What version of BOINC & OS?

The latest BOINC memory parameters are set if you downloaded and accepted a profile from another project than WCG. The defaults are like 50% when busy (in use) and 90% when idle. WCG itself has a default of 100% for both.

The implication of this new control is, that if u come to a large model like HDC, it could end up getting the 'waiting for memory'. In principle, if you have more work in the taskbuffer, the next job is started. Leave the computer idle (no keyboard or mouse ops) and it will resume at a next project checkpoint or when HDC is having it's turn again on a multi-project client.

Here a sample of my settings in WCG. Make the changes as required, save, hit update button in projects tab, when WCG selected and the settings are copied to your machine

From Default Profile:

Use no more than: 100 % of processor time
Use no more than: 90 % of total memory

Advanced Options,
Processor Usage
Do work while computer is in use? Yes
Do work only after computer is idle for: 1 minutes
Do work while computer is running on batteries? No On multiprocessors, at most use: 2 processors
Project Weight: 100
Switch between applications every: 240 minutes
Disk and Memory Usage
Use no more than: 5 Gigabytes of disk space
Leave at least: 1 Gigabytes of disk space free
Use no more than: 85% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every: 999 seconds
Leave applications in memory while preempted? Yes

More memory is always better..... speeds up the crunching (reduces the memory to disk swapping on large models). Adding it is a personal choice. 50-60 Euro here for a DDR2 333mhz 512mb strip.

The System Requirement page omits in the first section to explicitly say UD agent which has 1025mb RAM minimum now for HDC, but that's what they are. At the bottom are the BOINC for Windows specs which specify 725mb for BOINC as of this writing.

Those settings have been chosen by WCG so that the process does not impact the user foreground experience. In principle it can run in less, but as mentioned, it will generate more disk-swapping and eventually, when the model like HDC does temporarily need 90% of whatever available, it will pause until the system does make it free. Run a mix of HDC and a smaller & short one like GC and you should always be fine.

PS,

I have no idea where stupid jokes were made but BOINC has no humor ..... my offerings end at proposing to change the memory needs to 100%, save and hit update in BOINC making sure that in the message tab entries are logged to confirm that changed prefs were copied to the client.

Have a nice day.