seti & winxp screensaver

[amdxborg]

On some of my windowsXP boxes, whenever SETI is running and the screensaver comes on, the pcs hang. This happends to all the windows screensavers except the seti one. The priority of seti is set to low. I'm running SETI ver 3.08. Hope someone can help me...

 

[Confused]

You may wish to try out the new version of SetiDriver and select the Force Idle Only setting

Hang on...it sounds like you are using the GUI (screensaver) version of Seti...that is very slow! And if you are wanting another screensaver (and therefore won't be looking at the graphics - which is good!) then you will be best suited with the CLI!

Clicky here and follow the instructions to set up the CLI along with SetiDriver (but use the SetiDriver linked in the post I linked above), after uninstalling the Seti@home screensaver of course

You will find that your CPU time per Work Unit will drop quite dramatically when using the CLI/SetiDriver, plus you will have the ability to cache Work Units, for when your internet connection dies, or when Seti@home's internet connection dies (which it has in the past!!), so you can keep on crunching


If you need any help setting anything up, please feel free to ask, and someone will be around to help you set up


Garry

 

[BlackMountainCow]

I once (upon a time long ago) used the screensaver of SETI as well and it brought me nothing but trouble and hangers ... then I switched to the CLI ... and all was perfect: no more hangs, no bugs and most important: way shorter WU times!!

I can only recommend u to give the CLI a try!

 

[SlyNine]

CLI cut my times by 1/3

 

[amdxborg]

Thanx for all the advice, I've never considered using the CLI, but if it's as great as you say, I'll give it a try as soon as possible. I'm using SETI Queue, can I keep using it or do I use SETI Driver or are they two different things. Any advice would be appreciated!!!

 

[Confused]

Are you using a public SetiQueue or a local one (ie you've set it up on your own machine)?

If it's public...then using SetiDriver's caching abilities will help you in case your own internet connection goes out (There is no reason NOT to use both, you can never have enough Work Units stored up )

SetiDriver is a nice app for handling the Seti CLI, and can be used to put an icon for the CLI in the system tray, and not on your task bar (which is nice! )

And yes...the CLI is much better than the GUI!! It's about 25% faster than the GUI when the GUI is optomised (never show graphics/blank screen after 1 minute etc), and up to about 70% faster if the GUI isn't optomised!


Garry

 

[Assimilator1]

amdxborg
All angles pretty much covered already ,but if your using your own SETIQ you can reduce the amount of WUs stored in SETIDriver to a minimium.1 weeks worth should be enough in total.
Btw as you did for the GUI version you'll need to put in the proxy(SETIQ) add in the host line for SETIDriver

 

[amdxborg]

Well dudes you were serious when you said this CLI baby is fast!!!
For my test I used the benchmark wu from http://www.teamlambchop.com/bench/benchfile.htm .
On my AMD 2600 with Win2k it took the SETI GUI 3 hr 41 min to finish the wu, with the SETI CLI it only took 2 hr 36 min!!! That's more than an hour faster...So thanx to everyone for ur advice!!!
About SETI Queue, I've left it on my one pc and now the SetiDriver on the other pcs gets the wu from the SETI Queue, so everything is working great!!!

Thanx again...

 

[Ionizer86]

amdxborg, that's cool the way you have stuff setup We have 3 PCs networked too, and everything is setup nicely like that!

 

[amdxborg]

Thanx Ionizer86, what can I say, great minds think alike...
It's cool this way so you have a few backup plans if something goes wrong, and in time something will...
Enjoy it!

 

[Smoke]

BTW, the linked SetiDriver.zip in the "Step-by-Step Instruction" (link in my sig-line) is the new version 1.6.4.1 ... just updated it.

 

[amdxborg]

Well I've changed most of my pc's from 3.08 gui to 3.03 cli and the wu times are looking much better!!! The screensaver issue in xp is also fixed with this change in clients when the Force Idle Only setting is enabled.

Thanx everybody!!!