150 replies to this topic

[Guest_Jim_*]

If my family would learn to leave folding turned on on my main comp or just learn to restart F@H when it bsod's since my oc aint exactly stable atm but alas they don't no matter how many times I explain it to them

That's why I setup a task to start my folding clients a minute after logon. Restart and I'm folding again, without resources being drawn while everything is starting up. Would happily share how to do it if you want.

[SpeedCrazy]

That's why I setup a task to start my folding clients a minute after logon. Restart and I'm folding again, without resources being drawn while everything is starting up. Would happily share how to do it if you want.

I have a vague idea but please do share.

[bishop245]

AT current my PC seems stable enuff and its not at home it's at work sitting next to my desk. If boinker takes it home while I am at CES and works on it then my ppd will go down while I am at CES, but I can deal with that. At work we are still planning a decent upgrade so I may get a few stock HP's to play with that are only a few years old.

[Guest_Jim_*]

Well, it's a bit more convoluted than you need it to be, but I have it setup for more than just folding. The original intent for this setup was to just delay the opening of something at boot, such as folding, and to open specific folders in a specific order at log on.
There are three parts to what I have: the task, initial batch file, folding batch file.
The task is set to trigger at log on, delayed by one minute. This can be set in the "Triggers" tab of "Create Task" but is not available in "Create Basic Task" for Win7 at least. However, the same menu with the Triggers tab can be gotten to by viewing a task's properties.
The action is to start a program; specifically the initial batch file. That's, more or less, all there is to the task
The initial batch file, which I have set for everything to start 1 minute after log on, actually calls other batch files (like I said, it is convoluted). Here's what it looks like:

::start call "C:\Startup Folders.bat"
start call "C:\Folding @ Home Startup.bat"

The "::" means to comment out that line. The reason is I have that batch file run earlier, at 30 seconds after log on. Opening folders is pretty light work, so having it run earlier is fine. the "start" command means to use another command prompt window. This is actually important because opening a program, as we will be doing, can cause the command prompt to not close for some reason. Without the "start" command, the batch would not continue. With "start," the folding batch file starts, and the next on the list would be run. The call command is just how you open one batch file from within another.
My "Folding @ Home Startup.bat" looks like this:

start "F@H CPU" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-cpu\F@H CPU Console.lnk"
start "F@H GPU 2 250" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu 2 250\F@H GPU 2 250 Console.lnk"
::start /min "F@H GPU 3 570 - One Unit" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu3 570\Folding@home GPU3 570 One Unit"
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\HFM\HFM.lnk"
exit

Here I'm taking advantage of something else with the "start" command. You can specify the name for the prompt. In this case the first one is "F@H CPU" and the second is "F@H GPU 2 250." Since I have at least two of the folding clients open, this is helpful so I can see which is which.
HFM is a client monitoring program.
I know it's weird, but you should be able to have the task just run the folding batch file directly. You should also be able to have the task just run the clients directly, but editing a batch file is easier than editing a task, for me at least.

I hope that makes sense.

[Silas13013]

If anyone has a spare case that can fit a regular ATX board, I have enough parts to get another rig online.

[gebraset]

Interesting information Jim! Cannot say I will use it, but I'm glad you posted it here for everyone to see.

I'm with roadrunner though, we need some kind of contest to get the folding going on again. I'm back at home now so the PS3 and PC are folding a bit on the weekends, with one machine folding 24/7, though it's roughly five years old. It seems like we are gaining some more points, but a contest would enable so much more concerning points.

[road-runner]

The Ver 7 client will auto restart when the machine reboots with SMP client also, they finally got it working. I dont do nothing on my main rig it comes on by itself when I reboot...

If anyone has a spare case that can fit a regular ATX board, I have enough parts to get another rig online.

I got lots of old cases in the closet, problem is it will cost more to ship them than I paid for the things... There just cheapo frys cases the cheapest thing the had to hold a folding rig. I dont use cases anymore just sit them on a shelf or what ever...

Edited by road-runner, 08 January 2012 - 07:23 AM.

[road-runner]

delete please seems users dont have the option...

Edited by road-runner, 08 January 2012 - 07:24 AM.

[Guest_Jim_*]

I just figured something else out, that some may find useful.
As you can see my the post above, I have three folding clients, but one I do not have start at log on. It's the one for my primary GPU and the reason I do not have it running at log on, and 24/7 is it can put out a lot of heat and take a lot of power. (Also, the GPU 3 client, which takes advantage of the Fermi architecture, can draw a lot of CPU resources and cause some system lag. Not always but occasionally.) Instead what I do is run it at night, and then close the regular client to open the One Unit client (the flag -oneunit will have it finish whatever work unit it was on). Finally I have figured out how to automate that process of closing and opening the One Unit client.
Create a task, similar to what I describe above, but with an actual time instead of just log on. Have the task run a batch like this one that I use:

taskkill /im [email protected] /t /f

timeout /t 5 /nobreak

start "F@H GPU 2 250" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu 2 250\F@H GPU 2 250 Console.lnk"
start /min "F@H GPU 3 570 - One Unit" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Folding@home\Folding@home-gpu3 570\Folding@home GPU3 570 One Unit"
exit

Taskkill kills the current GPU clients, both of them (I cannot get it to distinguish the 250 client from the 570 client, unless I change the exe name itself. Chose not to do that just because). The /t and /f are to force kill the process and its sub-processes.
The timeout command puts in a pause of 5 seconds. The reason I need this is because the closing a GPU client does not always cause the GPU usage to drop immediately. If I open a F@H client for the GPU before the usage has dropped, the client just crashes.
The two start commands are just to start the folding again. I have to have it there twice because the taskkill command kills both GPU clients. This reopens both, but the 570 client is the One Unit version.

Not sure if anyone else will find this interesting, but this definitely helps me as I run one client only at night.

Update: I forgot this myself and found out today. The Task Scheduler has issues directly running a batch file, as is the case with this setup. A work around is to make a shortcut to the batch file and have the task execute the shortcut with the /c flag. The task's action would look like this then: "blah\Folding @ Home Day" \c (blah is whatever directory location the link is in and may vary from person to person).

[paulktreg]

Maybe a competition of some sort to attract a few more folders?

[gebraset]

Maybe a competition of some sort to attract a few more folders?

Yeah, just not sure how it would be set up. We definitely need to get something like that going, I'm just not sure how we would compete, for prizes, or what? Either way, we need to get some more folders on the team.

[road-runner]

One way to keep em here would be to set something up similar to what EVGA is doing where your get so much of a discount for so many points a month, maybe Dave could work something out with some manufactures for discounts on different hardware...