Newbee Needs Help

[Bertl]

Okay, where do I begin??? I am new to the folding scene having completed my first work unit three weeks ago and I am now up to 87 work units and almost 9,000 points as a one man team running seven computers. 24/7. (I have 14 additional spare computers that I could add to the folding process but am questioning my contribution.) Of the seven computers I am no longer running four as they had a PPD that was less than 100. I shut them down as I figured I installed something wrong. Two computers never completed a work unit as they said they were going to finish in November 2008 and the other in January 2010. One took three days and made 15 points. >: The computers were P3s and an AMD Semprom 3400. The one that made 15 points was a Compac
Proliant 2500 server with two P100s. CPUs.

I have spent many hours going through the forum and the folding website trying to learn. Some questions I have are answered but many are not. I feel I could be a good contributor as the cost of electricity means nothing to me. I have a hydroelectric dam and can produce 45,000 kwhrs a month. The most I have ever used is 8,000 kwhrs in a month. I just learned of computer farms on this forum and think it is very exciting. I downloaded the Linux standalone program fold.iso and thought I would finally make some progress folding but met with absolute failure. It refuses to run. I am ready to quit trying unless someone can show me the way to be productive. In reading the forum, I see guys with thousands of PPD. The most I can get a computer to do is two or three hundred. What am I doing wrong???

Questions:

When I first started and after completing my first work unit, I formed a team so that I could have another computer folding. I noticed that I was credited with 1089 points for a computer named PS3. I figured this was a mistake but now am concerned because I have learned PS stands for Sony’s
Playstation. I don’t have a Playstation.!!! Do I have the wrong program installed on my computers and this is why my PPD are so low? Will someone please elucidate.

I sometimes see the folding program going from 1 minute per step to 69,986 minutes per step (or some other astronomical number) and finishing years from now. (Remember the computers are dedicated 24/7 with no other programs running.) If after an hour or so, it does not say something different, I reboot the computer and have seen some successful at getting the time reduced to a few days for completion. Is this normal?

In two cases, I could not correct the completion date to within my lifetime and I just turned the computer off. Will “folding@home” know this unit will not be completed? Did I just cause a problem by not completing the work unit and be the cause of everyone’s work to be wasted?? Is there a way to let the folding website know I will not complete the calculation??

My three computers currently running the folding program are:
The most productive
IBM ThinkCenter
P-4 2.8 Ghz
Win XP Pro SP 3
2 Gig RAM

The next productive
AMD 64 4000+
Win XP Pro SP 3
2.41 Ghz
4.0 Gig RAM

Least productive
Pentium-D 3.47 Ghz
Win XP Pro SP 3
2.0 Gig RAM

The faster computer is the slowest (BTW it is really a 3.2 Ghz overclocked to 3.47 and yes I ran it 3.2 but was unhappy with the production)

In my opinion, the slowest computer should be the fastest. What’s wrong??

When I burned the fold.iso file to a cd and placed it in a AMD Semprom 3400 computer with 2 Gig RAM, it booted from the cd with the following error:

ISOLINUX 3.51 0x466c 807b Copyright 1994-2007 H. Peter Anvin
isolinux: Disk Error 32, AX = 422D, drive 9F
Boot failed: press a key to retry

Googling on the subject brought up the possibility of the file being corrupt. I downloaded a second time and burned to another disk and tried that one but got the same error except it had 422F not 422D

I believe from what I have read, if I can get this linux program running, I will be much more productive plus it will allow me to make a farm with nothing but motherboards, Lan cards and power supplies.

How do I get tens of thousands of points per day per computer as others are getting?? What am I doing wrong??

I have several spare ATI PCI express cards. (Radcon 9600 XT) I have not been able to find where you download graphic card programs that run 80 times faster than CPUs for folding. If these run that much faster, why are we running cpu anymore? Will someone please elucidate on this subject too.

Thanks

[John Naylor]

Hello Bertl, welcome to forums and the fold!

When I first started and after completing my first work unit, I formed a team so that I could have another computer folding. I noticed that I was credited with 1089 points for a computer named PS3. I figured this was a mistake but now am concerned because I have learned PS stands for Sony’s
Playstation. I don’t have a Playstation.!!! Do I have the wrong program installed on my computers and this is why my PPD are so low? Will someone please elucidate.

I have no idea why that would happen :S

I sometimes see the folding program going from 1 minute per step to 69,986 minutes per step (or some other astronomical number) and finishing years from now. (Remember the computers are dedicated 24/7 with no other programs running.) If after an hour or so, it does not say something different, I reboot the computer and have seen some successful at getting the time reduced to a few days for completion. Is this normal?

The GUI is useless at calculating ETAs at the start of units, and as far as I can tell it always has been... it should settle down after a bit (your reboots should not be necessary but it doesn't surprise me that it calculates correctly afterwards).

In two cases, I could not correct the completion date to within my lifetime and I just turned the computer off. Will “folding@home” know this unit will not be completed? Did I just cause a problem by not completing the work unit and be the cause of everyone’s work to be wasted?? Is there a way to let the folding website know I will not complete the calculation??

Just keep running, see my point above.

In my opinion, the slowest computer should be the fastest. What’s wrong??

I think you mean should be the slowest but regardless... you can run a second client on the Pentium D to increase production... and PPD will depend on the unit being processed.. the PPD varies between architectures, even on identical units, and even on people who have rigs supposedly identical to the benchmark machine.

I have several spare ATI PCI express cards. (Radcon 9600 XT) I have not been able to find where you download graphic card programs that run 80 times faster than CPUs for folding. If these run that much faster, why are we running cpu anymore? Will someone please elucidate on this subject too.

They're on the download page, on the page linked next to the "BETA" sign at the bottom. But it's slightly irrelevent because the ATI GPU client only works on HD2xxx and later graphics cards.

I can't help you on the other issues, sorry about that

[theMASS]

In reading the forum, I see guys with thousands of PPD. The most I can get a computer to do is two or three hundred. What am I doing wrong???

The guys with the thousands of PPD are mostly running newer computers and now the GPU2 Client.

I downloaded the Linux standalone program fold.iso and thought I would finally make some progress folding but met with absolute failure. It refuses to run.

Are you talking about notfred's folding CD? If you are it is most likely running but it doesn't show progress on the screen, you have to monitor it from another computer either by typing the IP Address that is shown on the startup screen, or using a 3rd party program such as FahMon.

I have several spare ATI PCI express cards. (Radcon 9600 XT) I have not been able to find where you download graphic card programs that run 80 times faster than CPUs for folding. If these run that much faster, why are we running cpu anymore?

These cards are NOT supported by the GPU2 (or GPU1 for that matter) client, so unfortunately they wont help you get the thousands of PPD

isolinux: Disk Error 32, AX = 422D, drive 9F
Boot failed: press a key to retry

I haven't seen this error before. When you burned the CD did you tell your burning application to burn from an Image or ISO? You need to or it wont create a working disk.

Least productive
Pentium-D 3.47 Ghz
Win XP Pro SP 3
2.0 Gig RAM

The faster computer is the slowest (BTW it is really a 3.2 Ghz overclocked to 3.47 and yes I ran it 3.2 but was unhappy with the production)

In my opinion, the slowest computer should be the fastest. What’s wrong??

Yes this computer should be the most productive of the three. Which client are you running on it?

[alancabler]

Hello Bertl,
Welcome to the folding forum.

Just to add a bit to what others have said...
All PIIIs have SSE and are capable of completing Work Units well within the preferred deadline. Anything under a PIII 450 gets iffy (Pentium 200s have been reported as capable- beats me) and your Compaq server is definitely too slow.

Your Sempron is also highly capable as a folding CPU, so who knows why you thought it too slow- relying on GUI estimated completion times?
Early reports/estimates of completion times by your GUI clients are wildly inaccurate. If you let the clients complete a few frames (read: frame = 1 %/total WU not the thousands of "steps" reported by GUI) then GUI predictions improve, but are still not as accurate as calculations based on frametimes in FAHlog.txt.


The PD should be smoking your other 2 running machines. It is completely capable of running either 2 instances of a classic CPU client or will run the SMP client, and will make great ppd.

If you are just running single-instance CPU clients, be sure to add the -advmethods flag as there is a 2X Bonus-point Amber project running right now which uses advanced methods. See the WIKI How-Tos to learn how to add the flag and double your points.

You probably got PS3 points as some hapless PS3 donor entered your team # by mistake. That, or someone decided to join your team. Oh well. If you just enter the same username for each client, all points will add to your score, regardless of team.
You could have a gaxillion machines all running with the same user/team name.
As a matter of fact, that's how the Big PPD people do it... they have a lot of machines and/or are running the latest beta clients with high-performance rigs.

GPU2 and SMP clients are listed on the download page under the high-performance beta link (look for Red BETA tag further down the page. Again, your PentiumD can run SMP, but you'll need more modern GPUs to run GPU2.

You have your own hydroelectric dam? Bless you!
The rest of us are wondering if we could run an extension cord over to your house.

[Bertl]

**** In my opinion, the slowest computer should be the fastest. What’s wrong??

I think you mean should be the slowest but regardless... you can run a second client on the Pentium D to increase production... and PPD will depend on the unit being processed.. the PPD varies between architectures, even on identical units, and even on people who have rigs supposedly identical to the benchmark machine. - John Naylor
****
What I tried to say was My slowest folding computer (least productive) should be the fastest folding computer. I thought this because it has the fastest clock speed and is dual core but an old P-4 is beating it hands down. If I have installed folding correctly it should be the fastest folder. What could I have done wrong?

theMASS asks which client I'm running on it -- Windows graphics and it is working on p3851_fkbprelative_comp (Yes the cd program was Notfreds and yes I burned an iso file - I have made iso files many times and am comfortable with that part)

alancabler - Thank you for your reply and helpful suggestions. I never knew about WIKI and have spent some time reading there. I did not find the flag advmethods but did see how to run a console client on a second cpu. I downloaded the consul client, put in the -local flag on a shortcut and ran the program. I am never prompted for a machine ID and I have not been able to change the default of 1 to 2. I think I corrupted the existing running folding program. It crashed. I had to reboot. I haven't seen any progress in over an hour now.

I made a mistake on the Compac server. I believe I'm correct saying it has 2 cpus that are called P-100. What I know for sure is they run at 500 MHz each. I turned it back on and after a day it says it's taking 100 minutes per step and will finish the wu July 3, 2008 I'm 152/200 right now. When it finishes I will shut it down.

[alancabler]

Howdy Bertl,

The info on flags is in the Configuration FAQ at the project's home site. Our useful info's scattered all over the place- sorry 'bout that.

Here's the link for the FAH WIKI How- Tos where you can find info on adding flags as well as running multiple clients and setting different machine IDs. Machine IDs can only be changed on console clients, as the GUI clients default to ID = 1. As a result, you can only run one copy of a GUI client per actual machine, but several console clients- 1 per physical CPU core.

If you can't figure out how to un-fuzzle your 2-instance non-working machine, then come on back and someone will help you.

If your Compaq server has 500 MHz CPUs, they are most likely PIIIs and would be fine for folding, if you want to run them and don't mind the [strike] electric bill [/strike] extra effort. If you add the -advmethods flag to each Compaq CPU, the whole box should make around 100 ppd. The FAH project can never have too many CPUs. It wasn't too long ago that a PIII 500 was hot stuff.

re: shutting down the Compaq server... If the Compaq is running the GUI client, just rt- click the tray icon and select the "Pause when done" option and the client will upload the finished WU without DL'ing a new WU to process. Then just shut down the client. Use the -oneunit flag if you're running the console client.
If you restart either client for any reason after they've finished, they will pick up a new Work Unit, which just defeated your purpose.

You realize don't you, that since you let the cat outta the bag about 45 MWHrs available monthly that you're gonna get bugged about maybe building a folding ranch...

[jrweiss]

Slow Folding can also be caused by SSE optimizations being inhibited. This happens if you do not properly shut down the client (or the machine crashes), and you restart the machine/client only once. To properly shut down the Console client, use Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break before closing the window. After a proper shutdown and restart, SSE optimizations should resume. You can also use the -forceasm switch on the Console client to force the SSE optimizations On after every restart, regardless of shutdown type. You can safely use -forceasm if your machine is otherwise stable and you do not get EUEs (Early Unit Ends) directly as a result.

A server with dual 500 MHz CPUs is likely a P-III unit. I cannot find any info on such a Compaq server having any P-100 designation, though...

[theMASS]

**** In my opinion, the slowest computer should be the fastest. What’s wrong??

I think you mean should be the slowest but regardless... you can run a second client on the Pentium D to increase production... and PPD will depend on the unit being processed.. the PPD varies between architectures, even on identical units, and even on people who have rigs supposedly identical to the benchmark machine. - John Naylor
****
What I tried to say was My slowest folding computer (least productive) should be the fastest folding computer. I thought this because it has the fastest clock speed and is dual core but an old P-4 is beating it hands down. If I have installed folding correctly it should be the fastest folder. What could I have done wrong?

theMASS asks which client I'm running on it -- Windows graphics and it is working on p3851_fkbprelative_comp (Yes the cd program was Notfreds and yes I burned an iso file - I have made iso files many times and am comfortable with that part)

You can run the SMP client the Pentium-D it will give you a much better ppd.

The version of notfred's CD previous to June 9th had some (many) cosmetic "errors" / false warnings that were the result of it being "released" in the middle of a substantial upgrade due to an early yet required update to work with the new SMP-beta client at the time. However the error you are getting "Disk Error 32, AX = 422D, drive 9F" sounds like a BIOS compatibility issue with notfred's CD.

A few things to try:
Update to most current BIOS.
"Tap" F12 (on most systems) while the computer boots and select CD/DVD as boot option. Even if BIOS is set to boot from CD sometimes it doesn't
I'm pretty familiar with notfred's CD, it's the only SMP client I use, even on my Windows computers (That's how I get tens of thousands of PPD and the 40 or so cores running it) so I'm sure we can get it working.

The CD you burned does work on other computer's, right?

The last thing you should see on the screen when running notfred's CD is "Setting up instance 1" From that point on, to monitor progress you need to point a browser from another computer @ the IP address listed on the "start screen"