Hi all, I've just reattached to BOINC after a long absence (due to the horrible usage problems with the older version), and while BOINC is much better behaved now, it's still not really intuitive or consistent.
For me, the problem is that in Simple view (or Stupid view or Dumb view or whatever it's called :), the "Do work after idle for:" setting is always set to O (Run Always), no matter what I change it to.
My understanding (and please let me know if I'm wrong) is that the Simple view settings override the settings on the webpage that the BOINC client connects to every few whenevers.
This explains why the BOINC client keeps working no matter what I do - even switching to Intelligent view and suspending the client activity (I only connect to SETI) doesn't actually suspend activity!
This is really annoying, and I don't seem to be able to configure BOINC to run the best compromise for me (i.e. not at all when I'm working, and 100% of all 4 CPUS when I'm not).
The other options in the preferences page seem to "stick", only the idle timeout preference seems to be flaky.
Can anyone help to solve this?
I'm running XP64 (latest SP, latest drivers for everything), 4xAMD Opteron cores, RAID5 drive (non-boot) for BOINC install.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Cheers,
PCPete

---

Data is not Information; Information is not Knowledge; Knowledge is not Wisdom.

There are two related settings: Do work while user is active, and do work after X minutes of idle (or something like that). In any case, these can be edited directly in the global_prefs_override.xml file. If they are removed from that file, the values from the web site should be used.

---

BOINC WIKI

There are two related settings: Do work while user is active, and do work after X minutes of idle (or something like that). In any case, these can be edited directly in the global_prefs_override.xml file. If they are removed from that file, the values from the web site should be used.

Thanks John! I wasn't aware of the XML preferences file.

I actually just found another answer: I unchecked the "I want to customize for this computer only", then saved that, then paused the client using the pause item, then opened preferences, checked the box, and then selected another idle setting, saved that, resumed the client, and when I checked the preferences again, the correct idle selection was made.

Further testing seems to show that I should only make selections in the local preferences window while the client is paused; then when the preferences are saved, and the client is resumed, the preferences are correct.

There is almost certainly a better way to explain this, but I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment. I hope this (and your response) helps some other users!

Cheers,
PCPete

---

Data is not Information; Information is not Knowledge; Knowledge is not Wisdom.

Oh dear, I replied too soon :(

Perhaps if I can explain what I've done and what BOINC is doing, someone may be able to point out where I'm going all wrong.

In the Simple view, I have my idle preferences set to "15 minutes".

On the BOINC web preferences page, I have "Work while computer is in use" to NO, Use at most 0% when computer is in use, and use 95% of CPU when computer is idle.

I have the same (or at least, the equivalent) settings set in ClimatePrediction's client page.

On the SETI preferences page, I have SETI now set to 40% (Climate prediction is set to 60%).

However, the BOINC client just runs all the time, no matter what or how I use the computer. The ONLY WAY I can use the computer is to suspend the BOINC client (which I don't want to do, because then I will forget to unsuspend it when I leave the computer).

Now, the problem is, these settings are only updated when I click "Update", or when BOINC connects to the appropriate server for more work/results posting, right? The issue here is that BOINC keeps failing to connect to the server, so it never gets the preferences from the website, and it seems to be completely ignoring the preferences set locally in Simple View.

This is the same damn reason I stopped using BOINC last year - the usage profile mechanism just plain doesn't work the way it should, and I'm left with BOINC suspended on my machine, and I end up hogging work units that someone else could be working on, while I try and get the client software to work the way it is supposed to work.

I would be delighted to provide screenshots, data files, anything, to anyone who can help me sort out why the BOINC client doesn't let me work the way I need to.

By way of example, it took 4 minutes and 22 seconds for this message board page to load - and BOINC is the only application running, apart from Outlook, IE, and my audio applications (which are completely idle, since I can't do anything with them until I stop BOINC from running). This is on a quad-core system with massive free resources and one of the fastest computers in the country. So there is something really simple that I must be getting wrong, and if anyone can help, I would really appreciate it.

Until then, BOINC is suspended. God I hate doing that.

---

Data is not Information; Information is not Knowledge; Knowledge is not Wisdom.

Oh dear, I replied too soon :(

Perhaps if I can explain what I've done and what BOINC is doing, someone may be able to point out where I'm going all wrong.

In the Simple view, I have my idle preferences set to "15 minutes".

On the BOINC web preferences page, I have "Work while computer is in use" to NO, Use at most 0% when computer is in use, and use 95% of CPU when computer is idle.

I have the same (or at least, the equivalent) settings set in ClimatePrediction's client page.

On the SETI preferences page, I have SETI now set to 40% (Climate prediction is set to 60%).

However, the BOINC client just runs all the time, no matter what or how I use the computer. The ONLY WAY I can use the computer is to suspend the BOINC client (which I don't want to do, because then I will forget to unsuspend it when I leave the computer).

Now, the problem is, these settings are only updated when I click "Update", or when BOINC connects to the appropriate server for more work/results posting, right? The issue here is that BOINC keeps failing to connect to the server, so it never gets the preferences from the website, and it seems to be completely ignoring the preferences set locally in Simple View.

This is the same damn reason I stopped using BOINC last year - the usage profile mechanism just plain doesn't work the way it should, and I'm left with BOINC suspended on my machine, and I end up hogging work units that someone else could be working on, while I try and get the client software to work the way it is supposed to work.

I would be delighted to provide screenshots, data files, anything, to anyone who can help me sort out why the BOINC client doesn't let me work the way I need to.

By way of example, it took 4 minutes and 22 seconds for this message board page to load - and BOINC is the only application running, apart from Outlook, IE, and my audio applications (which are completely idle, since I can't do anything with them until I stop BOINC from running). This is on a quad-core system with massive free resources and one of the fastest computers in the country. So there is something really simple that I must be getting wrong, and if anyone can help, I would really appreciate it.

Until then, BOINC is suspended. God I hate doing that.

You might want to stop BOINC, copy global_prefs.xml to global_prefs_override.xml, edit it to match what you want, start BOINC. After you do this, do not use the preferences editor in the simple view.

---

BOINC WIKI