The log messages prove this conclusively.

fregimus, I suggest you a) clear the local preferences, and b) upgrade to the latest version of BOINC.

080416 224458||Reading preferences override file

(The scheduler request showed that your working preferences didn't match your global preferences from the web site).

Do this:
1. Stop BOINC
2. Delete global_prefs_override.xml
3. Install the latest version of BOINC

- and everything should be fine. No, BOINC doesn't support auto-updating.

Thank you all for your help guys, but I decided not to kill any more of anyone's time, as well as mine. I needed to upgrade BOINC anyway, so I
- Crunched the queue dry;
- Uninstalled old version;
- Deleted the whole directory C:\Program Files\BOINC;
- Installed the fresh version;
- Logged on to the server, and voila!

This did not reset the BOINC client preferences (they are stored in the registry), but everything related to scheduling was in the directory that I have removed, and started afresh. This indeed fixed the problem.

The only confusing thing that I have two devices of the same name on the web site, but I do not care, as I looked at the site twice: the day I joined a year ago, and recently when diagnosing the problem, and am not going to look at it, as long as everything works. The second device will eventually go out of sight as inactive, I think.

Let me say thanks once more to everyone who helped me!

Besides, I installed the third device, a server machine that I recently upgraded from a dual Xeon P4 to a quad Yorkshire. Could not run BOINC on the old one because of CPU overheat (aging fans, loosening thermal contact, I believe; it cried for an upgrade!), but the new quad crunches 4 tasks (besides its own normal server duties, which are not very CPU-intensive), and runs at 45 °C with the stock air cooler, increasing wall power consumption by only 40W when going from idle to 100% load on all cores. Cudos to Intel for the new 45 nm techology: It runs cooler, it saves electricity, and, the best of all things, it is significantly more CRUNCHY!

Jean,

The settings tat you are mentioning are stored per computer under the registry key that is common to all users, namely

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley

There are also per-user settings; those that I am able to guess intelligently deal with the manager window position and size, display mode (simple/full), selected tab, column widths and sort order on every page. These are under

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley

These are not removed by complete uninstall, and that is rather a common practice in Windows (which looks to me a lesser violation of the Least Surprise principle than removing them).