Recently, I have noticed a number of members asking for help, but not providing any information that will actually allow anyone to help them.

Here is a brief guide to getting help:

1) Be specific. If there is an error message, copy it down and tell it to us exactly. Try to provide a concise description of the problem; what you expected to happen, and what actually happened.

2) Provide as much supporting information as possible. This includes details of your computer, operating system and BOINC version. For nearly all problems, we will request your message log. Copy and paste it from BOINC Manager, or from the log file if we need more history.

Tell us about any recent changes to your system. If you have just updated your antivirus, installed operating system patches, or changed your network configuration, this information is very pertinent.

3) Provide any further information we request. Since we don't have access to your computer, we only know what you tell us. This means that the help we can give is limited by the quality of information you provide.

4) Don't take drastic action for trivial problems. While reinstalling BOINC or resetting the project may solve a variety of problems, there are situations where it won't help at all. You will just lose any work in progress and waste your time. So, where possible wait for advice on the best course of action.

5) Check back frequently. Most forum enquires get a very fast response. If you only check for replies once a day (or set a watch) then troubleshooting will be painfully slow.

Follow these guidelines, and there will be few problems we cannot solve.

Thank you.