Ok, this is just pissing me off now. On my desktop the screensaver will not come on. If I go in and change the time settings either way it seems to work for a little while and then dies again. I DO NOT HAVE a wireless mouse or keyboard. Any ideas?


BTW..... power settings won't shut the monitor off any more either......

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same problem :(

What version of BOINC?

Did you install as a service (protected instaall)?

Are you doing CUDA?

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BOINC WIKI

My BOINC version is 6.6.20

If I remember it correctly I didn't do a protected install. Since there is no service named BOINC or similar in my services list and all processes related to BOINC in the task manager run using my local username instead of "local service", I think thats right.

Currently there are running 4 Astropulse processes (1 for each CPU core) which have screensaver graphics and one Seti@home enhanced using CUDA. The Astropulse screensaver runs for some minutes and then suddenly stops as if I had moved the mouse or something, however this didn't happen with other screensavers.

BOINC 6.6.23 has fixes for that.

32bit Windows version

64bit Windows version

6.6.23 is a development version, though. It can/will have other problems.

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Is it normal that all local data is lost, when installing a new BOINC client? I had to enter the project URL and account information again and it downloaded all tasks again, the partly computet results were lost, too.

Only if you switched from a 64bit client to a 32bit client as then the installer won't be able to read the old files (being that they're most probably 64bit, which can't be read by 32bit).

The old files are probably still on your system. Take a look around.

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I found my old files and copied everything to the new folder (strange, I was sure I didnt modify the standard installation settings both times, so I thought the folders will stay the same). But everything seems to work fine now.

unfortunatly the new BOINC client version doesn't fix the problem

From looking at your completed work I can see that you are exclusively running CUDA MB WU's you will not get a screen saver using CUDA. It would be a waste of resource to run the MB WU on your graphics and show the graphics at the same time. This defeats the purpose of running on the GPU which is to finish WU's very quickly

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

From looking at your completed work I can see that you are exclusively running CUDA MB WU's you will not get a screen saver using CUDA. It would be a waste of resource to run the MB WU on your graphics and show the graphics at the same time. This defeats the purpose of running on the GPU which is to finish WU's very quickly

It appears to me that you haven't really read my post. I know that the CUDA-Version of SETI@home has no screensaver graphics, however the Astropule graphics work (I'm still pretty new here and haven't finished an Astropulse task, yet). When CUDA is computing a "normal" WU, while showing the Astropulse graphics, there is no noticeable slowdown of the computation and at least the window graphics work perfectly. Since my graphics card was designed to show high-detailed DX 10 Graphics, such simple 3D graphics as used in the screensaver should use up nearly no resources. If it was "a waste of resources" the application would decide not to show any graphics at all and I should see the standard BOINC screensaver. What happens is, that the Astropulse screensaver is shown for some minutes and then crashes for no obvious reason. I'm pretty sure that it is really a crash because if it was finished by Windows, the screensaver would appear again after 5 minutes.
The only slowdown occures if the GPU is computing a WU with very low angle rate which still needs to be fixed. This is slowing down both, the computing AND the graphics output. (From what I have read about it so far, they work a little slower on CPUs, too, but for a yet unknown reason the slowdown is much bigger on a GPU)

Since my graphics card was designed to show high-detailed DX 10 Graphics, such simple 3D graphics as used in the screensaver should use up nearly no resources.

I've never heard that OpenGL 1.1 is simple, but one is never too old to learn. ;-)

Depending on what resolution and bit-depth you run at, you will always use extra memory on the videocard. Example given, a 1920x1200x32bpp resolution will use around 10MB of VRAM. Add additional off-screen GDI usage, also 10MB. Add the screen saver code, say 7MB. of course it matters how many windows and programs you have open, they'll all take up their amount of memory. DVD software and graphics software uses lots of it.

If it was "a waste of resources" the application would decide not to show any graphics at all and I should see the standard BOINC screensaver.

You're giving the application too much credit... it isn't that intelligent.
Besides, the standard BOINC screen saver still takes up VRAM.

What happens is, that the Astropulse screensaver is shown for some minutes and then crashes for no obvious reason.

Check in the \BOINC\slots\(number) directory if there's a stderrgfx.txt file after the crash. Applications built with the BOINC 6 API should have that file after a crash. If you have one, what is in it?

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From looking at your completed work I can see that you are exclusively running CUDA MB WU's you will not get a screen saver using CUDA. It would be a waste of resource to run the MB WU on your graphics and show the graphics at the same time. This defeats the purpose of running on the GPU which is to finish WU's very quickly

It appears to me that you haven't really read my post. I know that the CUDA-Version of SETI@home has no screensaver graphics, however the Astropule graphics work (I'm still pretty new here and haven't finished an Astropulse task, yet). When CUDA is computing a "normal" WU, while showing the Astropulse graphics, there is no noticeable slowdown of the computation and at least the window graphics work perfectly. Since my graphics card was designed to show high-detailed DX 10 Graphics, such simple 3D graphics as used in the screensaver should use up nearly no resources. If it was "a waste of resources" the application would decide not to show any graphics at all and I should see the standard BOINC screensaver. What happens is, that the Astropulse screensaver is shown for some minutes and then crashes for no obvious reason. I'm pretty sure that it is really a crash because if it was finished by Windows, the screensaver would appear again after 5 minutes.
The only slowdown occures if the GPU is computing a WU with very low angle rate which still needs to be fixed. This is slowing down both, the computing AND the graphics output. (From what I have read about it so far, they work a little slower on CPUs, too, but for a yet unknown reason the slowdown is much bigger on a GPU)

No you didnt read what I wrote. If cuda is running you shouldn't get a seti screensaver. The seti screensaver is going to slow down your CUDA/GPU work. I'm not aware that Astropulse has a screensaver ability since I run the optimized app. You are better off allowing your screen to go blank than run a screeensaver while running seti

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Thanks for your answers.

I've never heard that OpenGL 1.1 is simple, but one is never too old to learn. ;-)

I didn't mean that the renderer would be simple, I just wanted to say that there are not as much details (e.g. textures, effects like reflections...) visible as there are in e.g. in computer-games.

My graphics card has 512 MB of VRAM. I don't know if the SETI@home enhanced application will try to use up all of it because it requires only 256 MB.

Some testing revealed that the problem isn't CUDA specific because it happens if I turn off CUDA, too.

I have a stderrgfx.txt in slots 0-3

Here is part of slot 1 which seems to be used for the screensaver most of the time because there are the most entries. What is conspicuous is that the screensaver has been started many times with no entry why it stopped like e.g. the mouse movement at the bottom of the file.

@skildude I have watched the WUs progress bar and a clock with and without having open a graphics window at the same time. Of course this isn't an exact method of measuring computing speed, but if there is any slowdown, I didn't notice. Its maybe something like 1 or 2 per cent. If I wanted to get every single flop out of my machine I couldn't do anything else with it ;)

...

Starting graphics application...
Fullscreen Mode Detected.
Setting window title to 'astropulse_v5 version 5.03 [workunit: ap_02fe09ad_B6_P1_00106_20090419_00409.wu]'.
Starting graphics application...
Fullscreen Mode Detected.
Setting window title to 'astropulse_v5 version 5.03 [workunit: ap_02fe09ad_B6_P1_00106_20090419_00409.wu]'.
Starting graphics application...
Fullscreen Mode Detected.
Setting window title to 'astropulse_v5 version 5.03 [workunit: ap_02fe09ad_B6_P1_00106_20090419_00409.wu]'.
Successfully loaded '../../projects/setiathome.berkeley.edu/ap403.jpg'.
Failed to load 'user_logo'.
Failed to load 'background'.
Starting graphics application...
Fullscreen Mode Detected.
Setting window title to 'astropulse_v5 version 5.03 [workunit: ap_02fe09ad_B6_P1_00106_20090419_00409.wu]'.
Successfully loaded '../../projects/setiathome.berkeley.edu/ap403.jpg'.
Failed to load 'user_logo'.
Failed to load 'background'.
Close event (mouse move) detected, shutting down.
Shutting down graphics application...
Starting graphics application...

...

My graphics card has 512 MB of VRAM. I don't know if the SETI@home enhanced application will try to use up all of it because it requires only 256 MB.

Now, no.. the minimum you need is 255MB of memory on the card as the task is converted into CUDA capable kernels and loaded into the VRAM, taking up at least 200MB. Not even the developers can say exactly how much it will take up, no one ever measured it I guess (no application to test that with).

That's per task per GPU. So if you have two GPUs on a card, it's at least 400MB. Etc.

Here is part of slot 1 which seems to be used for the screensaver most of the time because there are the most entries.

Each task takes up its own slot number. Once the task is done, all the information from the slot is uploaded and the slot is cleared, ready for the next task.

So you'll have to figure out which of the APs that ran crashed the screen saver and then check in the slot numbers which error file was last written to and post that information.

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