Prior to purchasing an Apple iMac with an Intel processor, I was a steady, albeit slow processor of the Seti packets. I personally found Boinc to be more of a hinderance than a help even then. Unfortunately, on four different occasions now where I have attempted to use Boinc on my Intel-equipped iMac, I have had nothing but troubles. True, if I chose to let Boinc effectively own the machine, I'd be processing packets at a good rate; a record rate for me. But every time I try to use Boinc, I get a screen freeze within hours, even though the machine itself seems to be running normally in the background.

My question is: is it possible to install a different client on my machine that won't conflict with my graphics and other applications? I'm not absolutely certain of the cause outside of Boinc, but to have my display freeze (while still letting the mouse pointer move around unaffected) is not only frustrating but totally unacceptable! I can't help Seti despite my efforts!

What can I do?

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Prior to purchasing an Apple iMac with an Intel processor, I was a steady, albeit slow processor of the Seti packets. I personally found Boinc to be more of a hinderance than a help even then. Unfortunately, on four different occasions now where I have attempted to use Boinc on my Intel-equipped iMac, I have had nothing but troubles. True, if I chose to let Boinc effectively own the machine, I'd be processing packets at a good rate; a record rate for me. But every time I try to use Boinc, I get a screen freeze within hours, even though the machine itself seems to be running normally in the background.

My question is: is it possible to install a different client on my machine that won't conflict with my graphics and other applications? I'm not absolutely certain of the cause outside of Boinc, but to have my display freeze (while still letting the mouse pointer move around unaffected) is not only frustrating but totally unacceptable! I can't help Seti despite my efforts!

What can I do?

Happily crunching on an Intel iMac. I don't seem to have your problem, but I don't have SETI configured as the default screen saver. When I do show graphics, I note that when tasks switch every hour the graphics display may stay on screen for a task that isn't running. I have leave tasks in memory turned on. I'm wondering if this is what you may be seeing in the full screen saver mode.

Gary

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Happily crunching on an Intel iMac. I don't seem to have your problem, but I don't have SETI configured as the default screen saver. When I do show graphics, I note that when tasks switch every hour the graphics display may stay on screen for a task that isn't running. I have leave tasks in memory turned on. I'm wondering if this is what you may be seeing in the full screen saver mode.

Gary

I would agree with you except for one problem... I don't have it in Screensaver mode. In fact, I actually had Boinc suspended (for no CPU operations at all) while I was playing an MMORPG and had it freeze the display (but the mouse pointer was still live (just couldn't click on anything and all other screen activity was frozen)) and is set to only be active between midnight and 7AM so had a totally different screen saver up when I went out for coffee at 10 am this morning. Again, screen was frozen, but as soon as moved mouse, display brightened, proving the computer recognized the input even though the image remained unchanged.

I really don't know what the conflict is unless my iMac (being one of the first aluminum iMacs) is still suffering from defective video card.

Allow me to clarify: I don't run Boinc in screensaver mode at all and in this particular install had never run it full-screen. The one time I ran the graphic window at all, it occupied a small corner of the screen and seemed to run flawlessly while I had it up. I have the iStat activity monitor up in the menu bar which would confirm the active/inactive status of Boinc when I suspended it.

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Happily crunching on an Intel iMac. I don't seem to have your problem, but I don't have SETI configured as the default screen saver. When I do show graphics, I note that when tasks switch every hour the graphics display may stay on screen for a task that isn't running. I have leave tasks in memory turned on. I'm wondering if this is what you may be seeing in the full screen saver mode.

Gary

I would agree with you except for one problem... I don't have it in Screensaver mode. In fact, I actually had Boinc suspended (for no CPU operations at all) while I was playing an MMORPG and had it freeze the display (but the mouse pointer was still live (just couldn't click on anything and all other screen activity was frozen)) and is set to only be active between midnight and 7AM so had a totally different screen saver up when I went out for coffee at 10 am this morning. Again, screen was frozen, but as soon as moved mouse, display brightened, proving the computer recognized the input even though the image remained unchanged.

I really don't know what the conflict is unless my iMac (being one of the first aluminum iMacs) is still suffering from defective video card.

Allow me to clarify: I don't run Boinc in screensaver mode at all and in this particular install had never run it full-screen. The one time I ran the graphic window at all, it occupied a small corner of the screen and seemed to run flawlessly while I had it up. I have the iStat activity monitor up in the menu bar which would confirm the active/inactive status of Boinc when I suspended it.

So your computer hangs when BOINC is suspended and you are doing something else. Very strange. Generally if BOINC is suspended it isn't doing anything at all and can't cause a problem. I really think the issue may be something else on your iMac. To test you might try quiting BOINC next time instead of suspending it. Yes, you will have to remember to restart it.

You might also try asking over in the Q&A boards.

Gary

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My Intel imac (Dual Core Penryn 2.66GHz, 6MB cache) overheats and hangs all the time. I found a program that lets me adjust the fan to a medium level (barely audible) and it keeps it fairly cool and no more freezing.

It's possible this is unrelated to BOINC.

Try downloading 3DMark and looping that for a couple hours and see if it freezes as well (this is with BOINC not running of course). If it freezes, then you have another issue going on.

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My Intel imac (Dual Core Penryn 2.66GHz, 6MB cache) overheats and hangs all the time. I found a program that lets me adjust the fan to a medium level (barely audible) and it keeps it fairly cool and no more freezing.

It's possible this is unrelated to BOINC.

Try downloading 3DMark and looping that for a couple hours and see if it freezes as well (this is with BOINC not running of course). If it freezes, then you have another issue going on.

smcFanControl is the program Duner is talking about, I run it on my iMac and keep the processor around 50ËšC or so.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049

I have had no problems with my computer freezing the screen on me, but I have an older model with the T7200 and an X1600 video card.

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So your computer hangs when BOINC is suspended and you are doing something else. Very strange. Generally if BOINC is suspended it isn't doing anything at all and can't cause a problem. I really think the issue may be something else on your iMac. To test you might try quiting BOINC next time instead of suspending it. Yes, you will have to remember to restart it.

A definite thought, to say the least. I did use the uninstaller to remove Boinc. The computer nor the display has hung since.

My Intel imac (Dual Core Penryn 2.66GHz, 6MB cache) overheats and hangs all the time. I found a program that lets me adjust the fan to a medium level (barely audible) and it keeps it fairly cool and no more freezing.

I considered this... but would the machine have a chance to cool back down to 42ËšC in the time it took to reboot? Normal usage tends to run about 45Ëš during web browsing and as high as 60Ëš during gaming; but almost never over.

Try downloading 3DMark and looping that for a couple hours and see if it freezes as well (this is with BOINC not running of course). If it freezes, then you have another issue going on.

You've got my interest on this one. I haven't heard of this and could well be a tool I need. Thank you.
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On followup, checking out the website for the 3DMark, all I found was a benchmarker for Windows-based machines, not OS X. Can you recommend another one for Macs?

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I have bonic running on 3 Intel iMac's. Never had a problem and they have been on 24/7 for about a year and a half. I am using the optimized app with no screensaver. Also a good idea to get some canned air and blow out any dust once in a while. I do it monthly, but then I live in a dusty enviornment.

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I do appreciate all the suggestions, but it appears that the problem is either hardware (video card) related or driver related (still on the video card.) Since System Profiler tells me I'm using an ATI Radeon HD2600 and not an nVidia chipset, then I just about have to assume it's a combination of defective card with a glitch in the driver somehow.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments. Maybe I'll try again in the future.

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I know this thread is a little old but I thought I would add my experience. My Intel MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) has always been hot, blazing hot, about 70C-80C. In addition it would not come out of sleep and the fans were going all the time.

After some research I determined that my Mac was MUCH hotter than normal and that possibly some background process was causing the issues. Through careful experimentation I determined it was BOINC causing the issues. I uninstalled BOINC and since that time my Mac Book Pro runs at about 42C, it wakes up from sleep and my fans no longer blow constantly.

It seems BOINC may have some issues with Intel Macs. This was with both OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

I know this thread is a little old but I thought I would add my experience. My Intel MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo) has always been hot, blazing hot, about 70C-80C. In addition it would not come out of sleep and the fans were going all the time.

After some research I determined that my Mac was MUCH hotter than normal and that possibly some background process was causing the issues. Through careful experimentation I determined it was BOINC causing the issues. I uninstalled BOINC and since that time my Mac Book Pro runs at about 42C, it wakes up from sleep and my fans no longer blow constantly.

It seems BOINC may have some issues with Intel Macs. This was with both OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

A program that taxes your CPU cores at 100% all the time being the cause of your CPU heating up? No ... really?

Laptops are notorious for running very hot, and this can cause all kinds of problems like the not waking up issue you had. This isn't a BOINC problem at all - it's insufficient laptop cooling. A laptop with good cooling (or a desktop computer) won't have those issues.

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Cruiser
Gateway GT5692 L-f-S Edition
-Phenom X4 9650 CPU
-4GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM
-500GB SATA HD
-Vista x64 SP1
-BOINC 6.2.19 32-bit client
-SSE3 optimized 32-bit apps

I am crunching on a 2.0GHZ macbook core duo and i frequently see CPU temps as high as 90 when crunching, and im even using a cooling pad. I have been letting it do this for several months now and havent had any problems, but it is uncomfortable to use it on my lap without the cooling pad while its crunching

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