LHC@home

Why would the BIONC GUI for Windows take up to 30% of the CPU Usage. I noticed it on just 1 of my PC's this afternoon.

I could tell by the CPU time that it seemed to be running slow so I timed it for a minute and it only gained 40 seconds CPU time, so I opened up the task manager and the BIONC GUI is jumping all over the place, it gets as high as 30% then drops then goes back to 30% again.

I reinstalled the client version 4.13 but it didn't change anything. Any Ideas ... ???

> Any Ideas ?
4

-1- on HT CPUs configured as HT, if there is only one WU to do,
the GUI takes over the "rest" of the (virtual-) CPU left.

-2- Antivirus programms/Applications, sitting on the file client_state.xml
revoking the file access while grabbing

-3- Boinc Remote Management applications/software, especially when they are configured to monitor over file instead of rpc, have seen this several times, can also "sit" on the above mentioned file, looking a bit the file write for boinc. In the gui part, message: could not write bla bla bla

-4-
*huge* download in progress?

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An other source of wasting time is the file indexing on hpfs/ntfs formatted partitions. For seti dedicated operation mode, this file indexing is unusefull and only takes away (many) precious cpu cycles.

(Default is on, there where U defrag, it can be unclicked)

> Why would the BIONC GUI for Windows take up to 30% of the CPU Usage. I noticed
> it on just 1 of my PC's this afternoon.
>
> I could tell by the CPU time that it seemed to be running slow so I timed it
> for a minute and it only gained 40 seconds CPU time, so I opened up the task
> manager and the BIONC GUI is jumping all over the place, it gets as high as
> 30% then drops then goes back to 30% again.
>
> I reinstalled the client version 4.13 but it didn't change anything. Any Ideas
> ... ???
>
i've seen that as well... just make sure you switch to the "messages" part before you minimize the boinc_gui. DON'T leave it with the "work" part. The continuing refresh eats up cpu time.

must be a problem with the real good alienware computers ???
;-)

> must be a problem with the real good alienware computers ???


I think you're right Guido. My computers use 0% for the GUI no matter which TAB is being displayed. Maybe it's O.E. or just plain bad karma.

BTW: Is this a new and improved model PoorBoy? I thought our friend quit LHC.

> -1- on HT CPUs configured as HT, if there is only one WU to do,
> the GUI takes over the "rest" of the (virtual-) CPU left.

Is that still a problem in 4.13? I used to see this behaviour on my dual P-II 300, but that's no longer the case after upgrading to 4.13.

@ ric & sysfried

I got it figured out last night while the LHC Site was down. I went over to the Seti Site & asked over there about it and they told me about the same thing. If I have a huge # of WU's stored on the Computer & leave the Work Tab open on the BOINC GUI then the GUI can use a lot of the CPU Time.

As soon as I switch to the Project Tab or Message Tab then I don't get the high CPU usage from the BOINC GUI. Thanks anyway for trying to help.

I personally think the Widows XP Pro SP2 Update has something to do with this as it is only on the 2 Computers that I have the SP2 Update installed on that I notice this anomaly.

No big deal though, I just make sure I switch to the Project or the Message Tab before minimizing the GUI ... :)

Using Win XP Pro SP2 also.

I saw the problem the GUI was using 50% if the last WU was crunched but with an earlier version of Boinc, think it was 4.09.

If the GUI is hided after the tab Disk has been used as last opened tab, the CPU is using some 2 to 4%. If the last used tab was Work, then the CPU uses only 1 to 2% of CPU power.

The less used CPU power is obtained on my system if the last used tab is Projects. If hiding then the GUI, CPU power is minimum, between 0 and 1%.


Greetings from Belgium

Yes, it may have something to do with the supposedly new and improved security features of the SP2 Update is what I'm thinking ...

I just leave mine on the transfer tab, i only enable network access when there are a few WU's ready for upload.