I just updated my preferences on the SETI website because I was getting the 'Suspending computation - no recent user activity' issue.. for lack of a better description for it anyway, it was preventing BOINC from doing any work at all.

Now that has gone away - hopefully - i'm getting another issue, where the task status reports "Waiting for memory" on any and all pending work.
I have set the relevant global preferences as follows:
---
Disk and memory usage
Use at most 1 GB disk space
Leave at least
(Values smaller than 0.001 are ignored) 0.1 GB disk space free
Use at most 10% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use at most 25% of page file (swap space)
Use at most
Enforced by version 5.8+ 1% of memory when computer is in use
Use at most
Enforced by version 5.8+ 90% of memory when computer is not in use
---

Why is this not enough? this issue comes up on machines with 1GB and 2GB RAM, and I suspect I would get it if I went beyond 2GB as well.
I have not found clarification of the 'Waiting for memory' status in these message boards, hence I ask the question again.

Anyone pretty please? i'm already months behind on crunching and wish to catch up! :)

---

Use at most
Enforced by version 5.8+ 1% of memory when computer is in use

Hi Xolo,

set the above value to something like 50% or more. That should fix your problem.

HTH
Andy

[edit] And don't forget to "Update" your preferences if you use the web based ones[/edit]

Use at most 1% of memory when computer is in use

Yeppers, this is your problem. 1% of 1GB is 10MB, and 1% of 2GB is 20MB. SETI@home uses more than that just to crunch one work unit.

The default setting of 50% of memory when computer is in use works well, so just set it back to that. This is the maximum it can use, but don't worry, it won't actually use that much. While crunching, mine uses about 32MB per Enhanced unit, and about 48MB per Astropulse unit ... so because it's a quad core, maximum usage would be about 192MB (48x4). If you use the standard applications with graphics, it will use more memory.

---

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 forgot to mention that the previous value I have used since SETI transitioned onto BOINC was 10%, and this worked fine up until today when I had time to troubleshoot the previous issue of no user activity.
I have watched the machine idle for a while now, and it will never start the jobs at a lower setting.
Now that I raised it back to 10%, it starts again on the 1GB systems.
Sadly BOINC fails on larger endowed systems under that setting, such as the 3.0Ghz/2GB Quad-core Xeon I have at work.
I will need to raise the when-in-use memory cap to an even higher figure? that leaves little room for other apps very quickly, if I understand the memory usage of BOINC right it is not released when the computer is seeing more usage.

That means that if I wish to reclaim the amount of 'dead' RAM claimed by an idle BOINC job during user activity, I have to manually suspend computation, causing the applications to be unloaded from RAM, or even terminate BOINC entirely?

---

A quad core system will attempt to run four work units at once. That means you need to have it set for a higher memory percentage on that machine, especially if you're using the standard SETI applications which show graphics.

What other programs are run on this work computer? Are they memory-intensive?

Try an experiment - use the default 50% setting and see if that affects the performance of the work computer. If it does, lower it by 5% and test again. Keep doing that until the programs aren't fighting for memory any more.

---

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

A quad core system will attempt to run four work units at once. That means you need to have it set for a higher memory percentage on that machine, especially if you're using the standard SETI applications which show graphics.

What other programs are run on this work computer? Are they memory-intensive?

Try an experiment - use the default 50% setting and see if that affects the performance of the work computer. If it does, lower it by 5% and test again. Keep doing that until the programs aren't fighting for memory any more.

Unfortunately I do not have much time to experiment with it in that way during the course of the day, but I can report that as it is right now (see below) it will run.
Yesterday afternoon apparently there were some problems retrieving work units, so I reset BOINC on the Quad after reinstalling the latest BOINC framework and left it overnight to see if it would pick up anything, and it did and is back at work.
This machine runs WDS/Remote Installation Services, acts as DHCP, Windows Server Update Services, SQL Server and acts as a backup fileserver. In other words it sees very large hits when imaging and updating, and medium to large hits during the course of a normal workday depending on which application users start from the program repository.
It is destined to be migrated to and upgraded for VMware Infrastructure coming january, at which point I will have to release it from my grasp and find another machine to take over work for SETI. You could say it is getting good use right now.
I do not run the BOINC screensaver or graphical presentation window on any of my machines, and on the quad it is installed as unprivileged service.

I made the following changes to get it back to work while not interfering with other machines:
---
On multiprocessors, use at most
Enforced by version 5.10 and earlier 1 processors
On multiprocessors, use at most
Enforced by version 6.1+ 50 % of the processors
Use at most
(Can be used to reduce CPU heat)
Enforced by version 5.6+ 90 percent of CPU time
---

Which on the quad core Xeon causes BOINC to run only two units (good) at the same time at 25% CPU (expected) each unit, on all four cores at the same time. The evened load over all four cores was not quite what I expected, but I suppose this is a feature of some sort.
In addition, the 90% CPU time is not noticeable at all. My guess is I do not fully understand this setting, or it is ignored by BOINC.

---

A quad core system will attempt to run four work units at once. That means you need to have it set for a higher memory percentage on that machine, especially if you're using the standard SETI applications which show graphics.

What other programs are run on this work computer? Are they memory-intensive?

Try an experiment - use the default 50% setting and see if that affects the performance of the work computer. If it does, lower it by 5% and test again. Keep doing that until the programs aren't fighting for memory any more.

Unfortunately I do not have much time to experiment with it in that way during the course of the day, but I can report that as it is right now (see below) it will run.
Yesterday afternoon apparently there were some problems retrieving work units, so I reset BOINC on the Quad after reinstalling the latest BOINC framework and left it overnight to see if it would pick up anything, and it did and is back at work.
This machine runs WDS/Remote Installation Services, acts as DHCP, Windows Server Update Services, SQL Server and acts as a backup fileserver. In other words it sees very large hits when imaging and updating, and medium to large hits during the course of a normal workday depending on which application users start from the program repository.
It is destined to be migrated to and upgraded for VMware Infrastructure coming january, at which point I will have to release it from my grasp and find another machine to take over work for SETI. You could say it is getting good use right now.
I do not run the BOINC screensaver or graphical presentation window on any of my machines, and on the quad it is installed as unprivileged service.

I made the following changes to get it back to work while not interfering with other machines:
---
On multiprocessors, use at most
Enforced by version 5.10 and earlier 1 processors
On multiprocessors, use at most
Enforced by version 6.1+ 50 % of the processors
Use at most
(Can be used to reduce CPU heat)
Enforced by version 5.6+ 90 percent of CPU time
---

Which on the quad core Xeon causes BOINC to run only two units (good) at the same time at 25% CPU (expected) each unit, on all four cores at the same time. The evened load over all four cores was not quite what I expected, but I suppose this is a feature of some sort.
In addition, the 90% CPU time is not noticeable at all. My guess is I do not fully understand this setting, or it is ignored by BOINC.

There is a known problem with X$ CPU usage and multi CPU systems if X < 100.

---

BOINC WIKI

A quad core system will attempt to run four work units at once. That means you need to have it set for a higher memory percentage on that machine, especially if you're using the standard SETI applications which show graphics.

What other programs are run on this work computer? Are they memory-intensive?

Try an experiment - use the default 50% setting and see if that affects the performance of the work computer. If it does, lower it by 5% and test again. Keep doing that until the programs aren't fighting for memory any more.

Unfortunately I do not have much time to experiment with it in that way during the course of the day, but I can report that as it is right now (see below) it will run.
Yesterday afternoon apparently there were some problems retrieving work units, so I reset BOINC on the Quad after reinstalling the latest BOINC framework and left it overnight to see if it would pick up anything, and it did and is back at work.
This machine runs WDS/Remote Installation Services, acts as DHCP, Windows Server Update Services, SQL Server and acts as a backup fileserver. In other words it sees very large hits when imaging and updating, and medium to large hits during the course of a normal workday depending on which application users start from the program repository.
It is destined to be migrated to and upgraded for VMware Infrastructure coming january, at which point I will have to release it from my grasp and find another machine to take over work for SETI. You could say it is getting good use right now.
I do not run the BOINC screensaver or graphical presentation window on any of my machines, and on the quad it is installed as unprivileged service.

I made the following changes to get it back to work while not interfering with other machines:
---
On multiprocessors, use at most
Enforced by version 5.10 and earlier 1 processors
On multiprocessors, use at most
Enforced by version 6.1+ 50 % of the processors
Use at most
(Can be used to reduce CPU heat)
Enforced by version 5.6+ 90 percent of CPU time
---

Which on the quad core Xeon causes BOINC to run only two units (good) at the same time at 25% CPU (expected) each unit, on all four cores at the same time. The evened load over all four cores was not quite what I expected, but I suppose this is a feature of some sort.
In addition, the 90% CPU time is not noticeable at all. My guess is I do not fully understand this setting, or it is ignored by BOINC.

There is a known problem with X$ CPU usage and multi CPU systems if X < 100.

Okay, it has been a few days and things are running within expectation so far. I will keep these settings for now or at least until I change equipment again.
Thank you everyone for helping out :)

---