Windows SMP Client, general troubleshooting

[smiffy]

Hiya Strongwolf

Looked at reviews of your Asus A8N-SLI and yep,no settings for MAP and RPA in the bios.Major let down.

Keep folding brothers

Smiffy

[Samuknow]

The A8N SLI can be flashed to the deluxe or premium bios. This will give many more options. I just picked up one for 50 shipped. It will get a fresh bios upon arrival.

[Strongwolf]

Which BIOS is that, 1406?

Bad news: Wolf1 is now an Athlon 64 4200+ x2. Bad news for Necorum that is.

[dabaerman]

I am back to the 2X installer, running 1 client per core. no SMP for a while. at
least until it or me are better at it. loosing too much time that could be spent
folding. at least I can still contribute to the team effort.

Ron

[ThunderRd]

C'mon, Ron don't give up so easily. You've been folding for a long time. Somehow we can get you running.

Think of it like this. Ok, so you blow away a week sorting it out. At 200 ppd on two instances that's about 1500 points, let's say. Maybe 2000?

After it's running you will get 900-1000 points EVERY DAY from 1 machine. And if it errors every other day, you still produce more than the regular client.

So don't think about it as if it hurts the team to go for it. You're helping in the not-so-long run, see? I know that the software is problematic but if you have the time to play with it, it's well worth the time to the team.

[Strongwolf]

Yeah, what he said. I'm technically impaired and screw it a lot of times. So don't give up my friend. FW (fold the world).

[dabaerman]

I agree with you both T'Road, 'Wolf. if I wasn't taking a five day refresher
course (8hrs + homework), I would spend more time with SMP.
it will have to come later in the month for other reasons too. I will take
more time to work the kinks out.

Ron

[ThunderRd]

Get an "A", willya?

[Strongwolf]

This is what I do when SMP don't want to cooperate.
1- Go to task manager and stop any process that had any relation with f@H

2-Go to add/remove programs and uninstall SMP (it will be clearly stated).

3-Delete the smp icon on the desktop (this is optional, but I do it anyway).

4-Delete the SMP client file from whatever folder you have it on (I have mine in 'Programs').

5- Delete the downloaded file (don't know if it have to be done but, like I say before, I do it anyway).

6- Download the smp installer (yes again).

7- Double click/open the installer and follow instructions.

8- Open the directory where the SMP is and double click it (I mean double click Folding@Home Windows SMP).

9- Double click the "Install" MS-DOS Batch File [1kb]

10- Wait to the program stop 'writing' (give it a break). Press enter.

11- Enter your password, press enter.

12- Enter your password (yes again), press enter.

13-If everything is OK you would see a message that said "if you see this twice SMP is running (or something like that).

14- Press any key.

15- Double click the "fah" icon.

16- Follow instructions (I dare to say that is fairly safe to press enter all the way down).

17- Pray.

I'm no expert in SMP, just try to write down what I do. Probably there are a lot of mistakes in content and stuff like that. Please feel free to edit/correct in any way you see fit. Hope I help.

[Samuknow]

Man I have a great team.......

Way To Go Guys....

[ThunderRd]

@SW;
Yeah that's about the size of it. Patience is really important.

@Sam;
Off-topic, but if you have an A8N-SLI Deluxe you will be interested in this:
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ
and this:
ASUS INDEPENDENT -- Troubleshooting, Setup, and Overclocking Help For ASUS Motherboard Users

The first one has been my bible through both of my successful setups of this board (and the unsuccessful one, meh...), and one setup on the premium. Really a good source of info on this family of MB.

PS PM in yer box. Whatcha think? Can we consolidate the posts?

[Samuknow]

I will check out the links. I did find out I can flash this thing to a premium bios. I have to turn off a couple of things that are not there but it will give me a bios that is only a couple of months old.
P.S.
I will get with my people (lol) and I think it will be a good thing.

[Strongwolf]

Let me know how it goes!

[ThunderRd]

Sam;
It's a great board, but it can be fussy. Before flashing to that Premium BIOS, check out this thread:
ASUS INDEPENDENT -- Troubleshooting, Setup, and Overclocking Help For ASUS Motherboard Users -> Flash any A8N board to Premium

There were some issues when guys started doing it. I remember, because I was tempted to do it at the time. These are pretty experienced guys at that site. I didn't do it myself because of what I learned there.

Actually, there is a pretty current BIOS for the Deluxe, #1805, and it's only a few months old. I'm running it on mine. You can get it at the ASUS site:

Version 1805 2007/07/04 update
Description A8N-SLI Deluxe BIOS 1805
Fixed Silicon 3114 RAID mode fail when using ASUS EN7950GX2 PCIE VGA Card.
File Size 483.44 (KBytes)

[Samuknow]

I am hoping it at least gives me what I need. I would have picked up another DFI LP but the price for this was too good to pass up. I will hold off on the flash update and get the latest DLUX bios. It should be here today or tomorrow. I took all my WC gear apart and cleaned and lapped it. It should be ready to go.

[Strongwolf]

Funny, I was at Asus update files a couple of days a go and didn't see that 1805. Needless to say I'm going for it. Thanks TRed.

[Samuknow]

OK. I have SMP goodness. It has been up and running for a while and no problems. It went seamless. I think I missed something on how to run this with no window. I will give it some time before i change anything. I'll get my X2 on SMP tonight or tomorrow. All will be good then.

[ThunderRd]

Yo run with no window you must run it as a service. After you are sure that they are ok, maybe after they turn a WU or two, I can guide you through it. But make sure first, as you won't see if the clients are hung anymore. I still have to check mine manually for hung clients twice a day by looking in process explorer.

[Samuknow]

SO are you saying that I should just leave the window running?

[ThunderRd]

Well, there are some advantages to running as a service. For one, if you have your machine set to restart after a power failure - perhaps through the UPS service, as I do, with a com-port connected UPS - it will start automatically. (Or it should).

It also doesn't clutter the taskbar.

The disadvantage is that you can't see what it's doing without monitoring software like FAHMon, which is what I use. The only thing you can do is check task manager to see if the 4 cores are running. Sometimes they shut down for reasons like network disturbances and that is the only way to know if the client is hung, short of using FAHMon.

I have mine installed under the admin account, and my customers use a guest account. This way they can't shut it down, since they don't have rights to. It just keeps running in the background while they work.

I guess it depends on who uses your machine and what your habits are.