Set specific times when BOINC is allowed to work

[Fardringle]

Because of a new job project I am starting that BOINC does not play nice with, I would like to change the way BOINC behaves on my main PC but I'm not quite sure how to do it other than manually starting/suspending the client.

What I would like to do is for most of the day allow BOINC to run even if the computer is in use, but from Noon to 5 PM only let it run if the computer is not being used. I know how to set one or the other, and the day-of-week override can let BOINC run during set times and days even if the preferences say not to, but I can't find a way to tell BOINC to NOT run during specific times. If the override field would allow two sets of times (0:00-12:00 and 17:00-23:59), that would work, but it only allows one time range per day.

Manually suspending BOINC at noon is easy, but I'd rather have an automatic option since I will probably frequently forget to turn it back on at 5 PM and miss out on a whole night of crunching.

 

[Ken g6]

I believe the override field wraps around the clock. So if you set the start time at 17:00 and end at 12:00, it should go all night that day and into the morning the next day.

You can also set up scheduled tasks to run "boinccmd". That gives you much more flexibility.

 

[Fardringle]

I'll try the "wrap around" time option to see if it actually works. I prefer to avoid using the task scheduler since killing the BOINC client that way seems to interfere with the way some projects do their checkpoints.

 

[Ken g6]

I prefer to avoid using the task scheduler since killing the BOINC client that way seems to interfere with the way some projects do their checkpoints.

You don't kill BOINC with Task Scheduler. You run boinccmd.exe with various arguments to control the BOINC client. For instance, "--set_run_mode auto" when you're working, or "--set_run_mode always" when you're not.

 

[Fardringle]

I've been experimenting and I think I figured it out. I set BOINC to run and use GPU while the computer is in use, which is what I want for the majority of the time.

Then I first tried using 17:00-12:00 in the day of week override fields but that actually made it so BOINC did NOT run during those times. That made me think that the override basically makes BOINC do the opposite of whatever is set in the normal preferences. So I set the override to 12:00-17:00 (the time when I do not want it to run) and that let BOINC run while the computer is in use outside of that time, and suspended it during the Noon to 5 PM time. Now that I tried it, I guess it seems logical but the BOINC Help/FAQ didn't really explain it that way, (at least, that's not how I read it).

 

[Fardringle]

OK, so after a week of watching how BOINC behaves (or misbehaves) using those settings, it seems that on some days it actually acted the way I want it to by suspending itself at the right times, and on other days it did not, so something is wrong either with the way I configured the settings, or with the way BOINC is interpreting them.

So in the end I went with a simple, and what should have been obvious, solution. I told BOINC it can run all of the time, but added one program that will always be running for this work project and will never be running at any other time as an exclusive application. That fixed it for me.

 

[Assimilator1]

Glad you got it sorted , weird about the erratic behaviour on the times though, did you find out why that was happening?