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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 1:31 pm 
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SETI@HOME may have announced its demise but Folding@home is alive and well. Folding@home also seems to use less system resources than SETI@HOME.
https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/

Folding@home is a huge network of home systems that are sent packets of info to process; the results are then sent back. Folding@home can be set to work all the time or just when the system is idle. Running all the time I've seen no affect on my system.

Here is an article about Folding@home:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-you-can-use-your-computer-to-help-fight-covid-19-coronavirus/

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 8:39 pm 
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I set it up on my desktop machine last night, but ultimately removed it because it prevented my PC from going to sleep. Actually, my PC won't go to sleep unless I explicitly put it to sleep, which is an issue I continue to periodically poke at with no success, but last night it wouldn't go to sleep even then. My intent was to let the program consume CPU in the background all day, but not overnight. I'll be running it on another PC that doesn't go to sleep at all and can certainly spare the CPU cycles.

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:32 pm 
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Yes, the documentation for Fold@home.org does state that it will prevent a system from actually becoming idle which would prevent sleep mode.

As to your previous issue with having the desktop failing to go to sleep on its own is it possible that this could be a case where the system is constantly synced to another? In such a case I would have to consider it possible that a constant, real time, sync could prevent the system from being idle causing a drop to sleep mode impossible.

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 Post Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:40 pm 
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Yes my personal favorite SETI will be going into "hibernation" the end of the month, I would not run a project that does not run within BOINC. That program would control how much of your computer the program uses and the times that it runs. I run three programs within the BOINC umbrella. I can control almost any scenario that the programs throw at me.
That said, folding is certainly worth running if you have spare computer time.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 1:22 am 
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Actually I like what Fold@home is doing more than what BOINC did/does as to user experience. By default BOINC seems to try to get as much of your machine as it can get away with. With Fold it seems to be more reasonable as to end user system usage. My first project took about 2.5 hours with it set to use low CPU usage. The stated requested completion time was one week.

Personally I think that BOINC could learn some things from what Fold has done.

For those that don't know BOINC is/was the base program through which SETI@HOME operated along with many other programs.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 11:20 am 
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I really do not agree with you Jay. There are settings in BOINC that allow you to control both CPU and GPU usage and memory usage as well. I can run more that one program under the BOINC umbrella and control the percentage of time each program gets on the allotted time that I give the programs to run. I have most of my computers running SETI with Einstein as a backup if SETI runs out of work (as it often does during the weekly maintenance). Folding is not technically compatible with BOINC so must be run as a stand alone program.
If folding is the only program you want to run it has enough options for most people.

STEVE:BOINC would also allow you schedule what times of the day you want to allow your programs to run.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 12:10 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
As to your previous issue with having the desktop failing to go to sleep on its own is it possible that this could be a case where the system is constantly synced to another? In such a case I would have to consider it possible that a constant, real time, sync could prevent the system from being idle causing a drop to sleep mode impossible.


No, I don't have constant sync set up. I've poked around at it many times to try to diagnose it. It began some time last year, perhaps with the 1903 upgrade. I haven't gone aggressive on the troubleshooting -- removing attached devices, disabling program, shutting down services, etc. I just put it to sleep manually and that works fine for now.

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 5:52 pm 
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I'm sure that you are right BillG. I guess, if I'm to be totally honest, that I just don't like the BOINC setup or interface. I know that BOINC does have usage settings but, for some reason I can't really define, I just don't like it even though I believe in many of the projects. I guess it is a personal thing. Before SETI@Home was part of BOINC and was just SETI@Home I ran it faithfully. Once it became part of BOINC I found myself installing for a while then ending up removing many times. I can't really put a finger on as to why but I just don't seem to like BOINC. :dunno:

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 Post Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 6:59 pm 
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Yes, I remember well when SETI was a stand alone program. I have an amount of the original score, separate from current score, that is called SETI Classic score. Those were the days when a Work Unit could easily take a week to run. Currently really well build computers, running Linux can do a WU in seconds on the GPU. Totally understand about liking or not liking certain programs.

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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 4:52 pm 
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Folding@home response seems to have been totally overwhelming over the weekend. The servers ran out of work units and became so inundated that they slowed to a crawl. I guess that is actually a good thing in a way as all the work units are either in process or finished.

I just wish that I had looked at the Folding News link before trying to figure out why I couldn't get it to do anything Sunday evening and early Monday. Spent a fair amount of time before I saw the News post that they were out of work units which, of course, is why it was doing nothing. I'll bet they're in a state state trying to get more work units up. :mrgreen:

Oh, Steve, I THINK that I found why you could not invoke sleep mode with folding@home installed. It is normal for the client to prevent the system becoming idle. Going to Advanced Settings via the Notification Area icon would have let you to select to pause folding@home which would have probably allowed you to invoke sleep mode.

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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 7:33 pm 
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I put it on another PC and completed one or two work units. That PC doesn't sleep, so no issues. I think I did Pause when I was trying it out on the desktop PC. On the other PC it has been pending new work for quite a while now. :-)

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 Post Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 7:45 pm 
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sboots wrote:
On the other PC it has been pending new work for quite a while now. :-)

That is due to there, currently, being no new work units available. The response to this project was amazing over the weekend and wiped out everything they had to offer as to work units. I'm sure that it will take them some time to 're-tool' and get work units back up.

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