The SETI screen saver (BOINC 4.5.11) loads no matter what ... and locks up my machine on boot up. There used to be an option to disable the screen saver al together. What happened to it? I like donating machine cycles to SETI, but will have to unload the package if it keeps locking up my machine. (BTW... "there are problems with that" is not an acceptable response.)

The problem is solved by completely removing BOINC and the SETI project from the system and reinstalling the latest version.

Since I travel a lot I am constantly transferring from one system to another. Since there is no transfer function in BOINC I have to jury rig an update process.

Most likely incompatible version files and system settings caused the screen saver to load and lock up the system.

The I-don't-know-so-try-this "solution" of removing and reloading the software was the only way our of this problem.

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Mike Carlson
Let go or get dragged

First, try the latest version (just out) as it has solved a few of these problems. You may also need to update your video drivers and DirectX driver to at least version 9.0c. If that fails, use one of the optimized applications - no graphics, but no lockup either.

Seti volunteers are likely to NOT be novices. My machine is up-2-date. Drivers (including DirectX) are up-2-date. If a simple fix like changing the Windows default screen saver would solve the problem, you never would have seen a post from me.

I look forward to trying the NEW software. Hopefully you have added back in the OLD user options of eliminating the screen saver stub from loading on boot up.

And, yes ... to the other insulting comment ... I do wait for the system to completely boot up before assuming that it is frozen. Half-an-hour and a cup of coffee on a 3 MHz machine with 2 Gbyte RAM is more than enough time.

Don't assume you're dealing with idiots when responding to requests for help.

SETI volunteers run the gamut from novices (first new machine a few weeks old) to long time users that are masters of computing. We do not assume anything about the experience level of the users. I mentioned several things that have worked for other users in the past. Nothing was meant to be insulting.

OK, good, the drivers are up to date as well as DirectX. Have you tried the latest version of BOINC 5.8.8? Have you tried installing an optimized application?

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BOINC WIKI

First, try the latest version (just out) as it has solved a few of these problems. You may also need to update your video drivers and DirectX driver to at least version 9.0c. If that fails, use one of the optimized applications - no graphics, but no lockup either.

Seti volunteers are likely to NOT be novices. My machine is up-2-date. Drivers (including DirectX) are up-2-date. If a simple fix like changing the Windows default screen saver would solve the problem, you never would have seen a post from me.

I look forward to trying the NEW software. Hopefully you have added back in the OLD user options of eliminating the screen saver stub from loading on boot up.

And, yes ... to the other insulting comment ... I do wait for the system to completely boot up before assuming that it is frozen. Half-an-hour and a cup of coffee on a 3 MHz machine with 2 Gbyte RAM is more than enough time.

Don't assume you're dealing with idiots when responding to requests for help.

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Mike Carlson
Let go or get dragged

You disable the screensaver as you do any other on a windows computer screensaver. Right click on the desktop, select properties, Screensaver tab. Set screensaver to NONE. Boinc doesn't need the screensaver to run, and not using it free up extra cycles to crunch.

POSTED 22 DAYS AGO AND RECEIVED NO RESPONSE. Not only do I give machine cycles to your project, I actually donate money ... and get blown off when I have a problem with your software. Good job!

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The SETI screen saver (BOINC 4.5.11) loads no matter what ... and locks up my machine on boot up. There used to be an option to disable the screen saver al together. What happened to it? I like donating machine cycles to SETI, but will have to unload the package if it keeps locking up my machine. (BTW... "there are problems with that" is not an acceptable response.)

Ok, we appologize for missing your post. However, the information has been gone over in several threads.

First, try the latest version (just out) as it has solved a few of these problems. You may also need to update your video drivers and DirectX driver to at least version 9.0c. If that fails, use one of the optimized applications - no graphics, but no lockup either.

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BOINC WIKI

POSTED 22 DAYS AGO AND RECEIVED NO RESPONSE. Not only do I give machine cycles to your project, I actually donate money ... and get blown off when I have a problem with your software. Good job!

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The SETI screen saver (BOINC 4.5.11) loads no matter what ... and locks up my machine on boot up. There used to be an option to disable the screen saver al together. What happened to it? I like donating machine cycles to SETI, but will have to unload the package if it keeps locking up my machine. (BTW... "there are problems with that" is not an acceptable response.)

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Mike Carlson
Let go or get dragged

The SETI screen saver (BOINC 4.5.11) loads no matter what ... and locks up my machine on boot up. There used to be an option to disable the screen saver al together. What happened to it? I like donating machine cycles to SETI, but will have to unload the package if it keeps locking up my machine. (BTW... "there are problems with that" is not an acceptable response.)

Go to your computer screen and in an area where there are no icons do a right click, then a left click on properties. Click on the screensaver tab and change the slide bar to none.
If yo uare talking about the program loading at boot up, then if you just give it time it will release your computer. Your computer is trying to do 50 gillion things all at once, thanks to MS for that, and sometimes things do not load i nthe order they need to. Your computers can appear to lock but normally finishes up just fine if you just leave it alone. This is a MS thing to make the OS load faster. When the OS laods it has a list and loads things in that order. The problems come in when the next thing starts loading before the current item is finished loading. As I said, MS did this to speed up the boot process. To avoid this just do not shut down your pc. I have 23 pc's on my Seti acount and have not shut down any for any except for maintenance since they came on line. Most have been on line for years!!!
Your Mileage May Vary, YMMV, but that is how I do it.

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The SETI screen saver (BOINC 4.5.11) loads no matter what ... and locks up my machine on boot up. There used to be an option to disable the screen saver al together. What happened to it? I like donating machine cycles to SETI, but will have to unload the package if it keeps locking up my machine. (BTW... "there are problems with that" is not an acceptable response.)

You go to the control panel and select a different screen saver. However, the 3D screen savers do not play well with BOINC.

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BOINC WIKI

The SETI screen saver (BOINC 4.5.11) loads no matter what ... and locks up my machine on boot up. There used to be an option to disable the screen saver al together. What happened to it? I like donating machine cycles to SETI, but will have to unload the package if it keeps locking up my machine. (BTW... "there are problems with that" is not an acceptable response.)

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Mike Carlson
Let go or get dragged

I'm using 5.4.11. Regardless of my web preferences settings and use of the Update button, BOINC takes 100% of CPU. I see references to 5.6.5 and up that supposedly support < 100% CPU, but I've been unable to find the download links for those. Where are they? TIA, Casey

When you go to the download page, you click "All Versions", then you can download the 5.8 test version.

As for the 100%, the way the new one works is if you set it to 90%, it will run 9 seconds at 100%, then stop for 1 second. At 50% it will run 1 second, then stop 1 second. It works well, as my laptop was getting warm, and I set it to 90% and now I get a better RAC because it has that 1 second cool down time.

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I'm using 5.4.11. Regardless of my web preferences settings and use of the Update button, BOINC takes 100% of CPU. I see references to 5.6.5 and up that supposedly support < 100% CPU, but I've been unable to find the download links for those. Where are they? TIA, Casey

Just as general information to others.

Preferences cxhanges are not retrieved until the next time the updated project is contacted. Upgrading the Manager doesn't cause Boinc to retrieve preferences.

BTW: CPU percentage usage should now be controlable localy in the Simple GUI (Ver5.8.x) mode - preferences which overides the web page settings.

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

When you change your preferences on the site, do you save them with the button on the website? Do you Update BOINC afterwards? (Boinc Manager, Projects tab, select Seti@Home, press Update).

Yes! This seems to be what caused my problems. BOINC didnt fetch my settings even if I installed a new version. It didnt used my settings until I hit the update button. After that BOINC was paused until 5 min of inactivity. And now it only runs at 80% of capacity.

Thanks!!!

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However, the version of BOINC that uses the CPU usage% has not yet been released to the best of my knowledge. (It should be fairly soon - within the next few weeks).

True, but he did state that he was using BOINC v5.8.0, so I assume he downloaded one of the pre-release software that is compatible with the CPU usage preference setting.

OK, I had missed that.

Fair enough. 8-) Good to know I'm not the only one who makes mistakes! LOL 8-)

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However, the version of BOINC that uses the CPU usage% has not yet been released to the best of my knowledge. (It should be fairly soon - within the next few weeks).

True, but he did state that he was using BOINC v5.8.0, so I assume he downloaded one of the pre-release software that is compatible with the CPU usage preference setting.

OK, I had missed that.

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BOINC WIKI

However, the version of BOINC that uses the CPU usage% has not yet been released to the best of my knowledge. (It should be fairly soon - within the next few weeks).

True, but he did state that he was using BOINC v5.8.0, so I assume he downloaded one of the pre-release software that is compatible with the CPU usage preference setting.

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I'v just installed the BOINC v 5.8.0 but BOINC is running always even if I had set it to only run after 5 min of inactivity. Its running at 100% CPU even though I'v tried lower values oc CPU usage. So I downgraded to version 5.4.4 wich should be stable but the result is the same. Always running at 100 %, it only stops when I set it to pause. But them I manually have to turn it on again...
The only clue I get is the message saing "No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults" I have set general preferences!!!

Anyone have a clue to why my settings arent used?

You may have set the wrong preference. Setting it to run after five minutes of inactivity doesn't limit CPU usage, it simply tells BOINC to wait until the user hasn't touched the system for five minutes, then it can run after that.

The preference you are looking for is located under the General Preferences section, entitled "Use at most: 100% of CPU time". Change this to whatever value you'd like, save your changes, then open your BOINC Manager, select the Projects tab, then select the SETI@Home project, then click on the Update button to the left.

This should work. Hope that helps!

However, the version of BOINC that uses the CPU usage% has not yet been released to the best of my knowledge. (It should be fairly soon - within the next few weeks).

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BOINC WIKI

I'v just installed the BOINC v 5.8.0 but BOINC is running always even if I had set it to only run after 5 min of inactivity. Its running at 100% CPU even though I'v tried lower values oc CPU usage. So I downgraded to version 5.4.4 wich should be stable but the result is the same. Always running at 100 %, it only stops when I set it to pause. But them I manually have to turn it on again...
The only clue I get is the message saing "No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults" I have set general preferences!!!

Anyone have a clue to why my settings arent used?

You may have set the wrong preference. Setting it to run after five minutes of inactivity doesn't limit CPU usage, it simply tells BOINC to wait until the user hasn't touched the system for five minutes, then it can run after that.

The preference you are looking for is located under the General Preferences section, entitled "Use at most: 100% of CPU time". Change this to whatever value you'd like, save your changes, then open your BOINC Manager, select the Projects tab, then select the SETI@Home project, then click on the Update button to the left.

This should work. Hope that helps!

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When you change your preferences on the site, do you save them with the button on the website? Do you Update BOINC afterwards? (Boinc Manager, Projects tab, select Seti@Home, press Update).

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I'v just installed the BOINC v 5.8.0 but BOINC is running always even if I had set it to only run after 5 min of inactivity. Its running at 100% CPU even though I'v tried lower values oc CPU usage. So I downgraded to version 5.4.4 wich should be stable but the result is the same. Always running at 100 %, it only stops when I set it to pause. But them I manually have to turn it on again...
The only clue I get is the message saing "No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults" I have set general preferences!!!

Anyone have a clue to why my settings arent used?

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