The Milkyway project's CPU usage sometimes drops to zero and stays that way. Especially if there is little (free) memory in the machine. Or if a background application with a high CPU/RAM requirement starts. After that, Milkyway won't restart hours later, and BOINC client task switching doesn't work either. (I spent many, many hours looking at Resource Monitor and the Boinc client)
I reproduced the error six times out of seven attempts on three computers using the following steps:
- the system/boinc client starts (Milkyway is running).
- I filled the RAM with data (free memory is about zero)
- I started Win-Defender from a .bat file with command line delay
- Windows-Defender completely loads the cpu/ram
- Milkyway detects high CPU usage and shuts down
- Windows-Defender ends (a lot of memory is freed up!)
- Milkyway did not start again, or stopped after 1...2 minutes, but the status changed to "Running".
- Milkyway project (not a task) manual suspension > another project (Einstein for me) starts immediately and works normally.
- The operation of the Milkyway project is restored only after the Boinc client is restarted (until the next shutdown)
***
Notes:
- then the Milkyway project does not freeze, it simply does not work
- this stop also stops the Boinc client in the sense that task switching does not work. Because of this, other projects do not start either.
- the result of the "load test" was the same for other cpu-loading programs (browser, etc.), so the problem is not caused by the operation of the antivirus
- With little free memory, Milkyway sometimes crashes even without heavy CPU load
- The other project that works for me is Einstein. This does not cause an error. It did not stop even with multiple and persistent cpu/ram overloads. It can be seen from the cpu usage that Einstein is also struggling, but he is pulling himself together. Its resource management is programmed to be very robust.
- when I realized this (three days ago) I stopped the Milkyway project. Only Einstein starts and has collected more credits in three days than previously in a week and a half.
***
Milkyway state is "Running", but no cpu usage:


.
Einstein project memorymanagement:
.
****
Boinc: 7.24.1 (x64); Win 10 Pro (x64)

The Milkyway project's CPU usage sometimes drops to zero and stays that way. Especially if there is little (free) memory in the machine. Or if a background application with a high CPU/RAM requirement starts. After that, Milkyway won't restart hours later, and BOINC client task switching doesn't work either. (I spent many, many hours looking at Resource Monitor and the Boinc client)
I reproduced the error six times out of seven attempts on three computers using the following steps:
- the system/boinc client starts (Milkyway is running).
- I filled the RAM with data (free memory is about zero)
- I started Win-Defender from a .bat file with command line delay
- Windows-Defender completely loads the cpu/ram
- Milkyway detects high CPU usage and shuts down
- Windows-Defender ends (a lot of memory is freed up!)
- Milkyway did not start again, or stopped after 1...2 minutes, but the status changed to "Running".
- Milkyway project (not a task) manual suspension > another project (Einstein for me) starts immediately and works normally.
- The operation of the Milkyway project is restored only after the Boinc client is restarted (until the next shutdown)
***
Notes:
- then the Milkyway project does not freeze, it simply does not work
- this stop also stops the Boinc client in the sense that task switching does not work. Because of this, other projects do not start either.
- the result of the "load test" was the same for other cpu-loading programs (browser, etc.), so the problem is not caused by the operation of the antivirus
- With little free memory, Milkyway sometimes crashes even without heavy CPU load
- The other project that works for me is Einstein. This does not cause an error. It did not stop even with multiple and persistent cpu/ram overloads. It can be seen from the cpu usage that Einstein is also struggling, but he is pulling himself together. Its resource management is programmed to be very robust.
- when I realized this (three days ago) I stopped the Milkyway project. Only Einstein starts and has collected more credits in three days than previously in a week and a half.
***
Milkyway state is "Running", but no cpu usage:


.
Einstein project memorymanagement:
.
****
Boinc: 7.24.1 (x64); Win 10 Pro (x64)

How many cpu's does your pc have in it? It shows MW using 4 cpu's are you using an app_config.xml file to limit it? Also what do you have for the setting in the Boinc Manager under Options, computing preferences for 'when computer is in use' and 'when computer is not in use'. i use an app_config.xml file to limit each task to 2 cpu's and they just run non stop with no problems. I also have Boinc set to NOT suspend when pc is in use and to NOT stop when 'Boinc cpu usage is above'. i also unchecked the box to 'suspend when mouse or keyboard input in last ___ minutes'. In short on my pc's Boinc and MilkyWay runs 24/7/365, yes I also run other Projects at the same time, I limit the total number of tasks MW can run at one time in the same app_config.xml file.

Hy
My PC's:
home desktop pc
home nas
work pc
old nas (inactive)
All aktíve pc cpu 4 core. On all pc, all settings equal.
Thanks for the info... sorry, but the operation of your PC is not very relevant here, because your weakest machine has as much ram as my three machines combined. :)
I can't find the app_config.xml file in boinc, where find? In BOINC client >> "Maximum ___ % CPU core usage..." setting good?
(i found global_prefs.xml file, it possible contains relevant settings?)
"Mouse or keyboard input has been suspended for the past ___ minutes". > I checked and I'm typing big number. (1440, I also tried to exclude this from the error causes) This a problem interesting because with these settings, Milkyway worked well for a long time on my old, very weak on nas (boinc 7.14.2 / win xp / 512mb ram). Now it stops even on much more powerful machines running Win 10. (I can't test with win xp) I think there is a problem with Milkyway, because the Einstein project runs flawlessly on the same machines and with the same settings.
--------
I now have "Mouse or keyboard input suspended for ___ minutes" unchecked. CPU core usage new setting 50%. However milkyway client not application the new settings, cpu core usage: 100%
Continuation of mw test... thanks for your reply.

How many cpu's does your pc have in it? It shows MW using 4 cpu's are you using an app_config.xml file to limit it? Also what do you have for the setting in the Boinc Manager under Options, computing preferences for 'when computer is in use' and 'when computer is not in use'. i use an app_config.xml file to limit each task to 2 cpu's and they just run non stop with no problems. I also have Boinc set to NOT suspend when pc is in use and to NOT stop when 'Boinc cpu usage is above'. i also unchecked the box to 'suspend when mouse or keyboard input in last ___ minutes'. In short on my pc's Boinc and MilkyWay runs 24/7/365, yes I also run other Projects at the same time, I limit the total number of tasks MW can run at one time in the same app_config.xml file.

All aktíve pc cpu 4 core. On all pc, all settings equal.
Thanks for the info... sorry, but the operation of your PC is not very relevant here, because your weakest machine has as much ram as my three machines combined. :)

Milkyway runs just fine on my ancient Core2Duo with 6GB RAM while I'm using it, hope this is relevant enough. ;-)

Regarding your settings:
In the "Computing" tab:

Use at most 100% of the CPUs
Use at most 100% of CPU time

Disable everything in "When to suspend"


In the "Disk and memory" tab, in the Memory section, set "When computer is in use" and When computer is not in use" to equal values, I have 70% there and 80% for the page file.

And than of course it's never impossible to get an application to crash if you fill up the RAM to nearly 100%. Eventually you need to increase the size of your swap file, what have you set there? I have 6GB, so 12GB total.

---

There's good information above about giving your MW NBody tasks a better chance of not seeming to stall. In particular, freeing up at least one CPU thread for basic systems tasks is key, especially on older, slower(?) machines... (Your Einstein tasks will not be hindered in the same way because they aren't using OpenMP to provide multi-threading!)

Note that if you alter the number of "CPUs" available via the BOINC Manager but don't restart BOINC, all NBody tasks in your buffer will still be expecting to use the previous number of available cores... That part of the task configuration is managed in such a way that it cannot be reset [per existing task] unless the client is restarted :-)

Cheers - Al.

Responding to two peripheral points:
RM76 wrote:

Einstein starts and has collected more credits in three days than previously in a week and a half.

Due to circumstances which are unrelated to your or anybody else's computer, almost all results which are returned to MilkyWay@Home are parked in "validation inconclusive" state. It will take a longer while until we will receive tasks from the server which will liberate those "inconclusive" results and let the server assign credit to them. This is recently discussed in other threads.

RM76 wrote:

I can't find the app_config.xml file in boinc, where find?

The file does not exist by default. Users can create it if they know what to put in there. Particularly, this is not a global BOINC file, rather, it's per project (one or none per project, to be saved into the C:\ProgramData\BOINC\projects\* subdirectories). Generic documentation: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration#Project-level_configuration. Some of the contents, notably <name>, <app_name>, <plan_class>, which are needed to define the application and application-version which shall be controlled by an app_config.xml section, can be deducted from corresponding tags in client_state.xml in the main BOINC data directory. --- Edit: Most users get by without app_config.xml. Still, here is an example: https://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_thread.php?id=5075&postid=76822

[I can't comment on your originally described issue because I never experienced this myself and don't have a good idea what could cause it.]

Hy
My PC's:
home desktop pc
home nas
work pc
old nas (inactive)
All aktíve pc cpu 4 core. On all pc, all settings equal.
Thanks for the info... sorry, but the operation of your PC is not very relevant here, because your weakest machine has as much ram as my three machines combined. :)
I can't find the app_config.xml file in boinc, where find? In BOINC client >> "Maximum ___ % CPU core usage..." setting good?
(i found global_prefs.xml file, it possible contains relevant settings?)
"Mouse or keyboard input has been suspended for the past ___ minutes". > I checked and I'm typing big number. (1440, I also tried to exclude this from the error causes) This a problem interesting because with these settings, Milkyway worked well for a long time on my old, very weak on nas (boinc 7.14.2 / win xp / 512mb ram). Now it stops even on much more powerful machines running Win 10. (I can't test with win xp) I think there is a problem with Milkyway, because the Einstein project runs flawlessly on the same machines and with the same settings.
--------
I now have "Mouse or keyboard input suspended for ___ minutes" unchecked. CPU core usage new setting 50%. However milkyway client not application the new settings, cpu core usage: 100%
Continuation of mw test... thanks for your reply.

How many cpu's does your pc have in it? It shows MW using 4 cpu's are you using an app_config.xml file to limit it? Also what do you have for the setting in the Boinc Manager under Options, computing preferences for 'when computer is in use' and 'when computer is not in use'. i use an app_config.xml file to limit each task to 2 cpu's and they just run non stop with no problems. I also have Boinc set to NOT suspend when pc is in use and to NOT stop when 'Boinc cpu usage is above'. i also unchecked the box to 'suspend when mouse or keyboard input in last ___ minutes'. In short on my pc's Boinc and MilkyWay runs 24/7/365, yes I also run other Projects at the same time, I limit the total number of tasks MW can run at one time in the same app_config.xml file.

This is the app_config.xml file I use:
<app_config>


<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway_nbody</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>2</avg_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 2</cmdline>
</app_version>

<project_max_concurrent>2</project_max_concurrent>

</app_config>

What the file says is the nthreads 2 line means to only use 2 cpu cores per task and the max_concurrent line means only run 2 MilkyWay tasks at a time on the pc. I change the max_concurrent number based on the pc that I'm running MilkyWay on, ie my 32 core pc could say 15 to run 15 tasks using 2 cpu cores per task.

You need to create it in Notepad, you can copy and paste it, for Windows and save it as a text type file in the folder c:\program data\boinc\projects\milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway

Be sure the file is called app_config.xml and NOT app_config.xml.txt because then it won't work. After you have copied it to the right folder then go into the boinc manager and click the Options tab then read config files and it should start working. It won't control any existing tasks just tasks you get from that moment on.

Since then, Asteroids@home has also been installed and is working flawlessly. The CPU core utilization is also 100%, etc. So two projects are good on the same machine.
Adding/editing the xml file did not change the CPU usage. (core usage: 4/4) I also reset the project to download new tasks.
The Milkyway runs until tomorrow. If it stops until then, the Milkyway project will temporary be forgotten.
Thanks reply!

This is the app_config.xml file I use:
<app_config>


<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway_nbody</app_name>
<plan_class>mt</plan_class>
<avg_ncpus>2</avg_ncpus>
<cmdline>--nthreads 2</cmdline>
</app_version>

<project_max_concurrent>2</project_max_concurrent>

</app_config>

What the file says is the nthreads 2 line means to only use 2 cpu cores per task and the max_concurrent line means only run 2 MilkyWay tasks at a time on the pc. I change the max_concurrent number based on the pc that I'm running MilkyWay on, ie my 32 core pc could say 15 to run 15 tasks using 2 cpu cores per task.

You need to create it in Notepad, you can copy and paste it, for Windows and save it as a text type file in the folder c:\program data\boinc\projects\milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway

Be sure the file is called app_config.xml and NOT app_config.xml.txt because then it won't work. After you have copied it to the right folder then go into the boinc manager and click the Options tab then read config files and it should start working. It won't control any existing tasks just tasks you get from that moment on.

Update:
Milky Way's cpu usage became 0% after about 40 minutes and remained so. Status: running. (I also turned off the screen saver)
This doesn't make sense, I'm getting out. I'll check back sometime to see if there's a fix.
Thanks for help!