BoincTask restarting and crashing

[Mark Brown]

I have several computers being monitored/controlled.  BoincTask often restarts and usually crashes.  I am using .87
Anyone else having issues?

[jjwhalen]

I have several computers being monitored/controlled.  BoincTask often restarts and usually crashes.  I am using .87
Anyone else having issues?

Mark,

Fred Melgert, the developer/moderator is probably asleep right now, so I'll respond.  BoincTasks is a very complex application, getting more so all the time as features are added.  Crashes can be caused by a number of things, at least half of which are not BoincTasks' fault.

Firstly, you will want to make another post here listing your
- operating system including any Service Packs (e.g. WinVista SP2) of the localhost (machine BoincTasks is installed on)
- bit width (32 or 64 bit)
- version(s) of BOINC you are running on local and remote machines (latest 'official' version is 6.10.58)
Also say whether or not you are running Tthrottle, which can connect to BoincTasks to provide CPU/GPU temperature information.

Secondly, I would normally recommend you update BoincTasks from v0.87 to the latest Beta which is v0.91, but one individual reported that it was crashing for him.  So I won't, even though it is stable at my house..  Fred may want to give you access to another version, say v0.90, but that's up to him.

Thirdly, I recommend that you enable debug mode:
- Pull down menu Show>Show log
- At the bottom of the Logging dialog hit Clear, check "Enable debug mode", hit Ok
That will (maybe) log useful information about what's happening in your system.

Fourthly, every time BT crashes, it generates a dumpfile [BoincTasks_087_(date)_nn.dmp].  The exact location of this file depends on your operating system.  Fred may ask you to zip (they are quite large) and upload (FTP) one to him for analysis.

Lastly, the online User Manual (click here) may have information that will help you.

Best wishes.

[Mark Brown]

I am running BT on "HP Quad Desktop , 192.168.0.61" It is running Vista-64
"OnTimerDlg ---- Thread timeout, will restart." is one of the problems.  I will try to post the crash information if I can find it.

28 November 2010 - 19:57:22 OnTimerHistory ---- Thread timeout, will restart.
28 November 2010 - 19:57:43 BoincTasks version: 0.87
28 November 2010 - 19:57:43 Maximum number of computers: 60
28 November 2010 - 19:57:43 Computers ---- ASUS LAPTOP I7 , 192.168.0.57
28 November 2010 - 19:57:43 Computers ---- MEBCS-SERVER-1U , 192.168.0.55
28 November 2010 - 19:57:44 Computers ---- HP Quad Notebook , localhost
28 November 2010 - 19:57:44 Computers ---- HP Quad Desktop , 192.168.0.61
28 November 2010 - 19:57:44 Computers ---- IBM Thinkpad , 192.168.0.59
28 November 2010 - 19:57:44 Computers ---- Matrix , 192.168.0.252
28 November 2010 - 19:57:44 Computers ---- IBM600e , 192.168.0.63
28 November 2010 - 19:57:44 Computers ---- MARY-HP-S5120F , 192.168.0.65
28 November 2010 - 19:57:45 Computers ---- mebcs-dell-2300 , 192.168.0.66
28 November 2010 - 19:57:45 Computers ---- Office Web Server , 192.168.0.254
28 November 2010 - 19:57:45 Computers ---- mebcs-w7hp , 192.168.0.58
28 November 2010 - 19:57:45 Computers ---- HPzv6000 , 192.168.0.62
28 November 2010 - 19:57:45 Computers ---- MEBCS-SERVER-2 , 192.168.0.68
28 November 2010 - 19:57:45 Computers ---- mary-compac , 192.168.0.60
28 November 2010 - 19:57:46 Computers ---- MEBCS-SATELLITE , 192.168.0.70
28 November 2010 - 19:57:46 Computers ---- MEBCS-T1840 , 192.168.0.56
28 November 2010 - 19:57:46 Computers ---- ubuntu-mebcs , 192.168.0.53
28 November 2010 - 19:57:46 Computers ---- mebcs-jsb , 192.168.0.54
28 November 2010 - 19:57:46 Computers ---- PokerRoom , 192.168.0.51
28 November 2010 - 19:57:46 Computers ---- Toshiba-L675 , 192.168.0.64
28 November 2010 - 19:57:49 Connected ---- Host: localhost,HP Quad Notebook,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.56
28 November 2010 - 19:57:51 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.59,IBM Thinkpad,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.43
28 November 2010 - 19:57:51 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.68,MEBCS-SERVER-2,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.56
28 November 2010 - 19:57:51 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.252,Matrix,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.43
28 November 2010 - 19:57:52 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.55,MEBCS-SERVER-1U,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.17
28 November 2010 - 19:57:52 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.254,Office Web Server,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.6.37
28 November 2010 - 19:57:52 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.63,IBM600e,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.56
28 November 2010 - 19:57:52 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.57,ASUS LAPTOP I7,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.58
28 November 2010 - 19:57:52 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.62,HPzv6000,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.58
28 November 2010 - 19:57:53 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.70,MEBCS-SATELLITE,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.43
28 November 2010 - 19:57:53 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.58,mebcs-w7hp,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.56
28 November 2010 - 19:57:53 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.65,MARY-HP-S5120F,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.43
28 November 2010 - 19:57:53 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.61,HP Quad Desktop,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.58
28 November 2010 - 19:57:54 Connected ---- Host: 192.168.0.60,mary-compac,Port: 31416, BOINC Version: 6.10.58
28 November 2010 - 20:00:16 OnTimerDlg ---- Thread timeout, will restart.
28 November 2010 - 20:01:48 BoincTasks version: 0.87

[fred]

I am running BT on "HP Quad Desktop , 192.168.0.61" It is running Vista-64
"OnTimerDlg ---- Thread timeout, will restart." is one of the problems.  I will try to post the crash information if I can find it.

A timeout is normally means a communication problem with one of the computers.
The thread takes too long to respond.
When this happens BT tries to close down all threads and will try to restart them.
But sometimes something serious happens and BT crashes, because the tread can't be released properly.

What do you see:

1) A window that closes and opens again.
2) A complete crash. In this case the folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\eFMer\BoincTasks\crash should hold a dmp file.

One of the causes can be a bad connection or a dynamic IP address that changes in the middle of the communication.

Please try the latest version: http://www.efmer.eu/boinc/boinc_tasks/download_beta.html To see if the problem is still there.

[Mark Brown]

The problem has stopped.

I unchecked any computer that I know is currently not running.  This may  cut down the timeouts.

I turned off "Enable WWW Updates".  I'm not sure when it was enabled, but I never had copied the supporting files.  The log showed the files were not found.  It could be a failure combination when the option is enabled but the files don't exist.

I will repost if the failure returns.

[fred]

The problem has stopped.

I unchecked any computer that I know is currently not running.  This may  cut down the timeouts.

I turned off "Enable WWW Updates".  I'm not sure when it was enabled, but I never had copied the supporting files.  The log showed the files were not found.  It could be a failure combination when the option is enabled but the files don't exist.

I will repost if the failure returns.

"Enable WWW Updates" shouldn't do much as it can't find the files it need.
And the timeout is in one of the connection threads not the main program that handles the WWW thing.

I will add some more checking in the next version, so you can at least see what computer(s) caused the timeout.
And the timeout is pretty long, a couple of minutes.

[fred]

This problem should be solved in V 0.93