Ok, I hope someone can shed some light on this for me. I've been loving grid computing using BOINC since 1999 (SETI & Prime in the early days, then WCG and Rosetta).

I just revived an old server and installed BOINC 7.2.47. The server is running Server 2003 SP2, with an Intel Pentium D 3.00 GHz processor (two cores). Benchmarks are 1413 fpMIPS and 2331 iMIPS. I am currently processing WCG (Mapping Cancer Markers 7.32) and Rosetta (Mini 3.52).

Here is my issue: when the WCH-MCM WU loads, it shows a Remaining Time of 4:11. However, upon completion the actual Process Time (CPU Time) is 8:50. I noticed that while the Elapsed Time will tick up normally, the Remaining Time only decreases 1 second every other second. The Rosetta WU are exhibiting the same symptoms.

My other computer (Win7, Quad Core 3.00 GHz, running BOINC 6.10.58) does not have any issue, and is churning out WU as expected.

Is there something specific to the server platform that is causing this, or this version of BOINC in combination with the server? I'm going to start running up against (and missing) the deadlines if it keeps processing the WUs this way.

the only other quirk to this is that I happened to glance at it when it was processing a WCG and Rosetta together - when it was 1 & 1, the countdown appeared to be fine. When it processes two of the same, it doubles the time.

I can post a log if someone thinks that will help. I have my processor set for 100% utilization.

Any help would be appreciated, as I want this machine to be as efficient as possible.

Brian

BOINC when installed on a platform it's never been installed on before, will need to learn how long tasks take, per project, per application. Although the project sends out an estimated duration time with their tasks, due to the wide variety in hardware out there, they can only do that: send out an estimate. It's never a precise time, unless your hardware matches theirs completely.

So give BOINC time to learn how long tasks take. Eventually, over the course of 10, 20 tasks you'll find that BOINC will go show the time left over more accurately. Your other computer/BOINC has already gone through this course and therefore the BOINC there can more accurately estimate how long tasks take.

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Jord,

Thank you for the advice. So far, it has returned 67 WUs in 7 days, I will let it go for another week or so and see how it performs. I figured it would have calculated the initial Remaining Time based upon the processor benchmarks against the estimated computation size, this way avoiding the issue of differing equipment and such.

Again, thanks! I guess I should probably upgrade my other computer to the 7.2 client also (just realized how far back that computer was!).

Brian

I get this all the time. For the most part, it's accurate. (I have a fairly new computer) Sometimes I get tasks from Milkyway@home that say they should only take 2 minutes, and they finish an hour later.

In Advanced view, go to advanced and select CPU Benchmarks. That might help a little.