screen saver only...

Questions and Answers : Preferences : screen saver only...
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

AuthorMessage
Nate

Send message
Joined: 30 Sep 05
Posts: 3
Credit: 174,613
RAC: 0
United States
Message 901872 - Posted: 31 May 2009, 0:59:59 UTC

Hi, im trying to set up BOINC to use computer resources for projects only when the screen saver is active. I need all of the resources of my computer free to be used by me when im working. Im just not sure how to set it up so the projects run only when the screen saver is active. Thanks!
ID: 901872 · Report as offensive
John McLeod VII
Volunteer developer
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 15 Jul 99
Posts: 24806
Credit: 790,712
RAC: 0
United States
Message 901886 - Posted: 31 May 2009, 1:55:09 UTC - in response to Message 901872.  

Hi, im trying to set up BOINC to use computer resources for projects only when the screen saver is active. I need all of the resources of my computer free to be used by me when im working. Im just not sure how to set it up so the projects run only when the screen saver is active. Thanks!

It cannot be done exactly, however, it is possible to run when you are not actively using the keyboard or mouse. NOTE: Some systems do not like doing BOTH the screen saver and not running while the user is active. You may have to use the "Blank" or "default" screen saver. Not to worry, BOINC will still be doing the computations.

On this web site -> Your Account -> Computing Preferences. Set "Suspend work while computer is in use?" to yes. Set "Suspend GPU work while computer is in use?
Enforced by version 6.7+" to yes (note that this probably defaults to yes). Set "'In use' means mouse/keyboard activity in last" to some number of minutes that makes sense to you.


BOINC WIKI
ID: 901886 · Report as offensive
Nate

Send message
Joined: 30 Sep 05
Posts: 3
Credit: 174,613
RAC: 0
United States
Message 901889 - Posted: 31 May 2009, 2:07:56 UTC - in response to Message 901886.  

your solution will work just fine for me. thank you for the help!
ID: 901889 · Report as offensive
OzzFan Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 9 Apr 02
Posts: 15691
Credit: 84,761,841
RAC: 28
United States
Message 901890 - Posted: 31 May 2009, 2:11:06 UTC - in response to Message 901872.  

Hi, im trying to set up BOINC to use computer resources for projects only when the screen saver is active. I need all of the resources of my computer free to be used by me when im working. Im just not sure how to set it up so the projects run only when the screen saver is active. Thanks!


John has given you great advice on how to go about setting up BOINC similar to how you want it, but are you aware of modern Operating Systems and the ability to prioritize tasks? Windows supports several levels of priority, with higher priorities getting more or all of the CPU's time than lower priorities. BOINC automatically loads the science app at the lowest priority supported by the Operating System so that all user related tasks, which are two priority levels higher than the lowest, take precedence. Thus, when you need 100% of your CPU, the OS will take away all processing power used by the science app and give it to your app(s), and if you only need 10% of your CPU's power, the science app will take the other 90%. If you need 98%, the science app gets 2%. If you need 14%, the science app gets 86%, etc.

This is all done automatically and is completely transparent to the user with the exception of a few applications which are cache sensitive (mostly games).

For example, I have an 8 core machine and I let BOINC run all the time in the background, and when I need to commpile a video, burn a DVD, or anything else I do (including playing a couple games such as WoW), I don't even notice a slow down.

This does not require a powerful machine to get those results either. I also have a single core AMD Athlon XP 3200+ that I use for playing games (I use Vista x64 on my main machine and some older games won't work on it, so this machine's XP x86 works great) and a few other tasks, and there's no noticeable difference with BOINC running in the background on that machine too.

Just something to think about. Many people see their CPU pegged at 100% and think that BOINC is "hogging" all the CPU resources and think there's nothing left for them to use, but in reality, it will back off whenever you need it.
ID: 901890 · Report as offensive
Nate

Send message
Joined: 30 Sep 05
Posts: 3
Credit: 174,613
RAC: 0
United States
Message 901939 - Posted: 31 May 2009, 5:13:18 UTC - in response to Message 901890.  

Thanks OzzFan! i just checked and your right, the processes for the current tasks are set to "low" priority. Now that i know this i will just keep them running in the background. Thanks for the great information!
ID: 901939 · Report as offensive

Questions and Answers : Preferences : screen saver only...


 
©2024 University of California
 
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.