across several machines - including almost 2 years on this machine.

- Jim in Alaska

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"BOINC not installed - please install to run at startup" message. IT IS INSTALLED - AND IT RUNS AT STARTUP!!!!!

In Options, on the Connections tab, change "Automatically detect network connection settings" to be "Use my LAN connection". Your network connection is "intermittently dropping" and when BOINC Manager sees that, it can't communicate with the daemon, and it pops up this message.

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OK, tried setting OPTIONS > CONNECTIONS to "use my local area network" - still same problem. It did give a message about "tried to connect and could not" (I am paraphrasing here, so I clicked on the "try again" button (more paraphrasing) and a new message popped up about "incorrect password". Hmmmm. As I have mentioned, I do not use a password for this system. But - if I click on FILE > SELECT COMPUTER, a dialog box comes up with places for password and username (and they are blank.) If I simply click on OK, without entering anyting, BOINC will start.

Next idea please?

- Jim in Alaska

Well, several more days have passed as I continue to try various options in my attempts to get BOINC to work properly. The currently installed version is 5.2,13. As far as I know, this is the latest version.


So far, all attemtps at automatic operation have met with failure. I have tried disabling the firewall, changing the firewall options, disabling various system timers and automatic functions, re-enabling them, fiddling with the anti-virus programs, changing the type of connection, changing from "run always" to "run based on preferences," the network from "always available" to "based on preferences", and so on. To date, no combination has been able to accomplish the task. Unless someone else has some ideas, I guess the only choice is to give up and call it a bad job, and let the fishes swim on the screen instead of helping some project somewhere. It is very disappointing that BOINC cannot seem to acomplish what to me appears as a basic task. I have also tried switching projects from SETI@home to Einstein@homa, to Rosetta@home, with no apparent improvement or change in performance.


The program will invariably connect and start to process work when I manually tell it to start, by the use of FILE > CONNECT > [password dentry dialog box appears] (I do not fill anyting in - leaving blank entries} and pressing ENTER. But as soon as the system has been idle for a few minutes (long enough for the screen saver to activate) a screen pops up sith words to the effect of "trying to load screen saver" (in this instance, from SETI@home), and after several more seconds BOINC fails and insists it is not installed - when of course it is.


If I use the desktop manager to set the desktop properties, selecting "screen saver" and manually select "preview mode", the SETI@home graphic display appears and it seems to be processing information. So, that part works, but only when in screen saver preview mode. It is illogical that the program should work properly manually, but not automatically. Isn't automatic functionsing the primary attribue of a program like this? Requiring manual reactivation and reconnection after each instance of inactivity cannot be what was intend.


The program apparently can communicate on it's own, for when the machine is busy enough that the screen saver function does not activate, or if I tell the system it has no screen saver (so the screen never blanks) work continues to be processed, uploads and downloads take place, the numbers change on the "work" screen, the "total credit" figure updates from time to time, and so on.


- Jim in Alaska

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There are over 40,000 machines happily crunching away on climateprediction alone. So BOINC does work!

As it seems to be your screensaver, (NOT a recommended option on climateprediction, as it uses up cpu cycles), do you have up to date video drivers?

Jim,

I'm sorry to see that there has been no improvement. One thing you might try, if it hadn't occured to you already (seems you've been thorough) in the screensaver tab of display options, there is a button at the bottom labeled "power". Go in there and set the power scheme to "always on", which disables standby mode.

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"The arc of history is long, but it bends toward Justice"

OK, I reset the screen saver power options (energy saving features) to "always on". This affects primarily the monitor, as the CPU was already set for system standby = never. Now everything is set to run all the time. Previously, the system was set to always run, but the monitors were set to power down after about an hour of inactivity. The screen saver comes on after 15 minutes of inactivity. It runs for 5 minutes, and then goes to blank (black) screen. After about 40 more minutes, the monitors powered down.


I did notice that the failure occurred immediately after the screen saver activated, well before the monitor power settings had activated. Unless there was someting caused by the device keeping track of time, this should not have been a factor. Also remember, the screen saver will run in preview mode just fine, not causing any problems, and the screen-saver display comes up. In "regular" mode, the SETI "flag waving" display dows not appear, and a floating star displays for a while indicating that the screen saver is looking for some type of file.

Remember, this is a Win 98SE system, not XP. Also, remember that this same system was running "classic" SETI@home for some tens of thousands of hours (ballpark 48,000 hours) without difficulty.

I don't doubt that others are running BOINC with success, which makes it all the more frustrating that my system will not cooperate.

The video cards are all ATI Rage 128 types, using driver version 4.13.7192. 2 of the cards are PCI interface, one is AGP. They all use the same basic driver. I downloaded the driver from the ATI web site about 2 months ago, but it has a 2002 date stamp. Did I mention that I am using 3 each 19" display monitors (and 3 video cards, of course)? Could that have anything to do with what is happening? The 3 monitors give a huge desktop area, very useful for all sorts of things. I will check the ATI web site again for fresher driver, but am not holding my breath.

I ran the system all day with the screen saver disabled, but BOINC running. No apparent problems, other than sometimes inability to access the SETI@home servers. This is nothing new, and eventually the system will connect and upload or download as necessary. At the moment, I am running only SETI@home. When I started, I was running SETI, plus Einstein, plus Rosetta. I have fallen back to SETI by itself until (and if) I/we can get the problem resolved.

I shall report in the morning if this latest change has any effect.

I appreciate all the suggestions. Is there anyting else I can do in the way of testing or sharing system parameters that might reveal where the difficulty lies? One of the things I am not is an expert on Windows and it's idiosyncracies. (sp?)

- Jim in Alaska

Jim, I haven't had anything to contribute here, and really still don't, but it SOUNDS like you only have problems when the screensaver activates. I don't have a fix for that, or any idea where to even look - but a temporary workaround obviously would be to disable the screensaver...

If this works for a bit, then you can try "show graphics". If it dies, then exit BOINC entirely, and take a look at the stderr*.txt files in the BOINC folder. Hopefully whatever message you're seeing "fly by" about trying to find a file, will be captured in one of these files, and we'll be able to work from there.

If you don't see anything in them that is obvious, I'd be happy to go through them, you can zip them up and email them to me at (from my screenname here) firstname dot lastname at comcast dot net. If you go this option, go ahead and just send all four ".txt" files, then I can match timestamps.

EDIT::: Okay, just had a "brainstorm" hit - I've seen similar issues on the Mac in the past, also with no idea why (and never did find out), but I just thought of one thing. What fonts does the BOINC screensaver use? I know on the Mac side, if a font is missing and the application doesn't specifically code for that condition, it'll crash...

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Jim,

I am no expert on this issue. But there are two worrisome components that CAN affect BOINC. For good or ill, and in this case perhaps ill, BOINC is much more complex than SETI@Home Classic. As such, well, it makes more demands on the systems.

So, that said, the Win95 family does not run BOINC as well as we would like. It has improved over time and there are perhaps some more things in the wings that will furthur increase (decrease?) this trend.

Second, some ATI cards on some systems seem to cause screensaver problems on some systems. If Tony passes by he may have more suggestions. But, is it necesary to run the BOINC Screensaver?

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