Einstein seems to have taken over my computer. Now what?
28 Oct 2005 5:14:23 UTC
Topic 190074
(moderation:
I've tried to use my computer tonight and for the past two and a half hours I've not been able to do anything more complex than get Freecell to open. (I'm typing this on my son's computer.)
Even the screensaver isn't loading, and when I've tried restarting the computer, I'm told that Boinc is in the middle of something and I can't stop it.
I've never had this happen before. Admittedly, I'm a new participant, having only been part of this for about a week.
I'm stumped. Any wisdom out there?
Einstein seems to have taken over my computer. Now what?
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You don't appear to have any computer attached to the Einstein project. Are you currently attached to any other projects, eg Seti, LHC, CPDN, etc?
Can you give details about your computer, the operating system, version of BOINC?
On the assumption of a windows box, can you use Task Manager to see what program(s) are chewing up your cpu cycles? Can you kill BOINC from Task Manager?
We need lots more details to be of much assistance, sorry.
Cheers,
Gary.
RE: You don't appear to
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Hi Gary,
I am on the computer I posted about, and according to the Manager, it's nearly 60% through it's latest project, and it's chugging along. In order to be able to use the internet I had to log onto the computer as a different user and restart the computer as that user.
My computer is a Dell Dimension 4700, using Windows XP. I downloaded it on October 20, 2005, and it seems to be 4.79. I'm not very computer savvy, so if this isn't the version number, I apologize. When I checked the Task Manager (which I've just done) Einstein's CPU usage is 98, and the Task Manager's is 2. No other users are shown at this time.
I appreciate your help; thanks for answering.
RE: I am on the computer I
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OK, the user EllCee under which you posted has no computers registered with the EAH project. Can you please tell us the user name under which you are running the BOINC where the result is now 60% complete? You must be using a different user name for that.
OK, that all sounds fine. 4.79 is the version of the EAH science application which is doing all the crunching (98%) and that is perfectly normal. In your Task Manager list there should also be an entry for BOINC which should have 00 for its cpu usage. I can see what is going on regarding version of BOINC and how the science application is going with crunching results if you can just let me know the user name associated with that crunching.
The thing that is surprising is that your computer performance for other tasks is so heavily affected. Do you have a blue icon with a yellow "B" in your system tray? Can you right click it and select "exit" and then have your computer behave normally? If you can do that and leave it for say a full minute and then attempt to start BOINC Manager again, is it any better? Is this the first time since October 20 that you have had these problems?
No problem!!
Cheers,
Gary.
Hi Gary, Well, you can
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Hi Gary,
Well, you can imagine that it's kind of embarrassing that I don't know my name. The account name shown on the Projects tab of the BOINC Manager- (localhost) is indeed EllCee. The total credit is 558.38 and the Resource share is 100 (100%). Is there any other information I could furnish to clear this up?
This is the first time I've had the problem of the computer being (for lack of a better word) mired down. Since restarting it, it's doing just fine, but if I have this sort of problem again, I'll try your advice.
Signed,
EllCee (or something like it).
The profiles show two users
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The profiles show two users named EllCee, the one for this thread and another here. The second one shows one host with a 3.00GHz P4 running WinXP/SP2.
EllCee, if you look at the messages in Boinc Manager, you'll see a line that shows the computer id. If its 428162 then you should log in to the Einstein@Home web site using the other "EllCee" ID. Its easy to get two accounts, one when you sign up on the website, and another if you go thru the "new account" option when attaching. That second ID would use a different email address.
Walt
EllCee, The mystery is now
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EllCee,
The mystery is now resolved!! You have a split personality :).
I've just searched the user profiles and there are indeed two of you. Can you see your name in blue to the left of your posts? Your ID is 115866 and notice how you have no credit and no recent average credit (RAC)? That particular EllCee has been slacking and hasn't even got a computer registered with the project :).
Aahhhh but there is another EllCee lurking in the shadows with a user ID of 115873, just a few after the ID under which you are posting :). Ideally, I guess you would want to merge the two identities into one since 115866 has a profile (the black head) and a post count of three (and growing) whilst 115873 has the registered computer and the associated results and credit. I haven't got a clue if that is even possible. Maybe one of the Devs might see our exchange and chime in with a comment.
In the meantime now that I've found you (or perhaps your alter ego?) I've had a look at your results list and I can see that you are using version 5.2.2 of BOINC which is good but I can see that you have had a number of "Client errors" where the crunching has terminated abnormally. Can you advise if you have been trying to display the EAH screensaver? There can be problems with version 4.79 of the science application (the one you are running) and ATI graphics cards which very well may be what you have in your Dell. The possible fix for this is to install a newer beta version of the EAH science application, OR, simply disabling the EAH screen saver and not trying to display the graphics for the moment. You could use windows to set your screensaver to [none] and don't try to click on any graphics display function in BOINC Manager.
So, could you please advise if your troubles seem to be associated with displaying the screensaver graphics and if so which alternative workaround would you like to try?
Edit: Walt has obviously crept in when I wasn't looking :).
Cheers,
Gary.
Hi Guys, Yes, you
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Hi Guys,
Yes, you uncovered my previously unknown to me multiple personality disorder. I'm now signed in as the industrious EllCee, rather than that goldbricking EllCee. I'd really like to have one account, rather than two, and this one is the one I'd prefer to keep.
I do like the screensaver; it's the only thing I own that impresses my teenaged son. I'm not sure if that's the reason for the error messages, but it does seem worth doing without it to see if the errors stop. If they do, I'll want to try the beta version, I guess.
Of course I don't have any confirmation of this hardworking EllCee's getting an account, and have no account key for this one either, but that seems much easier to cope with than having no use of my computer.
Thanks for your patient help.
EllCee
RE: ... I'd really like to
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OK, then this is what I'd suggest for the moment. Convince your son that he really wants an account for himself. Then login to the account you don't want on the website. On the account page you will find 3 clickable items called "Change other account info", "Change password" and "Change email address". Change all that information to something appropriate for your son. If your son doesn't want an account maybe you have a friend who you could rope into the cause with a ready made account. Or maybe you could just keep your split personality anyway :). Be sure to delete or modify the profile information from the non-wanted account.
Then on your wanted account, just add your profile information and change password, email address, etc, to your liking. Remember to "Update" any changes that you make before exiting a screen and you will be done.
I have noticed that your computer has returned 4 successful results in a row and then the very next one has been a "Client error" which looks like the graphics bug. Do you know what happened with that last one? Just make sure your screensaver is set to [none] and you don't click on any "show graphics" button. If you can get several days without client errors then it will be time to try the beta application and re-enable the graphics.
It should have been the same account key for both accounts. Once you change passwords and email addresses, then they will be completely separate accounts.
You're most welcome :). Good luck with the client errors!!
Cheers,
Gary.
Sorry people, that was false
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Sorry people, that was false alarm i think... I mean, distributed compilation was setup to run on "Idle" priority, that's why it never worked... when i changed it's priority to "Lowest" - it started to push Boinc out of the way. I noticed though that if couple of Boinc tasks run at the same time (dual proc.), Einstein is always winning. At least over Seti and ClimatePredictions.
I may be wrong; but, I
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I may be wrong; but, I believe Baga intended to post his message at Message boards : Problems and Bug Reports : Still monopolizes CPU despite "Low" process priority. That is, he began that thread and this latest post seems to be referencing the discussion there.