If I click on the "Show Graphics" button after selecting either of my running Rosetta tasks, I get a window with a black background and nothing at all inside. If I try to close that window, I receive an error message from Windows XP SP3 that "This program is not responding." When I select the "End Now" button, I am asked to send an error report to Microsoft. Everything else seems to continue running normally. Is this a known problem?

deesy

It usually takes a few seconds for the graphics to show... but I don't remember ever seeing a not responding message whenever I close the graphics before they show.

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If I click on the "Show Graphics" button after selecting either of my running Rosetta tasks, I get a window with a black background and nothing at all inside. If I try to close that window, I receive an error message from Windows XP SP3 that "This program is not responding." When I select the "End Now" button, I am asked to send an error report to Microsoft. Everything else seems to continue running normally. Is this a known problem?

deesy

The screensaver or graphics in Rosetta is malfunctioning and has been for many months. (I complained about this bug over 300 days ago). Apparently they're not too concerned about fixing this as it comes up in complaint form on the forums every so often without any resolution. I stop back in about every month to run a work unit to see if it's fixed. It's still not after many months.

I've seen it happen in Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 both 32-bit and 64-bit. I've had it malfunction in all 3 of my PCs and using either NVidia or ATI video cards. It does it in all versions of the BOINC Manager software. It's a bug in the Rosetta applications.

It seems to be worse on certain types of workunits but I've never had it work all the way through on any of them. It will run for a while and look great. (One of the coolest looking screensavers on BOINC). Then at a different point in each work unit it will just die.

If you are using the "Show Graphics" button when it croaks, the window will give a "not responding" message if you try to close it.

If you are using the screen saver with multiple projects after it dies, it will show a blank screen or quickly switch to another project's screensaver.

It generally won't kill your work in progress but you won't get any more Rosetta graphics from this WU.

I too would like to see this fixed but gave up months ago as complaints about it not working are met by the usual powercrunchers commenting about "just don't run it...screensavers are bad". It never gets fixed by the Rosetta folks.

If you want a project that has a great screensaver, does work with protein docking, always has workunits available, pays credit pretty well and seldom has outages... I highly recommend Docking@Home. The screensaver function here is too buggy to run frequently.

I've seen it happen in Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 both 32-bit and 64-bit. I've had it malfunction in all 3 of my PCs and using either NVidia or ATI video cards. It does it in all versions of the BOINC Manager software. It's a bug in the Rosetta applications.

It works here on W7 and Vista 64-bit and I have it working elsewhere on XP & Vista 32-bit, so what you've written is false.

I have seen it happen in isolated cases, but unless you (or I) can say something reproducable or you can discover what it is about your machines that's making it go wrong for you, while it works merrily for others, it will remain unsolved. Simply saying "it doesn't work" doesn't cut it.

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I'm not the only one who has this happen all the time only at Rosetta. Others have complained about this on the forums over the last year or so and generally got the same "it's your fault not Rosetta's" or "Why are you using the screensaver..Stop wasting valuable processing time" type of remarks.

Sid: Are you saying you've let the screensaver run all the way through the different types of Rosetta workunits without it going blank? You obviously see that two people just in this post alone have the same issue and yet you discount it as what's wrong with our machines. Do you have some reasoning as why this is happening to others PCs (clearly not on yours)? Yes if it doesn't happen on yours the other claims must be false?

Do a Google search on Rosetta's screensaver and you'll see others that had this problem going back almost a year and finally gave up. I generally don't post here as I'm admittedly not a regular to Rosetta. But I just didn't want this person with the same or very similar issues I and others have had to waste their time doing troubleshooting that amounted to a problem that only exists when using Rosetta's SS.

I admit Rosetta's screensaver is one of the coolest looking on BOINC but it clearly has problems (for I guess only some people since at least one person says it works fine). Since the amount of credit given is ranked 47th of the 49 credit active projects (listed by BOINC Stats) its not worth doing it for the credits, only the science. And with a non-working SS, I and others have chose other projects. This worthy science project has kept me coming back wanting to participate, but I want an active working SS for my projects I choose. So, I come back occassionally to run a workunit in hopes it works and find it still doesn't work. (Just did yesterday and saw the post and so replied.) Every other project I chose to work with has screensavers that run fine on these 3 PCs. ITS NOT A PROBLEM WITH A PATICULAR PC. I'm obviously not the only one who has experienced this.

On my side, it's on 3 very different computers with different operating systems, with completely different software packages installed and 3 different graphics cards. It does it on every single version of BOINC I've tried with Rosetta. Maybe it's only on a paticular Rosetta type of WU but I frankly don't want to go through the many hours necessary to wait to get all the types run through to test if only certain ones do it.

Two of my three systems (about 6 months or so ago) were wiped clean to test the problem without extra software... Windows XP installed in the older Pentium with an ATI X1550 graphics card, and Windows 7 installed on the AMD quad with an NVidia 9800GT. Then just BOINC and Rosetta installed. They still don't run through more than about 25-50% of the workunit without the symptoms listed in my last post. The workunits do finish processing, just without the SS or Show Graphics working.

I also have a friend with two PCs, who wanted to Run Rosetta a few months ago. One is his laptop running Vista and one desktop running XP SP3. It does it on his too. He later replaced Vista with Windows 7 on his laptop and it still has problems with Rosetta's SS. He gave up after being bullied on this forum by some powercrunchers that "he shouldn't be wasting his time with a screensaver". He now does other projects instead. My old, retired work PC (XP SP2) is running BOINC at night and it does it too when I have occassionally tried a Rosetta WU again.

Hence the determination it's a problem in Rosetta's code since no one else's PC I've spoke with fails like this with other projects.

How many people have to say something before this gets treated as a valid report of the problem rather than passed off as "something wrong with your machines"? Maybe it is problem with a paticular Rosetta SS app vs a something else but on this many radically different PCs? I realize that those of us wanting to use the screensaver are probably in a minority but I just would like to see the existing one running. Luckily BOINC has enough other projects to choose that every person can somewhat tailor their experience when problems in a paticular project arises.

Sorry for being so wordy but felt this needed clarifying. Sorry deesy58, I know you were just looking for a solution not to become tied up in a debate. I won't bother anyone here with my opinion on this again...

...This worthy science project has kept me coming back wanting to participate, but I want an active working SS for my projects I choose. So, I come back occassionally to run a workunit in hopes it works and find it still doesn't work...

There is no doubt in my mind that you are absolutely correct, and there is something wrong with Rosetta's screen saver that prevents it from running properly on many computers. What I cannot understand, is why having a working screensaver is more important than the worthiness of the project itself, as far as determining which projects to join. It seems like an odd criterion to me.

I suppose if a project is going to supply graphics, it would be nice if they worked properly. Personally, I just keep BOINC on Advanced View "Tasks," and think to myself that when I see a WU labelled "IGNORE THE REST," my workunits are the most critical ones of the whole project. I have a picture in my head of the Baker Lab folks anxiously huddled around the server waiting for my computer to send back the results!

deesy58 and DGG,

I have recently been reminded that there are preference settings specifically for rosetta graphics. Go to your account page, preferences section, third link will lead you to the following two settings:

Percentage of CPU time used for graphics
(not selected defaults to 10)

Number of frames per second for graphics
(not selected defaults to 10)

Do adjustments to either of these have any effect?

I suppose if a project is going to supply graphics, it would be nice if they worked properly. Personally, I just keep BOINC on Advanced View "Tasks," and think to myself that when I see a WU labelled "IGNORE THE REST," my workunits are the most critical ones of the whole project. I have a picture in my head of the Baker Lab folks anxiously huddled around the server waiting for my computer to send back the results!

Love this image! It should drawn as a cartoon.


Snags

...and think to myself that when I see a WU labelled "IGNORE THE REST," my workunits are the most critical ones of the whole project. I have a picture in my head of the Baker Lab folks anxiously huddled around the server waiting for my computer to send back the results!

Love this image! It should drawn as a cartoon.

+1

Jochen

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Sid: Are you saying you've let the screensaver run all the way through the different types of Rosetta workunits without it going blank? You obviously see that two people just in this post alone have the same issue and yet you discount it as what's wrong with our machines. Do you have some reasoning as why this is happening to others PCs (clearly not on yours)? Yes if it doesn't happen on yours the other claims must be false?

Sid: Are you saying you've let the screensaver run all the way through the different types of Rosetta workunits without it going blank? You obviously see that two people just in this post alone have the same issue and yet you discount it as what's wrong with our machines. Do you have some reasoning as why this is happening to others PCs (clearly not on yours)? Yes if it doesn't happen on yours the other claims must be false?

No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that it's not sufficient to say running any version of windows with any graphics card causes a problem, because it doesn't. If you can identify that it's a particular startup program or setting that you like to use then that might be a clue, but as it stands there are no clues at all, so no fix can be provided (either for the screensaver or for the conflicting application). I rarely use the screen saver but I call it up at times and don't recognise what you describe as the norm. Potentially there might be a memory leak that builds to a problem over time, but again that requires some evidence.

I'm just saying you need to provide more of a clue so that it can be looked at. Otherwise it's bound to be a wild goose chase, checking things that aren't an issue.

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sir(s)
am a newbie on rosetta, and need to know if, when i set 'percentage of cpu to use' in preferences to 50, and the the same for the graphics, am i INCREASING the processing power available to tasks? or should i leave these settings at the default (10). system is running windows 7 x64 amd fx4100 quad core cpu OC'd to 4.0 ghz, and an amd/ati hd5750 1gb graphics card.

my intent is to providfe ALL the processing power i can to tasks. please advise

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when i set 'percentage of cpu to use' in preferences to 50, and the the same for the graphics, am i INCREASING the processing power available to tasks? or should i leave these settings at the default (10).

No, you are increasing the processing power used for graphics and that means decreasing for the actuall processing of tasks.

For the best performance don't use the BOINC screensaver at all, use some other one, there are many screensavers using basically no CPU time or don't use a screensaver at all since they are not needed for LCD/TFT monitors (or use the blank screen screensaver, it uses really nothing). If you are still using a CRT monitor, don't use the Rosetta screensaver too, it contains a lot of static graphics, so it's not really a screensaver.

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thank-you. have reset the 'eyecandy' settings back to minimums. and i already had turned off screen saver functions.