Am I Doing Anything Wrong?

Questions and Answers : Getting started : Am I Doing Anything Wrong?

Author	Message
John Lowrey Send message Joined: 22 Nov 12 Posts: 3 Credit: 417 RAC: 0	Message 1308588 - Posted: 22 Nov 2012, 2:26:39 UTC
	I know this will aggravate many of you and you'll think I'm just some newbie who wants instantaneous results - and you'd be right. I just downloaded BOINC and everything seemed to work fine, but it's been saying "Downloading work from the server" for the last two hours. When I go to the screensaver, I just get the BOINC logo saying "No running tasks" and "Computer is in use." What else do I need to do, if anything? Thanks, J.
	ID: 1308588 ·

John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 439,209 RAC: 396	Message 1308611 - Posted: 22 Nov 2012, 4:14:38 UTC
	Sometimes the servers have problems. It is likely that the Downloading work message is at the other end. Please try attaching to another project to see if it is at your end or the other end. BOINC is perfectly happy to be attached to more than one project. No running tasks may be a side effect of the first message, or may be a side effect of the third message. The third message is the one you can do something about. There is a setting that is available on both the web site under your account, or in the UI to allow CPU usage while you are active at the keyboard and mouse. Most computers under most circumstances will have no problem doing work between keystrokes. Please set this to allow. NOTE, there is a similar setting for GPUs. Most computers do not do well if the GPU is used while you are active at the mouse and keyboard. There is also a setting to stop BOINC processing work when the CPU is more than X% busy. The default is 25% which appears to be much too low a setting for most computers. I have mine set to 100%. Of course, YMMV on the these settings. ____________ BOINC WIKI
	ID: 1308611 ·

John Lowrey Send message Joined: 22 Nov 12 Posts: 3 Credit: 417 RAC: 0	Message 1308755 - Posted: 22 Nov 2012, 13:07:08 UTC - in response to Message 1308611.
	Thanks. I added Rosetta@home and woke up this morning to see that it is loading something, though my status is listed as "Suspended - computer in use." I presume that's OK since I am, after all, using my computer. However, I'd really like to get the SETI@home working, and it says work done for this project 0. If SETI eventually starts loading, how do I give it preference over Rosetta? Thanks, J.
	ID: 1308755 ·

John McLeod VII Volunteer developer Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 15 Jul 99 Posts: 22343 Credit: 439,209 RAC: 396	Message 1308782 - Posted: 22 Nov 2012, 14:41:03 UTC - in response to Message 1308755.
	On each project's web site there you can set the Resource Share for the project. 0 means don't ask for work from this project unless all non 0 RS projects have no work. Otherwise the long term fraction of time given to a project is: RS(Project) / Sum(All RS) So if you have Rosetta set to 50 and SETI set to 450, Rosetta will get 50 / 500 or 0.1 of the time. SETI will get 450 / 500 or 0.90 of the time. I would suggest that you change the other settings (max CPU usage and use CPU while in use) so that BOINC can run while you are active. 99% of people notice no difference in usability. ____________ BOINC WIKI
	ID: 1308782 ·

John Lowrey Send message Joined: 22 Nov 12 Posts: 3 Credit: 417 RAC: 0	Message 1309088 - Posted: 23 Nov 2012, 3:05:48 UTC - in response to Message 1308782.
	Why does my screensaver say "computer is in use" when I'm clearly not using the computer?
	ID: 1309088 ·

BilBg Send message Joined: 27 May 07 Posts: 2023 Credit: 3,049,491 RAC: 6,589	Message 1309160 - Posted: 23 Nov 2012, 8:24:52 UTC - in response to Message 1309088.
	Define "clearly" Your question is already answered (but you didn't follow the suggestion to look at your settings) http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/prefs.php?subset=global http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Local_preferences ____________ - ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
	ID: 1309160 ·

rob smith Volunteer moderator Send message Joined: 7 Mar 03 Posts: 5466 Credit: 21,106,236 RAC: 133,813	Message 1309197 - Posted: 23 Nov 2012, 9:58:43 UTC
	Screen savers have a habit of being resource hungry, you may have the level of CPU usage at which S@H drops out set too low, so the screen saver will stop itself running. Or you are trying to run S@H on a GPU in which case the screen saver won't run, but might give a spurious error message. ____________ Bob Smith Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society) Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?
	ID: 1309197 ·

Questions and Answers : Getting started : Am I Doing Anything Wrong?