HELP! SETI@home performing an illegal operation in windows...

[Sunny129]

after running anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours...maybe even a day or two, a windows error message pops up saying the following:

This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, please contact the program vendor.

this is the very common error message received while running siftware applications. its symbol is the red circle with a white X in the middle. when i click on details, i ger the following info:

SETI@HOME caused an invalid page fault in
module SETI@HOME.EXE at 0177:0040cdb5.
Registers:
EAX=019adb80 CS=0177 EIP=0040cdb5 EFLGS=00010202
EBX=009e0418 SS=017f ESP=00bef4dc EBP=00000100
ECX=0004601a DS=017f ESI=00000080 FS=2f4f
EDX=00005806 ES=017f EDI=00000003 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
d9 44 88 04 d9 04 88 d9 1c 90 d9 5c 90 04 03 d6
Stack dump:
009e0408 00008000 019adb80 009853c0 009e043c
0000000d 00000040 0040caa5 0000001a 009e0408
3bbc917b 019cdb80 00f60040 00bef610 00004000
00407e03

i dont know what the code means, but i guess it becomes more specific as a page fault. does anyone else experience this error while running SETI? i've already tried reinstalling it. it seemed to fix the problem for a 24 hours, then it started up again. its happened twice since the reinstall. any suggestions?


EDIT, PS - i'm running the latest GUI version, not the CLI version.

 

[GhettoFob]

I'm no expert, but is your system overclocked? That might be from system instability. Maybe you could try the CLI version, it's much faster.

 

[Sunny129]

i do have the CLI version installed, but i dont dare run the two at the same time. as far as system instability goes, i've never had problems like that before. it is OCed quite a bit percentage wise (PIII 700E @ 1015MHz - 45% OC), but i can take it up to 1050MHz @ default Vcore w/ no stability problems even under full CPU load. well anyways, how much faster is the CLI? i've heard that b4, but never inquired about it. i guess i like the GUI b/c the graph gives a much better picture of the progress of the WU. but then again, who doesn't love that gorgeous interface? i guess i'll try the CLI and see if that doesn't crash. in the mean time, if anyone recognizes my problem, i'd appreciate advice...thanks, Eric.

 

[Sunny129]

also, is there a way to get the CLI version to start up as a system tray item when windows reboots or restarts? or must it be started manually everytime windows is restarted?

 

[toft-dk]

you could use SetiDriver to control the cli and then just put at shortcut of the SetiDriver.exe in the startup folder.
if you use it with SetiSpy also you get a lot of good stats on the wu's you do

The CLI client is Much faster somewhere between 10 to 50 % ( depending on how your GUI is setup )

try this link: Smokeball's guide to setup

SetiSpy 3.20 from author

 

[Ken g6]

...no stability problems even under full CPU load.

Not all full CPU loads are equal. For instance, a CPU cooler lists as full CPU load.

I'd suggest you try RC5 for a tougher stability test, or Prime95 for a more scrutinizing test (it double-checks its math.)

If RC5 doesn't make your system crash, your problem might be with the memory, as SETI makes a lot of main memory calls. Prime95 ought to detect that.

 

[Sunny129]

ok i've been running SETI CLI all night long and no crashes yet. i've heard all about Prime95 torture tests, so i'm going to DL and run that for 24 hrs or so, but so far w/ SETI CLI there are no signs of system instability. i'll get back to you soon w/ the Prime95 results.

 

[Assimilator1]

If the GUI version has been setup optimially (blank screen/minimised) then the CLi is still about 25% faster

No idea about the GUI problem ,if the CLi runs ok then its unlikely to be memory.
Running the GUI & CLi side by side would be pointless ,you'd double your WU times!

 

[Sunny129]

well i dont think its a memory problem either. yet its still interesting that i only get the error while using the GUI and not the CLI. anyways, i've been running Prime95, but the torture test isn't an option right now. it seems that prime95 has to run some tests first? i'm not sure exactly what its doing...maybe its a first time user test or something. anyways, the first thing it did was some sort of self test, but it kept failing on the 4th Lucas-Lehmer iteration (i tried it 3 times), so i rebooted and upped the Vcore to 1.75v. now it finished the self test and has moved on to P-1 Factoring and is 2.13% done, so it will be a while before i'll get to see what it'll do next. i was kind of under the impression that prime95 just crunched numbers under the same process just like SETI@home. does it ever do that? is what i'm seeing right now really only an initialization process? or is prime95 going through a number of different tests a normal part of the software?

EDIT, by the way, why can't i select the torture test?

at the rate the P-1 Factoring is running, it should be 100% complete in just under 24 hrs.

 

[Sunny129]

well i accidentally closed prime95 after about 4 hours of flawless computing. unfortunately i had to find out the hard way that the P-1 Factoring starts all over when the program is closed and reopened. i was under the impression that if i stopeed the work before i closed the program, i would be able to continue the work after reopening. but i guess you can only stop work and continue it w/out and not lose data only if you dont close the program. anyways, i figured that since it ran rock solid through 4 hrs of P-1 Factor calculations rock solid, and since i accidentally shut it down, i thought i would try SETI GUI again to see if i get the error. so i'll give it some time, and hopefully i'll i needed was the 0.05v Vcore increase.

 

[Sunny129]

ok SETI@home GUI has been running just over 12 hours now without any crashes. seems like the increase in Vcore fixed the problem. interesting though that the CLI wasnt crashing either, even if the interface is the difference between the two, b/c essentially they complete the same tasks and crunch numbers the same way...who knows? well my problem is fixed for now, and i'll probably start using the CLI if i can get it to run non-stop and start up w/ windows whenever i reboot. i'll have to check out those links above and see if i cant figure it out...thanks for the help everyone, Eric.

 

[Assimilator1]

Maybe the GUI's graphics adds additional load to the system?

To run SETI CLi from bootup just put a shortcut to it in the startup folder