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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: wcg process using too much of the CPU resources. [Resolved] |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 9
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
When wcg is snoozed, my computer sometimes seems very sluggish. I check in Windows Task Manager, and see that a process is using 40 to 60% of the CPU cycles. I can't find info online as to what the process is, but it looks like a wcg process from its name. These are the processes that have behaved like this:
----------------------------------------wcg_hcc1_img_6.08_windows_intelx86 wcg_hpf2_rosetta_6.03_windows_intelx86 wcg_faah_autodock_6.07_windows_intelx86 I want to let wcg run, but don't want wcg processes using so many CPU cycles that everything else slows down so much. Any suggestions? My computer is a 6 or 7-year-old Dell Dimension 8200, running Windows XP home SP3. [Edit 1 times, last edit by TKH at Apr 7, 2010 12:51:46 PM] |
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GIBA
Ace Cruncher Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Post Count: 5374 Status: Offline |
Dan,
----------------------------------------try just configure your profile settings to use just a percentage of processor (maybe 50%). You can do it since your My Grid page, left side, Profile Manager (in use in your machine, which will appear for you). Check the custom profile option and edit the parameters to use just part of your machine capacity in processor, maybe RAM memory too. Additionally, would be better if you choose just a light WU project to run on that (maybe from HCC project). Good luck !   PS: The best project to run in old/slow machine I guess that is NRW but this one are almost finished.
Cheers ! GIB@
---------------------------------------- Join BRASIL - BRAZIL@GRID team and be very happy ! http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/viewTeamInfo.do?teamId=DF99KT5DN1 [Edit 1 times, last edit by GIBA at Apr 5, 2010 2:01:53 PM] |
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JmBoullier
Former Community Advisor Normandy - France Joined: Jan 26, 2007 Post Count: 3716 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I want to let wcg run, but don't want wcg processes using so many CPU cycles that everything else slows down so much. Dan108,I am afraid there is another problem in your machine, maybe not enough RAM. Because WCG applications run at the lowest priority in the system they can use only what is "left behind" by the other tasks. For this reason throttling down the processor (as suggested in another post) will likely not solve your problem. This is useful only when the processor is heating too much. But if there is not enough memory, tasks (including WCG) are causing memory swapping by the system, which is quickly and dramatically putting the system on its knees. Do you see much disk activity in such situations? If this is the reason you can try to select only the projects with the lowest RAM requirements, currently HCMD2 and HCC. In a future post please tell us how much RAM is installed in this machine. There is something else strange in your post. You start by saying "When wcg is snoozed, my computer sometimes seems very sluggish", then you say that the WCG process is using 40 to 60 % of the CPU. If/when WCG is snoozed this percentage is 0 %, and the system recovers all the memory used by WCG for the other active tasks. So, after the time necessary for this new RAM allocation, if the machine is still sluggish it means that you have not enough memory for the other tasks that you are trying to run. To make sure of that you can exit WCG completely and see if things are going better. Or probably not. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
When I began at WCG three years ago, I had an even older computer than yours, a Dell Dimension 4300 with a Pentium 4 at 1.6 GHz. Even when I set the CPU to run at 100%, I never encountered any sluggishness.
The previous post offers some excellent suggestions to try. Another possibility to consider is that your computer is overheating. Make sure the air vents are not clogged. Also, open up the case the clean out the accumulated dust. If overheating is the problem, you will see better performance immediately. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
I had similar issue in my old and slow machine and solve it, or better, after reconfiguring my profile settings.
The solution for me was a change in the profile settings about the processor usage percentage and the memory usage allowed, exactly like GIBA suggested in your post above. Probably you will need some tunning until get the best result. But, if your RAM memory capacity is very low, so you probably will continue facing problems. For some old machines, RAM will be hard to get now... I used to put focus in FAH and HPF2, but I will do it with HCC too, as suggested above, once NRW is at the end. Good luck. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
OK, here goes.
System has 1 GB RAM. (Yes, RAM for this computer is too expensive, it would be cheaper to get a new PC.) System might have been overheating, as it was, er, VERY dusty. I opened the box and did thorough cleaning using "Dust Off", one of those compressed gas products. But this did not change the system's behavior. A previous post said: "There is something else strange in your post. You start by saying "When wcg is snoozed, my computer sometimes seems very sluggish", then you say that the WCG process is using 40 to 60 % of the CPU. If/when WCG is snoozed this percentage is 0 %, and the system recovers all the memory used by WCG for the other active tasks. " I'm confused here. I said "when the system is snoozed" because I meant "when I'm actively using the mouse to do non-wcg tasks"... I figure that when I'm doing other stuff, wcg is snoozed. And I'm saying that at this time the wcg process is using 40 to 60% of CPU cycles. Maybe this means that somehow the wcg is NOT snoozing when I'm doing non-wcg tasks...? Could that be my problem? Is there a way I can select from current projects to choose only those with low system resource requirements? Thanks |
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Ingleside
Veteran Cruncher Norway Joined: Nov 19, 2005 Post Count: 974 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I'm confused here. I said "when the system is snoozed" because I meant "when I'm actively using the mouse to do non-wcg tasks"... I figure that when I'm doing other stuff, wcg is snoozed. And I'm saying that at this time the wcg process is using 40 to 60% of CPU cycles. Maybe this means that somehow the wcg is NOT snoozing when I'm doing non-wcg tasks...? Could that be my problem? Yes, this can be your problem. To change, see below... Is there a way I can select from current projects to choose only those with low system resource requirements? Goto http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/device/viewDevices.do and click on the "Selected Profile" your computer is configured as, and you can choose to select individual WCG-projects. You can also change "Do work while computer is in use?" to No (shows-up if you selects "Custom" profile. This will mean WCG will pause while you're actively using your computer for something else like typing and so on. After saving updated profile on web-page, in client select WCG on Projects-tab (if advanced view), and hit "update", and the new preferences should be used. If it still continues using cpu-resources while you're using computer, it indicates you've configured local preferences (in client). If so, either remove these, or deselct "While computer is in use" (advanced view, advanced, preferences).  "I make so many mistakes. But then just think of all the mistakes I don't make, although I might." |
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JmBoullier
Former Community Advisor Normandy - France Joined: Jan 26, 2007 Post Count: 3716 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I'm confused here. I said "when the system is snoozed" because I meant "when I'm actively using the mouse to do non-wcg tasks"... I figure that when I'm doing other stuff, wcg is snoozed. And I'm saying that at this time the wcg process is using 40 to 60% of CPU cycles. Maybe this means that somehow the wcg is NOT snoozing when I'm doing non-wcg tasks...? Could that be my problem? OK, thanks for clearing the misunderstanding.WCG/BOINC has a snooze function accessible from the tray icon. And you did write "when wcg is snoozed...", not "system".  When you use this function it will suspend WCG applications for one hour (not adjustable) and resume automatically after. You can also suspend from the Activity menu of the Advanced view but in this case you have to manually resume it, with the risk of forgetting. And the last way to have a real suspend is what Ingleside has described. In all other cases WCG applications leave as many CPU cycles as necessary to your own activity but they are still active in memory and use any cycles available while you think of your next sentence or while you read a web page, for example. Regarding your RAM it is quite good for a machine of this age unless you have big or/and numerous other tasks active at the same time, and you should be able to run WCG comfortably if you select only projects with the lowest RAM requirements (right now, HCMD2, then HCC). Cheers. Jean. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thanks Ingleside and JmBoullier.
One mistake I had made was (on the wcg website, profiles, advanced) I had not set "Do work while computer is in use?" to "no". I have now done that. Another mistake I'd made was (in the client) under "activity", I had checked "run always". I've now changed that to "run based on preferences". NOW wcg stops when I'm working, those pesky processes don't use any CPU when I'm working, which is what I want. Thanks SO much for your guidance; all is now well! Dan |
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