When computers are hidden I don\'t think this makes any difference to the project statistics. The server can still see hidden computers - it\'s only the readers on the forums who can\'t see them.

The way the \'merge computers\' tool works is designed and implemented by the boinc software from Berkeley in California. I think you will find that it works in exactly the same way on every boinc project. The cpdn programmers can modify or select some elements of the boinc programs, but I don\'t think they can modify how the \'merge computers\' tool functions.

The server also keeps track of the contact sequence number of each host. When you change things and this number is not what the server expects it can create a host ID that can not be merged even if all the descriptive fields are identical.

WNj, Which boxes are you trying to merge? 575539 and 539919 have the same descriptions, but both appear to have been operating over the same period (i.e. they look like separate machines)
Similarly, 357513, 370822, 374038, 374326 and 443067 have overlapping model downloads and the last four all managed to communicate with the server within four minutes on 13 August 2006. Are they really the same machine? If not, then you shouldn\'t expect the merge to work - it\'s not a tidying up tool, it\'s just to remove duplicates for the same machine that come from restoring a backup, or upgrades. Iain

There IS no solution, just a a way to fix it until the next time that you upgrade BOINC.

I think it may be to edit client_state.xml, near the start, for each of your computers, and make the computer description the same.

If so, it would have to be while BOINC is stopped, and possibly best to make all of the old descriptions the same as the new description.

Where ever the post was where someone did this, it explains the steps needed to do it. It may be on the BOINC/dev site.

How do you parse that? That it\'s your problem? Or CPDN\'s problem? When boinc makes an operational change that negatively affects participants?

Links to all of your posts are on your Account page on the server. It\'s near the top, to the right of: \"Message boards\", and is a number followed by \"posts\".

It\'s well known that BOINC is now extracting more info from the cpu to use as a descriptor, but it doesn\'t change the problem of automatically identifying an identical computer.

Answered on other post.

Les, I think this model is still running. It did crash on 16 March, but Denis must have restored it from a backup and (unusually for a model with this error message) it\'s happily processing and progressing again. If you scroll right down on Denis\'s page you linked to, you see that the computer ID number changes on 16 March. Denis, on this page http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/hosts_user.php?userid=97447 if you click on \'All hosts\', you\'ll see a lot of computers listed. Some are duplicate records of the same computer(s). When you restore a backup, a new record is created for the computer. You need to go to the page for one of these duplicates and at the bottom you\'ll see a button \'Merge computers\'. You may need to do this more than once to eliminate all the duplicates. Your credits should then reappear. Please post to tell us whether that works.

Due to a hardware breakdown, i had to reformat my computer. Obviously, when i reinstalled Boinc and sign in for my account, i got 2 computer ID\'s on my computer list. I didn\'t care about that for a couple of months but now i\'ve added a 2nd machine working on the project. So i decided to fix things out and do the necessary merging or deletion of the old computer ID. Now the trouble starts: i select the old ID, i select Merge and i get a screen with something like \"...select the computer you want to merge with...\" and a nice EMPTY list of computers. Something is not working in here. I\'ve done the same in other projects i\'m running and no trouble like this showed up.

Hi all, Just to let you know that I have successfuly upgraded my PC to a new 950D dual-core for some more BOINC crunching power. XP did need to be re-installed, but it all seems fine right now and I am happily BOINCing away!! Thanks for all of your advice and help. Regards, Neil.

... You have the option of merging computers in your account info for any given client that you run. I\'ve merged Intel into AMD and vice versa previously and had no issues (though I still have an AMD 2500 floating around that won\'t merge for some reason). It seemed that needing the same computer name (ID) was necessary. Hope this helps you get your credit merged onto your existing rig.

... I wish I could merge them with active machines. Also a while back I was able to copy the boinc dir to a new computer change the xml files with an old Computer ID and it would take the place of that old computer. A few months ago it stopped doing that. Was there a reason for that change to?

Go to Your Account, on left of this page, and click on Computers on... View, click on Computer ID then, at bottom of the page, Click to merge. You\'ll be given self-evident options to merge the machine IDs. (It always keeps the newest one.)

The merging uses the descriptions of the computer to see if they are the same. Yours aren\'t, because one is \'described\' by BOINC 5.8.8., and the other by an earlier version.

The CPU type is one of boinc\'s major descriptors of each computer, so unless you replaced the old CPU with an identical one, boinc would consider it to be a different computer and you wouldn\'t be able to merge them.