I've noticed that the last few SETI tasks (jobs, applications, whatever) keep restarting after only getting to a few percent complete. I'm running a ClimatePredictor task on this same machine, and it doesn't seem to be experiencing any problems. Any idea why this would happen?

I've noticed that the last few SETI tasks (jobs, applications, whatever) keep restarting after only getting to a few percent complete. I'm running a ClimatePredictor task on this same machine, and it doesn't seem to be experiencing any problems. Any idea why this would happen?

ClimatePrediction's science app doesn't report when it restarts (neither does any other science app). Since SETI@Home is the only one that actually logs when it restarted, it's the only one that looks like it's having problems.

As long as the tasks are completing, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

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How can they complete if they keep restarting? Or is it a case where the "Percent Complete" counter gets set back to zero but the previous progress on the job isn't lost?

How can they complete if they keep restarting? Or is it a case where the "Percent Complete" counter gets set back to zero but the previous progress on the job isn't lost?

It's actually more of a "resume" than it is a "restart". The Percent Complete counter gets recalculated from zero, so it appears that it's restarting from the beginning until it picks up from it's last checkpoint.

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Same here. After restarting BOINC the last task has restarted too:

1/5/2008 3:38:53 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 08ja07af.22304.21340.5.6.180_1 using setiathome_enhanced version 528

Now it shows 4.8% completed after 01:55:00 hours of working. Prior to BOINC restart it was about 80%.
I didn't face to such behaviour before. Seems like something really wrong with some tasks. Let's see what will happen after calculation of this task will be completed again.

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Upd. No, this time BOINC finished the task normally, but it took almost twice of final time to complete against the same tasks in this computer.
Next task (with equal deadline time and estimated rsc_fpops) is counting normally and resumes from the checkpoint after restarting the BOINC.
Strange..

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Same strange behavior here ...
After some processing time, the progress counter keeps returning to zero and the WU is being processed once again, either after I start BOINC after powering the computer or just without any warning, while still processing.
I aborted 2 WU that behaved like that, but the new one behaves just the same and it doesn't seem that I'll be able to finish it.
This strange thing only happens to SETI workunits, the other project are just fine.

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Same strange behavior here ...
After some processing time, the progress counter keeps returning to zero and the WU is being processed once again, either after I start BOINC after powering the computer or just without any warning, while still processing.
I aborted 2 WU that behaved like that, but the new one behaves just the same and it doesn't seem that I'll be able to finish it.
This strange thing only happens to SETI workunits, the other project are just fine.

I guess you must have SETI at quite a low resource share to have no cache of tasks on a 6400 C2D. Have you tried manually suspending the other projects to see if this task can crunch through to completion? Even if you are running the stock App with no overclock it should not take more than 3 - 4 hours on such a machine.

F.

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It was all working just fine until about 1-2 months ago, with the same resource share between projects. Indeed, a WU wouldn't take more than 4 hours to complete before all of this started.
I've suspended the other projects and see what happens.

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Despite resource share at 100% and no other projects,
Task ID http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/result.php?resultid=710106221
Work unit ID http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/workunit.php?wuid=185636427

resumed/restarted multiple times (note past tense). Only found 8 msgs to copy:

13/01/2008 2:19:16 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2
13/01/2008 3:16:43 PM|SETI@home|Resuming task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2
13/01/2008 3:48:56 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2
13/01/2008 4:19:18 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2
13/01/2008 6:04:53 PM|SETI@home|Resuming task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2
13/01/2008 7:09:44 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2
13/01/2008 8:19:58 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2
13/01/2008 8:58:12 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 01mr07ag.29460.18068.11.6.120_2 using setiathome_enhanced version 527

WU racked up 20 hrs cpu time before I aborted it. Is there a procedure to follow for reporting squirelly WUs? Wingman's (wing person's?) CPU time closer to 7Hrs.

A.

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AndrewM

No luck. I've suspended the other projects, and the SETI WUs keep coming back to 0% from time to time. Even reinstalled BOINC and all projects and still the same thing keeps happening ...

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No luck. I've suspended the other projects, and the SETI WUs keep coming back to 0% from time to time. Even reinstalled BOINC and all projects and still the same thing keeps happening ...

Hmmm. Then I have only questions about the setup:

- Are you overclocking?
- Are you monitoring temps?
- Have you tried running Memtest and/or Prime95 just to check the hardware?

F.

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No luck. I've suspended the other projects, and the SETI WUs keep coming back to 0% from time to time. Even reinstalled BOINC and all projects and still the same thing keeps happening ...

Hmmm. Then I have only questions about the setup:

- Are you overclocking?
- Are you monitoring temps?
- Have you tried running Memtest and/or Prime95 just to check the hardware?

F.

No overclocking since the problem started, and the coretemps are at about 40C. Haven't run any Memtest or Orthos lately, but back when I was experimenting with overclocking settings I used to run them and the hardware seemed just fine.

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No luck. I've suspended the other projects, and the SETI WUs keep coming back to 0% from time to time. Even reinstalled BOINC and all projects and still the same thing keeps happening ...

Hmmm. Then I have only questions about the setup:

- Are you overclocking?
- Are you monitoring temps?
- Have you tried running Memtest and/or Prime95 just to check the hardware?

F.

No overclocking since the problem started, and the coretemps are at about 40C. Haven't run any Memtest or Orthos lately, but back when I was experimenting with overclocking settings I used to run them and the hardware seemed just fine.

Possibly worth a re-run just in case the memory needs re-seating or something else physical is going on?

F.

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I have the same problem, units run but never complete (or very rarely so) but instead restart every now and then. The predicted time to completion counter is also a mess.
The problem started in november and I just found another thread on the same subject, curiously from november. No answers there.
I have deleted and reinstalled boinc, but the problem persists.
I am running BOINC 5.10.30 in a Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2.
The computer is a Dell Inspiron M1710 with a T2600 CPU.
It took me 2 months to come to this help page and I like to tweak with this kind of programs, I cannot but wonder how many people more have this problem and either do not know it or do not report it.
I guess if help was easy it would already have arrived, but I thought I would just add myself to the count as one more user who cannot send finished units!
Even if I would really like to do so...

Cheers,

Jose Cuesta

OK, big question on the restarting of tasks. Does anyone with the problem use BOINC's CPU throttling?

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Hello,
I've had this problem for a couple of month now. Today I tried suspending the BOINC Manager's Internet connection while computing this workunit, and it finished on schedule. I've had the Internet connection enabled since I received the workunit two months ago, and it has been continually restarting until today. Maybe you'd like to try suspending the Internet connection?

Hello,
I am new to the project and having problems completing my first task.
I keep getting messages that the tasks are being restarted.
Every 30 minutes or so they restart.
Most I get up to is around 10% then they restart.
Have reinstalled, cancelled all my preferences.
D/C from the project and rejoined.
Have suspend the network connection as surgested above and still no luck.
Can any one please help?
Many Thanks
Chris

Since a few weeks I also have this problem. I installed the latest 5.10.45 version of BOINC, excluded BOINC's folder in antivir sw, suspended network activity - to no avail.
Before this problem appeared I could complete a task in ~4 hours, now completing a task takes a week because it's always restarted. Right now the task was at 98% and got restarted, "To completion" time (which grows after every restart) is now 26 hours!!
I'm fed up with this... not gonna waste cpu time on never finishing tasks. I stop using BOINC until this gets fixed.

OK, big question on the restarting of tasks. Does anyone with the problem use BOINC's CPU throttling?

I use cpu throttling since I run BOINC on a laptop (100% cpu usage means more heat and noise).

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