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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: Machine Thrashing |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 16
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I installed the new agent a couple of days ago, and have noticed that my machine is totally thrashed now, both hard drive and CPU. Totally unacceptable. I've throttled back the CPU usage (to no more than 20% from 100%) and hard disk (to no more than 1gb from 20gb I think) and stopped activity out of business hours.
I thought the previous agent had the high values as well but it didn't cause as much problem on my machine. This is only evident to me because my home office is next to my bedroom, and the computer now continually whines (well, it did till I throttled back WCG). No idea why there should be such a difference in disk and CPU if the fundamentals of the agent are the same. So any thoughts? I'm disappointed that I have to de-tune WCG - unless of course the new agent is far more efficient |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
What do you mean "thrashed"? The term has no real meaning.
Modern computers have no trouble running at maximum CPU for extended periods. The low priority that BOINC runs at guarantees that it yields for any other application on your computer that needs to use CPU. 20%? You'll never get anything done at that rate. |
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Sgt.Joe
Ace Cruncher USA Joined: Jul 4, 2006 Post Count: 7852 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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In the advanced view under preferences there is a setting(third tab over) for how often the agent writes to disk. If you think it is too often, set it up higher. I have mine set to 999 seconds. This should keep your disk from thrashing.
----------------------------------------The other noise you might hear is probably your fan, either from your power supply or your heat sink cpu fan. If you run at 100% you will tend to run hotter, so you need to have both of these running efficiently. Make sure you have blown the dust out of your machine and out of the cooling fins on any heatsinks. If you are running on a laptop, maybe you are better off running the cpu at a lesser utilization. Hope this helps. Cheers
Sgt. Joe
*Minnesota Crunchers* |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sorry if my lack of technical expertise annoyed you. Perhaps a more friendly tone on replies would be useful though.
Before I installed the latest agent, my machine would occasionally burst into life and do lots of stuff - it now seems to be doing lots of stuff all the time. Now you may think that's okay, cos that's what the agent is supposed to do - but the difference between the old agent and the new one is enormous. Perhaps the new agent requires more disk. I don't know. What I was looking for (rather than just being told 'you won't achieve anything at 20%') is some idea as to what has changed on the agent that may result in it performing vastly differently from the previous agent, and some suggestions on how I can utilise the agent as effectively as possible. As an aside, I have four computers - all running XP (3 are work machines so I have no control over the OS, and the fourth is an old Compaq). I've only upgraded the agent on one machine so far (the fastest) as I usually test stuff before migrating all machines. I'm not confident enough with this agent to upgrade all machines, and if the old agent stops working, I'll probably drop of the grid rather than put the new agent on. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thanks Sgt Joe - useful reply. I'll work through those settings.
Oh, and getting out the vaccuum cleaner now to remove dust :-) |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I just need more information to be able to help you properly. At the moment, I'm unsure even what is concerning you.
Perhaps you could tell us the specifications of the computer? The alternative is I provide dozens of possible explanations, but I don't think that would really help. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I have an e-machine 3250 running xp home
It's got a 2.8GHz Celeron processor, 2GB RAM. It's been running mostly 24/7 for at least the past 5 years both with the UD agent and the Boinc agent (not at the same time  ).I use a utility called Speedfan Which keeps an eye on the temperature. If the CPU temp. stays above 60c for too many days, then I get the hoover out. So far I've not had any trouble with it. (I bet I do now  ) |
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twilyth
Master Cruncher US Joined: Mar 30, 2007 Post Count: 2130 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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So why don't you try asking instead of getting irritable? I guess it's time for yet another complaint to the admins.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
So why don't you try asking instead of getting irritable? I guess it's time for yet another complaint to the admins. I'm sorry. but that helps the situation how? To the OP I've seen a few posts where members changing from UD to BOINC have experienced hotter systems. I'm not sure on the validity of that, but it could be due to the higher disk activity when using BOINC. Fortunately BOINC is very customizable and as Sgt Joe has mentioned, disk activity can be adjusted. Personally, 999 seconds is a bit high (16 mins+), but whatever works. Many new motherboards have an onboard fan throttle as well, and the higher system heat may be also affecting the CPU temp thus forcing your CPU fan to run at a higher rate than normal. This may be part of the additional noise you are experiencing. Hope you get it sorted. |
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retsof
Former Community Advisor USA Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Post Count: 6824 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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BOINC can take advantage of all cores of new systems, possibly running hotter than the old UD program, which could only use one.
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SUPPORT ADVISOR
Work+GPU i7 8700 12threads School i7 4770 8threads Default+GPU Ryzen 7 3700X 16threads Ryzen 7 3800X 16 threads Ryzen 9 3900X 24threads Home i7 3540M 4threads50% |
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