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Hey !

I've noticed something quite strange.

As the CPU is crunching either :
- 1 (multithreaded) Primegrid llrPSP WU
- 8 (single threaded) Numberfields CPU WUs
...the CPU power consumption increases when I have the BoincTasks window on focus.
it jumps from 95W to 130W, and returns back to 95W the second I give the focus on another window.

The iGPU isn't used at all and there is no non-Boinc heavy task running in background.
Windows Task manager confirms BoincTasks uses a negligible CPU time.

It seems I only can observe this behaviour when I set a <ncpus> limit in cc_config.xml :
I usually downsize the threads numbers to half their real number to prevent hyperthreading.
ie : AMD 9800X3D (8 cores/16 threads) -> <ncpus>8</ncpus>

Using :
- Windows 11
- BoincTasks (exe) 2.0.0
- MSI Afterburner 4.6.6.16757 / RivaTunerStatsServer 7.3.7.28314 (to monitor temps and power draws).
- Boinc client 8.0.4

Can someone reproduce this ?

Hello Fred !

OK. I'll try that. I didn't change anything in BT settings. This "bug" doesn't even appear everyday... Sometimes it's here, sometimes I do not experience it at all for days.

I'll investigate more when I'll get back to the PC, in 15 days~.

Thanks and have a nice summertime !

Hi !

I recently had some trouble on my Windows 11 machine (22H2 22623.1325) :

from time to time (could be 3 seconds, could be 3 minutes), something steals the current window's focus.

This is particularly annoying, since it can happen when I'm typing text in a form and, without noticing, I may find myself typing in the void, loosing my text (or worse : sending it somewhere I didn't intend to. Think about privacy/security).

It also can happen when I'm gaming in "borderless window" mode : suddenly, I can't control my game anymore as long as I click back on its window.

I first thought it was the Windows file explorer, or a strange MS Edge bug, but couldn't stop the stealing 100% of the time when closing them.

So I've found a little program called "Windows Focus Logger" (see : https://www.thewindowsclub.com/prevent-applications-from-stealing-focus). It clearly shows that "BoincTasks 1.91 (Tasks)" is the culprit.


So : I do not know anything about Windows UI rules or code, but when I close BoincTasks, the stealing goes away. Never had a problem of this kind with BT for years... Maybe something has changed in its inner code ?

Hey !
Didn't see your update (I asked for notification, but didn't get any).

Cool stuff Thanks.

No prob Happy crunching !

Did you copy them while Boinctasks was running on the target machine ?
It may have written its own versions on top of them.

Infos seem complete, though. Try to stop Boinctasks on the target machine, then retry to copy the files.

Hi !

All the parameters seem to be recorded in the user Appdata, here :

C:\Users\***youraccount***\AppData\Roaming\eFMer\BoincTasks

Idea :

Here's what I get from the Boinc client when I ask it to re-read the configuration files :

Code Select Expand


75575 yoyo@home 29/04/2022 08:10:06 Found app_config.xml
75574 World Community Grid 29/04/2022 08:10:06 Found app_config.xml
75573 SRBase 29/04/2022 08:10:06 Found app_config.xml
75572 NFS@Home 29/04/2022 08:10:06 Found app_config.xml
[...]
75554 29/04/2022 08:10:06 Re-reading cc_config.xml


To avoid these messages being thrown out of the buffer after a while, you could ask for a config re-reading each time you want to know if the files are detected.
This would be very cheap in terms of CPU time/data transfer, results are known almost instantly and this doesn't affect the calculations.

Thanks !

Though I do not have any idea of your actual code, as Boinc client reports the presence of app_config.xml files in projects folders, that should be as simple as searching for these lines in the messages log.

Hi !

I use BoincTasks since years, managing ~10 machines, some distant, some in LAN.
As I frequently change the projects I'm working on, I have to do some finetuning for specific machines/projects, using app_config.xml and cc_config.xml a lot.

Sometimes, as I return to a project or machine that I didn't work on for a long time, I forget there is an app_config.xml or a cc_config.xml active on it.

Would it be possible for BoincTasks to display a new "Local config" column on the [Projects] screen, saying either "app_config", "cc_config" or "none/blank" is active ?
It would permit to eventually know the reason why a machine/project which hasn't been launched for a long time isn't working as intended on default settings.

Thanks !
(and thanks for BoincTasks and Tthrottle : I do not even know how I would do without these cool tools)

Update :

I found the reason why Tthrottle stopped working on two different PCs, running different Windows versions :

My kids made me install a PC game called Valorant, which uses an online anticheat system called "Riot Vanguard".
This software uses kernel-based interruptions to detect cheating tools and considers any hardware monitoring program as "harmful" and disables them all.

I was reinstalling Tthrottle on the second PC when "Riot Vanguard" told me it has "disabled" the cpu temperature monitoring program...
There is no other way to get back monitoring functionnality than uninstalling "Riot Vanguard".

Some users report to have their USB peripherals (keyboards, mice) affected too.
It's incredible how some developpers are unrespectful. "My tool will disable your stuff and you won't be able to prevent this behavior"

Sure !
Thanks !

Yeah, I know. But Some files were locked and uninstaller couldn't get them... So...

I reinstalled Tthrottle on the Win10 PC.

I had some hard time to get rid of all files and had to manually delete the program's folder in "C:\Program Files".
That may be the reason why my frst reinstall try hadn't fix things (?)

Reinstall went smooth and voilà : temps are back in BoincTasks !

I just do not know what happened and why the initial Tthrottle got corrupted...

Thanks.

OK. Something definitely happened (this is the Win11 PC) :

Code Select Expand


Error: CreateFile Failed : 3
Error: CreateFile Failed : 3
25 January 2022 - 12:31:31 (L01) ERROR: Driver NOT installed properly25 January 2022 - 12:31:31 Program version: 7.72,64Bit
Microsoft Windows 8 Professional (build 9200), 64-bit
Language: User: 2057 (ENG), System: 1036 (FRA), Selected: 0 () Used: 1033 (ENU)

nvidia: found 1 logical devices
nvidia: found 1 physical devices
nvidia: Temperature 28 °C, max Temperature 127 °C

nvidia: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
Vendor ID: INTEL
HighestIntegerValue: 00000016 - Processor Signature: 000906EA
Misc. info: 00100800
Feature Flags1 7FFAFBFF
Feature Flags2 BFEBFBFF

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz                       
Processor: Family: 6h, Model: 9E, Stepping: A

Core Temperature: adjusted Tjunction to: 95 °C

TJunction using: 95  °C


BOINC:
wuprop.boinc-af.org
www.sidock.si_sidock
www.worldcommunitygrid.org


Surprisingly, I didn't touch anything on this PC and my son doesn't have administrative privileges, so he can't install/alter programs...
I'll reinstall Tthrottle and see what I can get from it.