I had two 9800 GT cards installed and running perfectly for a week or so in my new computer. Today I installed a new GeForce GTS 250 and of course the problems start. Nothing is ever easy for me it seems...

At first the GTS 250 didn't show up in BOINC manager at all. I moved it to the #1 PCI-E 2.0 slot and now my monitor is hooked up to it. Still didn't show up in BOINC manager or my account page. So, I decided to download and install the newest driver(version 190.62) from Nvidia.com.

Ok, Now it shows up in my SETI account as a GTS 250...Good deal! But... my other two 9800 GT cards disappeared from my account.

BOINC manager now shows three 9800 GT cards and two of them are showing as "not used". Only one CUDA runs at a time and it's running on the GTS 250.

Can someone please give me some advice? I have about 200 work units and don't want to lose them if possible.

This is the info from my account and BOINC manager:
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Starting BOINC client version 6.6.36 for windows_intelx86
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Libraries: libcurl/7.19.4 OpenSSL/0.9.8j zlib/1.2.3
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz [x86

Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni mmx
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM OS: Microsoft Windows 7: x86 Edition, (06.01.7100.00)
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Memory: 2.50 GB physical, 5.00 GB virtual
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Disk: 186.21 GB total, 169.61 GB free
9/2/2009 6:29:51 PM Local time is UTC -5 hours
9/2/2009 6:29:53 PM CUDA device: GeForce 9800 GT (driver version 19062, compute capability 1.1,

512MB, est. 65GFLOPS)
9/2/2009 6:29:53 PM CUDA device (not used): GeForce 9800 GT (driver version 19062, compute

capability 1.1, 512MB, est. 65GFLOPS)
9/2/2009 6:29:53 PM CUDA device (not used): GeForce 9800 GT (driver version 19062, compute

capability 1.1, 512MB, est. 65GFLOPS)
9/2/2009 6:29:53 PM SETI@home Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
9/2/2009 6:29:53 PM Not using a proxy
9/2/2009 6:29:53 PM SETI@home URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/;
home; project prefs: default
9/2/2009 6:29:54 PM SETI@home General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 02-Sep-2009 17:22:45)
9/2/2009 6:29:54 PM SETI@home Computer location: home
9/2/2009 6:29:54 PM SETI@home General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults

In my account the GTS 250 shows up:

GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
(4 processors) NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 (1024MB) driver: 19062 Microsoft Windows 7
x86 Edition, (06.01.7100.00) 2 Sep 2009 22:26:00 UTC

You need a cc_config.xml with this entry in it:

<cc_config>
<options>
<use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

just drop the file your Boinc Data folder, and restart Boinc.

Claggy

Edit: see: BOINC FAQ Service

You need a cc_config.xml with this entry in it:

<cc_config>
<options>
<use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

just drop the file your Boinc Data folder, and restart Boinc.

Claggy

Thanks for the quick reply!

See if I have this right. I copy what you posted into notepad and save and name it cc_config.xml. Then I just drop it in my BOINC data folder and restart BOINC?

That would be the file: C:\ProgramData\BOINC\??

just hit re-read in the advance panel. and yes, that's where the data is in vista/7.

hmmm, 3 9800 gt's or 1 gts 250??? ODD!!!!

just hit re-read in the advance panel. and yes, that's where the data is in vista/7.

hmmm, 3 9800 gt's or 1 gts 250??? ODD!!!!

Thanks!

I have two 9800 GT's and one GTS 250 I installed today. BOINC manager shows three 9800 GT's.

All three GPU's are happily crunching now!!

Thanks guys for the great advice and fast response. I thank you and my wingmen thank you for not letting me dump all those work units. :)

i had that problem when i tried to add a 9400 gt to my 260, boinc only wanted the name of 1 of them. it's strange but if you can live with it, so be it.

i had that problem when i tried to add a 9400 gt to my 260, boinc only wanted the name of 1 of them. it's strange but if you can live with it, so be it.

That's not really important to me either. Just as long as they all crunch, life is good.

I found out fast that I can't overclock them anymore. I have a really good cooling setup with 9 fans not including the PSU fan. I guess the cards are so close to each other now that they can't keep cool. When the temps reached just above 70C, I had to kill the overclock. And that's with two 120mm fans blowing directly on them at 100% speed.

Edit: Make that 8 fans. The bottom fan can't get air because the carpet pushes on the bottom of the case. I have it unplugged.

Might try a milder overclock after I break-in the new card for a few days.

use evga precision and set fans on gpus at constant 70 %. or do it through the nvid control panel.

---

I recommend Secunia PSI: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
Go Georgia Tech.

use evga precision and set fans on gpus at constant 70 %. or do it through the nvid control panel.

That's the same program I use. Had all three fans set at 75%. I didn't want to push the fans harder and have them seize up.

I don't care about case fans. If they burn out it's no big deal. If a GPU fan burns out it's prolly the end of the card.

At standard clock your 9800GT cards should run 24/7 with no temp problems.

---

me@rescam.org

At standard clock your 9800GT cards should run 24/7 with no temp problems.

Your right. They all hover around 60C when running CUDA. And with room temps about 74F (23C). I can't imagine how hot they would get if my A/C was off.

I need to look at the temp thresholds for the cards. I'm not sure if 70C is too close to the upper limit. Or if it will shorten the life of the cards.

Might have to put the computer on top of a piece of plastic of something to raise it off the carpet. The bottom case fan pushing the heat up should help.

At standard clock your 9800GT cards should run 24/7 with no temp problems.

Not only at standard clock. 9800gt works well quite overclocked, with no additional fans or custom cooling systems.
I use RivaTuner program for overclocking and this is the results:



The 9800gt fan is manually set to 44%

---

Cogito Ergo Sum

At standard clock your 9800GT cards should run 24/7 with no temp problems.

Not only at standard clock. 9800gt works well quite overclocked, with no additional fans or custom cooling systems.

The 9800gt fan is manually set to 44%

Heat wouldn't be a problem with just one 9800GT. I have two of them and a 250 GTS in the same computer. And the quad core pushes out a lot of heat on it's own.

It's all good now anyway. I have the case on a thin stainless steel plate (Was a door bottom kick plate). The bottom case fan is working quite well now.

On another problem..I finally installed a new operating system, Vista 64bit. Once again BOINC would only see one video card. Tried the cc_config.xml with no luck this time. Made a trip to Radio Shack and bought six 68-Ohm resistors and made dummy plugs so the computer would think it had three monitors. That did the trick. All three cards are happily crunching again.

If anybody needs detailed instructions on how to make dummy plugs, just let me know. It only takes a few minutes to make them. You need wire cutters and three 60 to 75ohm resistors per video card.

All three cards are happily crunching again.

I like your enthusiasm man!
You are making me feel ashamed about my modest rig. If I manage to get divorced, without ending up homeless and penniless, I am considering buying something like nVidia Quadro Plex in the not so distant future. :-|

---

Cogito Ergo Sum

All three cards are happily crunching again.

I like your enthusiasm man!
You are making me feel ashamed about my modest rig. If I manage to get divorced, without ending up homeless and penniless, I am considering buying something like nVidia Quadro Plex in the not so distant future. :-|

Thanks!

This was the first halfway decent system I've built. I say halfway because I had to build it on a budget of approximately $1200.00 US. I could have spent several thousand if I could afford it. I bought the motherboard knowing it had lots of room for future upgrades and complete control to overclock everything. Eventually I'll switch-out the video cards for three GTX 295's and max-out the CPU.

Please don't feel ashamed of your rig! It has specs very close to the computer this one replaced and it was new just two years ago. My system is modest compared to all of the i7's around here.

The video card in your future Quadro Plex costs two times as much as my whole computer. :) Very nice!

to hell with 295s if you have time to wait, wait for the gt300 chips :)

---

to hell with 295s if you have time to wait, wait for the gt300 chips :)

If I can afford three or even one of them. They're going to have 512 cores and 3 TeraFlops if each core is 2GHz! Two times the power of the 200 cards.
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/4/22/nvidias-gt300-specifications-revealed---its-a-cgpu!.aspx

That blows my mind knowing I could have a computer with 9 TFLOPS of computing power! I'm not going to get too excited though, doubt I could afford them. Maybe in a couple years when they get to the $400 to $500 range.

computing power doubles every 18 months according to Moore's law. the new 300 cards don't surprise me one kilo-bit.

---

I recommend Secunia PSI: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
Go Georgia Tech.

computing power doubles every 18 months according to Moore's law..

I'll have my secretary change that. I always like to keep people on their toes.

---

me@rescam.org