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Posts by old_user202664

Posts by old_user202664

1) Questions and Answers : Windows : Comments for \'Generic solutions to models\' sticky (Message 26082)
Posted 16 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Just have to get back here to give a big thumbs-up to the project staff. On this reasonably fast box, the model causes no problems and has been running fine since October (I\'m at 17% now, running other BOINC projects too). And I\'m not even especially careful... my model has so far survived everything from gaming nights (using about every hardware-hungry graphics option I could find and a 1600*1200 resolution) to a 20-minute power failure without ever showing signs of a problem. Not that I\'d recommend this kind of behavior, I\'m only using this as an example of the fact that the app copes with difficult circumstances really well in my case. Well, of course my computer is running rock solid for days if it has to and I make regular backups, but the smaller things usually work out okay ;-)
Only \"problem\" I\'ve ever had was a few \"zero code\" errors which were easily traced back to time sync and caused no further problems.
After having to use one of my backups for the first time (for the reason that my Windows died on me, not problems with CPDN) I can confirm that this is really easy and causes no problems aswell... I didn\'t even use the same BOINC version as before and the model is crunching away happily.

So, keep up the great work, guys :-) then I\'m ready to do some more runs.
2) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 26076)
Posted 15 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
I\'ve understood that it is important with which error message the model crashes, so before deciding whether to use a backup I guess it\'s always a good idea to ask the experienced users or someone from the staff how the chances are. They probably have a good general idea which models are still worth the crunching time and which aren\'t... Personally, I don\'t think doing the work of weeks a second time sounds like a good idea, though I of course agree that it\'s frustrating to lose a model. Of course a few days are a different matter... but only if the model has chances to get through alright on the second attempt. But as I said, I\'d always ask for a second (and, if possible, 3rd and 4th...) opinion on that.
Of course those concerns didn\'t apply in my case since BOINC or CPDN where in no way the reason that I had to use the backup (not sure what was, though, I suspect remains of an old antivirus program, perhaps combined with generally too many software changes and/or a tricky graphics card driver... anyway, Windows completely died on me...) , so the chances that the model would be OK after using the backup were no smaller than with any other model. Luckily the same procedures for creating and restoring the backups applied :-) and luckily there is such a thing as Linux Live CDs, or I would have had to use a three-day-old backup, don\'t even wanna think about all the other data on that HD... I recommend those to everyone here ;-) at least one for emergencies... Really nice for troubleshooting and making backups.
3) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 26059)
Posted 15 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Well, turned out it wasn\'t half as bad as I had expected, just a little copy and paste... didn\'t know it was that easy, my compliments to the developers who made the app so stable and easy to use, and lucky my backup was really brand-new so I didn\'t have problems with WUs from my other projects...
4) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 26058)
Posted 15 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
@astro: Thanks a lot for the information :-) I\'ll read the post behind the link and then do my best.
Richard: My bad, it really was a bit late I guess ;-) in that case I\'ll definitely try that hack as soon as everything else is up and running. Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed, that can never hurt.
5) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 26041)
Posted 15 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Well, my box is just too unreliable in keeping time for deactivating that... though I definitely long for a nice NTP service... Somehow I have the feeling I\'m not as content with Windows as I used to be ;-)
Well, anyway, I ask you to keep your fingers crossed as I didn\'t crash a model but instead my whole Windows installation... no idea how and why, guess it just went on strike after 5 months of too much experimentation ;-) Only thing that helped was doing a complete reinstall, and that\'s the problem. I have a brand-new backup of my BOINC folder but I never actually had to use one of those so I\'m a bit uneasy about it.
If someone has advice about it it would be very much appreciated, I guess I\'m too tired for sth like this now anyway (it\'s almost 3 am here) so I\'ll wait until tomorrow and do it then...
6) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 25985)
Posted 13 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Well an \"unrecoverable error\" sounds definitely much worse. I fear in your case the model wasn\'t just having an allergic reaction to time sync :-( might have been but now it looks to me like you lost it...
7) Message boards : Number crunching : Where did I go wrong (Message 25984)
Posted 13 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Or maybe it wasn\'t something you, or your box, did, but an error with the model itself. I\'ve heard that happens, too... Have any backups?
8) Message boards : Number crunching : Very large task cannot be handled within given time (Message 25983)
Posted 13 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Not sure how long you let your machine run each day. The electricity cost and environmental impact are certainly important considerations. Take a look at ways you can reduce your electricity consumption. I worked it out and find that by drying most of my laundry the old fashioned way (on a $5 clothes line) rather than using my electric clothes dryer, I save enough to allow 5 computers to run 24/7. Also, my clothes don\'t wear out as fast since they don\'t tumble around in a dryer.

I also changed my light bulbs to the screw in fluorescent type. And I turn lights off when not needed even if they are fluorescent. If I\'m not really watching it then I turn the TV off. Most people really can do without many of the expensive conveniences of electricity. All it takes is a little resolve and a change in habits. BTW, clothes dryers are watt guzzling energy pigs compared to TV and lights so that\'s where one wants to start.



I\'ve been doing that for years... does that mean I can finally feel good about letting my PC do a few night shifts? :-)


Lightweight machines can do well at the ABC@home project, abcathome.com. Their application uses 99% integer calculations rather than slower floating point calculations which really bog down older machines. Plus they are on fixed credits, like CPDN, so Linux machines don\'t get screwed. (Sorry, Clownius, BOINC 5.8.1 does give better benchmarks on Linux than previous versions but they still have a good distance to go, just my observations, YMMV). ABC@home is switching servers around this weekend, January 13, so you may not be able to attach for another day or 2.


The project may be nice for older machines, or Linux boxes, but somehow it doesn\'t inspire me... I\'m starting to get a hang of maths after years of ignorance *g* but all those formulas don\'t look like something I, personally, would spend that much CPU time on when there are so many other projects out there. I hope you don\'t feel offended, this is just my personal opinion...
9) Message boards : Number crunching : only at screensaver (Message 25978)
Posted 12 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Well, I know about heat problems, but I know how to keep those in check. Before I got my desktop PC (last September) I used that laptop for doing literally everything, which in my case included gaming (yeah, the graphics were not that great, but it was better than nothing), converting .cda files to mp3s in large quantities, editing 40+ text documents at once or moderating an Internet radio show 4 times a week (and the streaming app WAS demanding, my goodness) for two hours in early afternoon during a hot July. Plus doing BOINC projects for about a year now, of course (the list includes SETI, Einstein, HashClash and Malaria Control on that box). I never had a hint at temperature problems, neither in the monitoring nor in terms of stability problems. My Windows sessions lasted for about 2.5 weeks on average ;-) after which I had to restart because everything got disgustingly laggy. So I don\'t think I\'ll put too much strain on my laptop if I\'m a bit careful and don\'t let it crunch full power on really hot days. What I\'m not sure about is if the model will be running stable and if it will interfere too much with normal operation. I think I\'ll wait for that new app to come out of beta in any case, because laptop HDs are both slow and maybe not so suitable for lots of rewriting, and also cause additional heat. Thanks for informing me about that new app. If it has been in use for a while I will be able to guess whether it takes up too much memory or not.
10) Message boards : Number crunching : Very large task cannot be handled within given time (Message 25967)
Posted 12 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
well got my frends pc working on this (been working for like 5 months still hasent noticed lol)


ROFLMAO ^^ I should try that on my brother. His nice new Intel laptop would do sooooo well on MalariaControl and he just doesn\'t have the motivation to sign up... Too bad this is against my \"Admin Ethics\" , else I might really give it a try... Gotta make do with my own Celeron (unfortuately that has a benchmark handicap running Linux and they still give benchmark credit over there) and a fast AMD that seems to have the wrong architecture... or maybe try to persuade my brother after all ;-)
11) Message boards : Number crunching : only at screensaver (Message 25966)
Posted 12 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Of course you guessed right Les ^^ crappy \"50% emulation\" shared memory onboard card- sharing 133MHz memory. So yes, it DOES suck. But unfortunately you can\'t very well upgrade a laptop, certainly not without risking your warranty and at that time I still had a few months left.
So of course that may be an explanation. The strange thing is, though, that for the exact reason that I of course knew my graphics card was a) slow and b) relying on the CPU to emulate stuff so slowing it down and c) taking away memory- I NEVER EVER even had a look at the graphics, let alone run the screensaver. So I have no idea what on earth was so demanding on the card.
Next question related to that: I have found a feature in the BIOS where you can force the graphics card to use a certain amount of memory. If I could make it use no more than the minimum 16 MB (which should be enough running Linux, at least if one is careful with the XServer settings, shouldn\'t it? not a gaming machine, just working and Internet) would that mean a good chance to get CPDN running on that machine? That would be extremely cool, because CPDN has a great advantage for use on laptops imo: You don\'t run out of work if you don\'t have Internet for a while, nor do you miss deadlines.
Of course, this is not a very fast machine, so would it make sense for the project to attach it? A model would take months or even a year. As my benchmarks are completely unreliable under Linux, don\'t bother to look ^^ but I seem to remember 1500 float and 2300 integer, roughly, under Win XP. Fast enough?
12) Message boards : Number crunching : only at screensaver (Message 25963)
Posted 11 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Well, I don\'t want to discourage anyone here but BBC CPDN really sucked for me with 496 MB of memory (which is only very slightly below the recommendations) whereas I never encountered problems on my faster host... Adding more memory might really be the way to go here.
13) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 25962)
Posted 11 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Just to get back: Mine didn\'t. Has been running like a dream ever since. dp, do you synchronize your clock over the Internet? It\'s standard in Win XP I think, if you\'re using that (like most people). From my experiences that is really likely to trigger this error message- small cause, big effect. Just a guess of course, but I have experience that makes it seem quite probable to me.

EDIT: Yep I just checked ;-) XP on both boxes... you can disable the \"sync clock\" feature by using XP AntiSpy, if you think it is the cause... I didn\'t, cause my system time tends to go completely wrong if I do, and besides, the error messages never did any serious harm to my model.

14) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 25842)
Posted 4 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Okay thanks a lot. This means I\'ll go into the normal ignore mode for flaming Windoze apps ;-) and hope for the best. Maybe changing system time can trigger multiple messages of that kind instead of just one...
15) Message boards : Number crunching : Exited with zero status- reason to worry? (Message 25840)
Posted 4 Jan 2007 by old_user202664
Post:
Hi guys,

I\'m getting repeated \"exited with zero status\" messages for my model. The first one, which happened this afternoon (CET) is probably due to the fact that my computer synchronized its clock and went back three minutes- I remember the model reacting the same to daylight savings, without any further problems. But I\'ve been getting three more of those messages since then. Do I have to worry? I do have backups, but as the newest one is a couple of days old I don\'t want to reset if I don\'t have to. The model seems to have trickled normally despite the error messages.
16) Message boards : Number crunching : 20,000,000,000 Credits across ALL BOINC Projects (Message 25630)
Posted 16 Dec 2006 by old_user202664
Post:
Inflated creds in CPDN? Can\'t confirm that. Actually, I tend to get a little less than over at Einstein. I don\'t care, because my first priority is the science and also because CPDN credit is always very reliable as you don\'t usually run out of work. And it\'s only a little less. But it certainly doesn\'t seem \"inflated\" to me. Okay, I have an AMD, which tends to do traditionally well at Einstein, but I\'ve heard exactly the same thing about CPDN (as opposed to, say, SETI, where my box sucks and no wonder), so that probably isn\'t the reason.
17) Message boards : Number crunching : 20,000,000,000 Credits across ALL BOINC Projects (Message 25626)
Posted 16 Dec 2006 by old_user202664
Post:
Well, I\'m certainly glad that all crunchers together have reached this milestone and I think it can be a motivation for people.
On the other hand, you do see some ridiculous benchmarks out there (e.g. I once came across a 3200+ which claimed to be 4 times as fast as my 3500+) so it\'s hard to overlook that some people probably get more credit than they deserve, strictly speaking. But cwhyl, to use your very own words- who cares? It doesn\'t make the time people spend on those projects any less valuable for science, and besides, you should keep in mind that it is probably a minority showing this kind of behavior.
Last but not least you should see these numbers as a symbol- and let people enjoy the positive message.
18) Message boards : Number crunching : Naughty Intel patch - has anybody tried it? (Message 25426)
Posted 2 Dec 2006 by old_user202664
Post:
No, never thought of that. To be honest, I didn\'t feel very comfortable with a RAID system when I set up Windows so I didn\'t feel like playing around with partitions like that... but 15-20 minutes are okay ;-)
19) Message boards : Number crunching : Naughty Intel patch - has anybody tried it? (Message 25411)
Posted 2 Dec 2006 by old_user202664
Post:
Does the normal Windows defrag do any good or should I try and get myself sth more efficient?
20) Message boards : Number crunching : Naughty Intel patch - has anybody tried it? (Message 25406)
Posted 1 Dec 2006 by old_user202664
Post:
Don\'t worry, I didn\'t forget to update my preferences. I\'m new to CPDN but not to BOINC. Besides, the messages tab always states sth like this:
2006-11-29 21:37:34 [climateprediction.net] Pausing task hadcm3ohc_0b9p_05562964_0 (left in memory)
So that shouldn\'t be the problem. But I seriously consider changing my intervall to a longer time...


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