Hello,

I am having a problem with RAM getting "locked away", apparently by either the BOINC program or the Seti@Home project tasks.

BOINC ver: 7.0.64
Intel Pentium 4 3.6GHz
2 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT video card
WinXP SP3
(Yes, its an old but very stable system)

BOINC start up log:
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | No config file found - using defaults
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Starting BOINC client version 7.0.64 for windows_intelx86
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Libraries: libcurl/7.25.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1 zlib/1.2.6
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Data directory: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Running under account James
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.60GHz [Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 1]
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni tm2 pbe
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | OS: Microsoft Windows XP: Professional x86 Edition, Service Pack 3, (05.01.2600.00)
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Memory: 2.00 GB physical, 5.85 GB virtual
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Disk: 186.31 GB total, 66.37 GB free
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Local time is UTC -7 hours
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 9600 GT (driver version 307.90, CUDA version 5.0, compute capability 1.1, 512MB, 475MB available, 312 GFLOPS peak)
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 9600 GT (driver version 307.90, device version OpenCL 1.0 CUDA, 512MB, 475MB available, 312 GFLOPS peak)
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 6957972; resource share 100
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | SETI@home | General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 31-Mar-2013 10:00:45)
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | SETI@home | Host location: none
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | SETI@home | General prefs: using your defaults
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Preferences:
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | max memory usage when active: 1023.62MB
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | max memory usage when idle: 1842.51MB
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | max disk usage: 56.47GB
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | don't compute while active
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | don't use GPU while active
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 25 %
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
6/10/2013 10:01:38 AM | | Not using a proxy
6/10/2013 10:01:41 AM | | Suspending computation - computer is in use
6/10/2013 10:01:41 AM | | Suspending network activity - computer is in use


The only project I'm working for is SETI@home. This issue has been consistent before and after the SETI update to v7. Set to allow project work when system has been idle for 30 minutes, which means it is usually running from around 10pm to 4-6pm (sleep and work), less on weekends.

I've been noticing system problems about a month. Problems with lag, slow response, that sort of thing. Using Process Explorer I've noticed that the physical memory being used jumps significantly from when I stop using the computer at night and when I get home from work the next day when only BOINC is running, with 3/4 of the system memory permanently "in use" after a couple days. This did not happen prior to installing BOINC and no other new software has been installed. The only way to clear the memory is a power down reboot.

Option check first: "Leave application in memory when suspended". Untick if ticked and report back if this resolves the matter.

There've been cases in past of a memory leak of some kind where either the boinc.exe or boincmgr.exe started occupy more and more memory. This can be seen in Task Manager (Ctrl+Shft+Esc keys). Select various additional columns if you don't see the required informationn.

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

Hello,

I am having a problem with RAM getting "locked away", apparently by either the BOINC program or the Seti@Home project tasks.

I've been noticing system problems about a month. Problems with lag, slow response, that sort of thing. Using Process Explorer I've noticed that the physical memory being used jumps significantly from when I stop using the computer at night and when I get home from work the next day when only BOINC is running, with 3/4 of the system memory permanently "in use" after a couple days. This did not happen prior to installing BOINC and no other new software has been installed. The only way to clear the memory is a power down reboot.

You might want to select 'AstroPulse v6: no' in your Setiathome Project preferences, the Nvidia OpenCL app is particularly laggy on legacy GPUs, you should have no problem with the v7 Cuda apps.
(There have also been quite a few reports of the Nvidia Astropulse app not suspending when told to do so, each report has been on legacy GPUs too)

All tasks for computer 6957972

To get the v7 Cuda23 Wu's to work without erroring you'll want to make sure you set 'SETI@home Enhanced: no', Set NNT, complete what Wu's you have, report them, then reset the project, and Unset NNT,
it's because of a very old problem where Nvidia didn't version it's Cuda dlls, meaning the present v7 Cuda 2.3 app will try and use the old Cuda 2.0 dlls that the old Cuda 6.08 app used.

Claggy

Option check first: "Leave application in memory when suspended". Untick if ticked and report back if this resolves the matter.

There've been cases in past of a memory leak of some kind where either the boinc.exe or boincmgr.exe started occupy more and more memory. This can be seen in Task Manager (Ctrl+Shft+Esc keys). Select various additional columns if you don't see the required informationn.

The "Leave application in memory when suspended" was already unticked.

Hello,

I am having a problem with RAM getting "locked away", apparently by either the BOINC program or the Seti@Home project tasks.

I've been noticing system problems about a month. Problems with lag, slow response, that sort of thing. Using Process Explorer I've noticed that the physical memory being used jumps significantly from when I stop using the computer at night and when I get home from work the next day when only BOINC is running, with 3/4 of the system memory permanently "in use" after a couple days. This did not happen prior to installing BOINC and no other new software has been installed. The only way to clear the memory is a power down reboot.

You might want to select 'AstroPulse v6: no' in your Setiathome Project preferences, the Nvidia OpenCL app is particularly laggy on legacy GPUs, you should have no problem with the v7 Cuda apps.
(There have also been quite a few reports of the Nvidia Astropulse app not suspending when told to do so, each report has been on legacy GPUs too)

All tasks for computer 6957972

To get the v7 Cuda23 Wu's to work without erroring you'll want to make sure you set 'SETI@home Enhanced: no', Set NNT, complete what Wu's you have, report them, then reset the project, and Unset NNT,
it's because of a very old problem where Nvidia didn't version it's Cuda dlls, meaning the present v7 Cuda 2.3 app will try and use the old Cuda 2.0 dlls that the old Cuda 6.08 app used.

Claggy

I'm unable to find a way to do either of these under either the SETI@home website Edit Computing Preferences or the BOINC Manager Options. Can you provide specific directions please?

And thank you to both of you.

I'm unable to find a way to do either of these under either the SETI@home website Edit Computing Preferences or the BOINC Manager Options. Can you provide specific directions please?

As Claggy already mentioned:

You might want to select 'AstroPulse v6: no' in your Setiathome Project preferences...

you'll have to edit the SETI@home preferences, not the computing preferences.

Gruß,
Gundolf

I'm unable to find a way to do either of these under either the SETI@home website Edit Computing Preferences or the BOINC Manager Options. Can you provide specific directions please?

As Claggy already mentioned:

You might want to select 'AstroPulse v6: no' in your Setiathome Project preferences...

you'll have to edit the SETI@home preferences, not the computing preferences.

Gruß,
Gundolf

For some reason I wasn't seeing that before. Thank you.

I've deselected both AstroPulse applications and will try the rest of the suggestions.

Just to let people know, the suggestions given have helped. There's still some memory getting locked but I think its because of an interaction between BOINC/Seti@Home and AVG. I'm now able to force the release of the remaining locked memory by manually restarting one of the AVG component programs every couple of days. Not ideal but it will do until AVG updates.

Thank you to everyone who helped.