My first time here, excuse my post if this subject has been thrashed before.

One of the two computers on my account spent the better part of yesterday evening downloading multiple lots of approx. 5 work units every ten minutes or so until the BOINC server cut it off at ~200 units.

No idea why it did that. I have made no changes to my account or computers for some time.

Stranger still, none of the ~200 work units show up on the 'work' tab of boinc manager, just as though they never existed. I tried rebooting to see if it would restore anything but it simply erased the 'message' history of what had transpired. Everything is back to normal now, just curious if anyone has seen this before.

Thanks.

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That's what will happen if you reset the project. If you want to reset the project on purpose you go to the projects tab in the BOINC manager, select the SETI@home "Project" tab and hit "Reset project".

It sounds like yours did it on its own.

Another way it could have happened is your machine crashed and rebooted. Sometimes that will corrupt one of the files and you will lose everything.

I've had it happen to my machines before. Don't worry about the work. It gets sent back out. The important thing is your machine is back up and running.

Welcome to the message boards Mikey.

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What StokeyBob said is all correct. There will be one more thing happening, though. When those "ghost" results time out, your quota will drop by one for each result that goes past deadline. Not to worry, though. As you continue to return work, each good result will double your quota up to the default of 100/cpu/day. So the quota may plummet for a short time, but it'll recover quickly.

MJ

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I tried rebooting to see if it would restore anything but it simply erased the 'message' history of what had transpired.

if you want to see the message log, have a look in your boinc installation folder (usually C:\\Program Files\\BOINC) and there should be a file called "stdoutdae.txt"
it should contain a record of previous boinc messages

to look up their meaning if you're unsure, consult the BOINC Wiki, plenty of information there, i assume you'll be interested in the messages section

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Nice tip Lee Carre.

I've wanted go go back and read lost messages many times. I hope I can remember. I saved a copy of your message just in case.

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Nice tip Lee Carre.

I've wanted go go back and read lost messages many times. I hope I can remember. I saved a copy of your message just in case.

why thankyou :)
but please call me Lee, Lee Carré is my full name, and i'm not one for formality lol

if you want to read even older messages then open "stdoutdae.old" in a text viewer/editor (it's just a text file)

what boinc does is when stdoutdae.txt reaches 2 MB in size, it renames it to stdoutdae.old, and starts a new stdoutdae.txt file, so it actually stores quite a bit of history

for errors replace out, with err
so you get stderrdae.txt and stderrdae.old

for GUI/manager related messages, have a look at stdoutgui.txt, stdoutgui.old, stderrgui.txt, and stderrgui.old

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Thanks Lee,

I made a copy of that too. I'm ready for the next time.


IF I can remember.

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if you want to see the message log, have a look in your boinc installation folder (usually C:\\Program Files\\BOINC) and there should be a file called "stdoutdae.txt"

Thanks for the hint. Here's a typical example of what was recorded:

"2006-02-19 18:04:36 [---] May run out of work in 2.00 days; requesting more
2006-02-19 18:04:36 [SETI@home] Requesting 128124.22 seconds of work
2006-02-19 18:04:36 [SETI@home] Sending request to scheduler: http://setiboinc.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_cgi/cgi
2006-02-19 18:04:38 [SETI@home] Scheduler RPC to http://setiboinc.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_cgi/cgi succeeded
2006-02-19 18:04:38 [SETI@home] Message from server: Not sending work - last RPC too recent: 63 sec
2006-02-19 18:04:38 [SETI@home] Got ack for result 16oc99aa.15439.21490.17324.1.15_1, can't find
2006-02-19 18:04:38 [SETI@home] No work from project
2006-02-19 18:04:38 [SETI@home] Deferring communication with project for 10 minutes and 6 seconds"


This string was repeated at regular intervals (as expected) yet no work units were actually loaded to my machine. I intervened at 2006-02-20 21:56:06 by rebooting.
After rebooting, this was recorded:

2006-02-20 22:07:37 [SETI@home] Requesting 172800.00 seconds of work
2006-02-20 22:07:37 [SETI@home] Sending request to scheduler: http://setiboinc.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_cgi/cgi
2006-02-20 22:07:38 [SETI@home] Scheduler RPC to http://setiboinc.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_cgi/cgi succeeded
2006-02-20 22:07:38 [SETI@home] Message from server: No work sent
2006-02-20 22:07:38 [SETI@home] Message from server: (reached daily quota of 100 results)
2006-02-20 22:07:38 [SETI@home] No work from project
2006-02-20 22:07:38 [SETI@home] Deferring communication with project for 5 hours, 26 minutes, and 48 seconds
2006-02-20 23:07:38 [SETI@home] Deferring communication with project for 4 hours, 26 minutes, and 47 seconds
2006-02-21 00:07:39 [SETI@home] Deferring communication with project for 3 hours, 26 minutes, and 46 seconds
2006-02-21 01:07:39 [SETI@home] Deferring communication with project for 2 hours, 26 minutes, and 46 seconds
2006-02-21 02:07:40 [SETI@home] Deferring communication with project for 1 hours, 26 minutes, and 45 seconds
2006-02-21 03:07:40 [SETI@home] Deferring communication with project for 26 minutes and 45 seconds
2006-02-21 03:34:26 [---] Insufficient work; requesting more
2006-02-21 03:34:26 [SETI@home] Requesting 172800.00 seconds of work
2006-02-21 03:34:31 [SETI@home] Sending request to scheduler: http://setiboinc.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_cgi/cgi
2006-02-21 03:34:32 [SETI@home] Scheduler RPC to http://setiboinc.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah_cgi/cgi succeeded
2006-02-21 03:34:33 [SETI@home] Started download of 24ja00ab.11685.22226.129826.1.8
2006-02-21 03:34:33 [SETI@home] Started download of 27jl00aa.22299.1570.136062.1.36

and normal operation resumed.

Does this fall in line with the explanations given in the first responses?

I thought the line 'Got ack for result ' was some personal slight concerning my computing skills, but I'm given to taking insult easily anyway ;)

Thanks

Mike

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Does this fall in line with the explanations given in the first responses?

I thought the line 'Got ack for result ' was some personal slight concerning my computing skills, but I'm given to taking insult easily anyway ;)

Thanks

Mike

I'm not quite sure. The "Got ack for result" is a new one on me.

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I'm not quite sure. The "Got ack for result" is a new one on me.

i think it's an old one, one of his hosts is running BOINC v4.25

so Mikey, i suggest you upgrade that box, doing might cure some of the problems, it'll certainly help

also i see that you're using TMR's optimised app (from here?)
for faster crunching i'd recommend Crunch3r's apps, they're even faster

in general this seems more like a networking problem than a BOINC problem (although boinc's protocol implementation isn't great) as it sounds like you're getting ghost WUs

as a initial basic test open a command prompt (start, programs/all programs, accessories, command prompt)
and enter "ping setiboincdata.ssl.berkeley.edu -t" (without the quotes) leave it run for a while, at least half an hour, but overnight would be good

to stop it (it'll run forever until you tell it to stop) type Ctrl+C
at the bottom you'll see some statistics, something that will look like this:
(this is the output i get from running a 4 ping request, but you'll have lots more "reply from" entries, one for each ping)

C:\\>ping setiboincdata.ssl.berkeley.edu

Pinging setiboincdata.ssl.berkeley.edu [66.28.250.125] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.28.250.125: bytes=32 time=172ms TTL=243
Reply from 66.28.250.125: bytes=32 time=170ms TTL=243
Reply from 66.28.250.125: bytes=32 time=239ms TTL=243
Reply from 66.28.250.125: bytes=32 time=258ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 66.28.250.125:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 ([b]0% loss[/b]),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 170ms, Maximum = 258ms, [b]Average = 209ms[/b]

C:\\>

what we're interested in is the % loss and average round trip time (bolded)
basically a good link will have a very low % loss, close to 0
the higher the %, the less reliable the link is, and i think this may be the problem, that certain network data packets involved in sending you workunits never arrive (and aren't resent) so your computer doesn't think it has the work, but anyway, run that test (the longer the better), and post back with the results/stats

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run that test (the longer the better), and post back with the results/stats

Will do (over the weekend when I'm not work distracted) and thanks very much for all the help!

Mike

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run that test (the longer the better), and post back with the results/stats

Will do (over the weekend when I'm not work distracted)

well, it can run in the background while you're doing other stuff, just remember to leave your computer logged in and connected to the net

and you're welcome, everyone's here to help :)
and if we can get you up and running it means more cunching power for the project ;) lol

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My first time here, excuse my post if this subject has been thrashed before.One of the two computers on my account spent the better part of yesterday evening downloading multiple lots of approx. Thanks.

Imagine my suprise at seeing "your" name! I have 19 computers on-line so KNEW it wasn't me!

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I guess we'll have to use Mikey, and mikey to distinquish between you or someone/both could get an avatar to make it easier.

I guess we'll have to use Mikey, and mikey to distinquish between you or someone/both could get an avatar to make it easier.

Maybe we should all go into our profiles and change our names to Mikey?

Maybe that would be too pythonesque?

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I guess we'll have to use Mikey, and mikey to distinquish between you or someone/both could get an avatar to make it easier.

Maybe we should all go into our profiles and change our names to Mikey?

Maybe that would be too pythonesque?

Sounds like my neighbor. The dad's name is "Johnny", the son's name is "Johnny", and their daughter married a "Johnny"! Our solution is calling them "Big Johnny", "Little Johnny", and "Johnny Cxxxx" (x's for his last name!)
BTW, I gotta change mine too. Getting to be crowded with "Jim"'s around here too! HaHa! I'll change mine to "Jim-R"!

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Jim

Some people plan their life out and look back at the wealth they've had.
Others live life day by day and look back at the wealth of experiences and enjoyment they've had.

Yeah, that should make you unique

see how much better your info looks with a green star, volunteer tester tag, and lots more credit

Yeah, that should make you unique

see how much better your info looks with a green star, volunteer tester tag, and lots more credit

Oops! Sorry! Running out of ideas here! HaHa. How many Jimmy's we got running around here? Sure as I change it *they'll* start coming out of the woodwork! lol BTW, I *am* a volunteer tester, just my tag hadn't caught up with me yet!

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Jim

Some people plan their life out and look back at the wealth they've had.
Others live life day by day and look back at the wealth of experiences and enjoyment they've had.

Yeah, that should make you unique

see how much better your info looks with a green star, volunteer tester tag, and lots more credit

Aarrgghh! You got me!!! Haha I thought that avatar looked familiar!
Jim-R

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Jim

Some people plan their life out and look back at the wealth they've had.
Others live life day by day and look back at the wealth of experiences and enjoyment they've had.

How many Jimmy's we got running around here?

search on boincstats

and if you're using firefox, you can use my newly writen search plugin if you wish ;) (link in my signature)

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