I run 3 projects on BOINC - Einstein, Milkyway, and SETI. Yet my PC will be sitting here for over 9 hours with no WU to process. Looking at the Event Log a request to Einstein says I don't want any more tasks despite the fact I didn't have any, Milkyway said my PC was full up with tasks, and SETI doesn't have enough tasks to send anyway.

There is something wrong with the scheduling process.

I just find it mildly frustrating to be in a position to volunteer time and money yet have it apparently spurned as this sort of problem occurs not infrequently.

There must be a lot of wasted power out there because of this type of problem. Hopefully it may sometime perhaps be fixed in the near future.

What Boinc version?

Claggy

BOINC 6.12.34

BOINC 6.12.34

Can we have links to the host at Einstein, Milkyway, and SETI please,

What are your cache settings?, it it CPU tasks that your out of?, or Nvidia GPU tasks? or ATI GPU tasks?, any special project preferences set at any of those projects?

Claggy

BOINC 6.12.34

Can we have links to the host at Einstein, Milkyway, and SETI please,

What are your cache settings?, it it CPU tasks that your out of?, or Nvidia GPU tasks? or ATI GPU tasks?, any special project preferences set at any of those projects?

Claggy

Sorry to be thick but I don't understand what you mean by 'links to the host'.

I only run CPU tasks. Any settings I have set are just the ones available on the standard web pages. I haven't touched any xml files. I only allow access to the internet from 00:00 to 08:00 as I don't get charged during those hours. The PC is up and running 24 hours.

I do have a lowly GTS430 but all the GPU tasks provoke a W7 bugcheck every few days because of W7's TDR checks so I don't run GPU tasks. Just FYI the GPU doesn't overheat, it isn't overclocked and it survives various stress tests quite happily.

---

BOINC 6.12.34

Can we have links to the host at Einstein, Milkyway, and SETI please,

What are your cache settings?, it it CPU tasks that your out of?, or Nvidia GPU tasks? or ATI GPU tasks?, any special project preferences set at any of those projects?

Claggy

Sorry to be thick but I don't understand what you mean by 'links to the host'.

I only run CPU tasks. Any settings I have set are just the ones available on the standard web pages. I haven't touched any xml files. I only allow access to the internet from 00:00 to 08:00 as I don't get charged during those hours. The PC is up and running 24 hours.

I do have a lowly GTS430 but all the GPU tasks provoke a W7 bugcheck every few days because of W7's TDR checks so I don't run GPU tasks. Just FYI the GPU doesn't overheat, it isn't overclocked and it survives various stress tests quite happily.

For Example this is my main host at Seti and Einstein (I'm not attached to Milkyway):

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5427475

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=2542754

at Einstein i can see what work you were last asking for, here i was only asking for CPU work (I've got Nvidia GPU work fetch disabled in my project preferences there):

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/host_sched_logs/2542/2542754

Because you're only allowing downloads for 8 hours a day, you should have a cache setting of at least 1 day, 2 days would be better, any less than 0.66 cache will mean you'll run out of work before you're next allowing downloads,

Claggy

BOINC 6.12.34

Can we have links to the host at Einstein, Milkyway, and SETI please,

What are your cache settings?, it it CPU tasks that your out of?, or Nvidia GPU tasks? or ATI GPU tasks?, any special project preferences set at any of those projects?

Claggy

Sorry to be thick but I don't understand what you mean by 'links to the host'.

I only run CPU tasks. Any settings I have set are just the ones available on the standard web pages. I haven't touched any xml files. I only allow access to the internet from 00:00 to 08:00 as I don't get charged during those hours. The PC is up and running 24 hours.

I do have a lowly GTS430 but all the GPU tasks provoke a W7 bugcheck every few days because of W7's TDR checks so I don't run GPU tasks. Just FYI the GPU doesn't overheat, it isn't overclocked and it survives various stress tests quite happily.

For Example this is my main host at Seti and Einstein (I'm not attached to Milkyway):

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5427475

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=2542754

at Einstein i can see what work you were last asking for, here i was only asking for CPU work (I've got Nvidia GPU work fetch disabled in my project preferences there):

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/host_sched_logs/2542/2542754

Because you're only allowing downloads for 8 hours a day, you should have a cache setting of at least 1 day, 2 days would be better, any less than 0.66 cache will mean you'll run out of work before you're next allowing downloads,

Claggy

Cache request settings - these have been set for many weeks.

Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for (max 10 days). 1 days
Maintain additional tasks to keep busy for up to 2 days

Links are:

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=513150
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/show_user.php?userid=188728
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_user.php?userid=9631630

The processor is an Intel Core i5 Quad 2500K overclocked to 4.3GHz. 4 Cores but BOINC usage set at 75% (so 3 cores used).

Its late now (23:25) so I'll see any reply tomorrow. Thanks for your interest and help.

---

BOINC 6.12.34

Can we have links to the host at Einstein, Milkyway, and SETI please,

What are your cache settings?, it it CPU tasks that your out of?, or Nvidia GPU tasks? or ATI GPU tasks?, any special project preferences set at any of those projects?

Claggy

Sorry to be thick but I don't understand what you mean by 'links to the host'.

I only run CPU tasks. Any settings I have set are just the ones available on the standard web pages. I haven't touched any xml files. I only allow access to the internet from 00:00 to 08:00 as I don't get charged during those hours. The PC is up and running 24 hours.

I do have a lowly GTS430 but all the GPU tasks provoke a W7 bugcheck every few days because of W7's TDR checks so I don't run GPU tasks. Just FYI the GPU doesn't overheat, it isn't overclocked and it survives various stress tests quite happily.

For Example this is my main host at Seti and Einstein (I'm not attached to Milkyway):

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5427475

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=2542754

at Einstein i can see what work you were last asking for, here i was only asking for CPU work (I've got Nvidia GPU work fetch disabled in my project preferences there):

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/host_sched_logs/2542/2542754

Because you're only allowing downloads for 8 hours a day, you should have a cache setting of at least 1 day, 2 days would be better, any less than 0.66 cache will mean you'll run out of work before you're next allowing downloads,

Claggy

Cache request settings - these have been set for many weeks.

Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for (max 10 days). 1 days
Maintain additional tasks to keep busy for up to 2 days

Links are:

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=513150
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/show_user.php?userid=188728
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_user.php?userid=9631630

The processor is an Intel Core i5 Quad 2500K overclocked to 4.3GHz. 4 Cores but BOINC usage set at 75% (so 3 cores used).

Its late now (23:25) so I'll see any reply tomorrow. Thanks for your interest and help.

Your computers are hidden at each project, i can't see what tasks you have on each host at each project.

Claggy

BOINC 6.12.34

Can we have links to the host at Einstein, Milkyway, and SETI please,

What are your cache settings?, it it CPU tasks that your out of?, or Nvidia GPU tasks? or ATI GPU tasks?, any special project preferences set at any of those projects?

Claggy

Sorry to be thick but I don't understand what you mean by 'links to the host'.

I only run CPU tasks. Any settings I have set are just the ones available on the standard web pages. I haven't touched any xml files. I only allow access to the internet from 00:00 to 08:00 as I don't get charged during those hours. The PC is up and running 24 hours.

I do have a lowly GTS430 but all the GPU tasks provoke a W7 bugcheck every few days because of W7's TDR checks so I don't run GPU tasks. Just FYI the GPU doesn't overheat, it isn't overclocked and it survives various stress tests quite happily.

For Example this is my main host at Seti and Einstein (I'm not attached to Milkyway):

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5427475

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=2542754

at Einstein i can see what work you were last asking for, here i was only asking for CPU work (I've got Nvidia GPU work fetch disabled in my project preferences there):

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/host_sched_logs/2542/2542754

Because you're only allowing downloads for 8 hours a day, you should have a cache setting of at least 1 day, 2 days would be better, any less than 0.66 cache will mean you'll run out of work before you're next allowing downloads,

Claggy

Cache request settings - these have been set for many weeks.

Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for (max 10 days). 1 days
Maintain additional tasks to keep busy for up to 2 days

Links are:

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=513150
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/show_user.php?userid=188728
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_user.php?userid=9631630

The processor is an Intel Core i5 Quad 2500K overclocked to 4.3GHz. 4 Cores but BOINC usage set at 75% (so 3 cores used).

Its late now (23:25) so I'll see any reply tomorrow. Thanks for your interest and help.

Your computers are hidden at each project, i can't see what tasks you have on each host at each project.

Claggy

Ooops. Fixed now.

Also each project has a resource share of 100.

Because you're only allowing downloads for 8 hours a day, you should have a cache setting of at least 1 day, 2 days would be better, any less than 0.66 cache will mean you'll run out of work before you're next allowing downloads,

Claggy

Cache request settings - these have been set for many weeks.

Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for (max 10 days). 1 days
Maintain additional tasks to keep busy for up to 2 days

Links are:

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/show_user.php?userid=513150
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/show_user.php?userid=188728
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_user.php?userid=9631630

The processor is an Intel Core i5 Quad 2500K overclocked to 4.3GHz. 4 Cores but BOINC usage set at 75% (so 3 cores used).

Its late now (23:25) so I'll see any reply tomorrow. Thanks for your interest and help.

Your computers are hidden at each project, i can't see what tasks you have on each host at each project.

Claggy

Ooops. Fixed now.

Also each project has a resource share of 100.

Looking at your tasks at Milkyway and Einstein shows only enough tasks for less than 4 hours, the amount of tasks you have for Seti is unknown with their task list disabled,
Where did you set your 1 + 2 days cache settings? was it at one of the Projects? or in Boinc Manager?, Note that the Boinc Manager local preferences over-ride the Web Preferences, and you could only be running a couple of hours cache,
Post your Boinc startup messages from the Event Log, then try clearing your local preferences, and see if Boinc 6.12.34 asks for more work.

Claggy

Looking at your tasks at Milkyway and Einstein shows only enough tasks for less than 4 hours, the amount of tasks you have for Seti is unknown with their task list disabled,
Where did you set your 1 + 2 days cache settings? was it at one of the Projects? or in Boinc Manager?, Note that the Boinc Manager local preferences over-ride the Web Preferences, and you could only be running a couple of hours cache,
Post your Boinc startup messages from the Event Log, then try clearing your local preferences, and see if Boinc 6.12.34 asks for more work.

---------------------

SETI often doesn't have any work available. Today SETI has provided just enough work to last until network access is enabled. No Einstein and very few Milkway tasks.

Local (for this computer) settings are:
Connect about every 0 days - Additional work buffer 2 days.
The web settings are:
Connect about every 1 days - Additional work buffer 2 days.

Hmmm. Is that the problem ?

The beginning of the event log:

23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Starting BOINC client version 6.12.34 for windows_x86_64
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Libraries: libcurl/7.21.6 OpenSSL/1.0.0d zlib/1.2.5
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Data directory: *******
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Running under account *********
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz [Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7]
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Processor: 256.00 KB cache
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 syscall nx lm vmx tm2 popcnt aes pbe
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Home Premium x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Memory: 15.98 GB physical, 31.96 GB virtual
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Disk: 480.40 GB total, 365.98 GB free
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Local time is UTC +0 hours
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | VirtualBox version: 4.1.8
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GT 430 (driver version 29573, CUDA version 4020, compute capability 2.1, 1024MB, 179 GFLOPS peak)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 4280432; resource share 100
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | URL http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/; Computer ID 348737; resource share 100
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 6379632; resource share 100
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | General prefs: from Milkyway@Home (last modified 10-Jan-2012 23:14:06)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | Computer location: home
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Reading preferences override file
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Preferences:
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max memory usage when active: 8183.14MB
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max memory usage when idle: 14729.66MB
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max disk usage: 10.00GB
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max CPUs used: 3
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 15 %
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | (to change preferences, visit the web site of an attached project, or select Preferences in the Manager)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Not using a proxy
23/02/2012 09:16:28 | | Suspending network activity - time of day

---

Looking at your tasks at Milkyway and Einstein shows only enough tasks for less than 4 hours, the amount of tasks you have for Seti is unknown with their task list disabled,
Where did you set your 1 + 2 days cache settings? was it at one of the Projects? or in Boinc Manager?, Note that the Boinc Manager local preferences over-ride the Web Preferences, and you could only be running a couple of hours cache,
Post your Boinc startup messages from the Event Log, then try clearing your local preferences, and see if Boinc 6.12.34 asks for more work.

---------------------

SETI often doesn't have any work available. Today SETI has provided just enough work to last until network access is enabled. No Einstein and very few Milkway tasks.

Local (for this computer) settings are:
Connect about every 0 days - Additional work buffer 2 days.
The web settings are:
Connect about every 1 days - Additional work buffer 2 days.

Hmmm. Is that the problem ?

The beginning of the event log:

23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Starting BOINC client version 6.12.34 for windows_x86_64
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Libraries: libcurl/7.21.6 OpenSSL/1.0.0d zlib/1.2.5
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Data directory: *******
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Running under account *********
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz [Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7]
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Processor: 256.00 KB cache
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 syscall nx lm vmx tm2 popcnt aes pbe
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Home Premium x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Memory: 15.98 GB physical, 31.96 GB virtual
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Disk: 480.40 GB total, 365.98 GB free
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Local time is UTC +0 hours
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | VirtualBox version: 4.1.8
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GT 430 (driver version 29573, CUDA version 4020, compute capability 2.1, 1024MB, 179 GFLOPS peak)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 4280432; resource share 100
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | URL http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/; Computer ID 348737; resource share 100
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 6379632; resource share 100
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | General prefs: from Milkyway@Home (last modified 10-Jan-2012 23:14:06)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | Computer location: home
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | Milkyway@Home | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Reading preferences override file
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Preferences:
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max memory usage when active: 8183.14MB
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max memory usage when idle: 14729.66MB
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max disk usage: 10.00GB
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | max CPUs used: 3
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 15 %
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | (to change preferences, visit the web site of an attached project, or select Preferences in the Manager)
23/02/2012 09:16:27 | | Not using a proxy
23/02/2012 09:16:28 | | Suspending network activity - time of day

Yes, you're using local preferences, if you go into them and press Clear, then yes, you'll revert to Web Preferences, it'll help you get some more work,

Claggy

I'll try that. Thanks for the help.

---

A large number of tasks is now arriving. Thanks for your help in finding my problem.

Through something I learned at GPUGrid, there is a way to force BOINC to only keep one set of tasks on your machine at at time. That is, if you have a quad-core system with one GPU, it will keep 5 tasks, one for each core and one for the GPU - assuming you are running GPU tasks.

If you have several projects, it may keep one set of tasks per project; however, I really don't know whether it will or not. On one machine, I have multiple GPU projects, and it keeps one task per project; based on that, I would expect that it will handle CPU projects the same.

Here is what needs to be done -

Set "Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for" to 0 days

and also

"Maintain additional tasks to keep busy for up to" or "... and up to an additional" to 0 days.

I've tried this, and it works perfectly.

---

no luck for me I am afraid, I;m still pretending to have a supercomputer ;)

---

When you first set this, the computer will complete all pending tasks; when all pending tasks are done and the computer is capable of handling more work, i.e., a core / GPU is free, then the computer will get more tasks.

The only way to get rid of the pending work other than to let it finish is to abort the task - but some projects prefer that you not do this.

I have three machines running BOINC. I set my preferences this way for all of my machines, and since finishing the backlog of work that I had before setting this, all of the machines now only maintain tasks that are currently running, or only one task per project that are in the queue for my GPUs.

---

I am on my dads computer now. I rarely use it, boinc knows this (or should), so why has it allowed two tasks to start at once when it should know there is a large chance of neither completing anywhere near the deadline. Therefore logically the management of tasks is not fit for purpose. over and out !

---

I am on my dads computer now. I rarely use it, boinc knows this (or should), so why has it allowed two tasks to start at once when it should know there is a large chance of neither completing anywhere near the deadline. Therefore logically the management of tasks is not fit for purpose. over and out !

I see. It sounds like your situation is different than mine. While I found a work-around for my situation, it sounds like there is still a problem with situations like yours.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer. Also, it appears that the BOINC team is not interested in hearing about bugs - see this thread. http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=7377&nowrap=true#42982

It sounds like had you followed Agless' advice, NOTHING would have changed - for whatever reason.

---

Also, it appears that the BOINC team is not interested in hearing about bugs

Complete humbug.

In this thread, TRuEQ & TuVaLu reported seeing weird things. I advised him to report it to the alpha list. He went one step further, according to his post on the Seti forums and reported it --complete with extra logs-- directly to David Anderson (DA). David answered him:

I got an answer from DA saying he saw in the logs what was not right and that he will fix it in a few days.

Thank you DA!!!

//TRuEQ

(Source)

So go ahead and complain all you want. Just don't start that nothing is being done about something you didn't want to do some work on to report in the proper place. You have the channel to the gods, others use it and use it correctly (with logs). They manage to get things done. So what's keeping you?

---

if there is any information I can provide that is of use please tell me where to find it and where to post it. the problem seems pretty obvious though and not a bug, just the way it is designed: to look like more work is being done in a multi project situation than really is. The problem is that when there is limited computing time available things go wrong because we run the risk of no task completing on time (being weeks late). now if the developers cannot understand that simple an explanation I don't know what to do.

What i want ?: I want boinc to start and complete ONE task at a time, so why not just have a setting for it and be done with it because all existing settings have no effect on this issue ! and pretending they do is just burying heads in sand for the sake of ego !

---