| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: BOINC appears stuck |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 14
|
|
| Author |
|
|
Torchwood 4
Cruncher Great Britain Joined: Apr 30, 2010 Post Count: 8 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Help! New installation on an old XP laptop. Installation went smoothly.
----------------------------------------BOINC now has downloaded 2 workunits: SN2S & FAAH. However, FAAH keeps cycling through a patch of data - at approx the 0.01-0.8 % mark of the workunit. This has been happening for the past 36 hours. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program - no use. The logs keep showing the pattern below: 24/11/2012 17:08:44||Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high 24/11/2012 17:08:54||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:10:48||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:11:38||Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high 24/11/2012 17:11:49||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:14:12||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:15:02||Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high 24/11/2012 17:15:13||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:16:13||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:18:24||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:20:26||Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high 24/11/2012 17:20:36||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:22:47||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:24:47||Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high 24/11/2012 17:24:57||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:27:10||Resuming computation I've tried altering the various settings to tolerate a higher CPU usage, or to minimise impact - no avail. Even when the PC is running nothing but XP and BOINC, the same happens. I have also tried rebooting the system several times - no change. System info: IBM Thinkpad R50e with 760MB RAM. XP SP 3, Office 2003 Pro, Visual Studio Express 2008, Acrobat reader etc, Kaspersky Internet Security 2012. All software fully updated. Virus scan reports clean system. Any suggestions guys and guyesses? I am well and truly confused!! Many thanks for any suggestions or input. Torchwood 4
Join Team Torchwood 4: Use advanced technology to prepare humanity for the future. Remember: The 21st Century is when everything changes...you have got to be ready...
|
||
|
|
Coleslaw
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Mar 29, 2007 Post Count: 1343 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
What are your settings specifically? Do you have LAIM (leave applications in memory) turned on?
----------------------------------------    |
||
|
|
Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7691 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Also check to see if the unit is overheating.
----------------------------------------Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
||
|
|
Ingleside
Veteran Cruncher Norway Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Post Count: 974 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
The logs keep showing the pattern below: 24/11/2012 17:08:44||Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high 24/11/2012 17:08:54||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:10:48||Resuming computation 24/11/2012 17:11:38||Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high If your using web-preferences, change the "Suspend work if CPU usage is above ..." to zero, save preferences and update project in BOINC-client. Or, if you're specifying the preferences in the client, open-up the preferences (in advanced view), choose the "Processor usage"-tab and change the "While processor usage is less than ..." to zero and save. (depending on BOINC-client it's possible the preferences is named differently).  "I make so many mistakes. But then just think of all the mistakes I don't make, although I might." |
||
|
|
Torchwood 4
Cruncher Great Britain Joined: Apr 30, 2010 Post Count: 8 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Hi Coleslaw
----------------------------------------Am not sure...How do I find out if that setting is on in XP? many thanks Torchwood 4
Join Team Torchwood 4: Use advanced technology to prepare humanity for the future. Remember: The 21st Century is when everything changes...you have got to be ready...
|
||
|
|
Torchwood 4
Cruncher Great Britain Joined: Apr 30, 2010 Post Count: 8 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Hi Sgt Joe
----------------------------------------Thanks for the reply. I don't think the laptop is overheating - the fan is running same as usual - little gust of heat every few minutes - also, it doesn't feel warmer than usual; is on my knee in shorts, so I guess I'd feel it. Magazine underneath as usual to keep ventilation clear. Same behaviour also when running on desktop overnight. No hotspots over HDD, CPU etc., and the system is pretty clean - no build up of dust etc that I can see. Cheers Torchwood 4
Join Team Torchwood 4: Use advanced technology to prepare humanity for the future. Remember: The 21st Century is when everything changes...you have got to be ready...
|
||
|
|
Torchwood 4
Cruncher Great Britain Joined: Apr 30, 2010 Post Count: 8 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Thanks for the reply Ingleside
----------------------------------------I'm using local client settings. I've just updated them as suggested. I'll probably leave it running overnight to see what happens. If no success I'll post again tomorrow. Thanks for your suggestion. Torchwood 4
Join Team Torchwood 4: Use advanced technology to prepare humanity for the future. Remember: The 21st Century is when everything changes...you have got to be ready...
|
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
It's a silly idea and hard to believe if the developers had not set the "CPU usage is too high" function to not retain the jobs in memory... an auto-LAiM so to speak. By observation these "CPU usage to high" periods last 10 seconds i.e. if even a moment too high, the computations are paused for 10 seconds, then resumed if the *non-BOINC* CPU usage has dropped below the set level. Here the other loads [default 25%], seem to have been fairly repeating, but if the incident is sporadic and the tasks not LAIMed when frequent, no wonder there is no progress... stuck so to speak between 2 checkpoints. Similar to the benchmarks retaining the jobs in memory for the 30 seconds, I'd be surprised, but then I can't think of a reason why not.
----------------------------------------Of course there must be a reason of the high non-BOINC load, a game, a video streamer, a BTW, the critical setting on my Linux box remains 35% when running CEP2. Running e.g. Synaptic package updates, the jobs start crashing if not being auto-paused, but then I've got LAIM on to be sure. edit: Things spellcheckers don't catch :D [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Nov 25, 2012 5:48:03 PM] |
||
|
|
Coleslaw
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Mar 29, 2007 Post Count: 1343 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Torchwood 4, it is located in the Advanced settings. Depending on which version of BOINC you are using it could be located under one of two places. In the newer version 7 clients, you would open up Advanced mode => tools => computing preferences. Click the disk and memory usage tab and toward the bottom is a check box that says Leave applications in memory while suspended. Make sure you check that box. This will basically keep the app in memory so that you don't lose your progress every time BOINC suspends.
----------------------------------------Also, Inglesides suggestion to changing the "while processor usage is less then" option should only be set to 0 if you don't want BOINC to pause to allow other apps resources such as anti-virus. BOINC is really good at giving up resources for the rest of the system, but it isn't perfect. I typically set mine between 85% and 95% on systems regularly used. On older single core computers, I lower this even more. On systems that crunch 24/7, I change it to 0 so that it doesn't stop. Instead, I tell BOINC to not run while active on these hosts because the only time it is active is when I'm tweaking the system. |
||
|
|
Torchwood 4
Cruncher Great Britain Joined: Apr 30, 2010 Post Count: 8 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Hi Guys and Guyesses
----------------------------------------Some good, some bad! Good News!! Setting the "While Processor Usage" to 0 has allowed it to run...or rather hobble along. Bad News!! It really seems to be running slowly: The system estimated the task to run for approx 11 hours. It's now been running (updates systems settings as above) for approx 22 hours - minus approx 1 hour when I was using the system. The remaining estimated time is 3 hrs 14 mins with elapsed time of 11 hrs 51 mins. The only system tasks running have been background virus scans. CPU usage by BOINC has been continuous apart from a couple of pauses (approx 3 mins each) when I had to move power sockets. Logs suggest no other activity overriding the BOINC client. I can live with the estimates being a bit out, but my Linux machine is running perfectly - it's just the Win XP laptop which is playing up; it would be nice to have estimates approx correct. Many thanks for all help and suggestions - past and future Torchwood 4
Join Team Torchwood 4: Use advanced technology to prepare humanity for the future. Remember: The 21st Century is when everything changes...you have got to be ready...
|
||
|
|
|