Posts by Virtual Boss*

1) Message boards : Number crunching : A sad day! (Message 47869) Posted 14 Apr 2011 by Virtual Boss* Post: Thanks! Why abandon a project over a simple software upgrade..... I thought about it, but ... 1. I am not abandoning, just taking a short break. 2. Why UP - grade my software just to DOWN - grade credits/day. A suitable GPU is not too far away.
2) Message boards : Number crunching : A sad day! (Message 47831) Posted 14 Apr 2011 by Virtual Boss* Post: I have just noticed that recently my RAC has been plummeting. It seems that the CPU opti apps I run (0.18, 0.19 and 0.21) are no longer usable. Unfortunately the new apps will not run on most of my machines, due I now think to the fact they run winXP with no SP's installed. And the only machine that does run the new app takes over 3 times longer than 0.21 did. So until I get a DP GPU I am setting no new tasks on all machines. Good crunching to everyone, and I will be back sometime in the future. Bruce
3) Message boards : Number crunching : CPU crunching - A few questions. (Message 44377) Posted 28 Nov 2010 by Virtual Boss* Post: Thanks for the info Matt. I shall take a bigger hammer to my comps to try to get them to behave. :) The problem it looks like you're having on the old systems is unrelated to SSE2. It looks like a BOINC problem, and you also have a very old version of BOINC installed (5.10.24). Try updating it to the latest version. Hmmm, My P4m (has SSE2) is working OK with the old boinc, but it only got the non-SSE2 app from the server. That was what made me jump to my conclusions. Some more deleting/installing/tweaking/testing about to start. Bruce
4) Message boards : Number crunching : CPU crunching - A few questions. (Message 44333) Posted 27 Nov 2010 by Virtual Boss* Post: First I will explain why I am asking these questions. I posted in previous thread (Every new WU crashing!!) when 1 of my computers started crashing WU's. I have since discovered another machine is crashing. (The OS is linux and when MW crashes it takes BOINC down with it) Both machines are old and do not have SSE2. All my computers recently got version 45. I have seen in the forum some posts about a version 45 (SSE2) app but none of my comps have it. I have tried to find it but no luck so far. Further testing after my last thread has revealed that the version 45 app I have works fine but slow on most of my comps but not on the two without SSE2. Currently I am running the old 0.21 opti app because it is ~3x faster than version 45. Q1 - Where do I find the Version 45 SSE2 app? (and is it faster?) Q2 - Why is there two apps for version 45 if both need SSE2? Q3 - If Verssion 45 wont run on a cpu that doesn't have SSE2, why isn't the (SSE2) variant the default?. Thanks in advance for any answers. Bruce
5) Message boards : Number crunching : Every new WU crashing!! (Message 44143) Posted 24 Nov 2010 by Virtual Boss* Post: Since downloading Version 45 every WU has errored in 1-2 seconds. I will try re-downloading in case the files were corrupted during the initial download, and post the results. Still erroring This is not looking good. I have searched through several hundred WU results looking for other computers running CPU apps. As expected, there were very few. But every computer I found running Version 45 is erroring within a second or two. (Both win & linux) example computers: 165358 235310 236875 237019 With no evidence to the contrary, I can only conclude that version 45 is faulty. The older optimized applications probably won't work anymore, and once we update the GPU applications server side, they definitely won't work anymore. It looks like when that happens - I won't be crunching anymore unless I get a DP GPU. :(
6) Message boards : Number crunching : Every new WU crashing!! (Message 44114) Posted 23 Nov 2010 by Virtual Boss* Post: Thanks to Chris s and Zydor for responding, but I now do not think lack of memory is the problem. FYI: I have not had any problems at all with 5.10.45 on my (non GPU) computers. Also FYI: XP officially installs on 64MB or greater, but - I have previously installed XP on a pentium (100MHz) with only 56MB RAM - but it was REALLY slow. @Travis: No I am not running optmised on this computer, because I could not find an MMX App. (No SSE on this reliable old celeron). I analysed the stdoutdae.txt file and found where the problem first started. 10-Nov-2010 23:10:35 [Milkyway@home] Sending scheduler request: To fetch work. Requesting 21530 seconds of work, reporting 0 completed tasks 10-Nov-2010 23:10:50 [Milkyway@home] Scheduler request succeeded: got 1 new tasks 10-Nov-2010 23:10:52 [Milkyway@home] Started download of milkyway_0.45_windows_intelx86.exe 10-Nov-2010 23:10:52 [Milkyway@home] Started download of msvcr100.dll 10-Nov-2010 23:12:05 [Milkyway@home] Finished download of milkyway_0.45_windows_intelx86.exe 10-Nov-2010 23:12:05 [Milkyway@home] Started download of msvcp100.dll 10-Nov-2010 23:15:44 [Milkyway@home] Finished download of msvcp100.dll 10-Nov-2010 23:15:44 [Milkyway@home] Started download of p-82-2s-edge.txt 10-Nov-2010 23:15:45 [Milkyway@home] Finished download of p-82-2s-edge.txt 10-Nov-2010 23:15:45 [Milkyway@home] Started download of stars-td82-2stream_10.txt 10-Nov-2010 23:16:55 [Milkyway@home] Finished download of msvcr100.dll 10-Nov-2010 23:16:55 [Milkyway@home] Started download of de_separation_82_2s_10_2_853400_1289395733_search_parameters 10-Nov-2010 23:16:56 [Milkyway@home] Finished download of de_separation_82_2s_10_2_853400_1289395733_search_parameters 10-Nov-2010 23:46:33 [Milkyway@home] Finished download of stars-td82-2stream_10.txt 10-Nov-2010 23:46:34 [Milkyway@home] Starting de_separation_82_2s_10_2_853400_1289395733_0 10-Nov-2010 23:46:34 [Milkyway@home] Starting task de_separation_82_2s_10_2_853400_1289395733_0 using milkyway version 45 10-Nov-2010 23:46:35 [Milkyway@home] Computation for task de_separation_82_2s_10_2_853400_1289395733_0 finished Since downloading Version 45 every WU has errored in 1-2 seconds. I will try re-downloading in case the files were corrupted during the initial download, and post the results. BTW: All my other computers are running older CPU optimsed apps and none of them have had problems (and they are a LOT faster than stock apps).
7) Message boards : Number crunching : Every new WU crashing!! (Message 44042) Posted 22 Nov 2010 by Virtual Boss* Post: After running OK for a long time, one of my computers is having computation errors on every new WU. stderr out <core_client_version>5.10.45</core_client_version> <![CDATA[ <message> There are no child processes to wait for. (0x80) - exit code 128 (0x80) </message> ]]> After a new WU is downloaded the status shows "waiting for memory" for a short time and then "computation error" with zero CPU time. Do the new WU's need more memory than this machine has (256MB) and if so, why is the server sending work to it? BTW: Still running fine on other projects.
8) Message boards : Number crunching : Deadline problem (Message 35019) Posted 2 Jan 2010 by Virtual Boss* Post: A Very interesting discussion ... But I have not seen where anyone asked the big question. Why is the server dishing out these large tasks to slow machines????? I have read that the server software should not send tasks to hosts that are unable to complete them in time. Obviously the server settings are incorrect!!!! The poor 'set n forget' hosts will be continuously returning WU's too late. I do not see how this helps the project - continuously sending out tasks to slow hosts that 'time out' and have to be resent. What a waste of time and energy!!!
9) Message boards : Number crunching : Increase the report deadline (Message 34437) Posted 10 Dec 2009 by Virtual Boss* Post: . . . Sometimes you just don't have the hardware to run a particular project. I know my old P4 is now limited in what it can feasibly run. Yep! I got one of those machines. :( Recently attached a P3 533MHz MMX only (No SSE so cant run opti) 1st WU estimated 80Hrs - at 64% after 48Hrs EDIT: Why did the server even bother sending the WU to this machine? Looks like it will take ~76Hrs to complete at 100% cpu 24/7. Oh Well - looks like it will have to go back to seti full time.
10) Message boards : Number crunching : Milestones II (Message 30169) Posted 3 Sep 2009 by Virtual Boss* Post: Thapot ipos juspot fapontapostipoc ipof Ipo mipoght sapoy sopo Youpo Mipoght, youpo dipod apond Ipo apogreepo! Apoll mipolestoponepos arepo juspot fapontapostipoc ipon mypo opopiponiopon. (My apologies if I made an error, different variant to what I normally use)