A very strange problem has developed overnight. I am running Windows XP home edition.

I had to reset the screensaver because it had stopped working and the power settings were not closing down the monitor. Apparently fixed that.

Rebooted this morning and BOINC failed to click in and operate.

A few days ago I had reverted to the previous BOINC version 6.2.19 from 6.4.5 because the latter appeared to be running very slowly. That appeared to operate correctly and was certainly much faster.

When BOINC would not start up this morning I attempted to reinstall/repair but this then failed to connect. Rebooted and tried again, same result.

Perhaps foolishly I then tried to reinstall 6.4.5 which failed and since then I cannot access the BOINC directory at all. I have full administrative rights but the rights somehow appear to have been changed to block anything I attempt. BOINC is now not running at all and I can't even access the folder containing it.

Any help or advice would be most gratefully accepted.

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Any error messages that you got on the failing installations?
Check Event Viewer if you can not remember.

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22/12/08 Product: BOINC -- Internal Error 2753. boincmgr.exe

22/12/08 The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( BOINC ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: BOINC error: 183, Another instance of BOINC is running.

24/12/08 Product: BOINC -- Error 1304.Error writing to file C:\Program Files\BOINC\boincmgr.exe. Verify that you have access to that directory.

There seem to be no other messages of any relevance.

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22/12/08 Product: BOINC -- Internal Error 2753. boincmgr.exe

I've had those, they don't seem to be of consequence though as BM will run without a problem afterwards. (on my system anyway)

22/12/08 The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( BOINC ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: BOINC error: 183, Another instance of BOINC is running.

This is quite a normal one. Still don't know what it means, but it doesn't harm the running of BOINC and is seen at every time the client or service starts up.

24/12/08 Product: BOINC -- Error 1304.Error writing to file C:\Program Files\BOINC\boincmgr.exe. Verify that you have access to that directory.

This one is the problem.

Windows XP Home, huh? Then you don't have the User Account control panel, only that stupid (sorry ;-)) simple file sharing.

What you could try is the following:
- Restart computer into Windows Safe Mode (Keep hammering F8 after you cleared the BIOS and before you see the Windows Logo, when upon the menu choose Safe Mode).
- Select Start > Run
- Type %allusersprofile% in the Open text box. Then click OK.
- Right-click the Shared Documents folder, and select Properties.
- Click the Security tab.
- Select Everyone in Group Or User Names, and then select Allow next to Full Control in the Permissions. (if possible, check that the admin account you're using is a member of the boinc_admins, boinc_projects and boinc_users groups. Normal accounts should only be members of the latter two groups)
- Click Advanced, and select Replace Permission Entries On All Child Objects With Entries Shown Here That Apply To Child Objects.
- Click OK, click Yes, and then click OK to close the Shared Documents Properties dialog box.
- Select Start > Run.
- Type msconfig in the Open text box. Then click OK. The System Configuration Utility will open.
- In the System Configuration Utility, select the General tab.
- Select Normal Startup - Load All Device Drivers And Services. Then click OK.
- Restart the computer.
- Reinstall BOINC.

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You, Sir, are a true gentleman.
Fortunately I now have here my IT professional son who is an expert beyond my imaginings and I shall ask him to try all this rather than have me mess it up!

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Thank you Ageless. May you never grow old and may you live for ever!

I leave the rest to my tame visiting genius:

Hiya, first, let me say "thanks" for the tip about accessing the security tab in XP Home - I never knew that one!

We had to reset the permissions on the Program Files directory as well the All Users data directory, then did an uninstall / reinstall. After that it all worked well.

The basic problem was that the permissions had got reset on the Program Files directory. I don't know what it was that would have caused that.

Thanks again for your help!

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Glad to be of help.

Although I must credit the people at Adobe who put the list of steps to follow on their web site. Having the exact error number was useful. I hope it helps some people on the BOINC forums with equal problems. :-)

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Hmm if you start the installation of boinc it shows 3 options from which way you want it to install
Did you select to run it with the option secure enabled then you must keep doing this.

Because if you did the rights are set to the user boinc which owns that map its the most secure except under vista which dont like it that way.

Most of the time its simply solved by reinstall boinc with secure option enabled and the program should run fine again.
Second make sure to disable the option run as service since cuda has a problem with that.( i heard the newest beta has it solved but i would keep it at 6.5.0 )

The problem is that if you ever used this secure option, it won't accept you to change this other then a clean empty install ( Hence no open/started projects )

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