My Apologies To The Einstein Crunchers

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 12020
Credit: 1834308666
RAC: 71670

RE: I too should apologize

Quote:

I too should apologize for what is about to happen. Another bored Setizen at heart, I attached to help fill the down time. I will remain with Einstein as backup, but setting resource share to 0.

The real apology is because, I have ton of CPU units, that will pass their deadline on 12/13. I will continue crunching until they disappear, but it is far more than I can crunch. My cache was set to 1 day,but I have far more than that on hand.

Anyway, sorry about the mess coming in on 12/13!!

If you abort a bunch of them now they will get resent now, instead of waiting until the last minute. Your choice the same thing happens, units just get resent to other pc's for crunching.

BilBg
BilBg
Joined: 27 May 07
Posts: 56
Credit: 23998
RAC: 0

Remove the video card and

Remove the video card and re-seat it again (to remedy eventual bad contact).

Do you have another add-in card in some slot?

Even if you don't see dust inside the computer it may be good to clean it - there may be some (invisible) conductive particle
(carbon - soot, graphite; metal - swarf fallen from the case or heatsink; electrolyte - leak from battery or capacitor)

Use soft, natural (non-synthetic, to not risk static electricity) brush and air.
If you see electrolyte leak use just cotton swab (on stick) damped with water (and dry the place afterwards)

Check for bulged/leaking electrolyte capacitors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

[pre] [/pre]

- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)

Siran d'Vel'nahr
Siran d'Vel'nahr
Joined: 15 Feb 05
Posts: 104
Credit: 1538869
RAC: 0

RE: Siran, I too feel you

Quote:

Siran, I too feel you pain, as I am at a loss too. There is something that is being missed, but I don't know what. I will sleep on it, and tomorrow read the whole thread and see if anything jumps out. I am running Windows, on an i7, at high speed, without a problem. I am truly sorry I can't be more help at the moment. I really thought that supply might be the problem. Do you have a Killawatt meter? If so, how much power is the rig using under full crunch?

Steve


Greetings Steve,

Thanks! I have never run into a problem I could not figure out within a day or 2. This one is almost 30 days old and I have run out of ideas. I'm thinking everyone here has too.

I believe that the only way to truly find out if I have a hardware and/or software problem would be to build a PC identical to this one. Which is something I cannot afford to do.

I figured that doing all the torture tests on the hardware would have eliminated it since everything passed. And doing a clean install of WinXP, including a re-format of the boot drive, would have eliminated the Windoze OS as a problem. I figured that installing Linux as a dual boot and installing BOINC to run on Linux, successfully, would have also pointed to the Windoze OS as being a problem, which prompted my clean install of WinXP. Everything I have done has boiled down to my opinion that nVIDIA is somehow at fault since every time I install it, without it previously installed, will cause the artifact in the cylon boot splash screen to appear.

But... Then again, the i7, as it was originally configured with the old PSU and old (new when built) nVIDIA card and software, and the KVM switch between it and my Linux PC, ran BOINC, among other things, quite nicely. I had absolutely no problem with the i7 since May this year, when I built it. I could run a graphical 3D chat program while BOINCing and have 3 to 5 other programs running concurrently too. No adverse affects whatsoever. Suddenly, after I finished with the last SETI WUs I was working on, I re-attach to Einstein and BANG! These problems start. I don't seem to have any problem as long as I'm not running BOINC.

I don't have a Killawatt meter. I was looking on the Internet about it. They're not too expensive so I may look into getting one.

Thanks again, Steve. :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr XO
USS Vre'kasht NCC-33187

Siran's website: [ ONLINE! ]

Siran d'Vel'nahr
Siran d'Vel'nahr
Joined: 15 Feb 05
Posts: 104
Credit: 1538869
RAC: 0

Greetings, *** UPDATE

Greetings,

*** UPDATE ***

Well, the i7 is still where it was the other day, less having BOINC installed. Since that test failed miserably, I saw no point in keeping BOINC installed. It's gone. I will try something new later when I can afford to.

On a lighter note: I'm BOINCing again!!! Well, my Linux PC is anyway. Here's what happened:

I saw that SETI was generating WUs again and tried to figure out how to get my Linux PC crunching again. Well, I only had the one monitor and having the KVM system in place failed, again. And, the KVM will not work for just switching the monitor, keyboard and mouse connections need to be in place on both PCs, so... I decided that I was going to hook the Linux PC up to my TV and get BOINC started.

Ok, I needed another VGA cable. I'll run down and look in the box for my new monitor. I figured I must have used the old one from my old monitor and left the new cable in the box. I saw a video cable and grabbed it. I also decided to grab the old monitor just out of the blue.

Ya see, I got my new Acer monitor when I presumed that the old monitor was dead, no image from the PCs. The Acer solved that problem. I packed up the old monitor and put it down in the basement with all my other various old computer parts and pieces.

Ok, I pulled the video cable from the bag and was surprised to see that it was NOT a VGA cable. It is a DVI video cable. "Oh great!", I thought. Well I do have a DVI to VGA adapter, but... I first looked on the back of the Acer and lo and behold, it not only had a VGA port, but a DVI port as well. Hallelujah! I replaced the VGA cable with the DVI and it works great! :)

Ok, now to hook the Linux to the TV. Ahh, but wait. Let me test the old flat screen just for grins. I pulled my tiny little wireless mouse receiver and placed in a USB port on the Linux PC. I then hooked up my wired PS/2 keyboard to the PC. I hooked up the VGA cable and power to the old monitor. Ok, all is now hooked up.

After one last check, I hit the power switch on the monitor. Hmmm... I got an image, "No signal". Ok, that's a good sign so I hit the power switch on the PC. Hey! Look at that! The BIOS is doing its thing! Linux booted up, I logged in and then started BOINC Manager. The PC connected to SETI. No work sent. Bummer! It connected again. No work sent. Double bummer! It connected again and this time I got a WU! YEAH!!! I am BOINCing again!!! :)

I'm not sure how much life is left in that old monitor so I will not keep it on any more than I have to, just long enough to make quick checks of Linux and BOINC and that's it.

Now, if only I can get my i7 BOINCing again, I would be one HAPPY CAMPER!!! :)

So, the i7 has a working wireless keyboard and mouse, newer PSU, everything else except the case, 6 months old. Oh wait, the DVD/CD Re-writable is not new. It's maybe 6 years old and still working perfectly. Use it to re-write my backups to DVD every month. And NO BOINC! :( And yet everything else I do on it causes absolutely no problems. I don't even have the "jumping" mouse cursor.

I'm thinking of doing, yet, another clean re-install of WinXP.

By the way, I have been reading about others having a problem running Einstein too, since SETI has been down. This has me thinking now... What does Einstein do that other projects don't do? I guess I'll find out, or maybe not, if I can get BOINC running on the i7 again. If I can, Einstein will not be a project of choice to run. At least not right away...

Keep on BOINCing...! :) (I am again!!!)

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr XO
USS Vre'kasht NCC-33187

Siran's website: [ ONLINE! ]

Highlander
Highlander
Joined: 1 Jul 05
Posts: 24
Credit: 141220706
RAC: 724

Very bad, that all working

Very bad, that all working around havn't ended in a solution :-(.
What BIOS Version have u onboard? Cause in/since version 1002 from 07.06.2010 asus added
"P7P55D-E PRO 1002 BIOS
1. Improve memory compatibility
2. Improve system stability "

K, this is a little bit time critical, since your system is half year old.
If you havn't it already, then this BIOS-update is also worth a try (but then go for the newest 1502).

Siran d'Vel'nahr
Siran d'Vel'nahr
Joined: 15 Feb 05
Posts: 104
Credit: 1538869
RAC: 0

RE: Very bad, that all

Quote:

Very bad, that all working around havn't ended in a solution :-(.
What BIOS Version have u onboard? Cause in/since version 1002 from 07.06.2010 asus added
"P7P55D-E PRO 1002 BIOS
1. Improve memory compatibility
2. Improve system stability "

K, this is a little bit time critical, since your system is half year old.
If you havn't it already, then this BIOS-update is also worth a try (but then go for the newest 1502).


Greetings Highlander,

I just flashed 1502 and so far the only noticeable difference I see is what CPU-Z tells me. LOL ;) I'm sure things are happening "behind the scenes" that are not noticeable.

Thanks! :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr XO
USS Vre'kasht NCC-33187

Siran's website: [ ONLINE! ]

David S
David S
Joined: 6 Dec 05
Posts: 2473
Credit: 22936222
RAC: 0

Siran, I followed your

Siran,

I followed your link in the Seti forum to this thread and spent many hours of "work" time reading it.

Let me give you my history with my current computer.

It's merely an old Pentium 4. I bought it refurbished, with a fresh install of WinXP Pro, mainly for the purpose of running a feed on radiorefernece.com. (Actually, I started out trying to use a different site, for which I installed WinAmp and probably a few other things, but I found out radioreference is much easier. Their recommended software is called scannercast.) Even before I got that up and running, I installed BOINC and let it attach to my 2 projects, Seti and Einstein, which I hadn't done anything for in months. I also installed Firefox and, after everything was working, my BlazeTV USB TV tuner (which is supposed to but won't tune QAM channels off the cable, but that's irrelevant to this discussion). Months later, I installed Google Chrome with no ill effects. At one point or another, I probably installed Adobe reader and Java too.

I made both BOINC and scannercast Scheduled Tasks so Windows would start them at system startup (so they would recover from a power outage without my intervention). (Yes, I have a UPS, but it was only running for 3 minutes, which turned out to be a default setting that could be overridden. My wireless router and DSL modem also run on it. And the scanners for the radio feed.)

This setup ran merrily for nearly a year, with me occasionally watching a TV show while waiting for the washing machine or dryer to finish. About the only times it ever got restarted were when Windows updates required it.

Then, in early November, I got an email notification that my feed was down. I logged on and found the system to be very sluggish. Windows once opened wouldn't close again. I couldn't even do a proper shut down. I had to do a hard reset. It started up again and the feed came back online. Okay, fine. Then it happened again about a day later. I noticed somewhere a message about system resources being low. That's when I decided to shut down BOINC. I may have tried to nurse the current Einstein unit through to the end, or it may have already errored out. I took both BOINC and scannercast out of Scheduled Tasks. I also found Googleupdate in there and removed it.

When I had time, I ran a full virus scan and the various Windows system tools, including defrag (even though it said I didn't need to). Then I let it have another Einstein unit (Seti was down by this point). In a day or less, my feed was down. Again, I had to do a hard reset because of extreme sluggishness. This time, I only started scannercast. I also unplugged the TV tuner. As long as I didn't let it work on Einstein, it was fine.

At some point, I tripled the RAM (which the system isn't entirely happy about; it's now a half GB SIMM and a 1GB SIMM and the BIOS tells me the mismatch makes it run less efficiently than if it were matched). I let it try another Einstein unit. Crash.

Yesterday, as I was reading this whole thread, one thing jumped out at me. You use Avira Antivirus. That's what came preinstalled on this computer (the computer was intended for low-income students who couldn't afford fancy new ones, so they installed a free antivirus). That seems to be the only thing you and I have in common, other than similar problems running Einstein on Windows XP Pro 32 bit. I do have an unused license for Bitdefender, which I use on my two laptops. Maybe I'll install that on here. (I have decided not to run BOINC on laptops any more. I find it makes them run hot and slow, and they keep doing it even after I quit running BOINC on them. They eventually do it even without BOINC, but it takes a lot longer to get there.)

Last night, I finally started BOINC again and let it get some work from Seti. It's now just over 21 hours since it started crunching. None of the units has been returned yet, but my radio feed is still online.

See the response I left in the Seti Technical News forum (thread "Up").

I started typing this four hours ago, for about 20 minutes. I just came back to it half an hour ago. There was probably more I intended to say, but I can't remember what. Maybe I'll think of it later, after I read this back.

David

David

Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.

David S
David S
Joined: 6 Dec 05
Posts: 2473
Credit: 22936222
RAC: 0

Update: It's now 30 hours

Update:

It's now 30 hours since I started crunching Seti. I just returned two units and got another and my radio feed is still online. I'm still thinking that in the morning, I'll try letting it have an Einstein and see if BOINC automatically limiting it to running an hour at a time makes it run successfully.

David

David

Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.

David S
David S
Joined: 6 Dec 05
Posts: 2473
Credit: 22936222
RAC: 0

Update: Since my last

Update:

Since my last update, my computer uploaded 3 more Seti units and downloaded 2 more, including an Astropulse. When I put hands on the machine again, it seemed to still be running just fine, with none of the sluggishness I was getting when running Einstein.

About 40 minutes ago, I let my computer get a couple of Einstein units, then put it back on no new tasks. I also tweaked my preferences a bit, cutting Einstein down from a resource share of 50 to 10 (Seti is 100) and increasing the setting for "stop if non-BOINC processor usage exceeds" from 20% to 40%. As of now, my radio feed is still online.

We'll see what happens...

David

David

Miserable old git
Patiently waiting for the asteroid with my name on it.

Siran d'Vel'nahr
Siran d'Vel'nahr
Joined: 15 Feb 05
Posts: 104
Credit: 1538869
RAC: 0

Greetings David, Sorry it

Greetings David,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I've been pretty busy with other things. I did see your reply to me on SETI, but was in the middle of things at the time.

Anyway, yeah, sounds like what I have been going through. And, you mentioned one thing that I forgot to mention that is common to both our problems. I too saw messages that my system resources were dangerously low when the i7 was going through it seizures. When I checked, everything seemed fine. I use a utility called System Explorer which runs rings around Windoze Task Manager. :)

As for Avira, I have never had a problem with it, well, those in-your-face ads every time it updated kinda sucked. But other than that, no problem.

My i7 runs just fine as long as I am not running BOINC. the current uptime is at: 2 days, 23 hours and 58 minutes. 48 hours without a single problem. And I have run up to about 5 or 6 apps at the same time without the i7 batting an eyelash.

The only thing I have done to the i7... Wow! Avira just updated while typing this. ;) Anyway, the only thing I have done recently was update my BIOS 3 or 4 days ago. I am now at version 1502, the most current.

I still get the artifact on the Windoze logo screen with the blue progress bar. The only way I can get rid of it is to re-install WinXP and hope I don't get nVIDIA installed again (Windoze just LOVES to do that on its own). Installing nVIDIA is when the artifact appears. That is what leads me to think that there is something wrong with the video driver(s). I'm probably wrong though. The re-install will have to be a clean install for there to be any hope of not running nVIDIA.

Well, gotta go, the store is beckoning for my appearance. ;)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr XO
USS Vre'kasht NCC-33187

Siran's website: [ ONLINE! ]

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.