Hello,

I'm running boinc on an Intel CPU T2500 dual core laptop. When boinc uses 100% CPU it runs hotter than I would like (fans are working really hard) and I would like to limit the CPU usage.

I've tried this through changing the boinc manager preferences, the global_prefs.xml and global_prefs_overirde.xml via the <cpu_usage_limit> tag
and also setting Venues in BAM Stats, yet nothing has worked. The usage stays at 100%.

A few things that I have noticed:

(1) When I update the preferences in the manager, the messages report memory limits, but never the CPU limit. So I can confirm changes to memory limits in the messages, but nothing is ever reported for the CPU.

(2) CPU benchmarks fail with errors


I'm using version 6.2.18, any ideas on things to try?

Thanks!

(1) When I update the preferences in the manager, the messages report memory limits, but never the CPU limit. So I can confirm changes to memory limits in the messages, but nothing is ever reported for the CPU.

That's "normal".

(2) CPU benchmarks fail with errors

This happens when something else CPU intensive is taking up the CPUs while the benchmark is running. Make sure nothing else CPU intensive is running during the benchmarks.

Which operating system are you using and is there a reason why you can't use BOINC 6.4.7 or one of the 6.6.x range?

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...The usage stays at 100%...

For how long did you check that? If you set 80% CPU usage, then BOINC will run the application full power for 4 seconds and suspend for 1 second.

Some projects' applications don't like this type of throttling, so I would recommend to reduce percent of processors used instead of percent of processor time.

Gruß,
Gundolf

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Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

I'm using Kubuntu 9.04, which installs 6.2.18, but I can upgrade to a more recent version and see if that helps.

I'll run the CPU checks again and make sure that nothing else is using the CPU.

I tracked usage for about 10 minutes and it was pegged at 100%.

I figured that the preference set in the manager would override those from individual projects. Is that that case?

Thanks!

I figured that the preference set in the manager would override those from individual projects. Is that that case?

The preferences are shared by all projects, but yes, the local ones override them.

Well, I tried restarting the laptop, and now the CPU limit does follow the local prefs. I'm wondering if there was an orphaned boinc process that was running before. Perhaps that would explain why the CPU benchmarks failed, and the CPU usage was 100% regardless of the settings in the manager?

What was using 100% CPU cycles? The BOINC binary and not a science application?

The BOINC binary will use 100% CPU cycles when benchmarking, so if for some reason that that process hangs, then yes, the binary will keep using those CPU cycles.

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Unfortunately, I didn't check last night when this issue started so I can only speculate the it was a science application and not boinc. Boinc failed the CPU benchmark several times with errors, but did not hang.