I am very diappointed that my initial enthusiasm for contributing to the climate predication project has been dampened by the failure of BOINC to work on either of two different computers at differnet locations. It seems to me that thre are significant bugs in BOINC, given the similarity between the failures.

In both cases BOINC states on starting that the Windows Interface Socket hasn't cleaned up. BOINC doesn't start automatically on either machine, and there have been problems getting the screen saver to work. It now works on one machine but won't work on the other. The first time it was installed on the second machine it refused to accept the URL that was copied into the regstraion page, but later, it accpted the page being typed in. Worst of all, it causes machine 1 to reboot every few minutes!

I tried to obtain some on-line help from the Climate Prediction website, but the advice given seemed to ignore the actual concerns I was expressing and was in the main unhelpful.

So, unless I can get some answers to these problems, particularly automatic startup rebooting and the Windows socket message, I will be reluctantly forced to abandon contributing to the project.

Regards

Xiansheng

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>In both cases BOINC states on starting that the Windows Interface Socket hasn't cleaned up.

The message is one that you will get if you try to open more than one instance of BOINC.

This may be happening if you are trying to open BOINC from a start or desktop icon when it is running already. There will be a little BOINC icon in the Windows taskbar; to open the BOINC window right click on that and select 'show'.

It can also occur on startup because you have BOINC twice in startup folders - it could be in your own startup folder twice, or once there and once in the 'all users' folder.

It's down to the way that BOINC is checking that only a single instance is run. When the second boinc_gui program starts up it detects that there is another BOINC program running (it doesn't matter if it's boinc_gui or boinc_cli), so it terminates itself. The exit routine always cleans up the windows socket interface.

(copied from the Q&A section -thanks thyme lawn and andrew hingston)

I hope that helps a bit. I'm sure someone more technically savvy than I will be along soon and will help with the other things. In the meantime if you go to the BOINC Q&amp;A (left menu) and type in the relevant phrase in the search section <a href="http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/forum_text_search_form.php">here</a>
you may find something to help (click on search don't press enter)

Marj

---

_________________________________

&gt; BOINC doesn't start automatically on either machine

I suspect that Marj has already provided the answer to this one, and that BOINC is running silently in your taskbar.

&gt; there have been problems getting the screen saver to work.

If you open up BOINC from the system tray, go to the work tab and right click on your job you'll get the option to show the graphics. If that works then the screen saver should work if you've got it selected in your display properties (but bear in mind that the graphics window and screen saver can use a lot of processing power depending on the capabilities of your graphics card).

If you get problems opening up the graphics window it's likely that you'll need to check to see if there are any updates to your graphics driver. Or possibly even rollback to the previous version of the driver (I had to do the other week on a laptop with a Radeon IGP 320M graphics card - the latest ATI driver update caused it to reboot every time I ran an OpenGL or DirectX application, and the BOINC graphics/screen saver is OpenGL).

&gt; It now works on one machine but won't work on the other.

Again, most likely down to your graphics driver.

&gt; The first time it was installed on the second machine it refused to accept the
&gt; URL that was copied into the regstraion page, but later, it accpted the page
&gt; being typed in.

There may have been a problem at the server end when you first tried or you might have mistyped something.

&gt; Worst of all, it causes machine 1 to reboot every few minutes!

Are you overclocking at all? CPDN will stress your hardware (particularly memory and CPU) much more than any other application you're likely to be running.

---

"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On the computer that reboots, run MemTest:
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

If it can't make two complete passes without errors, then that computer isn't fit to run CPDN or any distributed computing project. One of my PCs started crashing, while running CPDN after 5 months of smooth operation. I think and hope I have traced the problem to a power supply that isn't giving the correct voltage.


As for the screen saver, does it not show at all? Just a blank screen? Does it give that "Secure Windows Desktop detected" message? What operating system version?

HI,

Thanks for your advice. I ran the memtest and found over 300% that there were no errors.

The other problems that I mentioned have now been solved thanks to advice I obtained from other respondents. Rebooting remains the only problem.

As regards the re-booting, closer obsrvation revealed the following behaviour:

I installed BOINC and it ran perfectly. After closing it down a couple of times, I used Micrsoft Office 2003 Excel, and the computer rebooted after a short interval. Worse still, it continued to reboot almost as soon as the computer had finishied booting, even though Microsft Office 2003 Excel was not operating.

I then uninstalled BOINC and the rebooting problem ended.

Can you make sense of this behaviour?

Regards

Xiansheng

&gt; On the computer that reboots, run MemTest:
&gt; http://hcidesign.com/memtest/
&gt;
&gt; If it can't make two complete passes without errors, then that computer isn't
&gt; fit to run CPDN or any distributed computing project. One of my PCs started
&gt; crashing, while running CPDN after 5 months of smooth operation. I think and
&gt; hope I have traced the problem to a power supply that isn't giving the correct
&gt; voltage.
&gt;

---

Hi Thyme Lawn

Thanks for your advice.

&gt; I suspect that Marj has already provided the answer to this one, and that
&gt; BOINC is running silently in your taskbar.

Correct.

&gt; &gt; there have been problems getting the screen saver to work.

Now fixed.

With regard to rebooting, you queried whether I was overclocking. How can I test for this?

Regads

Xiansheng

---

Hi Everyone,

I am keen to use BOINC but thwarted by a rebooting problem. It appears that BOINC runs fine after installation until I run Microsoft Office 2003 Excel (and perhaps other programs of this suite). However, once Excel has run, BOINC cause the computer to reboot everytime the computer has finished booting.

It may be that I am mistaken about the influence of Microsoft Office 2003 software, but that is how it appears.

Two subscribers have offered suggestions for this problem. One was that the computer has data-writing erros. I tried memtest and found no errors over a 300% test.

Another was that computer may be over-clocking. How do I check and fix this if applicable?

All help appreciated.

Regards

Xiansheng

---

If you don't know if you are overclocking, then you aren't. It involves some special steps in your BIOS and can't be done accidentally.

That rebooting is very mysterious. Does it behave similarly with other BOINC projects or other non-BOINC distributed computing?

---

&gt; (and perhaps other programs of this suite). However, once Excel has run,
&gt; BOINC cause the computer to reboot everytime the computer has finished
&gt; booting.

Could you tell us the version of BOINC that you installed, and also the operating system that you are using?

I have to admit that I'm surprised that the computer gets stuck in a reboot cycle.
Presuming XP/2000/NT, does it reboot after you've logged in?
Did you try to install as a service?
Are there any events in event viewer that might explain what is happening when your computer starts?
Have you tried checking your disk for errors? It may be that the application is installed into a bad sector.

What do you have set for 'Do work while computer is in use?'
Setting it to NO may help.


A long time ago, on a computer now obsolete, I tried to play a game called Space Quest. Forget which 'number'.

After a few seconds of loading it, the computer rebooted spontaneously.
And then again. And again. etc.
I took it back to the shop, they tried it on their computer, no problems.
So, back home, try again.
Reboot. Again and ........
I never did get to play it.

I don't know what was wrong, but in those days, the mid '80s, magazines talked a lot about compatability.
Between 'IBM compatable' computers and REAL IBMs, video cards, etc, and their ability, (or not), to play
certain games.
There was also a lot of discussion about conflicts between IRQs useed by the computers and the games.

It's a lot different now, but you may have a complicated conflict between some hardware in your computer
and one or more pieces of software.

And it may end up being a "lemon" as far as using it for CPDN is concerned.

Les

My computer turned out to be no good for boinc, and whatever I did, the model crashed. So I uninstalled boinc, making sure there were no remnants of it in files, but left my registration valid. I then installed classic cpdn (again, because I was using it last year) and am now on the second model.

So problems with boinc don't mean you have to quit cpdn.

---

__________________________________________________

Hi Everyone,

Since my last post about the rebooting BOINC problem, several responses have been received, and I have listed them below.

In response:

1) I have no idea what ‘classic cpdn’ but I presume it is a different program for distributed computing and processing climate models. If all else fails I will see if that will work.
2) If I set it to no doesn’t that mean I have to leave the computer on just to run the model? I think it is important for BOINC to run in the background while mu computer is in use for other things in the foreground. Nevertheless, this may a be an interesting test of BOINC’s functionality.
3) I don’t know the version of BOINC that was installed, but it is whatever was available for download a week ago. I am running XP with all upgrades. This problem does not occur with any other software installed on my computer. How do I check the events viewer? I have run memtest on the computer which didn’t show any errors, and have uninstalled and installed BOINC several times, which presumably means it has been installed at different places on the hard drive.
4) At least I don’t have to worry about over-clocking, apparently.

Any further ideas or advice about the information I have provided?

Regards

Xiansheng



______________________________________________________
1) My computer turned out to be no good for boinc, and whatever I did, the model crashed. So I uninstalled boinc, making sure there were no remnants of it in files, but left my registration valid. I then installed classic cpdn (again, because I was using it last year) and am now on the second model.

So problems with boinc don't mean you have to quit cpdn.
2) What do you have set for 'Do work while computer is in use?'
Setting it to NO may help.
3) Could you tell us the version of BOINC that you installed, and also the operating system that you are using?

I have to admit that I'm surprised that the computer gets stuck in a reboot cycle.
Presuming XP/2000/NT, does it reboot after you've logged in?
Did you try to install as a service?
Are there any events in event viewer that might explain what is happening when your computer starts?
Have you tried checking your disk for errors? It may be that the application is installed into a bad sector.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬4) If you don't know if you are over-clocking, then you aren't. It involves some special steps in your BIOS and can't be done accidentally.

That rebooting is very mysterious. Does it behave similarly with other BOINC projects or other non-BOINC distributed computing?

---

Setting it to "no work while in use":

When you start using the computer, BOINC / CP stops, and then starts again 3 minutes after you finish.
(I think it's 3, but the idea's the same).
I have mine running all the time, except when I back up, then I Suspend first, so
I don't have personal experence with this setting.

However, from what I have read, what would happen when you start Excell, is that BOINC would stop the moment
you moved the mouse, wait until you finished, then start again.
So, in effect, it wouldn't be running when you ran Excel.

Or you could bypass Excel only, by using Suspend before you run Excel, and your 'normal' option when you finish,
but then you have to remember to manually start again. That's if this is how the "Don't use" option works.

Les

&gt; 3) I don’t know the version of BOINC that was installed, but it is whatever
&gt; was available for download a week ago. I am running XP with all upgrades.
&gt; This problem does not occur with any other software installed on my computer.
You can check your version of BOINC by clicking on Help -&gt; About in the BOINC window. The latest version is 4.19 and is now available on the download page. If you have an older version, it may be worth installing 4.19 - just suspend and exit BOINC and install it over your existing version.
HTH, Alan

---

&gt; How do I check the events viewer? I have run memtest on the computer which
Right click "my computer" and select manage. This will open a Microsoft Management Console.
Navigate to "System Tools-&gt;Event Viewer" and expand it.
Browse through "Application" and "System", looking for events with a red circle and white X. These are errors. Compare the date and time to those times when you installed the software, ran excel (and it caused the reboot), and when the computer restarted.

A thorough explanation of the event viewer is beyond this thread, however you would be well advised to learn a bit about it, if you intend to continue in a Microsoft environment.

&gt; times, which presumably means it has been installed at different places on the
&gt; hard drive.
If you have never checked the drive, you ought to check it sometime anyway.