Folding Forum

Hi,
I'm experimenting with having my computer in the basement while I control it on the 2nd floor via 10 meter cables.

The problem is an interaction between FAH and this USB 3.0 extension cable:
USB 3.0 Active Repeater Cable – 10M
http://www.siig.com/usb-3-0-active-repe ... e-10m.html

Everything was fine until I installed FAHControl v7.1.52 yesterday. It worked fine for at least a few hours, then I left for another 5 hours and when I came back my wireless mouse and keyboard no longer worked while at the end of my 10m USB cable but worked fine when connected directly.

Specifically, Windows 7 would give a standard message about "USB Device Not Recognized". That would go away if I unplugged either the device from the cable or the cable from the computer. The extension cable alone gave no problems.

To make a long story short, nothing helped until I uninstalled FAH and rebooted.

The computer also took a long time booting at the BIOS level. Like 30 seconds instead of 5 or less. But only with both the USB extension and FAH installed.

FAH was installed with the default automatic options.

I do not know what work unit FAH was working on at the time.

I do not know if FAH had completed any work units at all.

FAH continued to fold while I was having this problem and was about 60% done with the work unit by the time I uninstalled FAH.

Hardware Details:
USB 3.0 Active Repeater Cable 10m by SiiG. No drivers required.
Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard.
Windows 7, sp1
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q Deluxe

13:20:02:******************************* System ********************************
13:20:02: CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
13:20:02: CPU ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10
13:20:02: Memory: 4.00GiB
13:20:02: CWD: C:/ProgramData/FAHClient
13:20:02: OS Arch: AMD64
13:20:02: GPU 0: ATI:3 RV770 [Radeon HD 4870]

My troubleshooting:
* Rebooting did nothing.
* I tried 6 different USB 2.0 ports on the motherboard. (It has no 3.0 ports.)
* The USB Repeater Cable has an optional AC power adapter. Same problem whether that was plugged in or not.

After uninstalling FAH I had no problems.

I have now re-installed FAH to test the problem further but I consistently get the following:

Empty work server assignment
13:43:20:ERROR:WU00:FS00:Exception: Could not get an assignment
13:45:57:WU00:FS00:Connecting to assign-GPU.stanford.edu:80
13:45:57:WU00:FS00:News: Welcome to Folding@Home
13:45:57:WARNING:WU00:FS00:Failed to get assignment from 'assign-GPU.stanford.edu:80':

I still get that message after a reboot and re-installing FAH. Perhaps because I didn't return the last work unit?


I am about to rebuild this machine with an i7-3770k CPU and a Sabertooth z77 motherboard. Perhaps this problem will disappear with the new hardware, but I'd like to be fairly sure because I'm getting the i7-3770k for its folding power and would otherwise just get an i5-2500k.

Feel free to move this post if there's a more appropriate forum.
Thanks.

Have you checked your power options?

You should be using the High Performance profile and look into advanced settings for USB and CPU to make sure they are not being allowed to suspend.

Also, I believe there are posts suggesting a shortage of WUs for the 4870 ... nothing you can do but be patient.

jwyount wrote: 13:20:02:******************************* System ********************************
13:20:02: CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
13:20:02: CPU ID: GenuineIntel Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10
13:20:02: Memory: 4.00GiB
13:20:02: CWD: C:/ProgramData/FAHClient
13:20:02: OS Arch: AMD64
13:20:02: GPU 0: ATI:3 RV770 [Radeon HD 4870]


I have now re-installed FAH to test the problem further but I consistently get the following:

Empty work server assignment
13:43:20:ERROR:WU00:FS00:Exception: Could not get an assignment
13:45:57:WU00:FS00:Connecting to assign-GPU.stanford.edu:80
13:45:57:WU00:FS00:News: Welcome to Folding@Home
13:45:57:WARNING:WU00:FS00:Failed to get assignment from 'assign-GPU.stanford.edu:80':

I still get that message after a reboot and re-installing FAH. Perhaps because I didn't return the last work unit?

Just wanted to comment on one aspect of your post - the issue with not getting GPU Work Units.

Check out this long thread (4 pages): Only 1 WU per day for Radeon 4xxx?. Your GPU is on the "endangered species" list. Stanford has announced a year ago that they intend to ultimately withdraw projects for the old pre-HD5000 series of GPU and concentrate on the more modern OpenMM and OpenCL. Bruce put it well, "The fact is, AMD has said that they no longer support Brook so the Stanford/OpenMM guys wouldn't be able to fix things if something broke. All of AMD's resources are going into OpenCL and even that has been dropped on WinXP. "

That thread follows the odyssey of fewer and fewer work units available, and seemingly large numbers of people who still have the old cards folding looking for assignments. I myself have seen the problem since March - but lately I'm lucky to get one assignment each several days, with long times when the FAH Client repeatedly, and most of the time, unsuccessfully, seeks assignment. Currently, I've been waiting almost 14 hours since I uploaded my last assignment.

This post doesn't answer your concern with the USB extension and V7, but does indicate that there is a second, unrelated, reason why you are getting the assignment messages you are getting.

I have changed to High Performance.
"USB selective suspend setting" was "Enabled" and is now Disabled.

I doubt that had anything to do with it, but who knows.

I just realized that my computer was set to do both SMP and GPU folding. I don't know which (if either) was causing the USB Extension problem.

Currently I'm still getting messages that the FAHClient has failed to get a *GPU* assignment. Thanks for you input as to why that might be. And if GPU units are the only cause of my problem... I'll just disallow them. Regardless, my new computer will either have a much newer GPU or no GPU at all... problem avoided.


Meanwhile, my computer is currently chugging away on a SMP task on the CPU. 34% and so far no issues.

More speculation welcome on the USB extension issue!

I'm not convinced that there's a correlation between what appears to be a system hang that has something to do with your hardware and something to do with FAH.

We've already explained that the Radeon HD 4870 is going to be idle an increasing amount of time. That has nothing to do with the USB line. Moreover, if a WU happens to be downloaded for your GPU, your E8400 is going to have a very hard time running both SMP and GPU WUs at the same time. If your GPU is not currently processing a WU, I recommend you simply remove the GPU slot.

I'll remove the GPU slot and keep folding.

If the USB problem happens again I'll post with more details.

I certainly see no reason why Folding would have caused such a problem, but this computer has very little software and hardware and the problem started and stopped with FAHClient. Certainly not proof of anything.

I can live with the mystery on my current build, I just hope I never see it after my rebuild!

Thanks.