Trouble with BOINC

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Kenneth Eng

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Message 1233062 - Posted: 18 May 2012, 22:00:28 UTC

There's something wrong with my BOINC program. It just says "Waiting to contact project servers." I tried installing the new version. Does anyone know how I can fix this?
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Message 1233094 - Posted: 18 May 2012, 22:45:22 UTC - in response to Message 1233062.  

The project is just back from a multiple day unplanned outage. Its servers are being slammed by everyone's computer out there, uploading, reporting and trying to get new work. They won't be able to serve all at the same time.

So all you need is patience, or if you want your machine to be busy no matter what, a backup project. There are plenty to choose from: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php
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Kenneth Eng

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Message 1233510 - Posted: 19 May 2012, 16:55:22 UTC - in response to Message 1233094.  

No, actually mine's been doing this for months now. I'm going to see if it works now because I remember seeing the colorful meter thing yesterday.
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Message 1233532 - Posted: 19 May 2012, 17:37:07 UTC

This would be better serviced in "number crunching".
In short your PC last contacted the servers yesterday.
You have 2 tasks that were sent yesterday, and were aborted yesterday.
You have 2 tasks that are either running, or waiting to run.
You have 3 tasks that have been run. reported by yourself and are now awaiting validation.
You are running the "stock" applications under BOINC v 7.0.25

OK, A few things to ask -
are you running 24/7, or just a few hours a day?
Have you checked to see what cache and delay sizes you have set (on the advanced/properties tab)?

One thing is that this cruncher may be an "old" one, but the applications are new, so it will take a bit of time and patience for BOINC to sort out the correct rate of processing, thus let the tasks you have complete, upload and report, during which time you should find the guessed execution time is a bit nearer reality, and you will get a few more WU to play with.


Good Luck
Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?
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Kenneth Eng

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Message 1235913 - Posted: 24 May 2012, 14:09:35 UTC

Is there anyway an admin can check to see if my BOINC is running now? When the computer goes to screensaver, I see the whole colorful meters thing.
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Message 1235915 - Posted: 24 May 2012, 14:14:05 UTC - in response to Message 1235913.  

The Admins don't have that level of access to our machines. They can tell you about as much as we can tell you by looking into your account, and if you have your computers unhidden, tell you if you've downloaded work. No one can tell you what your system is doing beyond asking more questions.
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Message 1265594 - Posted: 29 Jul 2012, 18:55:39 UTC

I searched the forums and did not find this issue. If it has already been addressed, I apologize. I have been participating in SETI at home since 1999. When I got a new Dell in April 2011 (Windows 7 Office 2010 home wired LAN) SETI was downloaded and has been running fine until about a month ago. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and consistently get a message on both tasks that reads "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable." My drive is not partitioned and I do not have a local server. Everything I have installed is on my C drive. So I am stumped. Suggestions?

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Message 1265615 - Posted: 29 Jul 2012, 20:00:53 UTC - in response to Message 1265594.  

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Message 1265708 - Posted: 30 Jul 2012, 0:52:39 UTC - in response to Message 1265615.  

Thank you. The Windows Installer Clean-up Utility seems to have done the trick. I was running BOINC 6.12.34, which apparently got corrupted somehow. I was ultimately able to download and install 7.0.31. I was just about to give up, despite how badly I want to participate in communicating with E.T. I worked in I.T. for ten years at a large corporation before I retired, and am more computer savvy than many folks. It is in that context that I add this comment: this program needs to be more robust and idiot-proofed if SETI really wants to tap into all of this distributed computing power. I spent hours I did not have getting this sorted out.
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Message 1265810 - Posted: 30 Jul 2012, 9:06:20 UTC - in response to Message 1265708.  
Last modified: 30 Jul 2012, 9:54:26 UTC

It is in that context that I add this comment: this program needs to be more robust and idiot-proofed if SETI really wants to tap into all of this distributed computing power.

Yes, but here's the thing. This is not something that Berkeley (BOINC) needs to fix. It's WINDOWS that forgets that you installed the program. It's the WINDOWS link to the correct BOINC.MSI that goes corrupt in the WINDOWS registry. The MSI in BOINC.MSI stands for MicroSoft Installer.

With 50+ different science projects under its belt, BOINC is also a lot more than just Seti. On top of that, BOINC is the same across three major platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X). You can download its source code, compile it on any of the platforms and have it look and work the same on all three, without needing to jump through hoops or be reliant on special OS APIs.

I spent hours I did not have getting this sorted out.

You could not find the most asked question in a search on these (or any other BOINC project's) forums? Had you just adjusted the 'Search limist' in the forum search to 3 months, you'd have found Gundolf's answer already.
Else, put boinc "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable." into Google, like so and that BOINC FAQ is the top one returned.

Addendum: BOINC is ALWAYS on the lookout for Alpha testers. You could of course yell to others to make things better, but why bother when you can do better yourself? :P
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Message 1266020 - Posted: 30 Jul 2012, 23:54:46 UTC - in response to Message 1265810.  

It is in that context that I add this comment: this program needs to be more robust and idiot-proofed if SETI really wants to tap into all of this distributed computing power.

Yes, but here's the thing. This is not something that Berkeley (BOINC) needs to fix. It's WINDOWS that forgets that you installed the program. It's the WINDOWS link to the correct BOINC.MSI that goes corrupt in the WINDOWS registry. The MSI in BOINC.MSI stands for MicroSoft Installer.

With 50+ different science projects under its belt, BOINC is also a lot more than just Seti. On top of that, BOINC is the same across three major platforms (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X). You can download its source code, compile it on any of the platforms and have it look and work the same on all three, without needing to jump through hoops or be reliant on special OS APIs.

I spent hours I did not have getting this sorted out.

You could not find the most asked question in a search on these (or any other BOINC project's) forums? Had you just adjusted the 'Search limist' in the forum search to 3 months, you'd have found Gundolf's answer already.
Else, put boinc "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable." into Google, like so and that BOINC FAQ is the top one returned.

Addendum: BOINC is ALWAYS on the lookout for Alpha testers. You could of course yell to others to make things better, but why bother when you can do better yourself? :P

Typically what happens is that you download and install from a temporary location (this is done by Windows). Windows then remembers that you have installed BOINC, and exactly where the install image came from. Then when the temporary file is deleted, windows is still pointing at the location where the MSI file was. The first step of the install is to cleanup up any old executables that were installed. To do this, the old MSI has to be found...


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Message 1266035 - Posted: 31 Jul 2012, 1:13:57 UTC - in response to Message 1265810.  

Oh, I was so hoping not to tick anyone off. I apologize. I actually DID search the error message without finding the correct thread. I apologize again. I am not as computer savvy as you guys, obviously. I am just a long-time user (I was one of the first business users of the Xerox PARC GUI before there were commercially available GUIs) but I was always more involved with telecom and business requirements. I confess I never even learned rudimentary HTML. My actual programming experience was 35 years ago with FORTRAN and punch cards. So I don't think I am qualified to be an alpha tester. I am also the first one to admit that Windows has many flaws. Now, an honest question -- I swear I am not trying to be a troll. Why do some programs I install update themselves automatically and seem to stay uncorrupted while others do not? Maybe that's really a multi-level question.

Anyway, I appreciate the help, and have another question about SETI/BOINC. I successfully installed 7.0.31 over 24 hours ago. Under tasks it shows STAUS: SUSPENDED COMPUTER IS IN USE. I was not using my PC for almost 20 hours, so the program should have finished transferring the task, and started computing, right? Is it possible that some background program is preventing BOINC from running even when my machine is idle?

Thanks again in advance.


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Message 1266082 - Posted: 31 Jul 2012, 5:16:08 UTC - in response to Message 1266035.  
Last modified: 31 Jul 2012, 5:47:21 UTC

Why do some programs I install update themselves automatically and seem to stay uncorrupted while others do not?

Not every install uses MSI, this error is only connected with MSI
The previous post (by John McLeod VII) explains a case how it may happen (maybe if you select [Run] instead of [Save] in the browser during download of the installer?)

From an old file I have (Windows Installer CleanUp Utility: msicuu2.exe):

README FOR WINDOWS INSTALLER CLEAN UP UTILITY version 3
SEPTEMBER, 2006

WHAT IS THE WINDOWS INSTALLER CLEAN UP UTILITY?
The Windows Installer Clean Up Utility is a tool that can be used to remove Windows Installer configuration management information if a problem occurs.

*** NOTE: The Windows Installer Clean Up Utility should not be used to remove the 2007 Microsoft Office System installation information. ***

The Windows Installer configuration management information can become damaged if any of the following issues occur:

- The computer's registry becomes corrupted.

- A registry setting that is used by the Windows Installer is
inadvertently changed, and this change results in a problem.

- The installation of a program that uses Windows Installer (for
example, Microsoft Office 2003) is interrupted.

- There are multiple instances of a setup program running at the same time, or
an instance of a setup program is "blocked."


Under tasks it shows STATUS: SUSPENDED COMPUTER IS IN USE. I was not using my PC for almost 20 hours, so the program should have finished transferring the task, and started computing, right?

You can check if it 'have finished transferring' in the Transfers tab.
Do you see the process boinctray.exe in Windows Task Manager?


 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 
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Message 1266283 - Posted: 31 Jul 2012, 22:55:57 UTC - in response to Message 1266035.  

Oh, I was so hoping not to tick anyone off. I apologize. I actually DID search the error message without finding the correct thread. I apologize again. I am not as computer savvy as you guys, obviously. I am just a long-time user (I was one of the first business users of the Xerox PARC GUI before there were commercially available GUIs) but I was always more involved with telecom and business requirements. I confess I never even learned rudimentary HTML. My actual programming experience was 35 years ago with FORTRAN and punch cards. So I don't think I am qualified to be an alpha tester. I am also the first one to admit that Windows has many flaws. Now, an honest question -- I swear I am not trying to be a troll. Why do some programs I install update themselves automatically and seem to stay uncorrupted while others do not? Maybe that's really a multi-level question.

Anyway, I appreciate the help, and have another question about SETI/BOINC. I successfully installed 7.0.31 over 24 hours ago. Under tasks it shows STAUS: SUSPENDED COMPUTER IS IN USE. I was not using my PC for almost 20 hours, so the program should have finished transferring the task, and started computing, right? Is it possible that some background program is preventing BOINC from running even when my machine is idle?

Thanks again in advance.



Alpha testers need no coding experience. Just a willingness to have things break and tell the developers how it broke.


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Message 1269430 - Posted: 9 Aug 2012, 11:41:48 UTC - in response to Message 1269374.  

The old Messages tab has been moved to Advanced -> Event Log. The new Notices tab simply lets projects notify users of news and events for the project they belong to.
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Message 1275606 - Posted: 26 Aug 2012, 3:09:17 UTC - in response to Message 1235913.  

I had this happening to me. until i set my pc not to sleep.
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Message 1295980 - Posted: 16 Oct 2012, 14:47:07 UTC
Last modified: 16 Oct 2012, 14:48:19 UTC

Hello!

Hopefully I am in the correct thread, or move forward bask Please.
Unfortunately, I can hardly speak English.

I once got a very important question.
In the following Astropule task, I have the problem that it was for a period of 41 hours shared with me, but now demands a maturity of more than 300 hours, with an 139.5 hours were calculated.
This task is still in the correct term or should I write you as a fault liability?

ap_25jl12aa_B3_P0_00299_20120929_03232.wu_0

Please reply via PM

Sincerely. Schrotty
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Message 1296048 - Posted: 17 Oct 2012, 4:14:27 UTC - in response to Message 1295980.  

Hello!

Hopefully I am in the correct thread, or move forward bask Please.
Unfortunately, I can hardly speak English.

I once got a very important question.
In the following Astropule task, I have the problem that it was for a period of 41 hours shared with me, but now demands a maturity of more than 300 hours, with an 139.5 hours were calculated.
This task is still in the correct term or should I write you as a fault liability?

ap_25jl12aa_B3_P0_00299_20120929_03232.wu_0

Please reply via PM

Sincerely. Schrotty

Sometimes the Dureation Estimate can be wildly wrong. Currently it is based on the history of the project, not just the application. So, if there are two applicaitons within the same project with different Duration Correction factors required, then the initial estimate can be dramatically wrong. (In other words, don't worry about it too much, it happens).

If your task is late, a new copy of this task will be sent to someone else. Iff you get your task completed, uploaded and reported before the replacement is completed, uploaded, reported and verified, then you will get credit if your result is a match. So, even if you are late, you might get credit anyway. In other words, don't worry about it too much.


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Message 1326143 - Posted: 9 Jan 2013, 19:19:15 UTC

I have a problem with Windows Home Premium 7. When I have to "Restart" due to updates, I lose ALL tasks, and end up with "Lost tasks loading".

What do I need to do to prevent this issue?
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Message 1326359 - Posted: 10 Jan 2013, 14:22:23 UTC - in response to Message 1326143.  
Last modified: 10 Jan 2013, 15:15:14 UTC


Probably Windows 7 is Restarting too fast for BOINC to update its files (mainly client_state.xml)
(Maybe instead of waiting for BOINC to exit gracefully Windows just kills the process (boinc.exe) after a few seconds )

Before you "Restart" Windows due to updates try to manually exit BOINC first
(check/wait in Windows Task Manager that boinc.exe really disappears from the list of processes before you proceed to "Restart" Windows)


You may want to check/set:

AutoEndTasks (have to be 0)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978604.aspx

Increase these values (e.g. double the values)
HungAppTimeout
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978614.aspx

WaitToKillAppTimeout
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978624.aspx

WaitToKillServiceTimeout
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc976045.aspx


To do this: start RegEdit and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control


 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 
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Questions and Answers : Windows : Trouble with BOINC


 
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