If I go into preferences and check 'while computer is in use' my tasks start processing. While I have only 'when has been idle for' set to 2 minutes, I get nothing. Even overnight. The screen saver loads but shows the message 'suspended' under the logo. This used to work.

Any ideas?

a) Which BOINC?
b) Is your Activity set to Run based on Preferences?
c) Are you using web-preferences or local preferences?
d) What kind of videocard, which drivers and DirectX version?
e) Which project is this on?
e1) If Seti, are you using the applications by Seti or optimized ones?
f) Are you using CUDA?
g) What is your preference setting for "Suspend work if no mouse/keyboard activity in last x.x minutes"?

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a: 6.6.36
b: Under preferences, I normally set 'after computer has been idle for' to three minutes. For testing, I checked 'while computer is in use'. It will not work with 'idle' but 'in use' does.
c: Currently local.
d: PNY GeForce 8500 GT w/6.14.11.9062
e,e1,&f: There are four tasks started. Two are SETI 6.03, one runs, the other does not. One is a SETI 6.08 (cuda)which does not run, and a Rosetta Mini 1.97 that does run. I did not select CUDA.
g: I am guessing this setting is online. I am having troubles getting into my account.

a: 6.6.36
b: Under preferences, I normally set 'after computer has been idle for' to three minutes. For testing, I checked 'while computer is in use'. It will not work with 'idle' but 'in use' does.
c: Currently local.
d: PNY GeForce 8500 GT w/6.14.11.9062
e,e1,&f: There are four tasks started. Two are SETI 6.03, one runs, the other does not. One is a SETI 6.08 (cuda)which does not run, and a Rosetta Mini 1.97 that does run. I did not select CUDA.
g: I am guessing this setting is online. I am having troubles getting into my account.

#&$^#@ networking!

Update, all tasks do complete when I set the preferences to process while in use. I do this overnight. Any ideas?

What is your operating system?
You didn't answer b: The question was for the Activity menu in advanced view of BOINC manager.
Do you get any "Suspending - user active" messages or similar in the Messages tab?
With what version did it work before?

Gruß,
Gundolf

The title shows the OS, I can add that it is sp3. To add to b, when the screen saver comes up, it first says 'loading screen saver'. About two seconds later it says it is suspended. When I check the activity log, there are no new entries. As for version working, the OS has been SP3 for over six months. I updated BOINC as soon as I was told there was a new version. I can't say exactly when the problem started. From the stats page, the problem must have happened on Aug 26th. I don't remember making any real changes to anything then. I rarely check it and there was no error message that stands out.

The title shows the OS, I can add that it is sp3.

Okay, I double checked each post in the thread, but not the title :-)

To add to b, when the screen saver comes up, it first says 'loading screen saver'. About two seconds later it says it is suspended. When I check the activity log, there are no new entries.

The question was: "Is your Activity set to Run based on Preferences?" (in the Activity menu)

As for version working, the OS has been SP3 for over six months. I updated BOINC as soon as I was told there was a new version. I can't say exactly when the problem started. From the stats page, the problem must have happened on Aug 26th. I don't remember making any real changes to anything then. I rarely check it and there was no error message that stands out.

I meant "What was your BOINC version before 6.6.36?"

Is the program boinctray.exe running? (Check with task manager.)

Gruß,
Gundolf

When I check the activity log, there are no new entries.

So what's the last couple of entries then at that time?

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The last entries are from yesterday when I came home, opened the BOINC preferences, and turned off 'while in use' and 'use GPU'. It says

9/23/2009 7:16:40 PM Suspending computation - user is active.

When the computer goes idle, the screen saver loads, suspends, and generates no messages in the user log.

To Gundolf Jahn, sorry didn't notice your reply first, I saw Ageless. So, yes, activity is set to preferences.

As for the old BOINC version, I don't know. I doubt I missed an upgrade.

boincmrg.exe and boinc are running, no boinctray.exe

boinctray.exe is the little program that checks if the user is using the computer, or not. It checks for keyboard presses and mouse movements.

So go to your BOINC directory (not the Data directory!) and just (double-)click on boinctray.exe then check through Task Manager that it's running. You won't see any confirmation that it's running.

It is solely started from the registry. If you stop running BOINC, this program should continue to run. But if you then stop its process and restart BOINC, BOINC will not restart this program. You can only get that done by manually starting it or rebooting.

That said, the client does detect when you're busy. It just won't detect anymore when you're no longer busy. So restart boinctray.exe and test again.

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Okay, I ran boinctray from it's directory. I verified it with task manager. I tested, nada. Then I verified it was in the blah/blah/run directory of the registry ( I can hack a bit ;) ) and it looks good. I rebooted ( micro$lop sucks ), checked task manager and boinctray is there. Retested, no change. While typing this I saw this pop up:

9/24/2009 5:27:59 PM rosetta@home Sending scheduler request: To report completed tasks.
9/24/2009 5:27:59 PM rosetta@home Reporting 1 completed tasks, requesting new tasks for GPU
9/24/2009 5:28:04 PM rosetta@home Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks

It seems to be the screen saver only. It loads and then suspends without updating the message log. This is smelling more and more like a special micro$lop issue.

Another question, why did boinctray disappear earlier?

Well, the other thing you run into is that since you're crunching CUDA, you are using your GPU. That same GPU that you want to use to show the screen saver with. it can hardly do anything else while it is being used by CUDA, as CUDA will saturate the GPU, as in use all stream processors inside the CPU to hack away at the task at hand.

From my CUDA/ATI CAL FAQ (see signature):

Where did the screen saver for Seti go to? All I get is the BOINC logo!
The screen saver uses the GPU to draw the OpenGL graphics on your monitor. Seti CUDA is already using the GPU. When they would allow a screen saver at this moment, you have enormous slow downs and a higher possibility of errors. Which is why the Seti CUDA application does not come with a screen saver executable at this time. This may change in the future.

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