I have registered for BOINC and received a reply with URL and account ID.

I then installed the BOINC software and attached to the SETI project using the supplied info. BOINC loads the application but doesn't start processing.

Opening BOINC the messages tab reads:

Starting BOINC client version 3.19 for windows_intelx86

Project prefs: using your defaults

Host ID is XXX

No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults

The disk tab shows seti@home with 716 KB and BOINC software at 1.97MB

The transfer tab is empty

and the work tab shows a status of downloading.

I have tried starting BOINC several times in the last few days and nothing happens.

Any suggestions what is wrong?

Many thanks

Most likely the .exe or .pbd file was currupted in download. If it doesn't fix itself soon a project reset may be needed.

John Keck
BOINCing since 2002/12/08

I got an error message this morning "Server has software problems. Project is down." The BOINC client appears to be doing its job of automatically retrying periodically (although the messages seem to be interleaving multiple threads, so it's hard to be sure.) Last night, I was also getting "No schedulers responded" to requests for more data. From the project news, demand appears high so it may be that there are load and stability problems, and that it may take them several days to smooth out the data flow at the server end.

Hi

I am still having the same problem. Today for the first time it actually downloaded some work. I get the started and finished messages under message tab. I can see the units under work tab, but nothing happens. BOINC is set to run always but the CPU is idle.

What do I have to set for BOINC to actually process the work units?

Many thanks

i found out that when i had preditor running, boinc would start downloading wu's for setiathome, but not start crunching before the predictor-que was empty, even though setiathome's settings is 2/3's and predictor is 1/3, predictor also downloads new wu's before it's que is empty. this essensially means that setiathome never gets to start crunching wu's. but just sits there waiting. the only way i could fix it was to detatch preditorathome and let setiathome start crunching alone. if i reattatch predictor the same problem appears. i also set predictor to use only 1 prosessor and seti 2 max. there seems to be a problem with how boinc relates to several different projects running at the same time.
i hope this anwered some questions. :)

Mant thanks for the reply darkspace, I am only running one project.

I have tried resetting the project and I get this in messages tab

SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:18 - Started download of setiathome_3.08_windows_intelx86.pdb
SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:18 - verify_downloaded_file(): projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu\better_banner.jpg: MD5 check failed
SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:18 - expected 9ca6d34477ce3b990690a11a306a6616, got 4b626589eeba376621a4c93ae5a0e347
SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:18 - Checksum or signature error for better_banner.jpg
SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:44 - Finished download of setiathome_3.08_windows_intelx86.exe

I guess this explains why it doesn't start, but I have no idea why or how to correct this.

> SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:18 - verify_downloaded_file():
> projectssetiathome.berkeley.edubetter_banner.jpg: MD5 check failed
> SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:18 - expected 9ca6d34477ce3b990690a11a306a6616,
> got 4b626589eeba376621a4c93ae5a0e347
> SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:18 - Checksum or signature error for
> better_banner.jpg
> SETI@home - 2004-07-04 18:19:44 - Finished download of
> setiathome_3.08_windows_intelx86.exe
>
> I guess this explains why it doesn't start, but I have no idea why or how to
> correct this.

Can you verify the file size of the setiathome_3.08_windows_intelx86.pdb? It should have 1.470.464 bytes on disk.
If your file has another size, I would suggest detaching from the project and re-attaching. I guess something went wrong when downloading the files. Once you will re-attach, the client will download again the pdb as well as the exe file.

> Can you verify the file size of the setiathome_3.08_windows_intelx86.pdb? It
> should have 1.470.464 bytes on disk.
> If your file has another size, I would suggest detaching from the project and
> re-attaching. I guess something went wrong when downloading the files. Once
> you will re-attach, the client will download again the pdb as well as the exe
> file.
>
>

Hi

The properties on my setiathome_3.08_windows_intelx86.pdb file shows 1.40MB 1469440 bytes, which is different to the values you have. I have tried re-attaching the project several times and each time I get the same Checksum or signature error for better_banner.jpg messages. I have even uninstalled BOINC, deleted the entire BOINC folder and reinstalled from the beginning and I still get the same problem.

The OS I am running is Windows XP Pro SP1.

Does this mean that the install from SETI is some how corrupted on the server end or is it a problem on my PC?

Puzzled and confused.

> The properties on my setiathome_3.08_windows_intelx86.pdb file shows 1.40MB
> 1469440 bytes, which is different to the values you have. I have tried
> re-attaching the project several times and each time I get the same Checksum
> or signature error for better_banner.jpg messages. I have even uninstalled
> BOINC, deleted the entire BOINC folder and reinstalled from the beginning and
> I still get the same problem.

My OS is the same.
The size of the pdb file looks OK. (I have under properties "Size" and "Size on disk".) I have the same "size" as the one you give.

Apparently there is something wrong with the jpg file. Did you already try to download the software again? Maybe something went wrong during the download.

>
> My OS is the same.
> The size of the pdb file looks OK. (I have under properties "Size" and "Size
> on disk".) I have the same "size" as the one you give.
>
> Apparently there is something wrong with the jpg file. Did you already try to
> download the software again? Maybe something went wrong during the download.
>
>

Yes, that jpg file is garbage. It is basically an empty jpg. I think I have the solution to the problem as well. better_banner is not an ideal name for the file as I have checked the logs of my Norton Personal Firewall and it blocked that download due to the word "banner".

I have set NPF up now to allow this, but the project is now saying no work available. I think once work units are available it will start working.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for everybodies help on this,

Yep, I can confirm the better_banner.jpg file is problematic. My firewall (Agnitum Outpost) also blocked that image. Temporarily disabling ad blocking and reattaching to the project solved the problem, Boinc is now processing happily.