A newbie question :
If my PC can\'t finish a whole run (1300 hours), are the trickled results still usefull or should I change Boinc to do some other task ?
I\'m sure it is somewhere in the faq\'s and other threads but I didn\'t find a conclusive answer.

That is because the conclusive answer is maybe. If your computer can pass the stability tests just let it run and hope for the best. http://boinc-doc.net/boinc-wiki/index.php?title=How-To_Test_Machine_Stability

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

Would you care to elaborate on why you won\'t be able to complete a run?

If the computer is only available for 2 or 3 weeks and then will be changed for a new computer, it should be possible to transfer the model to the new computer to complete the model.

If it is the deadline, then don\'t worry the work will be accepted and will be useful.

Other reasons could have other workarounds.

If 1300 hours is too much, by setting the HD preferences to allow only 1GB of spare BOINC space, you might get a slab model rather than a sulphur model. Sulphur is around 2.8 times longer than slab. So around 450 to 480 hours on that computer. After setting the preferences abort the sulphur unit.

There is perhaps some use from completed phases, but if you cannot finish a model, I would suggest a different project.

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Thanks for the reply.
My PC (amd 3200) has about 5,5 hours every day on average to process the sulphur model.
That\'s 500 hours before the enddate 16/2/2006.
The completion time is 1300 hours.

There is perhaps some use from completed phases, but if you cannot finish a model, I would suggest a different project.

Crandles, do you mean uncompleted phases ?

If the deadline isn\'t important I can continue the sulphur model rather then aborting it.
The cpu/memory/hd is very stable.
Sometimes the adsl is being put offline but that is no problem for Boinc.

Sorry I should have said there is definitely some use from completed phases and perhaps some use from uncompleted phases.

An incomplete phase 1 probably isn\'t any use. An incomplete phase 2, 3, 4 or 5 may at some stage be investigated to find out reasons why it failed. For this, I don\'t see any use for a model that is just abandoned. Also models that crashed due to unstable computers are not very interesting and are a nuisance in that they probably make it harder to find models that have crashed due to their parameters. I don\'t know when this might be attempted, so this potential use is somewhat speculative.

The work the scientists want to be able to do first/most involves comparing phase 2 to phase 3 also 2 to 4 and 2 to 5. So if you completed phase 2 but not 3, they couldn\'t do such comparisons for your model on your computer but they may still use the phase 2 for working out the average of the models with the parameters it has, and compare that average to the average of the phase 3s that get returned with the same parameters.

Phase 1 returned could be useful for different reasons - it provides flux adjustment measurements.

If you complete 3 phases there is definitely use that can be made of it. They did consider handing out 3 phase sulphur runs in order to make them shorter but it just isn\'t very efficient needing 9 phases to get the same work as 5.

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I\'ll probably get to phase 3 so I\'ll let it continue.
I\'m sure this explanation is usefull for others with the same question.

Thanks.

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I have added it to the WIKI FAQ at
<a href=\"http://boinc-doc.net/boinc-wiki/index.php?title=Climateprediction_FAQ#I_cannot_complete_by_the_deadline_.2F_Are_incomplete_Work_Units_useful.3F\">Wiki FAQ imcomplete WU</a>


If you see scope for further improvement in the WIKI, let me or Paul know.

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