I attached to the GPUGrid project. Files were downloaded and work started on crunching numbers. Things went smoothly for about 1 hour. Then suddenly, BOINC manager reset the project and then detached me from it.

I reattached. Same smooth start. Same result. Reset and detached from the project. I'm running version 6.4.5 and an 8600 GT GPU. Any one else experience being rejected by the project for no apparent reason?

No, happily running on 3 systems ...

Can you post the relevant portions of the message log, say 20 lines above and below the detach?

No, happily running on 3 systems ...

Can you post the relevant portions of the message log, say 20 lines above and below the detach?

@Gregg

Isn't a GeForce 8600 GT with only 32 shader units way too slow for this project? Please see this post.

@Gregg

Isn't a GeForce 8600 GT with only 32 shader units way too slow for this project? Please see this post.

Perhaps this discussion is helpful.

I think I'm seeing a pattern emerge. It appears that for GPUGRID purposes, my little old 8600 GT "may" work, but most likely won't. I will wait to reconnect to the project until I get an appropriate video card. Thanks to all for the help.

An 8600GT will complete work within the 4-day deadline, but the problem will come in as follows:

1. Though shorter workunits will complete in less than two-days, the 8600GT will take more than 48-hours to complete the longer variety of workunits which occur frequently (thus requiring a 24/7 runtime to begin with).

2. GPUGRID apps download based on the number of CPU cores, not GPU's. Thus, on your machine it will always try to keep two workunits downloaded.

3. If the combination is of two shorter units or one shorter unit and one longer unit, you should be fine completing both in under 4 days (or very close to that). The problem comes in when you get 2 longer workunits in a row (or more...3+ in a row is quite possible). When the latter happens, the amount of time that the card is late in returning work will increase, and you will have to abort one or more workunits to get back into an "on-time" cycle.

4. You can reduce this problem by overclocking somewhat (especially the shader speed), but no stable overclock will be fast enough on the 32 shader cards to be able to "set and forget" things...some degree of babysitting will always be the case.

A final note, a majority of the 8600 series cards have only 256mb (this is not the case with yours which has 512). Though not a problem now, GDF (a project Admin) has indicated that in the furture GPUGRID apps may require more memory.

@Gregg
If someone could state definitively that it doesn't have sufficient capacity, that would clear up the mystery.

Thanks Scott and Phoneman. Your comments were helpful. It appears that my card is in the gray area of being able to handle the load.

That said, I still don't understand why, after only a few hours of computing, the server detaches me from the project. It's not waiting a few days to see the status of the WU. Maybe it is keeping tabs on my progress and sees that I can't keep up.

That said, I still don't understand why, after only a few hours of computing, the server detaches me from the project.

I've never seen such behaviour before. Which BOINC version do you use? I'm a little worried about BOINC deciding to reset a project itself. Do that in a wrong moment and one may loose many WUs. That's not something I'd not (yet) trust a program to decide.

MrS

How did you install BOINC? in "protected mode", etc.?

Were you doing anything on the machine when it detached or was it just running?

What I find most interesting is that there is a communication and then *2 HOURS LATER* the detach message ...

Why the two hour delay? What else might have happened, what else may be running on the system?

I also wonder why there is no other messages for two hours ... I know I have busier systems, but I don't think I have two hour gaps in the messages ... ever ... even my slowest systems ...

How did you install BOINC? in "protected mode", etc.?

Were you doing anything on the machine when it detached or was it just running?

What I find most interesting is that there is a communication and then *2 HOURS LATER* the detach message ...

Why the two hour delay? What else might have happened, what else may be running on the system?

I also wonder why there is no other messages for two hours ... I know I have busier systems, but I don't think I have two hour gaps in the messages ... ever ... even my slowest systems ...

One last note. As you know, when the GPU is working on a project, its temperature jumps significantly (but stays well below a critical level). I noticed the last time I tried to get the project to run, that after running for about 20 minutes, the temperature on the GPU dropped back to its normal low-usage level. However, the BOINC Manager showed that the project was still running. It could not have been running given the magnitude of the temperature change of the GPU.

@Gregg,

Well, it is not supposed to happen ... but, the reason we wanted the messages, all the messages is to see what is happening on your system. What is happening on some other project may be causing the detach on GPU Grid. in other words, a cross-project bug ... project A does something that triggers the detach from project B ... it should not happen, and I am not saying it happens here ... but ... that gap is important ... what happened to GPU Grid does not look to me like something done by the GPU Grid project ...

OK, just a long shot here. Any chance these gentlemen/women are attached to a BOINC account manager like BAM?

If GPUGRID or any other project for that matter is not yet part of the projects they subscribed to in the relevant host, it will be automatically detached after the daily (or manually requested) update contacting the account manager.

This happened to me in the past for other projects.

Kind regards

Alain

@Gregg,

Well, it is not supposed to happen ... but, the reason we wanted the messages, all the messages is to see what is happening on your system. What is happening on some other project may be causing the detach on GPU Grid. in other words, a cross-project bug ... project A does something that triggers the detach from project B ... it should not happen, and I am not saying it happens here ... but ... that gap is important ... what happened to GPU Grid does not look to me like something done by the GPU Grid project ...

Alain - I use BAM. However, BAM appears to support GPUGRID. It is listed in the projects list that you use to attach to a project through BAM.

Ah yes ...

Over the holiday season I sent a long list of my experiences with BAM to Willy, to which he replied (thank you Willy) and though we did not completely agree on all things, he did make some changes to BAM.

The AM to client and back again communication was one of the areas I noted did not work well ... though I concentrated on the NNT aspects, this would seem to be another. That if you attach on the client and NOT on BAM, it does not communicate that information UP to BAM ...

Alain - I use BAM. However, BAM appears to support GPUGRID. It is listed in the projects list that you use to attach to a project through BAM.

Your answer shows that you haven't attached GPUGRID project at BAM.
So Alain is right. :- )

At every contact between BOINC manager and BAM you get detached from GPUGRID.
Please go to the BAM web site and attach there GPUGRID.

To attach succesfully to a (new) project under BAM one needs to do the following: go to your BAM account and

1. under tab sign-up for projects: select create account (first time) or find account (rejoining) for the project(s) you want to run.
2. under tab project resources: default is 100, change it if you like. Here you can also choose to attach all your new hosts by default.
3. under tab host list: when you attach your (new) host to BAM a host name will be created and addded to this list. Select the relevant host. A list is shown of all projects you signed up for. Make sure the button Attach? is selected for the projects you want to run on this particular host (omitting do to this will lead to this host being detached from the project next time your host contacts BAM).

A bit wieldy I know, but it works fine if you follow the rules above.

Kind regards

Alain