I have 5 years in and now Im done

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Melissa Vance

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Message 394323 - Posted: 11 Aug 2006, 6:02:32 UTC

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.
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Mr. R. W.

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Message 394367 - Posted: 11 Aug 2006, 8:09:48 UTC - in response to Message 394323.  

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.



Hi, Melissa: New Victim here.! 3-Weeks and counting.! Sorry that you're having problems. Am new to computers (1-yr), but as an 'Sassi-Old Fox', I'm
curious how someone like you could be a 'quitter', by abandoning a noble
program like SETI.(??). Plenty of 'screensavers'.!! Check-out Dr. Bill Wattenburg's list, (KGO.com, AM Radio Station). He's a former grad & prof.
at Cal/Berkeley.! Hope you give him a listen on week-ends (Sat & Sun., 10pm
to 1:00am). Ask for his opinion on SETI. Hope you stay around. Campus needs
foxy-ladies to snap-back and nip at the heels of the status-quo,to keep them
'on-their-toes'.! Ladies ALWAYS have the perogative to change their minds.!
Will respect your final decision.! Wishing ALL THE BEST, - G'Day.!

'Rick' S. San Rafael, CA (Marin County)
<Sassi1me2@sbcglobal.net>
NOTE: Used to be a 'Schitzo', - But WE'RE O.K., now.!!
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Message 394467 - Posted: 11 Aug 2006, 12:14:44 UTC - in response to Message 394323.  

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.

Melissa if you sent out your campus-wide email without spell checking it, I am guessing your fellow students are havening a laugh at your expense. I am not saying that any of us spell well, but....
Also did you ask for help in running the program? I have Boinc running on 22 computers! It CAN'T be that hard!!!!

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Message 419177 - Posted: 12 Sep 2006, 3:06:39 UTC - in response to Message 394323.  

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.


Hi Melissa.
I'm happy you finally decided to join us and not to give up.
Keep crunching!!
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Message 426755 - Posted: 26 Sep 2006, 20:25:47 UTC - in response to Message 394323.  

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.


Hi Melissa,

I'm sorry to say but I'm in a Team (Seti.Germany) that really cares for New Crunchers who are asking Questions. I guess each Team attempts to do so but you should ASK a Question and not only complain about Problems. Crying solves nothing but ask and you will be helped.

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Message 426764 - Posted: 26 Sep 2006, 20:42:00 UTC - in response to Message 426755.  

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.


Hi Melissa,

I'm sorry to say but I'm in a Team (Seti.Germany) that really cares for New Crunchers who are asking Questions. I guess each Team attempts to do so but you should ASK a Question and not only complain about Problems. Crying solves nothing but ask and you will be helped.

If you go down to her name and click on it, then view her computers, you will see she figured it out. She is getting and returning units as of 2 days ago.

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psmith

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Message 426771 - Posted: 26 Sep 2006, 20:51:30 UTC
Last modified: 26 Sep 2006, 20:52:46 UTC

Hi Melissa
I entirely agree. When I was running seti@home - for over seven years - I never had a problem. BOINC is non-intuitive, irritating, won't store my preferences so it runs even when I don't want it to, difficult to use - why has it got an embedded password, for God's sake, especially one that the user doesn't know? - and to add insult to injury it's now started crashing my desktop. Daily. I've just deleted BOINC from my computer, and I won't re-install it until I'm certain it's moved from being a very poor and flaky beta into a properly debugged program.
James Barrington
www.JamesBarrington.com
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Message 426791 - Posted: 26 Sep 2006, 21:56:46 UTC - in response to Message 426771.  

BOINC is non-intuitive, irritating, won't store my preferences so it runs even when I don't want it to, difficult to use - why has it got an embedded password, for God's sake, especially one that the user doesn't know? - and to add insult to injury it's now started crashing my desktop. Daily. I've just deleted BOINC from my computer, and I won't re-install it until I'm certain it's moved from being a very poor and flaky beta into a properly debugged program.

So you ran this poor software from 14 July 2006 without even asking for help on anything? It's easy to blame the software, but maybe if you'd given it a thought and posted a question of help here on the forums, that you'd have been helped.

There are no dumb questions. But if you want to blame it all on the software, go ahead. :-)

(When you set BOINC to Run Always, it doesn't follow the preferences. It runs always.
When you change the preferences on the website, but not save them there or update BOINC, BOINC will never know you changed things.
The password is there for those people that run more than one computer, have them networked and want to control all their BOINCs from one computer.
Your Results don't show any crashes, so check in your Event Viewer if it isn't something else.)
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psmith

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Message 427034 - Posted: 27 Sep 2006, 10:32:30 UTC
Last modified: 27 Sep 2006, 10:37:35 UTC

Thanks for your response, but frankly I've got better things to do with my time than mess about trying to find out why this program won't do what most users would reasonably expect it to. Users shouldn't have to ask for help - in a project of this size, involving so many people, the software should work 'straight out of the box'. And don't just take my word for it - look at all the other threads started by users who are experiencing problems with the program. Even Microsoft usually does it better than this!
As for the crashes - with BOINC installed, my PC would spontaneously shut down and restart about once a day. Since I've deleted it, this hasn't happened even once, so no matter what the stats say, I'm blaming BOINC. Occam's Razor, and all that.
James Barrington.
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Message 427049 - Posted: 27 Sep 2006, 11:08:14 UTC

Blaming BOINC for your computer shutting down, is not the way to look at it. It sounds like processor heat problems, which the projects do put your CPU through it's paces. If your CPU was stable under load, then it would not shut down.

I am betting if you get some other CPU testing programs, like Prime95, you will find out that your CPU is having issues. So, you are blaming your own hardware issues on BOINC, and the projects.


As for how the project has progressed into BOINC, and the way it works now, you need to understand that this HAD to happen, or SETI would be gone. SETI had a large grant back when it started, which was supposed to last about 2-3 years. They made it last 6. If any other non-profit organization could do that, I doubt it. They managed the money well. Well, since no one was willing to put more money into SETI, and there were other distributed projects wanting to start, Berkeley and several other places got together, got a grant to write BOINC. Because BOINC needed a test project, SETI became it, so indirectly, SETI got some money because BOINC needed to be tested and developed.

Now that BOINC is stable, SETI has been asking for donations. I am unsure if they have received any grant money from anyplace, but there have been many people who have given their money, to help keep the project going. If it were not for users and some companies donating some cash, SETI would be gone. It may go away in the future, if they do not get enough money.

Since Berkeley has proven themselves pretty frugal with their money, I was proud to donate a little myself, and hope to be able to donate more in the future.

Please look at the whole situation before blaming what could not be avoided.


My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242
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Message 427111 - Posted: 27 Sep 2006, 13:25:33 UTC - in response to Message 427034.  
Last modified: 27 Sep 2006, 13:26:18 UTC

Users shouldn't have to ask for help - in a project of this size, involving so many people, the software should work 'straight out of the box'.

Users should also learn the minimum about the program that they are running. What to do if something goes wrong. How to identify possible problems. How to set it up correctly.
And don't just take my word for it - look at all the other threads started by users who are experiencing problems with the program.

Sir, you are posting on the help desk forums of Seti. The Questions & Answers forums of the project. People have questions, us other volunteers with the experience answer the questions. And if we don't know, we ask the developers and they come answer the questions.

As for the crashes - with BOINC installed, my PC would spontaneously shut down and restart about once a day. Since I've deleted it, this hasn't happened even once, so no matter what the stats say, I'm blaming BOINC. Occam's Razor, and all that.

I am blaming the person who told your Windows to reboot when it comes across an error and doesn't show a Blue Screen of Death. That's something you can set in Windows XP, you know? Come across a (critical) error and reboot.

Overheating of the CPU is a critical error.

Hence why I said to look in your Event Viewer. That is a Windows based program, with which you can check what event caused what minor or major crash.
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psmith

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Message 427189 - Posted: 27 Sep 2006, 18:04:18 UTC

Thanks, but I'm not arguing about this. The fact is my computer runs far better without BOINC than with it, not to mention a significant reduction in my personal irritation factor in trying to use the program, so I'm cancelling my account.
James Barrington
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Profile Grant Hodge

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Message 427888 - Posted: 28 Sep 2006, 18:58:08 UTC - in response to Message 394323.  

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.

BOINC has become such a problem for me as it turns my computer off about avery six hours. I will no longer use it anymore either. No one seems to care.

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Message 427890 - Posted: 28 Sep 2006, 19:05:10 UTC

I've kept my computer around 75 degrees F. for the last few days and it still shuts down. I have the Pentium 4 that does run hot but I even put a cup of ice on the top over the CPU and it still shuts down. So even though I have ran SETI and have over 5000 units done on the old one and over 36,000 units on the new BOINC, I am quitting too.
ghodge9603@earthlink.net
Not worth the headaches.
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Message 427894 - Posted: 28 Sep 2006, 19:08:28 UTC - in response to Message 427888.  

BOINC has become such a problem for me as it turns my computer off about avery six hours. I will no longer use it anymore either. No one seems to care.

I checked your post history...
Since you say it can't be heat related, could it be a damaged CPU then? Or broken RAM?

Check what your Event Viewer said just before the shut downs. (Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Viewer).
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Message 428249 - Posted: 29 Sep 2006, 14:35:22 UTC - in response to Message 427888.  

I have downloaded BOINIC 3 times now and I still have problems with it. No scrrensaver! No anything. Its a waist of my PC and and everyone elses on campus. I sent out a mass e-mail today to boicot this more than frustraiting program from more than 37,000 PC. We have had this as a topic of discussion for a month after hours in my astromomy class.

BOINC has become such a problem for me as it turns my computer off about avery six hours. I will no longer use it anymore either. No one seems to care.

People care, thats why there are volunteers here to help. Out of the 2 computers that I have currently crunching, I don't experience any problems what so ever. When I first started, I asked questions. I read a lot of the forums here to learn from the more experienced people.

If you want to leave, no one is stopping you, thats your choice, just don't come around here complaining no one helps, no one cares, your leaving.
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Message 430020 - Posted: 2 Oct 2006, 22:55:49 UTC

Hi everyone, I installed BOINC and is running almost 24/7 and I didn't had any problem, and also I didnt noticed any slowdown, A problem with computers shutting down is generally related to a faulty power supply or with insufficient wattage, check in the label of your power supply that it can ouput al least 20 Amps in the +12v.
bye
Christian
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Message 430775 - Posted: 4 Oct 2006, 14:08:48 UTC
Last modified: 4 Oct 2006, 14:24:34 UTC

I started with BOINC/Seti several days ago. I have 2 machines in use for this-- they are both real servers -- one is a Xeon 4xCPU and the other is a single P4. They are in my house with regular A/C set at 77.

I have had ZERO problems with heat, crashes, or anything else. I bet some of these people having problems are running low-end PCs (vs servers), badly home-built boxes, overclocked CPUs, inadequate cooling, cheap non-ECC RAM, or all the above.

So far, the only thing I wish worked was the CPU throttling preference setting. BOINC always runs the CPU to 100%. This isn't really a huge problem because it also runs at a low priority allowing other processes to preempt it without affecting performance.

The issue is that my 4-CPU box is a 1U rackmount server that has 17 (yes seventeen) little 1 inch fans throughout its innards. When the CPU is running at 100%, its louder than my Kirby commercial vacuum cleaner. Below 50%, most of those fans shut off and the noise is bearable.

I'm a developer professionally and can tell you that making this feature work is not rocket science -- any ideas when it will happen?

Thanks,

pKai
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Message 430780 - Posted: 4 Oct 2006, 14:25:23 UTC

The webpages are designed before the software, so some features on the website are in beta test versions, but not released versions. The CPU throttling preference is one of these. I know it's been here quite a while, and we've heard that the next version should be coming soon, but new things keep popping up during the Beta that slows them down.

If you want to use this, you can use the Beta software, but you must remember it is Beta and may have bugs. Or you can wait for the next release.

I do not use the Beta software, nor am I sure where to get it. Someone else can give that information, if you want it. It is also supposed to fix some of the Proxy issues people have.

As for the machines analogy, I kind of like it. I always look for a little higher end machines when buying them for myself. I have had too many years behind computers to get the cheap things. I have had the cheap machine blues in the past. I prefer building machiens from the ground up, but have bought a couple used commercial built server type machines.


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Message 430788 - Posted: 4 Oct 2006, 15:04:44 UTC

Nothing inherently wrong with building your own machines. My single-CPU SETI box was built by me. As long as you do it right and don't cheap-out on components you're OK. I can build a box every bit as good as Dell/HP/IBM or anyone. You have to do the math with the heat dissipation, power requirements, environmental issues, etc. to get it right. ECC RAM is also a must for any high-availability solution.

And of course... and often overlooked -- feed it clean power from a decent UPS. Forget surge-supressors. Even if you live in the desert where the last storm and power outage was 10 years ago, a decent UPS is a must just for the power scrubbing it does. Put a o-scope on your UPS plug and compare it to the "wall" and the difference will be obvious.

I'd be interested to try this Beta version. I have another machine I'm not doing anything with right now I could toss it on.

Anyone know where to get it?
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Questions and Answers : Wish list : I have 5 years in and now Im done


 
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