ok so I have been running this project for about 6 months now but as a secondary project to S@H.

25/75% --> CPDN/S@H

However, in the past month or so I have switched to running CPDN 100% of the time by suspending S@H.

I noticed (but never really put any time into check it) that the total time running did not add up to the \"CPU time\"

Yesterday, i decided to test my theory...at 4:12pm (local) I noted that the \"CPU time\" for the project was 317:38:00

it is now 12:12am (local) eight hours after the test began the \"CPU time\" registers as 319:38:00

so for eight HOURS of running the project it shows as 2 hours of work.

does anyone have any solution to this problem? if i can\'t solve it within 48hrs I will have to shut down the project since I will no longer have constant access to the computer.

As always your help is appreciated.
Thanks,
citroja

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There are three things that can slow down the processing:

1) Using the screen saver. This can, on some computers, take up to 50% of the cpu time just to create. It\'s recommended for cpdn, that one DOESN\'T use ANY screen saver - set Windows to use Blank, or None.

2) When running multiple projects, it\'s very important that you set the option: Leave applications in memory while suspended? (found in General preferences), to yes. Otherwise, everytime the projects switch, the data from cpdn is dumped, instead of being saved in the swap file. So the program will have to restart the model from the last save point, which can lose a lot of time.

3) The recommended minimum amount of memory is 512 Megs. This is because the program can use up to 350 Megs (or there abouts), and anything less than this will result in lots of cpu time being spent swapping data back and forth between ram and the hard disk. Which also adds to the wear and tear on the hd.

Your computer falls into the \'not enough memory\' category, so this will be one of the reasons for it being slow.
It\'ll get there eventually, provided that you don\'t have too many crashes.

And it\'s recommended that people make regular backups in case there IS a crash after hundreds of hours of crunching.
But with multiple projects, the killer is in the restore after a crash.

I think that the biggest issue was the screen saver. I shut it off an hour ago and it has been tracking 1:1 --> real time:CPU time.

The swap space isn\'t an issue since I am not switching between projects.

I will continue to watch this over the next 6-8 hours and see how things go.

thanks
citroja

BTW-if it is recommended that the screen saver is turned off why do they even give you the option of having it run?

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BTW-if it is recommended that the screen saver is turned off why do they even give you the option of having it run?

Ahhh, that\'s one of the great mysteries of BOINC.
Possibly because enough people complained until one was created. But I know that one of the other projects doesn\'t have a screen saver. (Rosetta?)

BTW-if it is recommended that the screen saver is turned off why do they even give you the option of having it run?

Ahhh, that\'s one of the great mysteries of BOINC.
Possibly because enough people complained until one was created. But I know that one of the other projects doesn\'t have a screen saver. (Rosetta?)

In many ways, BOINC is descended from the original Seti@Home, which was billed as a screen saver that also happened to accomplish a scientific goal. The screen saver feature of BOINC is there for people who want a cool-looking screen saver and are not as concerned with completing work units in the shortest possible time. This may seem counterproductive to those of us who crunch a little more seriously, but even running BOINC as a screen saver contributes more CPU cycles to a project than not running BOINC at all.

Several projects don\'t have graphics for their worker apps and as a result don\'t have a screen saver. (Rosetta does have graphics, but Predictor@Home does not.) Also, the third-party optimized apps for Seti@Home are typically compiled without the graphics code to speed up work unit processing even more.

Personally, I like looking at the graphics every so often just to see how my climate model/protein folding/pulsar search/etc. is going. But I don\'t ever use BOINC as screen saver so that every available CPU cycle goes towards crunching.

-- Tony