Symptom #1: This is normal. WCG make no guarantees about your project mix, and your computer probably doesn't qualify for the few climate jobs available.

Sympton #2: BOINC does not automatically update. The only human capable of altering your system is yourself. The error code means that a DLL failed to load properly, and given that yours is the only report of this, the conclusion is that your computer was the only one affected.

This error can be caused by any change to your computer that affects your Windows installation. An update, a software install or uninstall - there are many possibilities.

Fortunately, you have corrected the problem already, so there is no need for further action.

Wrong. My computer easily exceeds the recommended system requirements for every project.



Wrong. I didn't change anything on the night of the 17th, nor on the night of the 20th. If I'd screwed something up without realizing it (e.g. deleted a DLL) late on the 17th it would still not be working now, unless I'd later discovered and corrected the problem, in which case I'd surely remember having done so. In fact, I hadn't done anything unusual during the period in question. Whatever happened did so without any intervention on my part, and more significantly, un-happened equally spontaneously.

So we have several problems here.
1. BOINC is refusing to run one of the four projects as if my system doesn't meet the requirements, despite the fact that it does.
2. BOINC spontaneously toggles between a working and a non-working mode at midnight under some obscure circumstances.
3. When it's in the non-working mode it doesn't apparently give any kind of indication of a problem! I didn't notice anything unusual during that three-day period. Certainly no flashing tray notifications or error dialogs, and I don't recall anything odd about the screensaver behavior recently either.
4. The statistics for the affected period are screwy. In particular, the total time spent is listed as zero for the full three days. It should obviously be 72 hours. It does show an unusually large number of work units, which fits if they quit early so they took less time than normal individually, but that time was clearly more than zero. That's only the most obvious abnormality.
5. Nothing in those messages says anything about any missing DLL; I'm not sure where you're getting that from. I didn't move or rename any DLLs or any system or BOINC-related files during that time anyway. I didn't touch it at all, save to sometimes open the Boinc Manager to see what its current status was, and I never saw anything unusual when I did so either.
6. Anything trying to load a DLL that isn't found should produce a visible message box to that effect. I've seen such message boxes before.
7. I'd expect a missing DLL to prevent it from running at all, which would have meant a) no screensaver for three days which I'd have noticed and b) no time spent on work units at all. It would have racked up non-results as fast as it could download work units.

The evidence indicates that a) your missing DLL theory is highly unlikely to be correct (I didn't touch any DLLs, I didn't undo anything such as an install or an uninstall so even if some install or uninstall late on the 17th had b0rked it it would still be b0rked now, but it isn't, I didn't install or uninstall anything recently anyway, save the monthly Microsoft updates and a codec -- the MS updates can't be responsible as I didn't uninstall any and everyone else using Windows XP would have been affected, and you're claiming they weren't, and the codec was installed after the three-day period had ended, and lastly I'd surely have noticed some symptoms during that three-day period if it were) and b) BOINC does a poor job of letting the administrator know promptly that there is a problem they should be fixing.

Unfortunately, it also seems that this forum still has the severe problem that a) users are assumed to be lying whenever they post to report symptoms of anything and b) users are assumed to be at fault whenever they post to report symptoms of anything, even users that a) are calling 'em exactly as they see 'em and b) didn't do anything except business as usual.

Now is anyone more knowledgeable and informative going to come forward with some explanation for these events? I'm particularly interested in a) making your software and site stop incorrectly underestimating the capacity of my computer and b) ensuring that whatever happened during that three-day period doesn't happen again. If nobody seeks to provide genuine assistance, particularly with the latter, then I'll just have to assume that you don't really want my donated cycles for some reason, and I'll have to respond that if another "outage" like that three-day period happens due to bugs in your software or whatever, then tough, you'll just have to do without whatever my machine could have contributed but didn't. And if I get too much nasty attitude due to having the sheer nerve and unrepentant gall to actually ask you people to help me more consistently donate cycles usefully to you, then I may just decide to take those cycles elsewhere to where they may be more gratefully appreciated; I hear folding@home is currently recruiting, and that there's a climate@home or similar now that even uses BOINC.

Yowser! Please try to be civil.

Your disagreement aside, my earlier post covers everything you need to know. If you want to research a little about the error, then you will find out what I already know: the meaning of the error code. Google is available to help you.

Now, here is a guess: if you still have the same faulty computer I recall you had problems with earlier, then it is highly possible that a system DLL was corrupted, then later replaced by Windows using WFP, when the corruption was detected. This is pure speculation, and really I have no interest in pursuing this further with you.

twisted0n3, with all due respect, please be courteous here in the form. The CA’s go to great lengths, on their time, to assist WCG users. They are not here to fix everyone’s Windows problem. Please take a look at the information already provided to you as the answer lies there. Thanks!

I see nothing has changed around here. All problems are automatically the user's fault; all users posting evidence that a problem is not at their end are lying; and all users requesting that others be civil and helpful are considered to be being uncivil. :P

What is "WFP"?

How would a DLL have gotten corrupted all by itself without user intervention -- and then uncorrupted equally spontaneously?

Why would a supposedly random glitch a) occur in the first place without provocation and b) occur precisely at midnight, and then undo itself precisely at midnight exactly 72 hours later? (Normally, only humans consider such timing to be special; bugs that strike randomly and inconsistently should do so at random times like 3:17 AM and 9:04 PM and suchlike.)

Why, for that matter, do I see random and spontaneous changes in behavior with WCG (UD and now BOINC) but not with other software I run, including some rather demanding stuff? Nothing else has had DLLs mysteriously corrupt or missing and just as mysteriously back to normal, in particular.

And lastly, why did BOINC do nothing to alert me that there was a problem in three full days? If I didn't check the results status page here every couple of weeks, I might never have known this had even happened.