Are Pentium 3's (Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU 1000MHz) or possibly Windows 2000 not compatible here? The laptop only has 256MB of ram. Clean install of Win2k, Clamwin anti-virus, Malwarebytes, FireFox, and BOINC are the only things on it.

Host ID: http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/show_host_detail.php?hostid=22699

It seems to not be able to start any of its tasks.


WCG has successfully crunched HCC and HPF2
WUProp is successful

---

It seems that the BOINC doesn't have rights to run the app. Is it installed to run as service? If so than change BOINC service to run as local.

ok... I updated from 7.0.62 to 7.0.64 and installed as a local user. I will let you know if the trouble continues.

---

<core_client_version>7.0.64</core_client_version>
<![CDATA[
<message>
couldn't start app: CreateProcess() failed - (unknown error)
</message>
]]>

This is after upgrading clients and also installing to run as user instead of a service. Again, it works fine for WUProp and WCG. It doesn't work for CPDN but that is a known incompatibility anyways.

---

If it was problem with access rights, there should be an error in the windows security event log (presuming auditing is not completely switched off) can you check there if there is something? also check please other event logs if there isn't some message, when BOINC tries to start task.. (unknown error) isn't much helpfull ;)

But if it is able to start tasks from other project, it probably isn't the case...

seeing the pentium 3, it is pretty old machine... and pretty rare together with windows nowdays. so i just got one thought...

kyong, is it possible that you built the windows application with SSE2 enabled??

pentium 3 is only SSE capable

If it was problem with access rights, there should be an error in the windows security event log (presuming auditing is not completely switched off) can you check there if there is something? also check please other event logs if there isn't some message, when BOINC tries to start task.. (unknown error) isn't much helpfull ;)

But if it is able to start tasks from other project, it probably isn't the case...

seeing the pentium 3, it is pretty old machine... and pretty rare together with windows nowdays. so i just got one thought...

kyong, is it possible that you built the windows application with SSE2 enabled??

pentium 3 is only SSE capable

The SSE2 was one of the reasons I was asking if it was a compatibility issue. That is one reason why CPDN fails on the P3's. Since we don't have a minimum requirements page/listing, I couldn't just make a quick reference. I am however going to attach another laptop with the same specs except more ram and Win XP to see if it has the same result when I get home. (These laptops will most likely be given to needy families or students. I use BOINC to stress test the hardware and then ask if they are willing to leave it on there.)

---

I am sorry, I now realized that windows version shouldn't be compatible, compatible is linux version, but I think that I compiled windows version with SSE2 enabled.

Well same model laptop with more ram, Win XP, and a 1200MHz processor (still P3) has completed a work unit and waiting for validation. It was using BOINC 7.0.62 and is installed as a service.

http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/show_host_detail.php?hostid=23499

---

BOINC doesn't support windows 2000 these days. I think you'd need to go back to a 5.x version to get one that would work with it. Also I think Win XP introduced support for the extra instructions. It was something about saving the extra registers that SSE used.

Can you upgrade the 1Ghz laptop to XP? I presume it's running Win 2000 because of the smaller memory footprint. If it has enough memory maybe you can run Asteroids on it.

Lastly have you run CPU-Z on both. It's possible Intel added the extra instruction sets as the chips got faster.

---

BOINC blog

MarkJ, I will check when I get a free moment with CPU-Z. As far as I have read, SSE2 wasn't introduced until the P4 architecture. Upgrading to XP is not an option since the service packs cripple it due to low RAM. Yes that is why Win 2k was put on it. As you suggested, I may have to try older clients. I will start with 6.10.58 and then go back from there.

Edit: Checked CPU-Z and the instruction sets are MMX, SSE. They are identical except for clock speed. And according to the BOINC download page, 2000 is still supported by the 7.x.x series. However, I will install the previous generations just to eliminate possibilities.

---

6.6.32 also fails.
610.60 failed to download. Said: 4/25/2013 4:00:13 PM Asteroids@home Giving up on download of input_5016_62: file not found

So, I went back to 7.0.64. I have no intentions in running a version 5 client. I have turned off AV and AM programs, but that doesn't seem to help. Maybe I will experiment more later.

---

6.6.32 also fails.
610.60 failed to download. Said: 4/25/2013 4:00:13 PM Asteroids@home Giving up on download of input_5016_62: file not found

So, I went back to 7.0.64. I have no intentions in running a version 5 client. I have turned off AV and AM programs, but that doesn't seem to help. Maybe I will experiment more later.

The giving up on downloads is a server side problem. It's not a client issue. We have another message thread going about them. I had a bunch yesterday using 7.0.64 and Kyong is aware of them.

Maybe Kyong could compile a version with only SSE, but I guess the number of machines that don't support SSE2 are few now and it may not justify the time and effort.

---

BOINC blog

Well...I'm thinking it has to be the computer. I went ahead and attached to more projects. So far, QCN and Rosetta have both also failed. So, I think it is just a matter of finding what projects do work. I would like at least a second project for this thing in case WCG goes down. The reason I think it is the PC is because the other P3 is running the work units OK. I can't do anything about the difference in OS's and such. But, thanks for the help.

---