I'm guessing this is a fairly basic fix.....but I can't see any option in BOINC to solve the issue.

My BOINC is processing tasks with a later deadline before it does those with an earlier deadline. I've already missed a few deadlines because of this.

Using latest BOINC version.

Help appreciated...

A bit more info please .

When did you update Boinic ?
what is the download buffer set at ?
1 day , 2 days ,3 days ???

do you leave the computer on 24/7 or only during the day or night ?

I can see you had only 1 unit on the 17th sep so how many other times has this occured ?


Without this info i am guessing and would say you need a smaller buffer say 2-3 days and max additional buffer to 2 days that way it will do 2 days worth then report in and get more and if the site is down you will still have 24 hrs work

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I'm guessing this is a fairly basic fix.....but I can't see any option in BOINC to solve the issue.

My BOINC is processing tasks with a later deadline before it does those with an earlier deadline. I've already missed a few deadlines because of this.

Using latest BOINC version.

Help appreciated...

Boinc processes tasks in FIFO, first in first out, so they will be done in the order they were downloaded.

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Thanks for that Bernie that's what i was thinking that he has a buffer to big and does not run it 24/7

he has a harf decent machine but his RAC is less than my Lappy that only runs at 1 gig and has some hardware problem , is a Core 2 Duo and it's rac is 1079 i am doing AP's but still his should be much higher than 936 seeing as he has 6 cores on it and a 6900 ATI GPU , So either not running 24/7 , doesn't have many cores going and he's not using the GPU so they are running out of time .

Smaller buffer or let it run for longer and use more cores and turn your GPU on you will have a much higher RAC and units won't run out of time .

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I remember setting my buffer to 3 days as there were a lot of server outages back then and I was constantly running out of work. I'll look into that buffer setting...

Due to high power costs here in Korea I set my preferences to 30% CPU and only when computer is not of use. My power bills were approx 150 USD per month which might have been largely down to BOINC.

The computer is usually on 24/7..........

I disabled GPU computing. Too power hungry. I turn it on now and then to try and clear tasks coming up to deadline, but still BOINC runs later deadlines before earlier.

I'm not sure how having the buffer set to 3 days would make BOINC run later deadlines tasks first. Shouldn't it always prioritize earlier deadlines first?

I remember setting my buffer to 3 days as there were a lot of server outages back then and I was constantly running out of work. I'll look into that buffer setting...

Due to high power costs here in Korea I set my preferences to 30% CPU and only when computer is not of use. My power bills were approx 150 USD per month which might have been largely down to BOINC.

The computer is usually on 24/7..........

I disabled GPU computing. Too power hungry. I turn it on now and then to try and clear tasks coming up to deadline, but still BOINC runs later deadlines before earlier.

I'm not sure how having the buffer set to 3 days would make BOINC run later deadlines tasks first. Shouldn't it always prioritize earlier deadlines first?

The default deadline for SETI@HOME v7 tasks is about 6 weeks. However shorties, or HVAR(Very High Angle Range) tasks, are given a smaller deadline. As they take less time to process.
So if your machine is running a task due in 3 week and then downloads one due in 2 week or may not worry about it because it thinks it has lots of time to finish the current job and that one before the deadline. BOINC should learn, over time, that your machine doesn't run work 24/7. Once it does it should then run the tasks with a nearer deadline sooner. Where you will see "Running High Priority" in the status for the task.

Not starting a task and missing the deadline isn't a huge deal & the system is designed to account for when that happens.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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Thanks guys..........I'm taking it that there is no actual user setting to prioritize earlier tasks. BOINC knows what it's doing. I'll run with that and see how it goes.

BTW, I changed my buffer setting to 1 day.

I would dearly love to set my PC to 24/7 100% CPU and GPU crunching as a committed cruncher for 12 years.....but my power bills are too high.

Thanks.

NO it does them as Bernie said FIFO

FIFO = First In First Out

man 150 buck per month i'll say that's heaps mine is 298 per quarter . And i run 3 computers 24/7 with 100% CPU utilisation

You will find the GPU is more efficient when comparing watts per kwh , per $ , per RAC . So set pref's to only download GPU units not CPU .Will also do more units in far less time

Your just running out of time with things set to 30% try running it 100% all the cores and Gpu for 2 days a week that will keep power bills down and keep your RAC at where it is now or maybe run flat out for only 4 hrs a day to keep the Rac at where it is and you will be less likely to miss the report date

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Also if you turn the GPU on it won't do the units you allready have it will just download new ones for the GPU . The CPU units can't be done on GPU hence it downloads more units when you turn it on leaving the cpu to just plod along with the same amount of units

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Turning your GPU on and off will not help clear your cache. WU's are assigned to a device. WU assigned to the CPU will only be processed by the CPU, and work assigned to the GPU will only be processed by the GPU.

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Boinc V7.2.42
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470

Good advice Glenn... I'll try your suggestions. Thanks.

your welcome no problem

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I'm taking it that there is no actual user setting to prioritize earlier tasks.

There is one that you can use to force BOINC run tasks in 'High Priority':
Switch between tasks every XXXX minutes

E.g. set it to 7200 minutes and BOINC will try to finish any task 5 days before deadline
Computing preferences

If you use Local preferences - set the value there.

You may play with even higher values like 21000 but that will make BOINC crazy ;)
(I use now 11000)
 

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

Switch between tasks every XXXX minutes

Umm Is this not so it will switch between PROJECT task's not what you said it's for ???

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Good advice Glenn... I'll try your suggestions. Thanks.

Using the Processor Usage tab in Preferences for BOINC Manager you can specify specific days and time for BOINC to run.
Given there are 168 hours in a week & you are telling BOINC to run 30% of the time. That comes to about 50 hours for the week, or about 7 hours a day.
You could use the "Every day between the hours of" setting and set 09:00-16:00 to run during the day when you may not be home or set while you are asleep. You can also get more specific & set different times for each day. You just check the box for each day under Day-of-week override & enter the times.
For times you don't want BOINC to run there are 2 different want specify that. One would be to enter 00:00-00:01 for each day you don't want it to run. The second option is to set 00:00-00:01 in the "Every day between the hours of" section. Then that is the default time BOINC will follow unless there is an override setting.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

I'm taking it that there is no actual user setting to prioritize earlier tasks.

There is one that you can use to force BOINC run tasks in 'High Priority':
Switch between tasks every XXXX minutes

E.g. set it to 7200 minutes and BOINC will try to finish any task 5 days before deadline
Computing preferences

If you use Local preferences - set the value there.

You may play with even higher values like 21000 but that will make BOINC crazy ;)
(I use now 11000)
 

That no longer works in BOINC v7.x

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

That no longer works in BOINC v7.x

Thanks hal i thought i was right and it was changed a long time ago with v7.?.?

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I'm taking it that there is no actual user setting to prioritize earlier tasks.

There is one that you can use to force BOINC run tasks in 'High Priority':
Switch between tasks every XXXX minutes
 

That no longer works in BOINC v7.x

Wow, they 'fixed' a feature ... ;)

Any other setting/config/hack that may make BOINC v7 panic?

(I know what may work:
Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for at least 10 days
- but OP may not want the max of 100 CPU + 100 GPU tasks always on-board
)


Not suggestion - just for fun:

What will happen if I run BOINC under RunAsDate with date in the future?
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html

(I used RunAsDate for 2 programs successfully to fool them the date is older (in the past))
 

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- ALF - "Find out what you don't do well ..... then don't do it!" :)
 

I'm taking it that there is no actual user setting to prioritize earlier tasks.

There is one that you can use to force BOINC run tasks in 'High Priority':
Switch between tasks every XXXX minutes
 

That no longer works in BOINC v7.x

Wow, they 'fixed' a feature ... ;)

Any other setting/config/hack that may make BOINC v7 panic?

(I know what may work:
Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for at least 10 days
- but OP may not want the max of 100 CPU + 100 GPU tasks always on-board)

Not suggestion - just for fun:

What will happen if I run BOINC under RunAsDate with date in the future?
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html

(I used RunAsDate for 2 programs successfully to fool them the date is older (in the past))

Yeah, sometimes it is annoying when a bug can be used as feature is fixed.

AS you mentioned. With BOINC v7.x you can force High Priority mode by entering a larger value for "Maintain enough tasks to keep busy for at least" also called "connect about every" in BOINC v6.x. Setting either "No New Tasks" or specifying a drive space limit for BOINC could be used to limit the actual amount of work downloaded.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
Join the [url=http://tinyurl.com/8y46zvu]BP6/VP6 User Group[

@Glenn
You thought $150usd was scary? Try $211usd. That is the monthly averaging for this year. This is a monthly spreading of the power bill across the year so the summer months will not kill the pay check. In the winter months you build up credit for the summer bill.

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