Crunching hardware for Einstein

[Dirk Broer]

Take out all cards, and use only one stick of memory. BIOS still has to beep.
The beep you will get now is that there is no video output (duh).
Power down, install an old PCI card and try to reboot. If it works, power down and install full memory.
Try again. If it works, power down and re-install your AGP or PCIe card.

If it goes wrong in step one you may have had a power surge and the PSU may have died. Also watch for blown caps on the mobo.

[Steve Lux]

Pulled, cleaned and re-seated my GTX-580 (GF110 rev A1) video card and my system started back up again. Downloaded and installed GPU-Z 0.5.8 and DebugDiag 1.2. It's not an over-temp issue (60C with GPU running Einstein while 48% loaded and the fan is only running at 30%). The card is pulling just under 30 amps from the .994VDDC bus so my 750W power supply is more than sufficient and it's putting out a very stable 12.11 vdc.

Did see one error twice though, didn't record it, but it indicated a video driver error. I'm using driver nvlddmkm 8.17.12.8562 which is the newest driver and BIOS version 70.10.17.00.01 which seems to be the correct version. Running fairly stable, but my system reset again today while I was at work. Whichever utility reported the events didn't record them, so something isn't set up right.

Also ran Norton and PC Doctor utilities - no issues found.

[Steve Lux]

Found out that my BIOS was overheating - even after cleaning. The heat pipes and the aluminum fins on top of the BIOS stay hot. My system is not overclocked. So, I got my system running again by sticking a fan right over my BIOS chip. However, now I can't seem to get GPU work:

4/4/2012 8:43:01 PM Einstein@Home Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
4/4/2012 8:43:01 PM Einstein@Home Requesting new tasks for GPU
4/4/2012 8:43:06 PM Einstein@Home Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
4/4/2012 8:43:06 PM Einstein@Home Message from server: No work sent
4/4/2012 8:43:06 PM Einstein@Home Message from server: see scheduler log messages on http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu//host_s...s/2326/2326176


So, for now it's just CPU work only.

[Dirk Broer]

That Einstein message I get on my systems as well, has nothing to do with overheating chips!
It's a very dumb-ass way of saying "Sorry, we've ran out of GPU work and your settings do not allow for CPU work"

But seriously, heat-pipes and aluminium fins, that sounds to me like the cooling of either CPU or GPU.
BIOS chips are small and black and sit somewhere on your mobo, without heatpipes and fins -at least on my mobos-.

Or you mean the BIOS on your video card
Can you point it out for me? And if it turns out to be the big chip saying '580', that is your GF110, then it's the Videocard cooler that is not up to its task. Consider buying an aftermarket cooler like this one :

[Steve Lux]

The chip is on the motherboard. Looks like you have the same brand GTX580 video card that I have - at least the fan package looks the same. I suspected the video card initially, as this problem started not long after I installed it. But then I installed the power supply at the same time so to me it could have been either. The problem didn't become a real issue as long as my house was cold during the winter. (I live alone so 55F is just fine to me and I leave the heat off when I'm not home.) Things really became an issue as the house heated up in spring-time.

To diagnose the issue I basically let the system run until it shut down and stuck my fingers in there to find out what was hot. I put a fan on it and have been running stable now for several days.

If my eldest son ever gets fully employed he can start paying his college bill and I can start investing in my systems again. Until that point I'll just have to try to patch stuff up to keep it running.

[Dirk Broer]

Sure it is the BIOS chip overheating? When I google on it I get hits for overheating Northbridges...
Northbridges tend -on more expensive mobo's- to be equipped with fins and/or coolers, but I've never seen a cooled BIOS chip yet.

What mobo is it, and what BIOS version is it running?
Have you ever looked on the site of you mobo manufacturer and looked for a more recent BIOS?
Maybe your BIOS version is known to have temperature issues and can be flashed into one with more decent behaviour.
A bit farfetched, but you won't know if you haven't looked for it.

If it is the dual-cpu capable G34 board, have you enabled 2 cpu's while actually having installed just one?
Have you placed memory in the lanes for the unused cpu?
Does the Northbridge (or BIOS) chip also overheat using an old PCI video card?
It just might be that a stressed-out GTX 580 running Einstein is more than your Northbridge can handle.
Try running Seti@home for a time and look whether this causes a crash as well.
If crashes only occur doing BOINC GPU work then there is something wrong with the system.
Not enough cooling -obvious, as there was no problem during winter-,
not enough memory/wrongly placed memory ?,
not enough CPUs (if two are enabled) ?
PSU can't handle it if temperature gets too high? (You do have a 600+ Watt PSU I hope? Minimum that nVidia reccommends)

[Steve Lux]

After some financial issues I finally got my big 8-core Ubuntu system back up and running again after getting a 1475W PS. Had it running a few days just on the CPU. Started up my GTX-580 card today. This thing just runs on a 100G SSD. It's a no-frills cruncher system. Eventually I plan to put the second CPU on the M-board and install a second CPU. I don't know if SLI will benefit Einstein or slow it down.

I want to try to get my main user home 4-core Windows system back to running soon, but still need to do some more troubleshooting. Need to verify the 750W power supply, but I know I'll need a new motherboard. I bought a GTX-670 for it to run after I get it up and going.

Additionally my son has put a few systems into Einstein also crediting my account. We should start seeing some better progress on this project.

[vaughan]

Steve: re the query for an SSD I have bought a couple of these in the 120GB size for around the AUD190 mark and they seem pretty quick and reliable (touch wood).

http://www.intel.com.au/content/www/...html?wapkw=ssd

[Dirk Broer]

Speaking about Einstein: You know you can set your GPUs at work through the preferences under 'Your Account'? It says:
"GPU utilization factor of BRP apps DANGEROUS! Only touch this if you are absolutely sure of what you are doing! Wrong setting might even damage your computer! Use solely on your own risk! Min: 0.0 / Max: 1.0 / Default: 1.0"
So I set it to 0.5, and as result that my F1A75 Llano system is doing four Einsteins at a time, using my HD 6670 and my HD 6550D (read: my A8-3870K), who are in CrossfireX forming a HD 6690D2. If SLI works the same you need not fear any performance loss!
The HD 6530D -the GPU part of my A6-3500- even went from processing one Einstein WU in 12 hours (tragic) to processing two Einstein WUs in six hours (good!)

[gamer007]

I haven't really played around with that option. My 7870 crunches a WU in about 40-45mins. I should see how 2 at once goes.