Hello everyone, I've used Boinc in the past and recently downloaded the Windows 6.10.43 version. I'm impressed with the projects that take advantage of the GPU processing. Makes it much faster.

Anyways the problem I am having is getting the preferences to update correctly. I want the local machine preferences run. And originally I was able to set it up correctly and it took.

But now I want to scale back some of the settings like % of processors and % CPU time. I change them to what I'd like and click ok but nothing changes. Oddly enough I was able to click read Config File and it updated the settings correctly once. But now the settings will not change at all. I do not find a cc_config.xml or general_prefs.xml on my system at all. I get the following in messages (see below). Am I overlooking something?



4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM SETI@home General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 03-Jul-2005 17:53:51)
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM SETI@home Computer location: home
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM SETI@home General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM Reading preferences override file
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM Preferences:
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM max memory usage when active: 1659.49MB
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM max memory usage when idle: 2987.09MB
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM max disk usage: 2.00GB
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM don't compute while active
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM don't use GPU while active
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25 %
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM (to change, visit the web site of an attached project,
4/8/2010 9:09:34 PM or click on Preferences)

Is BOINC still set for Run based on preferences?

no it was set to Run Always

I did switch it to Run based on preferences and the preferences still do not change. Is there some lag time after an initial change before it can be changed again?

Either way my preferences are not changing.

One of the odd things that seem to work, maybe once every 1/2 hour to hour, is setting the preferences to what I want, click ok and then selecting read config file

Then the settings change and are displayed correctly in the preferences. Like I said it does not always work but I seem to be able to change the preferences more often trying that way. I've maybe switched the preferences twice within the last 2 hours after trying repeatedly.

Shouldn't setting the prefs take instantly once you click the OK button?

You don't say which BOINC and you're looking for the wrong file. Instead of searching for a general_prefs.xml file, look instead for the global_prefs.xml (web-based preferences) and global_prefs_override.xml (local preferences) files.

Also, "Read config file" (re-)reads the cc_config.xml file, if it exists. If you want to read the local_prefs_override.xml file, use the "Read local prefs file" option.

All preferences (web-based and local) only run when you have Activity, Network and any possible GPU set to "Run based on preferences"

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Hi Ageless,

I'm running Boinc 6.10.43 on WinXP

I do understand that the preferences only work when it is set to "run based on preferences" for both CPU and GPU. The problem is even if I set it to that and try to update the Preferences under Advanced->Preferences the new settings that I change do not take affect.

An example would changing the time in "only after computer has been idle x minutes". If I change it to 1 minute instead of the default 3 minutes and click Ok. It will still run at 3 minutes. Likewise going into the Advanced->Preferences again it will say 3 minutes. It is like the application never read the changes I inputted into the Preferences window when I clicked Ok.

Thanks for any assistance

That sounds like you or BOINC (or both) don't have permission to write to the global_prefs_override.xml file. Can you check on the file in question that it doesn't have a read-only attribute set and that you and the BOINC account(s) have write permission on it?

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