DonaldG

Thanks to Mattlock - I managed to sort out the 'password' problem & I successfully installed the SMP client V1.01.

In the DOS box I answered the questions etc.. I entered my name and team number OK and answered yes to the question of 'Run at startup' etc...I noted that it would need a reboot for the auto start to kick in.

The DOS box filled with what I guess it was supposed to display and very soon it fetched a work unit and started work.

It immediately grabbed all four cores and the processor was working at 100%

I couldnt immediately find how I could re-configure it to run at say 50% until I checked out core temperatures etc...

I closed the dos box via the 'x'. Immediately the folding ceased

I rebooted but it doesn't seem to be folding but fah.exe @ 0% & mpiexec.exe @ 10% are in Task Manager Process.

Question:
1) How do I correctly start folding
2) do I have to suffer the dos box being open
3) How do I config the usage percentage

koala

1) Same way as with the other clients, just click the icon.

2) With it being a DOS window, you can't send it to the system tray like you can with the GUI clients. You can minimize it, but it will still appear in the Windows taskbar. Or you could run it as a service.

3) Close down the client and then go to the F@H SMP folder in Windows Explorer and open client.cfg in Notepad.

This is mine:
Change cpuusage=xx to the required number, then File > Save (not Save As.... this will change the extension from cfg to txt).

Restart the SMP client and check in Task Manager to see the CPU level.

DonaldG

Still some problems in setting cpuusage...

Experimenting...

Will post results soon

(Note: it seems that setting 25 on a quad core = 4x25% = 100%) doing some tweeking...
Also the
[core]
cpuusage=n
checkpoint=n
was not in my config file...

I added:
[core]
cpuusage=n
but not the checkpoint bit coz I didn't know what setting....

At moment everything works either flat out at 100% total cpu usage or alternatively, at circa 5% per core...

With a QX6800 costing in excess of £600 a go, I dont want to fry it.

I have so far experimented with config such as
[core1]
[core2]
etc... seems to have some effect but not consistant...

Will revert soon

Glaswegian

Thanks koala - that helped me as well. Task Manager is now showing cpu usage at 20%, although I set usage at 60% in the config file. PC Wizard shows Core 1 activity at 80% and Core 2 around 60%.

Have I missed something here?

koala

I'm not sure what's going on. My CPU usage for F@H fluctuates slightly, depending on what other programs are running at the same time, but stays roughly constant at 90-95%, spread equally over the 2 cores. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ with 2gb RAM.

Task Manager:

DonaldG

Sorted! I hope!!!

Thanks Koala - you have another success for the list!

My Config File:
I have not put a checkpoint = n as at the moment I don't know the usage or setting... Any ideas?

One thing I have noted with a 4 core processor and the usage meters (Third party or MS) is that a single core is flat out if indicated at 25% ... IE 4 cores at 25% each = overall processor = 100%

For the benefit of other multi-core users, I have noticed that when the client is first started, after a few seconds the cores hit maximum for about 5 seconds & then back off to the settings in the config file.

The image below shows the results I have got at the moment. I shall leave it at 40% for a while before incrimenting it....

Many thanks for your help...

koala

The checkpoint value is measured in minutes, so when you shut down the program in the middle of processing a WU, if the value is 5 then you only lose the last 5 minutes worth of folding instead of the default (30 minutes, I think).

DonaldG

Roger that!

I will set a Checkpoint...

Thanks again for your help.

mattlock

One other thing I noticed Donald is you have bigpackets set to no. For the SMP client you should be accepting bigpackets, so that should read bigpackets=yes.

Glaswegian

I set my memory to 1024 (half of my available) - is that what it should be?

I also set the cpu to 60%, although based on Donald's comments, I'm now wondering if it should be 50%...



I've completed 3% since starting about 90 minutes ago (15000 of 500000)

koala

30 minutes per 1% sounds about right. Where did you set the memory to half? I can't see any option for that.

Glaswegian

It's in the config file, near the end.

DonaldG

The way I have been feeling over the last 36 hours, all I wanted was little things. I had a Meniers Attack & that laid me out flat (literally) for several hours & plays havock with the memory ...When the Folding Client asked if I wanted a 'big one' I had to say no


I should like to change it to Bigpackets=maybe?
but will: Bigpackets=yes

Thanks for the help everyone...

Glaswegian

[settings]
username=Glaswegian
team=85015
asknet=no
bigpackets=yes
machineid=1[http]
active=no
host=localhost
port=8080
usereg=no[core]
priority=96
cpuusage=60
disableassembly=yes
checkpoint=15
ignoredeadlines=no
[power]battery=no
[clienttype]
memory=1024
type=2
nonet=yes

That's my current config file. Just edit and save as koala outlined earlier Donald.

mattlock

Glas, I don't Folding should use more than 600mb of RAM at all. I've never seen any of my SMPs go over 550mb total memory usage. That's on 2 VM running Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu) and 1 native install of Gutsy Gibbon. The VMs have between 500-650mb of allocated from the overall system. The native install has 2gb of RAM, but has never even used 600mb.

DonaldG

Noted & Thanks Glas

Glaswegian

Interesting Matt. I'll leave it for now and perhaps tweak it as time goes on - I'd like to see how this one goes first.