Attention: Possible Shortage of Tinkers

[Leonardo]

Folding@Home on computer No. 2 in my signature (Barton XP 2800+) had been idle going on nearly 24 hours. I checked the log - last completed unit was uploaded, but new work units had not been downloaded. I manually turned off Folding and restarted it several times. Communication with the Stanford server was in order. The server in question is/was 171.64.122.133. A bit of Internet searching shows that many people have been having problems getting Tinkers assigned after completing work units, not just on server ~133 but with a couple other servers as well. This problem apparently is ongoing. In a thread at the Folding Forums it was recommended to change the configuration for the client to accept "standard" work units. I made that change, restarted the client, and presto, instantly received a work unit. The machine is now crunching a GBGromacs, 264, p2095_Protein. EMIII's calculator shows the client to producing at 160 points per day. Excellent! (wondering if the Calculator is wrong) This is the first time my AMD rig has worked on a GBGromacs.

[QCH]

Yes... Leo is correct. As both of us are on the Team #93 Committee, please check you SMx rigs. Many of our rigs are running the Tinkers and you should make sure they are running. If they are sitting idle, switch to normal work units.

-Q

[fatcat]

switched to normal units and still doesnt recieve any work from server...

edit> switched from allow 5mb units to no and it got a work unit now

[QCH]

Cool... Thanks Fatcat6!!!!

[FoldingAddict]

I noticed this too. I was in the process of putting together a 1.8Ghz P4 that I was going to stick in a closet and forget about, but when I tried to get a batch of timeless units it barfed. I hope they start sending them out again soon. I can't batch work SM25 if it has to do Gromacs either. :(

~FA

[Leonardo]

I can't batch work SM25 if it has to do Gromacs either. Don't be so sure! Gromacs, yeah, not too exciting, but I checked No. 2 just now and confirmed. It is indeed processing that 2095 GBGromacs at 160PPD! That's just as good or better than any Tinker it's processed before.

Guys, please get the word out about the current Tinker shortage. People need to change their configurations for the clients to accept "standard" work units.

[Sledgehammer70]

I have 6 systems with no work.... my CPU count is dropping it has been so long :(

[Leonardo]

Shut down all the effected clients, open each config file, or open each client in config only mode, and change the work unit setting to "standard."

[Donut]

I'm very sorry folks, I had started having problems with tinkers about 1-1/2 wks ago. I posted in this thread.http://short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47812

(hangs head in shame) I should have brought the news in a new thread. I just didn't think the issue would be ongoing. :sad2:

Thank you Leonardo.

FWIW, I got a PMD core, haven't seen those in 8 or 9 mos.:wtf:

[FoldingAddict]

Hmm come to think of it I have a few CPUs that are set for timeless units that I don't have access to anymore. I guess I'm minus a couple of procs for now. :(

~FA

[Sledgehammer70]

still having issues.. my CPU count is dropping fast :(

[profdlp]

From the FAH Support Forum: (http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtopic.php?t=15567)

We are aware of this issue. We urge you to not choose timeless WU's unless you really need them, as we expect shortages from time to time. Only a small fraction of FAH science can be done with timeless WUs.

_________________
Professor Vijay S. Pande, PhD

Bottom line, despite the fact that AMD computers do far better with the timeless Tinkers, for the good of the project as a whole it would be better to not opt for the deadlineless WU's unless your computer is too slow (as in under 500MHz) to finish anything else.

If you read through the thread you'll see that running out of Tinkers is going to keep happening. Over the long haul you'll do better by getting consistent work with the slower WU's than you would with the on-again-off-again deadlineless ones.

Fold On! :fold:

[FoldingAddict]

True that Prof. But timeless work units provided the very useful feature of being able to setup 10 units in a batch on a no internet computer. That was really useful. Now I guess I'll have to setup multiple instances of F@H so the machine will stay active for longer than 2 days before needing an internet connection. Same with SM25.

~FA

[GHoosdum]

If I have interpreted things correctly, isn't the poor performance of AMD on gromacs due purely to licensing issues, rather than the architecture differences? If that's true, it's a sad shame - and the project as a whole could be doing a lot better...

[profdlp]

That's correct, GHoosdum, they are not allowed to optimize the core for AMD machines. It surely is a shame. :-/

[Hawk]

I have one pc with 2 WU's in Queue and another with 1 in queue for a few days now.
They are going on and working on other units, but these 3 in queue aren't going through. Bummer. I set all my pc's for standard a while back because of this problem, but I'm still getting tinkers too. Restarted the offending pc's with no results--- just tries to send them and they don't go.

[Sledgehammer70]

From the looks of it F@H has been having issues and down time. If you look at all the teams across the board it looks like F@H was down for the day yesterday. I mean come on I got 229 points for the day...

[profdlp]

Stanford re-jiggered their stats servers yesterday (which is why our sigs are down right now, too). Look for the stats to get sorted out over the next day or so.

They also have some Tinker servers down. Hopefully the WU's in your queue will eventually be able to get turned in. For now, Tinkers are a bad idea; the word is that they are going to be sporadic for a while at best, and will likely eventually disappear altogether. :sawed:

[Leonardo]

Good news. My XP2800+ has been receiving GBGromacs. That machine is not overclocked and is cranking at 160PPD! I don't recall it ever producing that nicely with Tinkers. Blessing in disguise?

Also, my Intel machines haven't been getting a lot of high pointers they were for a while. Seems most of the work units for the last month have been garden variety Gromacs with a few GBGromacs tossed in.

I need to analyse it a bit more, but it looks like the Athlon XP2800 folds GBGromacs faster than my D820 cores clocked at 3700MHz. I'll take a look again when I get home this evening and post if this is incorrect.

[Hawk]

Yaaa, All my queued tinkers were sent through. The server must be back up!!!
Yaaaaa again! Man, I got a good boost on all the turned in WU's.
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/3304/foldingic3.jpg

[profdlp]

Nice, Hawk! :D

[Hawk]

Thnx prof, Yippeee again.
Hehehe, We (wife & I) needed something good today.
Hearts been a little heavy lately, work slowing, wifes grammy passed away this last week. They were very close.

[profdlp]

Sorry to hear that, Hawk. :(

[Hawk]

Thnx prof,
We knew this was coming because of her age- 94.
It was quite quick. She was only in the hospital for a week and pased in her sleep.
No suffering and she was coherent until the last.
She was surrounded by loved ones.
Hope when I go it will be that quick and painless.
Sorry about the thread hijack.

[csimon]

Not to hijack or anything but ...if you've ever been curious about the carious f@h cores here are some good basic descriptions.

http://fahwiki.net/index.php/Cores

[Hawk]

Great site csimon! Thnx very much.
They've got lots of info on the cores and a bunch of good links for all kinds of folding info.
I'm saving that one. Good for helping people get an understanding of what the diff cores are. :thumbup
I've got all amber & tinker cores at the moment.

[profdlp]

Great link, csimon. :thumbsup: :csimon:

[csimon]

Maybe we should include it in the sticky "Everything about F@H ..." thread and/or "New to the team?" threads?

[profdlp]

Definitely. I keep saying that I'm going to reorganize those threads, here's another good reason for me to get on the stick. :D

[GHoosdum]

I just switched my wife's PC over to no-pref yesterday. It had been sitting idle, now it's crunching on a gromac.

[csimon]

I just switched sm30 over. I've also installed a usb cable to the modem and I'm hoping I can make a connection to both systems.

[CB]

I'll go switch SM28 away from timeless units... It seems it has also been idle.

[csimon]

I ended up with a 120 pt p775 gromac ...should take a while to crunch. I suppose it will sit idle all next week though since I'll be out of town.

[Crypto]

been away on holiday for a week and just spotted this thread.

When I came in last night I just glanced at EMIII and it was green so didn't bother to check further. Now I find I've been idle on three machines, including SM7, for several days.

I'll get them switched over when I get home from work this evening. :fold:

[QCH]

SM19 is trying out a Gromac... it has been for several days. Not sure what protein...