I got another question...

K

Kroz

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 13, 2002
Messages
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Well I seem to be asking alot of questions in here as of late, hope no one minds me picking there brain.

So I started up F@H graphical client from the command line WinFAH -forceSSE 5 days ago and it started folding away. So over the last few days I have seen the Time Per Frame creap back up and today I checked what it was folding and it was a Gromacs and it was taking way too long. I right clicked the taskbar icon and quit the program. I went back to the command line and restarted it WinFAH -forceSSE and my time per frame went from 7:55 min. to 5:38 min.

WHY did I have to use the forceSSE command again, does it reset after every WU??? This was all on an Intel 2.4B cpu. Am I doing something wrong??

Kroz
 
First of, ask away. That's the only way you'll learn :D

Make sure you are using the latest version, 4.00. If its not 4.00, then it is -forceasm.

However, that is still weird because you are using a p4 and it should just go to SSE by default...

Well, just make sure you have the flags -advmethods -forceSSE on.

FOLD ON!!!
 
Folding@home Windows Client
Version 4.00. Built December 8, 2003

I stopped it and started it again using -advmethods and -forceSSE, maybe this will solve it. I opend the log file and it sayd Extra SSE boost OK, it also says that Assembly optimization manually forced on.

I'll have to wait till it starts a new WU to see what the log file says, I am starting to get more into the nutz and boltz of this thing though. :)

Kroz
 
You shouldn't have to use the -forceSSE flag with a P4. That flag simply forces the SSE optimizations if available. Unless you have problems with the system crashing, running just -advmethods should yield the same result. With the current cores I don't think there are any problems with frequent crash/lockups on Intel systems. On an AMD system it will default to 3DNow! optimizations, the forceSSE forces the use of SSE optimizations.

If you are using your system for other things it will take away resources from FAH. Some games share very nicely, for example RTCW hardly dents my FAH performance. However whenever my kids play one of their $6.99 games the game program hogs all resources and I see a flashing red light in EMIII.

There may be other issues. You might see what stuff is loaded in Windows that you really don't need. I noticed on my systems that FINDFAST likes to gobble up resources, and that is something I simply do not use. There may be other things bogging down your system.
 
Here's another suggestion...use the console version of the client. Most of us use that version and are much more familiar with it. There shouldn't be many differences in the actual use of it, but you never know...
 
OK, so I think I might have figured it out....When I put the laptop into Hibernation today and woke it up the FAH client had jumped from 9min. Per Frame to 22 Min. per frame?????? I let it run through a frame to see if it would correct itself and it didnt so I stopped it and used -forsceSSE and -advmethods. Bingo, back to 9 min. per frame.

So I started to dig through the power managment settings and found that despite the fact I THOUGHT i had changed them the laptop was still going into hibernation after 2 hours of inactivity. I changed it and hopefully it wont do it again.

P.S. - I will flip to the console verson when it finnishes the current WU.

Kroz
 
Originally posted by Kroz
P.S. - I will flip to the console verson when it finnishes the current WU.
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There's really no need, or benefit to switching clients. All the GUI or Console client does is start the core. In both cases the core will be the same so there's no difference in how the WU gets processed or how it behaves. If you don't have issues displaying the GUI clients graphics I would recommend just sticking with it. Unless you like having a button in your Task Bar instead of a small icon in the System Tray. With the Console client you have to stop and restart the client with flags to accomplish things you can do with the GUI client just by right clicking the icon in the System Tray. If you don't display the graphics of the GUI client 24/7 there's no noticeable difference in processing time of the WU. If you don't believe it, just look in Task Manager at how much CPU Time is used by the client versus the core.

As far as your problem goes, what's probably happening is your shutting down or rebooting your computer several times during the processing of a particular WU without shutting down the client each time first. If your going to shut down or reboot the computer it's always best to right click on the GUI clients icon in the System Tray and choose Quit from the menu first. The Gromacs core has the ability to detect and count the number of times a client has been improperly shut down and after three times it will turn off optimizations when it restarts the client for the forth time during processing a particular WU. If you let the client keep running with optimizations turned off, when the next WU starts, optimizations should be turned back on. Then the counter is reset and the process can repeat. What's happening is the Gromacs core is detecting these frequent improper shutdowns and thinking they are Gromacs WUs that are freezing the computer. That's why it turns off optimizations for that WU. Always, the best thing to do if your going to shut down your computer, whether your using the GUI or Console client is to shut the client down first. Second best is to add the -forceasm or -forceSSE flag to the shortcut that starts the client so the core will overlook these improper shutdowns. Doing it this way is second best because you still stand the chance of corrupting a WU if you don't properly shut it down first.

The shortcut that starts the GUI client is in the Startup folder in the Start menu unless you've moved it.

Optimizations being turned off isn't an issue with the G@H or Tinker cores because they don't use optimizations. WUs getting corrupted by shutting down the computer without first shutting down the client is always a possibility. You can't rely on checkpoints because one may be in the process of being written at the very time your shutting down the computer. That's one way WUs get corrupted.

I hope I havn't been to wordy. ;)

ChelseaOilman
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Not to wordy at all, thanks for the info. I'll stick with the GUI just because I have no reason to switch, I like it better anyway.

I checked this morning and the laptop didnt hibernate or go into standby or anything else I didnt want it to do so I guess that its fixed now.

Thanks;

Kroz
 
Originally posted by Kroz
I checked this morning and the laptop didnt hibernate or go into standby or anything else I didnt want it to do so I guess that its fixed now.
Click to expand...
I'm not running F@H on any laptops, but I believe you also have to make sure that the laptop doen't get to hot while running F@H. If things get to hot the Intel CPUs have the ability to throttle down to a slower speed. I'm not sure how you can tell if that happens. The Gromacs WUs while using SSE optimizations can get your CPU pretty warm, especially in a laptop. Laptops don't have the huge copper heatsinks and high speed fans that most of us are using on our desktop computers. You could get a laptop cooler like this to help.

ChelseaOilman
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You didn't mention it, but another thing that can cause problems is if your computer is set up for multiple users and you switch back and forth. The solution to this is to run the client as a service in the background. Then it won't be affected by switching users.

ChelseaOilman
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No multiple users on my laptop, in fact I have been known to threaten people who try to use it. :D As for heat, its no hotter than my XP 2600 thats folding away. All day it has been keeping its speed up so I will conclude that it was my fault for not digging into the Power management settings fully in the first place.

My laptop is considered a desktop replacement so I uses a regular P4 CPU, not a moble (and a 16 inch screen :) ) Do the regular P4's throttle the same way Moble's do?

Kroz
 
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