I posted previously in response to another user's similar problem, but this issue apparently needs a bump, since the problem persists in the latest release (6.12.26).

In the 64-bit BOINC manager, there is apparently a timeout or conflict that leads to an unrecoverable error in connecting to the BOINC client. Once this client-connection problem occurs, the only way I've been able to recover is to do a "repair" re-install of BOINC.

I was finally able to identify at least one of the triggers for this problem, so here's one way to reproduce it: Go to the projects tab and select multiple projects, but not all of them -- For example, select half of the list. Click on the "Update" button. Once the manager starts connecting to the project servers but before it finishes updating, select another group of projects and click on "Update" again.

Doing this will often trigger the problem, and once it occurs, the entire manager freezes up and none of the GUI displays (Projects, Tasks, Transfers, Statistics, etc.) will be updated afterwards. Subsequent attempts to use the BOINC manager will result in failure to connect to the BOINC client. No matter what you do, you end up with the Manager offering to try to re-connect to the client, timing out, and then being asked if you want to try again.

Restarting BOINC, re-starting the computer, or powering-down and re-booting won't fix it, and a "repair re-install" of BOINC will be needed to fix this problem.

I have the "Disable GPU when computer is in use" option set, so this is apparently not any kind of GPU-related problem.

Similarly, since a repair reinstall of BOINC fixes the problem without any other adjustments to my PC software or configuration, this is evidently not one of the typical firewall- or anti-virus-related problems which are already well-covered in this forum.

Once the repair-reinstall is done, the BOINC manager will resume doing the previously-requested project status updates, the individual project completion status updates will resume, and all appears normal.

Note that even in the "locked up" BOINC manager state, it appears that the BOINC client and the project tasks continue to run. Thus, I presume that this problem exists only on the BOINC manager side.

From my seat, it looks like some sort of timeout or conflict resulting in an invalid registry entry or software state which can only be corrected by a repair-reinstall.

My BOINC host environment:

Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
Intel Core i7 920
6 GB memory, 512 GB hard drive
Nvidia GeForce GT-220 GPU
BOINC 6.12.26 64-bit

This appears to be a bug that needs investigation.

Thanks!
J.D. Morgan

This bug has been fixed already, but a couple of other bugs have been found that have to be eradicated and tested as well. So while we are at 6.12.32 with testing, you better not try the 6.12.32 version as it has a problem with an uninitialized upload_handler in the client code.

So please wait a while longer and do not upgrade to 6.12.32, not even for testing, as it will give problems downloading work to all projects attached to your BOINC.

---

Thanks for your response.

I prefer to stick with production releases, so I'll just live with this minor annoyance until we get a non-alpha, non-beta release that fixes it.

This problem only crops up once a week or so, and doing the repair re-install is not a big deal -- it's a fairly-fast and non-destructive temporary solution. I am looking forward to the bug fix, though.

Thanks to the BOINC team for looking into this.

J.D.

I prefer to stick with production releases, so I'll just live with this minor annoyance until we get a non-alpha, non-beta release that fixes it.

This problem only crops up once a week or so, and doing the repair re-install is not a big deal -- it's a fairly-fast and non-destructive temporary solution.

6.12.33 is much more worth the "production release" tag than 6.12.26 ever was...
And doing a 6.12.26 -> 6.12.33 update takes just a bit more than a repair re-install.

Peter