I downloaded the most recent version of BOINC a few weeks ago, and it runs fine, but neither the graphics (under "show graphics") nor the screensaver work. The show graphics window just stays white. It doesn't crash, it lets me close it in the normal way. I have DirectX 9.0c. Any help would be appreciated.

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SETI.Florida

You must select an active workunit in order for the "show graphics" button to become active.

If you have already done this, did you install BOINC as a service? If so, the "show graphics" option will not work.

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You must select an active workunit in order for the "show graphics" button to become active.

If you have already done this, did you install BOINC as a service? If so, the "show graphics" option will not work.

Oops, I did the service install. I'll reinstall it single user, but I will have to lose half a WU. :(

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SETI.Florida

You must select an active workunit in order for the "show graphics" button to become active.

If you have already done this, did you install BOINC as a service? If so, the "show graphics" option will not work.

Oops, I did the service install. I'll reinstall it single user, but I will have to lose half a WU. :(

You shouldn't lose anything. The WUs and client_state.xml files should all be left intact when you uninstall and reinstall. It should pick up right were it left off.

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You must select an active workunit in order for the "show graphics" button to become active.

If you have already done this, did you install BOINC as a service? If so, the "show graphics" option will not work.

Oops, I did the service install. I'll reinstall it single user, but I will have to lose half a WU. :(

You shouldn't lose anything. The WUs and client_state.xml files should all be left intact when you uninstall and reinstall. It should pick up right were it left off.

Okay... I got my workunits back (minus the little bit of progress I had on them), but the graphics still do not work. The button is activated, the active, running task is selected, and the window comes up, but it is blank. I suspect that it is processing but not showing the graphics, as my CPU usage bumps up a bit and goes back down when I close the window. I have my process usage on 50%. Does it have to be on 100%?

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SETI.Florida

Okay... I got my workunits back (minus the little bit of progress I had on them), but the graphics still do not work. The button is activated, the active, running task is selected, and the window comes up, but it is blank. I suspect that it is processing but not showing the graphics, as my CPU usage bumps up a bit and goes back down when I close the window. I have my process usage on 50%. Does it have to be on 100%?

I don't think so. I change my processor usage all the time during hot summer days and the graphics display fine on each of my systems.

Do you have onboard graphics that are having a hard time displaying OpenGL? Have you tried updating your graphics drivers to the latest available version (if any)?

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You must select an active workunit in order for the "show graphics" button to become active.

If you have already done this, did you install BOINC as a service? If so, the "show graphics" option will not work.

Oops, I did the service install. I'll reinstall it single user, but I will have to lose half a WU. :(

You shouldn't lose anything. The WUs and client_state.xml files should all be left intact when you uninstall and reinstall. It should pick up right were it left off.

Okay... I got my workunits back (minus the little bit of progress I had on them), but the graphics still do not work. The button is activated, the active, running task is selected, and the window comes up, but it is blank. I suspect that it is processing but not showing the graphics, as my CPU usage bumps up a bit and goes back down when I close the window. I have my process usage on 50%. Does it have to be on 100%?

If you are ssing 50% usage, you are actually using half of the CPUs that you have available in your system. You can increase the maximum number of CPUs on this web site -> your account -> general settings.

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BOINC WIKI

Hmmm...

Sometimes I experience a similar behavior with Crunch3rs R-2.4V-SSSE3-GFX opt app except that my window stays black (BTW, my favorite color ;-)). I first thought it was a glitch, but now... see here:

Screenshot

Maybe this also applies to the stock app (since the opt apps are based on this code). And (as also can be seen in the screenshot) the graphics definitly works in general (so probably no DirectX / OpenGL issue)

Just curious...

Andy

If you are ssing 50% usage, you are actually using half of the CPUs that you have available in your system. You can increase the maximum number of CPUs on this web site -> your account -> general settings.

I know. I don't like using my CPU on full.

Here's a screenshot.
http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picxa5.jpg

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SETI.Florida

I know. I don't like using my CPU on full.

Here's a screenshot.
http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picxa5.jpg

I'm not sure why that is. As an experiment, you could always try setting Activity -> Run Always just to see if not running it at 100% is indeed the problem.

Out of curiosity, why don't you like to use the CPU on "full"? Are you afraid that there'll be no CPU power left for you to use? Or are you concerned about heat? Or simply just don't like the thought of it?

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Out of curiosity, why don't you like to use the CPU on "full"? Are you afraid that there'll be no CPU power left for you to use? Or are you concerned about heat? Or simply just don't like the thought of it?

Several reasons really. My primary computer is a laptop and uses a rather weak circular fan with a heat pipe. The bottom of the case receives no active cooling at all, and just has a metal plate to disperse the heat. Also, being in Florida, I'm going to have to wait until the middle of winter before I can really increase the usage. I use SpeedFan, so I found that 50% is the prefect balance, keeping the temperature just below the point where the fan runs on the more noisy 'high' setting.

It may just be residual paranoia, though. A while back, while using full CPU power, I learned that the core got up to 200 Degrees F. (The horror!) I had been neglecting to clean my fan then, but after cleaning it, I haven't gotten above the normal max of 155 F. I haven't really tested temp at 100% yet, but the fan speed at that point gets really anoying, so I will just keep it at 50%.

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SETI.Florida

Several reasons really.

Fair enough. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity.

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I have only just downloaded boinc for the first time today and some graphics are being displayed but my seti@home graphics dont display a black window just comes up. Plz help me!

Okay, I finally realized that my graphics card does not support opengl. Is there an emulator for DirectX or a optimized app with non-OpenGL graphics?

Edit: How about Direct3D or Matrox?
*Accursed SIS card*

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SETI.Florida

Okay, I finally realized that my graphics card does not support opengl. Is there an emulator for DirectX or a optimized app with non-OpenGL graphics?

Edit: How about Direct3D or Matrox?
*Accursed SIS card*

Direct3D is an outdated method that has been replaced by the DirectX API. OpenGL was chosen to make the programming easier for cross-platform compatibility (lowest common denominator for Mac OS, Linux and Windows but still assumes a graphics card capable of OpenGL [the majority of cards out there support OpenGL since 2001]), and as such there is no non-OpenGL version. I am also not aware of any DirectX/Direct3D emulators either.

I'm not sure about Matrox. You'd have to research their products to see, but as I stated earlier, most graphics cards produced since 2001 should support OpenGL (of course, there are always exceptions to the rule).

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I have only just downloaded boinc for the first time today and some graphics are being displayed but my seti@home graphics dont display a black window just comes up. Plz help me!

Oliver, I would suggest reading this thread and seeing if it fits your situation. The original poster has complained about the same thing you are, so your card may not be OpenGL compatible either. I would check for updated graphics drivers and update your DirectX version as a starting point before coming to a conclusion though.

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Direct3D is an outdated method that has been replaced by the DirectX API. OpenGL was chosen to make the programming easier for cross-platform compatibility (lowest common denominator for Mac OS, Linux and Windows but still assumes a graphics card capable of OpenGL [the majority of cards out there support OpenGL since 2001]), and as such there is no non-OpenGL version. I am also not aware of any DirectX/Direct3D emulators either.

I'm not sure about Matrox. You'd have to research their products to see, but as I stated earlier, most graphics cards produced since 2001 should support OpenGL (of course, there are always exceptions to the rule).

Yeah, it's an embedded lower-end laptop card. Not exactly the fastest thing on the road. It was made in 2005, so I have no idea why SIS would include Matrox and Direct3D, but not OpenGL. I'll see if Matrox has anything.

By the way, this might be helpful for situations like this. I easily determined that my card could not support OpenGL by trying to run Google Earth in OpenGL mode. It reported what I couldn't find in the system details.

Edit: Google Earth did the exact same thing when I forced it to run in that mode (white window, running full) so it is most definitely a problem with my card and not with BOINC.

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SETI.Florida

I got it to work by downloading the silicon graphics Opengl SDK from the following address, but it is still choppy and has some problems because, technically, it is still not supported.

http://berkelium.com/OpenGL/sgi-download.html

I don't know if it will work for non-SGI cards.

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SETI.Florida