I'm sure someone else has asked this question at some point, but wading through 60 pages of issues to find it is something I can't do, lol. (And yes, I tried searching to no avail.)

My issue is this. My tasks are not switching as indicated in preferences. My BOINC client is set to switch applications every 60 minutes (and for giggles I set all my individual projects to this interval as well), but it does not. Here is a clip from my log when I got home from work tonight at around 1am:

7/20/2013 1:51:48 PM | Milkyway@Home | task ps_separation_84_DR_8_rev_3_1_1372784654_4873722_0 suspended by user
7/20/2013 1:51:49 PM | World Community Grid | Restarting task E214553_431_A.36.C29H17N5S2.132.3.set1d06_0 using cep2 version 640 in slot 4
7/20/2013 1:51:52 PM | Milkyway@Home | task ps_separation_84_DR_8_rev_3_1_1372784654_4873722_0 resumed by user
7/21/2013 12:51:49 AM | World Community Grid | General prefs: from World Community Grid (last modified 19-Jul-2013 13:29:58)

The "resumed/suspended by user" entries were intentional in order to force the active task to be a different one than the manager tried to choose for me. After my World Community Grid task was restarted, I left the computer alone and left for work. The log shows that between 1:51pm and 12:51am, no other tasks were restarted. Here is a clip of my log after restarting the BOINC manager:

7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | No config file found - using defaults
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Starting BOINC client version 7.0.64 for windows_intelx86
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Libraries: libcurl/7.25.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1 zlib/1.2.6
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Data directory: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Running under account Usei
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N450 @ 1.66GHz [Family 6 Model 28 Stepping 10]
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 movebe nx lm tm2 pbe
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | OS: Microsoft Windows XP: Home x86 Edition, Service Pack 3, (05.01.2600.00)
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Memory: 1.99 GB physical, 3.33 GB virtual
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Disk: 103.59 GB total, 13.12 GB free
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Local time is UTC -6 hours
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | No usable GPUs found
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | rosetta@home | URL http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/; Computer ID 1623142; resource share 100
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | climateprediction.net | URL http://climateprediction.net/; Computer ID 1286283; resource share 100
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | Milkyway@Home | URL http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/; Computer ID 527312; resource share 100
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 7030115; resource share 100
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | World Community Grid | URL http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/; Computer ID 2418219; resource share 100
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | World Community Grid | General prefs: from World Community Grid (last modified 19-Jul-2013 13:29:58)
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | World Community Grid | Host location: none
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | World Community Grid | General prefs: using your defaults
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Reading preferences override file
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Preferences:
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | max memory usage when active: 203.81MB
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | max memory usage when idle: 1834.29MB
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | max disk usage: 3.00GB
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | max CPUs used: 1
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | suspend work if non-BOINC CPU load exceeds 75 %
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | max download rate: 1024000 bytes/sec
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | max upload rate: 102400 bytes/sec
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
7/21/2013 1:49:11 AM | | Not using a proxy
7/21/2013 1:49:12 AM | | Running CPU benchmarks
7/21/2013 1:49:12 AM | | Suspending computation - CPU benchmarks in progress
7/21/2013 1:49:43 AM | | Benchmark results:
7/21/2013 1:49:43 AM | | Number of CPUs: 1
7/21/2013 1:49:43 AM | | 788 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
7/21/2013 1:49:43 AM | | 1731 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
7/21/2013 1:49:44 AM | World Community Grid | Restarting task E214553_431_A.36.C29H17N5S2.132.3.set1d06_0 using cep2 version 640 in slot 4

Projects:
SETI@home - new tasks allowed, 2 tasks downloaded
MilkyWay@Home - new tasks allowed, 1 task downloaded
Climateprediction.net - new tasks allowed, 1 task downloaded. Task suspended (intentional)
Rosetta@home - new tasks allowed, 0 tasks downloaded (no new tasks available)
World Community Grid - new tasks allowed, 1 task downloaded

GPU work is omitted in all of these unless the computer is not in use, but BOINC never seems to make use of my GPU regardless. CPU work is enabled for all.

This issue also happens with my Android phone. I run the app nativeBOINC (version 7.0.36) for the manager, the projects are SETI@Home, Milkyway@Home, and World Community Grid. I have 2 tasks for Milkyway and 3 for SETI, none suspended. The settings are similar for both devices. Here's the basic info for the Android:

BOINC vers: 7.0.36
Processor: ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l) @1600MHz (4 processors)
OS: Android 3.0.31-935627

I hope this gives you enough info to work with. Any help is most appreciated. :)

The 60 minute preference is the minimum task switching interval, not the interval where tasks must switch, once Boinc has done enough work for that project then it'll switch.

Claggy

The 60 minute preference is the minimum task switching interval, not the interval where tasks must switch, once Boinc has done enough work for that project then it'll switch.

Claggy

Thanks for your reply.

So if I understand correctly, this means that it will wait a minimum of 60 minutes before switching tasks.

What does "doing enough work for the project" mean? Last night I had the same task running for 9 hours straight without switching, and I've had the same task running before for 24 hours or more. It's like it never does "enough work" for one project. Ironically, the project it's spending all its time on is the one I have the most credits in, lol.

What does "doing enough work for the project" mean? Last night I had the same task running for 9 hours straight without switching, and I've had the same task running before for 24 hours or more. It's like it never does "enough work" for one project. Ironically, the project it's spending all its time on is the one I have the most credits in, lol.

Boinc 7 has a REC-based scheduler:

History Lesson
For generations, the work scheduler in the BOINC client has been giving users headaches and them complaining to the developers, as the thing would hardly follow their preferences. This wasn't so weird, as there were many variables that the scheduler had to work with. Plus as BOINC versions progressed and GPU capabilities were added, it became clear that the present scheduler, with now CPU and GPU code included, was completely outgrowing itself.

As such, for BOINC 7, the scheduler has been rewritten from the ground up, and split into one for the CPU and one for the GPU. This will mean that you new BOINC has to relearn all about those pesky tasks, but if you leave it alone and don't micromanage things, it'll take 10 tasks per project application to get back on track.

Comments in the field
As explained by LadyL on the Seti forums:
REC = recent estimated credit
This is only relevant if you run more than one project.

What the client does is, it keeps a record of how much CPU/GPU time a certain project has recently seen. This translates into the REC. It compares this figure with the project share that has been set. A project that has worked less than its share will get priority in both scheduling (running tasks) and work fetch. Then as it gets crunch time its REC increases and another project will get to the head of the queue. Over time you get a more or less good distribution of crunching time according to resource share.

Points to note: GPUs are very productive so lead to high REC. If you run GPU projects along CPU ones on similar shares the GPU project sees virtually no CPU. CPU and GPU are scheduled separately. SETI will probably stay pretty high up in the queue, since getting tasks is hit and miss Setting a small 'additional days' cache will help getting tasks from seti, since BOINC will ask more often, thereby increasing your chances.

Claggy

Thank you, Claggy. The information you've provided me answers about 98% of my questions. For the 2% remaining, I won't burden you with my n00bness anymore--I can find the answers myself. :) Thanks again!

The 60 minute preference is the minimum task switching interval, not the interval where tasks must switch, once Boinc has done enough work for that project then it'll switch.

Claggy

Specifically switching is at a checkpoint save moment, so the loss-less switch can take place even if LAIM [leave application in memory when suspended... paused]. If checkpoints are hours apart, then the switching wont take place until that checkpoint is reached [except where Earliest Deadline First mode kicks in, which is when without LAIM on, loss occurs] :D

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