Issue with Seti running on Windows 8.1

Questions and Answers : Windows : Issue with Seti running on Windows 8.1
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mretome
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Message 1521402 - Posted: 26 May 2014, 20:44:24 UTC

Anyone else experiencing issues with Seti projects running on Windows 8.1?

Symptom I am seeing is progress on the Seti projects gets "frozen" and the percent complete stops advancing. Clocks keep running but no advance on the percent complete. I have experienced this with Seti 7 on the GPU and CPU as well as Astropulse on the CPU.

Projects running on Windows 7 and Android appear to still be running ok.
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Jason

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Message 1523400 - Posted: 1 Jun 2014, 22:54:50 UTC - in response to Message 1521402.  

I just had to delete it myself. Letting the process run in the background is nice. But I started having problems almost immediately. Namely, videos on the net and even videos saved in my computer suddenly slowing down or even freezing. My computer even crashed once and I've only had the program for a week. My computer has a quad-core processor which is about the best you can get right now in a PC or laptop and the BOINC program was proving too much. I suspect it was using more of my computer's processing power than they said it would. I believe in SETI. I believe we are not alone in the universe. Being able to help SETI analyze their data is cool. But I cannot help but feel this program was causing some kind of harm. I'm no expert on computers but I do know that when your computer begins repeatedly slowing down, freezing, and even crashing, that means something is wrong.
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far_raf

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Message 1523444 - Posted: 2 Jun 2014, 5:06:48 UTC

Hi you two, could you please read this information from my posts regarding my win 8.1 laptop:

"I have resolved the stalled wu issue on my AMD laptop. My solution was to add a registry value called TdrDelay and adjust it from the default of 2 to a value of 8. I would still suggest that you make certain that your drivers are current as a start to resolve this issue.

The following is just some information that I found after reading from many sources.

Snips from the various Microsoft web pages:

.. snip...

Symptom
Your PC may temporarily hang or become unresponsive, and you receive the following error message:
Display driver stopped responding and has recovered

Resolution
To resolve this issue, follow the steps in the methods starting with method 1 and then proceeding with method 2 if that solution does not resolve the issue.
Method 1: Increase the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) processing time by adjusting the Timeout Detection and Recovery registry value
Timeout Detection and Recovery is a Windows feature that can detect when video adapter hardware or a driver on your PC has taken longer than expected to complete an operation. When this happens, Windows attempts to recover and reset the graphics hardware. If the GPU is unable to recover and reset the graphics hardware in the time permitted (2 seconds), your system may become unresponsive, and display the error “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered.”

Giving the Timeout Detection and Recovery feature more time to complete this operation by adjusting the registry value, may resolve this issue.

..snip...

Limiting Repetitive GPU Hangs and Recoveries

Beginning with Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008, the user experience has been improved in situations where the GPU hangs frequently and rapidly. Repetitive GPU hangs indicate that the graphics hardware has not recovered successfully. In these situations, the end user must shut down and restart the operating system to fully reset the graphics hardware. If the operating system detects that six or more GPU hangs and subsequent recoveries occur within 1 minute, the operating system bug-checks the computer on the next GPU hang.

..snip...

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up the registry in Windows 7, see Back up the registry


TDR Registry Keys

You can use the following TDR-related registry keys for testing or debugging purposes only. That is, they should not be manipulated by any applications outside targeted testing or debugging.

TdrDelay

Specifies the number of seconds that the GPU can delay the preempt request from the GPU scheduler. This is effectively the timeout threshold. The default value is 2 seconds.


KeyPath : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers
KeyValue : TdrDelay
ValueType : REG_DWORD
ValueData : Number of seconds to delay. 2 seconds is the default value.

I would postulate that when we add a massive workload to gpu it takes longer than normal to report and the os sees this as a fault - thus we need to give it more time to report.

On a further information note - in my research I saw that this fault was not isolated to AMD APU's, I saw NVIDIA and AMD stand alone cards involved in the issue.

If this helps even 1 person I will be very happy."

2nd bit of information:

"Hi HAL9000, could you please post some details on your solution. It will help not just I but others that run across this thread. I thank you in advance.

Robert


Here is the whole MS write up on the options for the video Timeout Detection & Recovery.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff569918%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

I set TdrLevel to 0. Which basically just turns the whole thing off.

When I would VNC into my HTPC dwm.exe was fluctuating in memory use up to 300-400MB and back down to its normal amount. The graph on the performance tab looked like a sawtooth. Then after a few minutes I would get the display driver has stopped & been recovered message.

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Message 1512718 - Posted: 6 May 2014, 5:18:01 UTC
Last modified: 6 May 2014, 5:19:00 UTC

Hal9000, I took your advise and set TdrLevel to 0. And wanted to post so I can change title."

Just to be clear, it is not boinc that is the problem, it is an OS level problem. Look for the thread called in Number crunching : solution with reason for "display driver has stopped responding the system has recovered"
--------------------------------------------------------

The other thing to note is that you should not run boinc gpu apps in the background if you are using your gpu for things like videos. I hope this helps you mretome and jason.

Regards
Robert
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mretome
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Message 1535941 - Posted: 4 Jul 2014, 12:28:04 UTC

Adding TdrDelay to the registry appears to have fixed the issue. Thanks.
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Message 1536407 - Posted: 5 Jul 2014, 11:40:36 UTC - in response to Message 1535941.  

Anytime Mre, happy it helped you out.

Robert
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Message 1547727 - Posted: 26 Jul 2014, 2:05:17 UTC

The mechanics of setting that in the registry. You create the variable at the GraphicsDriver level?

Thanks.

Tom
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Message 1552168 - Posted: 4 Aug 2014, 12:38:42 UTC - in response to Message 1547727.  

I tried setting the proposed longer time out (I think it was 8 up from the default 2). I still got a driver crash recover message. Since the GPU stops processing at all (as far as I can tell) unless you stop/re-start Seti besides being a nuisance and potentially causing the whole PC to crash, it is a real nuisance!

I have currently backgraded to Win7 for a couple of weeks. Once I re-grade to Win8 I will be looking at disabling the time-out entirely to see if that works better for me.

I am planning on using my Win8 as a mixed use machine so the GUI really needs to continue to be pretty responsive.

Tom
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Message 1553166 - Posted: 7 Aug 2014, 5:38:57 UTC - in response to Message 1547727.  

To set it (TdrDelay.reg):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers]
"TdrDelay"=dword:00000007


To remove it (TdrDelay-NO.reg):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers]
"TdrDelay"=-

 


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Message 1553409 - Posted: 7 Aug 2014, 23:14:52 UTC - in response to Message 1553166.  
Last modified: 7 Aug 2014, 23:39:51 UTC

Thank you.

I went ahead and disabled it completely. Now if the gui hangs it doesn't crash Windows8. One of the other registry tweaks offered.

I am working with the parameter files "mb_cmdline*.txt increasing the "-period_iterations_num 40" etc to try to get the application a little happier and the GUI a little less jerky.

I have also started telling the GPU that it needs to suspend when I am on the machine.

Between all this juggling I should reach the point where when I am using the machine it will be responsive and the Video driver won't crash and disable the GPU processing when I am not looking. I hope.

Thanks for the registry show and tell. It took me over a half hour to find and then get it patched the first time. And the directions were less clear.

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Message 1553411 - Posted: 7 Aug 2014, 23:38:57 UTC
Last modified: 7 Aug 2014, 23:40:07 UTC

Now I have a "newer" windows 8 problem.

Seti is refusing to read the "app_config.xml" file.

I decided that I wanted to switch back to 1 cpu feeding the 1 gpu which seems to be about "natural" (as well as what the Radeon/ATI docs call for) on this rig.

The only problem is Seti will not change the parameters after I change the file and tell it to read the config file, restart Seti, and re-boot the whole computer.

I just let the Seti run dry. Reset the project with the "not accepting any new work" toggled. Then removed the project. Un-installed Bonic. Cleaned the registry. Downloaded a new copy of Bonic 64 bit, installed it, joined Seti again and I still have the same problem.

I have even re-typed the app_config.xml file in case some garbage got in there.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Tom
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Message 1553525 - Posted: 8 Aug 2014, 4:54:39 UTC - in response to Message 1553411.  

Are you sure you see the real extension?
Is the file named app_config.xml or e.g. app_config.xml.txt
(if you just copy the same file from other system where it works will be best)

In which directory you put the file? (copy/paste the path here)


Seti is refusing to read the "app_config.xml" file

This file is read by BOINC, not the SETI@home applications (they do not know it exists)

The only config files that are read directly by SETI@home applications (and BOINC do not know (and can't understand) what is in them) are like these:
mbcuda.cfg
mb_cmdline_win_x86_SSE_OpenCL_ATi_HD5.txt
ap_cmdline_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI.txt


P.S.
It's easy to find which .exe uses which file, e.g.
Search the string cc_config in boinc.exe
Search the string ap_cmdline in AP6_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI_r1843.exe

If you don't know what to use for string (text) search in any file you may use:
HxD - Freeware Hex Editor
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
 


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Message 1553636 - Posted: 8 Aug 2014, 13:19:30 UTC - in response to Message 1553525.  

Are you sure you see the real extension?
Is the file named app_config.xml or e.g. app_config.xml.txt
(if you just copy the same file from other system where it works will be best)

In which directory you put the file? (copy/paste the path here)



You were right. I copied a known good working app_config.xml from another system and it was recognized. Apparently I didn't get the extension right and Windows8 hid that from me even though I thought I had the display extension turned on.

Tom
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Questions and Answers : Windows : Issue with Seti running on Windows 8.1


 
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