47

I'm running the SMP client on my computer that is a Core2Duo... It's been running for about 1.5 weeks straight with no problem. Then, out of nowhere, my computer locked up on me when I was trying to burn a DVD, and had to reset it.

When I turned my computer back on, I start the SMP client again, and the process mpiexec.exe is taking up about 40% on the process list, and the F@H processes are running much slower. Google says mpiexec is a requirement of the SMP client, so that the two cores can exchange data between each other.

How do I keep it from taking up so much CPU time, and get it back to how it was before my computer crashed?

11/4/2007 4:50:16 PM

i have had nothing but trouble with the smp client on several different machines now, so i eventually said fuck it

if they'd just write a client that works, it would certainly help

11/4/2007 5:15:52 PM

11/4/2007 6:24:57 PM

in the experts opinions...how many points per day will this beast get? maybe 800 a day or so?

11/4/2007 6:29:48 PM

Quote :

"the process mpiexec.exe is taking up about 40% on the process list, and the F@H processes are running much slower. "

I had this problem recently...I think I tried to install the SMP client as a service (seems to be a no-no at this point). If I remember correctly I had to either a) rerun the setup file and choose "no" when asked if i wanted to start as a service and/or go to services.msc and disable the mpiexec service.

heres some more info:

http://www.hardforum.com/archive/index.php/t-1207576.html

I think the trouble of setting up the SMP is worth the points. I tried running two clients on a dual core and got an additional 400-500 PPD when I switched to the SMP.

^running the smp client I get 850PPD using that processor.

11/4/2007 6:37:18 PM

Support Cancer Research and the NCSU Wolfpack With Your Computer's Spare Time!


What Is It?
Essentially the Folding@Home project uses your unused CPU cycles to model how proteins fold in the human body. The misfolding of proteins is often involved in well known diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, and Parkinson’s disease. Because this endeavor requires massive amounts of computing power, their project uses spare CPU time on computers that would otherwise sit idle in homes and businesses across the world. Here at North Carolina State University, we have formed this team in order to donate our spare CPU time to help this important endeavor.

The North Carolina State University Folding@Home Team (Team # 59) was one of the first teams to join the Folding@Home project, and was the very first University-based team to join. We are currently ranked in the Top 100 Folding@Home teams in the world and are ramping up production in an effort to make it into the Top 50. We are all dedicated to doing our part to help end some of these terrible diseases, and we would appreciate the company of anyone who would like to help.

All it takes is the installation of a small piece of software and your computer will start completing Work Units for the project and the team. The Folding@Home process runs at the lowest possible priority so you can run it 24X7 without slowing down your computer or interfering with your everyday computing tasks. If you have a Sony PS3 Game Console you can also run Folding@Home on it with great results.

How Can I Help?

Go to http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download,download and install the software. Our Team Number is 59.
Click here for more detailed installation instructions.

Windows Computers:
We recommend using the "text-only console” client for most windows computers. If you have a dual/quad/etc core processor, be sure to install and run the SMP client to get you and the team far more points than the standard console client (but sometimes it has problems starting as a service, so you might have to restart the client manually or automatically via startup folder when your computer restarts). In general, its best to stay away from the graphical clients. If you have a Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading, its best to turn off Hyperthreading in the BIOS if you know how. Feel free to post in this thread with any questions.

Mac and Linux Computers:
There are both "text-only" consoles and SMP clients for Linux and Macintosh computers too! If you have a dual/quad/etc core processor be sure to run the SMP client as you'll get far more points than the text-only client. But the text-only clients also help out too if you only have single-core processors.

PS3:
PS3s currently provide over 60% of the processing power in the Folding@home network and are capable of producing many points for the team. If you have PS3 system version 1.6 or later, you will see a Folding@Home icon in the Network column of the XMB (PS3 Networking menu). Just click on the icon and that's it. If you don't have 1.6 or later, perform a system upgrade. Make sure to use Team #59!

The more computers and PS3s you run the clients on, the more points your username and the NCSU team earns! Install as many clients as you can and watch your username/team progress at the stats page


Links

Team Links:
NCSU F@H Team Website: http://www.ncsufolding.com
NCSU F@H Team Discussion: http://brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=118820
NCSU F@H Team Facebook Group: http://ncst.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5012521644

F@H Links:
F@H Project Homepage: http://folding.stanford.edu/
F@H Official Forums: http://forum.folding-community.org
F@H Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home
F@H Wiki Site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home

Stats:
Stats1: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_summary.php?s=&t=59
Stats2: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Stats
Monitor your production: http://fahmon.net
Compare your production with other users: http://fahinfo.org

11/5/2007 2:06:15 PM

#92!!

11/5/2007 9:41:58 PM

#77!!

[Edited on November 5, 2007 at 10:18 PM. Reason : on our team! ]

11/5/2007 10:17:39 PM

Quote :

" [05:27:18] Verifying core Core_a1.fah... [05:27:18] Signature is VALID [05:27:18] [05:27:18] Trying to unzip core FahCore_a1.exe [05:27:18] Decompressed FahCore_a1.exe (2035712 bytes) successfully [05:27:18] + Core successfully engaged [05:27:23] [05:27:23] + Processing work unit [05:27:23] Core required: FahCore_a1.exe [05:27:23] Core found. [05:27:23] Working on Unit 03 [November 6 05:27:23] [05:27:23] + Working ... [05:27:32] CoreStatus = 63 (99) [05:27:32] + Error starting Folding@Home core. [05:27:37] [05:27:37] + Processing work unit [05:27:37] Core required: FahCore_a1.exe [05:27:37] Core found. [05:27:37] Working on Unit 03 [November 6 05:27:37] [05:27:37] + Working ... [05:27:45] CoreStatus = 63 (99) [05:27:45] + Error starting Folding@Home core. [05:27:50] [05:27:50] + Processing work unit [05:27:50] Core required: FahCore_a1.exe [05:27:50] Core found. [05:27:50] Working on Unit 03 [November 6 05:27:50] [05:27:50] + Working ... [05:27:58] CoreStatus = 63 (99) [05:27:58] + Error starting Folding@Home core. [05:27:58] Folding@Home will go to sleep for 1 day as there have been 5 consecutive Cores e xecuted which failed to complete a work unit. [05:27:58] (To wake it up early, quit the application and restart it.) [05:27:58] If problems persist, please visit our website at http://folding.stanf ord.edu for help. [05:27:58] + Sleeping... "

I got this -- Any idea what this means? I'm going to uninstall and reinstall the program and see if that helps

11/6/2007 7:09:09 AM

That status code is always a permissions issue.

You need to run the install.bat file and supply it with a windows admin account username and password (password can't be blank).

http://forum.folding-community.org/./viewtopic.php?t=20867

are you running vista or xp?

11/6/2007 9:15:28 AM

It's XP Pro. I deleted the old client, and reinstalled a clean copy, ran install.bat and it appears to be working now. However, all the work it did over the past 2 days is gone

11/6/2007 9:54:36 AM

Ok, so I just installed the console, team 59, all that good stuff, my question is do I need to leave this console open or can I close it and it will still run in the background?

My laptop is sort of old now: XP, 1.5 GHz, 2gig Ram. Maybe it will help

11/6/2007 10:05:09 AM

^^ well at least its working now...it was definately some sort of permissions issue tho.

^ When you configured it, it asked you if you wanted to run the client as a service. what did you select?

If you said yes, then it will run in the background after you restart your computer. If not then you'll have to reconfigure it.

11/6/2007 10:12:10 AM

Yeah, I said 'yes' I followed the exact instructions you posted earlier (quite helpful). So I'll just restart then.

11/6/2007 10:38:05 AM

^ great, so after you restart just go into your task manager and make sure the folding process is consuming 100% of the CPU time.

11/6/2007 10:48:34 AM

^^Since it is a laptop, just be carefull it does not get too hot. There is also an option when you configure it to pause while running off the battery which keep from draining the battery so quickly.

11/6/2007 2:04:37 PM

wow

i think today's gonna be our biggest day of recent history...we're already at 53K!

11/7/2007 7:43:11 PM

From another thread, synapse said:

Quote :

"u might want to setup two console clients since u can't run the SMP reliably as a service yet. only other thing you could do is install the SMP and put a shortcut it in the startup folder (but then it'll probably just get closed)."

Is it better to run the SMP client to let it use both cores for one work unit, or two clients like you mentioned above, and force one on each core? This is on a Core 2 Duo.

11/8/2007 10:42:41 AM

smp is running reliably on my e2180 machine as a service

*shrug*

11/8/2007 10:49:30 AM

Quote :

"Is it better to run the SMP client to let it use both cores for one work unit, or two clients like you mentioned above, and force one on each core? This is on a Core 2 Duo."

With the SMP you only ever use one client...it will use all the cores. The only time you want to set up two console clients, is if you can't run the SMP client for some reason. And the SMP client is always preferable over two console clients becuase you'll get lots more points with it.

Quote :

"smp is running reliably on my e2180 machine as a service"

Thats cool...did you have any issues setting it up or did it work on the first try? Did you have to change any options in the service properties? (services.msc, right click the service name)

11/8/2007 10:54:42 AM

I'm running F@H with a 1.6ghz 512mb

would it much better to put in extra 512 stick?


Does anyone have an extra 512 stick?

11/8/2007 1:01:57 PM

Your F@H wouldn't directly benefit from another 512MB, but if you use this computer regularly it would make sense.

11/8/2007 1:24:06 PM

This laptop does nothing but F@H

It's a 1.6 centrino,

Is working on a 5000 Frame project and is gonna take a while

11/8/2007 8:54:58 PM

^More memory will not help folding. If it is all you use it for, you might consider selling it and using the money to buy/build a core duo system.

11/9/2007 7:29:14 AM

^I have a mac that's intel core duo

but I won't put folding @ home on it or my server PC

after that whatever extra PCS I have lieing around before they sell, I put F@H on.

11/9/2007 2:29:13 PM

Quote :

"I have a mac that's intel core duo but I won't put folding @ home on it or my server PC"

why not? that mac wouldnt probably bring in a bunch of points

11/9/2007 2:37:19 PM

Because I don't want it to use my processing power. Even if it lets me use it when I need it, I just don't like it on there. I have over 3 computers running it.

11/9/2007 2:38:08 PM

it's idle time btw, so therefore it's not taking any time away from normal procedures, you can also set it to only use a % of idle time, so even at 70% idle time it's better than none

11/10/2007 3:09:16 AM

Maybe so, but macs are known to get really hot and I don't like what it wil do to the temperature of my mac.

11/10/2007 7:35:23 AM

We are #91 now!

11/10/2007 9:44:12 AM

This sucks... Every time I restart my computer I have to reinstall the SMP client because of the mpiexec.exe. When I reboot, that sucker takes up 100% of my CPU, so I stop the service, kill the process, and then reinstall the client. At that point, it works great (the four f@h processes take up 100% of the cpu)

11/10/2007 11:59:18 AM

Yeah i've had problems running the SMP client as a service...and my problems are that the mpiexec task takes up way too much CPU % when its running as a service.

so i install it as a non-service and put a shortcut to to fah.exe in my startup folder. then i use a program called trayit to put the dos window in my system tray

11/11/2007 10:22:01 PM

bttt

11/13/2007 8:47:05 AM

^^ i did just that yesterday. say hello to another 800-900 ppd and about 5 more dual core machines to be added

11/13/2007 11:24:00 AM

^Nice work!

11/13/2007 11:28:26 AM

^^ you're going to add 5 more SMP clients??
that would be badass

11/13/2007 12:14:50 PM

theoretically, i'll add 4 more i think

as long as this one doesn't overheat too bad. the rest are just like this one, so i'll probably let it test for a week or so beforehand.

11/13/2007 12:20:03 PM

^ sweet!

11/13/2007 3:45:44 PM

has F@H made any research break throughs?

11/14/2007 2:19:20 PM

^ check their website.... they have a whole section about that

11/14/2007 4:23:51 PM

for those who want to run the SMP client as a service:

Quote :

"1. Required component for XP & 2000 (not Vista, as it is built in): The Windows SMP client requires the Microsoft .NET framework v2.0; please install this prior to installing the client. The version 2.0 framework is required; it can co-exist with other versions, but this version must be installed. It can be obtained from Microsoft at the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en. Administrator privileges are required for install. 2. Unpack files. Run the self-extracting installer to unpack the SMP client files. 3. Client installation. You must have an account that has Admin rights on the PC and has a password before you proceed with the next portion of the install. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Folding@Home Windows SMP Client V1.01. Run install.bat from within the SMP install directory to complete the installation. This will install MPI services that the client needs. If you have Windows Firewall enabled, you may get a pop-up window asking if you should give access to the smpd and mpiexec programs. Grant access. If you use an alternate firewall product, you will likely have to make a similar exception for smpd. **NOTE** The username and password you provide for mpiexec should be your Windows login that you will run the client under. This is used for authentication on your local machine. It is cached in encrypted form in your Registry and is not transmitted to FAH servers. At the end of the install process, you should see two lines of output: If you see this twice, MPI is working If you see this twice, MPI is working If you do not see these lines, do not start the client. MPI is not successfully installed, and the client will not run successfully. 4. In a command prompt, navigate to the directory you installed the client to. By default, this is “C:\Program Files\Folding@Home Windows SMP Client V1.01\”. From there, run “fah –configonly” 5. Configure as usual, make sure you say “yes” to “Install as a service.” I recommend also saying “yes” to “Allow large work units,” however, this will let the client use more memory and potentially slow down the system it is on. On public systems, this should probably be left off. 6. Don’t start the service yet. Go to the Services management console (Start->Settings->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services) and look for the service that starts with FAH. Open the properties for that service and go to the Log On tab. In this tab, check “This account” instead of the default “Local System account” option and fill in the account you used to install the client. The account used to install the client must have administrative privileges for this step to work. 7. This step is optional, but recommended for the SMP client. Enter the registry editor (Start->Run->regedit.exe) to edit the registry entry for the FAH service. The default location for this is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\FAH@C:+Program Files+Folding@Home Windows SMP Client V1.01+fah. If you installed in a place other than the default, the key name will be different, but it will still be in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\ and will still start with FAH@. Select this key and edit the ImagePath key and append “ –forceasm” to the “Value data” field. 8. Close the registry editor and reboot. Trying to start the service without rebooting will not work, you must reboot."

I think step 6 is crucial and one most people don't do.

11/14/2007 11:22:10 PM

I've got the SMP client running as a service on three dual-core machines...working great after doing #6 above

11/15/2007 8:51:43 AM

just moved into 7th place on the team. not too shabby for starting at 75 2 months ago.

11/15/2007 3:26:59 PM

just hopped over me

i assume when your new clients start producing you'll get alot closer to scanZero's production right?

11/15/2007 3:47:04 PM

something like that. i'll install it one at a time on those and see how it goes

11/15/2007 3:55:14 PM

Heres the Vijay Pande's (F@H Founder) blog, some interesting F@H stuff in there: http://folding.typepad.com/news/

And just because I found it interesting to read posts from highly successful Folding@Home teams, heres the forums for a few top folding teams:

#1: Hard OCP
http://hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?s=e09ba6da9a9afede4c6a9107fc02d406&f=32

#4: Maximum PC
http://www.maximumpc.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=32&sid=e409af91960423cd129b58715e0317f0

#12: Ars Technia
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/122097561/m/869001864731/p/1

11/15/2007 4:24:50 PM

i got some weird issues

about 1 out of 6 times my SMP console works, the rest of the time i "enter M.D." and then works 3 out of the 4 "FahCore_a1.exe" processes and the 4th one stalls, resulting in a stalled client. about 1 out of 4 times i get a FILE_IO_ERROR.

and guess what, all i have to do is close out (sometimes kill the stalled process) and restart the client and 1 out of 6 times it works

11/16/2007 12:12:30 AM

i have to baby sit the linux smp client like that all the time, though never my windows machines thus far. not sure why at this point (though windows client is beta 5 and not beta6 like on linux).

[Edited on November 16, 2007 at 12:17 AM. Reason : .]

11/16/2007 12:16:28 AM

30thAnnZ how many machines do you have this running on?!

11/16/2007 12:38:05 PM

37.

only 1 is SMP though and it just started up 2 days ago.

11/16/2007 1:57:01 PM