This is about a computer I recently put together from various parts collecting dust.

Athlon X2 3800
8500GT
1 GB ram.
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/show_host_detail.php?hostid=7246550

For some reason cpu mb wu's get stuck for no apparent cause, or to be more precise, slow down to about 1/1000% per 7 sec. And ETA is blanc.

So far I tried rebooting, leave 1 cpu core free, reinstalling boinc and resetting project. To no avail.

What's next to try?

I have this happen sometimes on my GPU WUs. Not sure why.

Is it every single WU for you? Or just some now and then?

It is a pain, but if I suspend the task and resume it 1 minute later, it can usually finish up. It isn't a permanent solution, but at least gets the WU finished.

It seems to have completed a few, but now it looks like it hangs on all of them.

Ill try your trick, but if a computer reboot doesn't help might not either.

I do not think you have enough memory in this computer. You should have at least 2G IMHO.

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

I do not think you have enough memory in this computer. You should have at least 2G IMHO.

Bill maybe right there, after doing a restart open up Windows Task Manager and go to the Performance tab to see how much memory the system is actually using (you maybe actually flogging the swap file which in turn means that the hard drive is being flogged and may not be able to keep up with the demand).

Cheers.

Ok, so I restarted boinc and the bad wu's were gone from the queue and new ones automatically started. At 40% now and seemingly running fine.

RAM usage is 486 MB. I'll remember to check again when things are moving slow.

But perhaps I should simply scrap this piece of junk...

I´m not sure thats could be the cause of your troubles but your WU shows: SETI@home v7 v7.00 (cuda50)

The 8500GT is an old GPU and unable to run cuda50 (thats only for kepplers and up GPUs), so it will going to take a very long time to cruch in your GPU a WU with cuda50 software emulation.

Your GPU is suited to run only cuda23 or cuda32 at max, you have 2 ways to ensure that happening, leave the way the things are now and wait a long time to the servers note that and stop sending the other cuda WU to your hosts diferent from the cuda23/32 or install the Lunnatics Builds and you select to run only the cuda23/32 builds.

It´s your choice of course but i strongly recomend you to use the Lunnatics builds, could take a long time (even weeks on a slow GPU) before the servers stop sending wrong cuda version WU to your hosts.

If you wish to try you could DL them at: http://www.arkayn.us/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=214df9eb79c5f82848efb28f36110e43&
In this page there are an interesting explanation about what is the best cuda for your specific GPU too.

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I´m not sure thats could be the cause of your troubles but your WU shows: SETI@home v7 v7.00 (cuda50)

The 8500GT is an old GPU and unable to run cuda50 (thats only for kepplers and up GPUs), so it will going to take a very long time to cruch in your GPU a WU with cuda50 software emulation.

Your GPU is suited to run only cuda23 or cuda32 at max, you have 2 ways to ensure that happening, leave the way the things are now and wait a long time to the servers note that and stop sending the other cuda WU to your hosts diferent from the cuda23/32 or install the Lunnatics Builds and you select to run only the cuda23/32 builds.

It´s your choice of course but i strongly recomend you to use the Lunnatics builds, could take a long time (even weeks on a slow GPU) before the servers stop sending wrong cuda version WU to your hosts.

If you wish to try you could DL them at: http://www.arkayn.us/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=214df9eb79c5f82848efb28f36110e43&
In this page there are an interesting explanation about what is the best cuda for your specific GPU too.

That is strange because it has only cuda23 and CPU work units on it when I checked just now. And the CPU WU's have been working for 16 hours, 85%, with no estimated time to finish. Only 500 MB of RAM used. The GPU keeps going.

Yeah I get that using lunatics can speed things up, but by looking at its web page it seems to be such a hassle. Might look into it eventually and crunch like a pro. But thanks anyway.

Do you still think the GPU slows down the CPU? Usually it's the other way around.

Do you still think the GPU slows down the CPU? Usually it's the other way around.

No the GPU normaly not slow down the CPU (just use a part of it to feed it´s data), in this case the problem is with the cuda50 builds itself, since your GPU does not support some of their code, instead of running faster actualy the code runs slower. It´s for cuda experts to explain why, i just know it´s slower and not recomended to use.

As you could see by the instructions, you must not run cuda4 or cuda5 on older GPU´s like the 8500GT .

And not forget, newer drivers uses a lot more RAM than olders, so that´s coudl be antoher possible source of your spped problem, since if you are aout of memory windows automaticaly uses the ulra slow swap file located on the HDD, something clearely not good for crunching.

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