Posted on 01/03/2006 7:46:46 PM PST by Klutz Dohanger
Welcome to the folding at home thread. The previous thread has gotten too large, so we move on to yet another.
While this folding@home team is not officially sanctioned by Free Republic, it's members, or it's founders, it is comprised primarily of Free Republic members in good standing, who have banded together, to donate their excess CPU cycles to a worthy cause. Via Distributed computing, millions of computers around the world, contribute directly to scientific research, in the quest for a greater understanding of diseases such as Alzheimers, Cancer, and Mad Cow (BSE).
Currently, the team is in 777th place, having moved up from 1200th place, a week earlier, and is now in the top 100 teams, for daily contributions.
This is an entirely voluntary program, and if you want to learn more, links are provided to the program, or it is easily googled by "folding@home".
I'm working today to add one more desktop (another m/b sitting on the desk w/o a box around it) to the effort - had to go buy a power cable extention.
If I can find detailed instructions, I'll do it. (Gulp, does that mean I nead to download or burn a linux CD again? That took me 8 days to configure last time, and I can't say it was a lot of fun.)?
Thanks. I tried. No go. I'll just have to see it when it's finished.
I don't mind trying to help a little... but I need to know more than "no go". What couldn't you find?
I don't know how to find Windows Explorer, so I just clicked on the links to F@H and tried to find out by clicking on my name everywhere possible hopping I would stumble over what I was looking for. That's usually how I find what I'm looking for, by pure chance. My computer skills wouldn't fill a thimble.
I'm looking for how long before this 8th work unit is finished. By reading others post, they can determine how long it will take their unit to finish downloading.
I understand... are you running the console normally or did you let someone talk you into installing it as a service?
Pentium II or III of around 500 MHZ [this is the most important component for getting a good points/kWh ratio].
128MB RAM. [256 to run the 600 point WUs efficiently]
Just about any Video card or onboard video chip.
Network card [or onboard NIC]
Power supply compatible with m/b
2 to 3 GIG HD
Win98SE [W2k if you dislike rebooting and having to save big WU directories at various points along the way so the whole thing never gets wipped out by a crash/reboot]
m/b compatible with above [generally one starts with a m/b one already has - kinda like Armies and Wars ;-)]
Home network with internet sharing so the additional computer can just have the NIC jacked in to get to the 'net.
Oh ya, I assumed a KVM switch or at least a mechanical video VGA switch to be able to use one monitor with two or more computers without have to turn anything off to check on what's going on.
... I was at 102 frames. I woke up this morning to see my 8th unit posted and my computer was OFF. I almost fainted. I called out the Lord's name a couple of times when I saw that. After the panic left I just hit the red cog, I think, I was so upset I don't know what I did. Anyhow, It started back on no. 134 frame. ...
Did something change in your setup to where you now cannot see what frame you're on?
we have serious problems with our electric co. The power is always going off. I was well over half of my 6th work unit when our lights went out. When I started back folding, I started it as 'service' that way, when our electic goes out again, I won't lose the unit it's working on. It will start back where it left off. Which proved to be the right decision because my computer cut off the other night. The same night others here lost what they were working on.
I'm on frame 371 now. I was wondering how many frames are in the work unit I'm doing now. I'm still working on my 8th unit, and it's been a couple of days now, almost three.
The good news is that Apple power supply components are usually good quality (in the past anyway) and would take the abuse.
The bad news is that more and more components are now mfg'd in China and are really on the edge.
The systems I cared for professionally were only turned off when we had to get our fingers inside. Otherwise they ran 24/7.
Good grief.
That reminds me of Jay Leno's parents', leaving the remote on top of the TV and returning to their chair without it.
A wild guess is 400.
All of the versions, even the GUI, will restart where they left off; you don't need to run as a 'service' to get that capability. They all write checkpoint information to the hard drive at certain intervals. For example, if it checkpoints every 30 minutes, after a computer crash you should never lose more than 30 minutes of work once the computer is restarted.
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?s=664e4cb524fed3738b269ccf34753f4a&t=203568
Check out this thread on cheap systems. The upside is I have two Fry's near my house and they call my name. The downside is Mrs Drango and lack of space to have all the parts laying around. Plus the fact that I sometimes start a project and never finish, which is what would happen if I had any trouble with a Linux install.
I'll up that guess to 500, that seems to be a common number. Right now I've got machines working on 3750(1), 500(2), and 25(1) frame WUs. Given how long you've been running 500 might be a safe bet.
No need for a KVM or switch. Just set BIOS to halt on none (errors), and run it headless. You can monitor progress by installing one of the two monitoring programs listed in post 2 or 3.
I've tried various methods, but find that KVM is the easiest for locally located machines. VNC (and a phone) worked for the kids' computers at college. I have hardware set up to attach to 13 machines from one head. Works for me.
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