A strange behavior of BOINC 7.0.28, 64bit on a WIN XP64 host.

Questions and Answers : Windows : A strange behavior of BOINC 7.0.28, 64bit on a WIN XP64 host.
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Profile Fred J. Verster
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Message 1297332 - Posted: 20 Oct 2012, 21:18:34 UTC
Last modified: 20 Oct 2012, 21:19:22 UTC

Some time ago, 6 months, the second hard-Drive of this host, died.

No immediat problem, I managed to copy the DATA map on to the C drive and
ran the BOINC manager and LUNATICs Installer v40 again, sofar so good.

A few days back I had to reBOOT the computer and BOINC would not start,
instead, boinc.exe; boincmgr.exe; boinccmd.exe; boincsvccrt.exe; boincscr.exe
and boinctray.exe
were running, but the boinc.executable was very busy
reading and writing to and from memory, >20,000,000KByte in 30 seconds.

BOINC manager still refuses to start and stopping boinc*.executables only
had effect through ]TaskManager by killing the Process or --- Tree.

Tried an new install, yet again, which offered a repair funtion and did not work.

Confused, after looking in the Registry revealing nothing wrong, I
started boinc.exe (more or less 'by accident') but a screen was opened and clearly (BOINC)-text was displayed, but stopped after a short time.

Tried this again and also started BOINC-Manager (boincmgr.exe)manually and it started.
Minimized the boinc.exe screen and it still runs.

But something is still wrong, 1st: far too much memory-usage, the host has 8
GByte DDR2 800 (FSB=1600MHz.) It's again complaining about too little
Virtual Memory. And 4GByte is used and 3.2GHz. is used as Cache.

I've also tried to set N.N.T on all Projects attached, so I can look in this
and add a second Hard-Disk/DataDisk, but after a contact with one of the
projects, all N.N.T. settings have dissappeared?!

Anyone who may have a clue as to what's going on?

(O.S.=WIN XP Pro 64bit; CPU QX9650 (@3.6GHz.)ASUS P5E Mobo; GPU=GTX480 (driver
275.33); PSU Coolermaster 650Watt, no case. 1 Hard-drive a.t.m.1 CD/DVD reader/
writer. A.V. program AVAST Free version).
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Profile Fred J. Verster
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Message 1297595 - Posted: 21 Oct 2012, 13:58:29 UTC - in response to Message 1297332.  

Since I still don't have a single clue as to what is causing this
particular behavior, I've set all 7 Projects to N.N.Tasks and will add a second
drive. (Hoping this will stay this way, it's changed before, the N.N.T. I mean).

Although it should function with 1 drive as well?! It simply refuses.
So I'll copy the DATA-Dir, delete all BOINC maps and start again.

I was hoping someone would come up with some kind of explanation, maybe
something I've been missing or overlooking.

If it goes wrong, f.i. WUs aren't accepted, after copying, I apollogize to my wingmen and hope Task_resends is ON.

Happy Crunching.






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Profile BilBg
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Message 1297825 - Posted: 22 Oct 2012, 9:11:08 UTC - in response to Message 1297595.  
Last modified: 22 Oct 2012, 9:25:07 UTC


Try to be systematic, do the tests step-by-step:

0) Every time you move BOINC Data dir - better do this:
Uninstall BOINC (do not manually delete anything)
Move BOINC Data dir
Install BOINC again and on Advanced screen select your current location of BOINC Data dir
(by the way: where is your current location of BOINC Data dir? (copy full path))


Only if the above did not 'fix things':

1) How many tasks you have total from "all 7 Projects"?
BOINC may be busy sorting all the tasks if you stay on Tasks tab, try to stay on Projects tab for now
Restart BOINC - it will start on Projects tab, do you see "this particular behavior" again?

If yes - explain again what do you mean by "this particular behavior", it is not clear what you mean by:
"BOINC would not start, instead, boinc.exe; boincmgr.exe; boinccmd.exe; boincsvccrt.exe; boincscr.exe and boinctray.exe were running"
"new install, yet again, which offered a repair funtion and did not work"
"It simply refuses"

And of course BOINC will "function with 1 drive as well"


2) [Suspend] "all 7 Projects"
Exit BOINC (check if boinc.exe and boincmgr.exe processes exited)

Start BOINC Manager
- see if it starts boinc.exe
- see will again boinc.exe be "very busy reading and writing to and from memory"?
- post you start-up messages (from Event Log, first ~50 lines)

[Resume] one Project at a time and see what happens.


 


- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 
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Profile Fred J. Verster
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Message 1297870 - Posted: 22 Oct 2012, 13:00:11 UTC - in response to Message 1297825.  

It looks like I've got a virus or more then 1 on this host.
(Or it has been hacked?!)(And the C drive appeared to be 'shared'?)

I'll scan and copy the data-dir :
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC\projects\Setiathome
and the 6 other projects.

When I start BOINC (manager), boinc.exe starts to read and write 121.000.000.000 bytes?! (After 20 seconds). (WIN XP64; 8GByte DDR2; BOINC 7.0.28 on C drive).

But nothing further happens, until a message shows: too low on virtual memory.
And the BOINCmgr.exe never starts.






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Message 1297879 - Posted: 22 Oct 2012, 14:19:17 UTC - in response to Message 1297870.  
Last modified: 22 Oct 2012, 14:21:41 UTC

After starting boinc.exe manually followed by boincmgr.exe, it starts.

Not by starting the BOINC(mgr) Manager itself.

Here are the start-up messages :
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Starting BOINC client version 7.0.28 for windows_x86_64
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Libraries: libcurl/7.25.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1 zlib/1.2.6
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Data directory: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Running under account Administrator
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9650  @ 3.00GHz [Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6]
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Processor: 6.00 MB cache
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 syscall lm vmx tm2 pbe
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | OS: Microsoft Windows XP: Professional x64 Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.02.3790.00)
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Memory: 8.00 GB physical, 16.68 GB virtual
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Disk: 232.88 GB total, 140.78 GB free
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Local time is UTC +2 hours
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 480 (driver version 275.33, CUDA version 4.0, compute capability 2.0, 1536MB, 1456MB available, 1345 GFLOPS peak)
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0 (not used): GeForce GTX 480 (driver version 275.33, device version OpenCL 1.0 CUDA, 1536MB, 1456MB available)
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | SETI@home | Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Config: simulate 4 CPUs
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Config: report completed tasks immediately
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Config: use all coprocessors
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | rosetta@home | URL http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/; Computer ID 1535254; resource share 50
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | Leiden Classical | URL http://boinc.gorlaeus.net/; Computer ID 96264; resource share 75
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | climateprediction.net | URL http://climateprediction.net/; Computer ID 1213773; resource share 100
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 5178233; resource share 250
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | LHC@home 1.0 | URL http://lhcathomeclassic.cern.ch/sixtrack/; Computer ID 9994869; resource share 200
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 6635641; resource share 450
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | malariacontrol.net | URL http://www.malariacontrol.net/; Computer ID 581044; resource share 50
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | Einstein@Home | General prefs: from Einstein@Home (last modified 28-Sep-2012 23:26:11)
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | Einstein@Home | Computer location: home
22-10-2012 16:09:13 | Einstein@Home | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Reading preferences override file
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Preferences:
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | max memory usage when active: 4914.48MB
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | max memory usage when idle: 7371.72MB
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | max disk usage: 100.00GB
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | max download rate: 749998 bytes/sec
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | max upload rate: 50002 bytes/sec
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | (to change preferences, visit the web site of an attached project, or select Preferences in the Manager)
22-10-2012 16:09:13 |  | Not using a proxy
22-10-2012 16:09:34 |  | Running CPU benchmarks
22-10-2012 16:09:34 |  | Suspending computation - CPU benchmarks in progress
22-10-2012 16:09:34 |  | Suspending network activity - user request
22-10-2012 16:10:05 |  | Benchmark results:
22-10-2012 16:10:05 |  | Number of CPUs: 4
22-10-2012 16:10:05 |  | 3604 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
22-10-2012 16:10:05 |  | 10402 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
22-10-2012 16:10:45 | malariacontrol.net | Task wu_2899_525_878005_0_1350388213_2 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file


AVAST hasn't find anything.

And I haven't seen Config: simulate 4 CPUs?
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Message 1297888 - Posted: 22 Oct 2012, 14:57:39 UTC

This sounds like a dying HDD. I've had HDD's that would install a program only to lose it later. Try a scan disk or check disk for HDD sector errors


In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
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Message 1297928 - Posted: 22 Oct 2012, 17:42:14 UTC - in response to Message 1297888.  
Last modified: 22 Oct 2012, 17:43:44 UTC

This sounds like a dying HDD. I've had HDD's that would install a program only to lose it later. Try a scan disk or check disk for HDD sector errors


It BOOTs OK, nothing wrong there, all start-up programs run, except BOINC.
I ran chkdsk /f and defrag also AV scan. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I'll install a second disk, as I've done on all hosts, only this one has 1 disk,
since the 2nd disk failed 5 months ago and removed the BOINC data-dir to the
Default map on the C drive*, which then worked. Until I reBOOTed, a few
days ago.
* C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC\projects\.......

Even checked the Registry, nothing unusual again.
Well, it gives me time to find out what will/can have caused this...
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Message 1299598 - Posted: 28 Oct 2012, 1:18:19 UTC - in response to Message 1297928.  
Last modified: 28 Oct 2012, 1:47:34 UTC

First my apollogies for the work timing out, as problems appear more
serious.

A Trojan is found and network-settings are changed, C (BOOT) drive is
Shared, you can undo this but it simply changes back!?

And in BOINC (7.0.28), I found a cc_config.xml file with every option activated?
I just reinstall WIN XP64bit and add a data drive.
And this can generate a lot of Reading & Writing to and from (hard)Disk.

And since it's a Dedicated BOINC/SETI host/cruncher, it doesn't need sound, so the SoundCard, with a PCIe x1 bus and has been removed.(Software too.)
(For low noice/temps and high throughput the case is also removed.
78C for the 480 and 66C for the C2E X9650(3.6GHz.) air cooled). PSU
Coolermaster 650 Watt.
Power use with 4 SETI MB on CPU and 2 on GPU, is ~365 Watt.
5 Watt more compaired to 4 Einstein Gravitationel Wave Search WUs
on CPU and 2 BRP4{ATI/CUDA}on GPU, with their latest CUDA & OpenCL program.

But first I'm gonna sleep and change a few clocks 1 hour back.
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Message 1299692 - Posted: 28 Oct 2012, 8:47:02 UTC - in response to Message 1299598.  
Last modified: 28 Oct 2012, 9:11:08 UTC

Run HitmanPro 3.5+ (See this Wikipedia article for a description and link to its web site). You can use it for free for 30 days, but probably only have to use it this once.
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Questions and Answers : Windows : A strange behavior of BOINC 7.0.28, 64bit on a WIN XP64 host.


 
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