I have one machine (AMD Athlon XP 2100+ w/1GB PC-133) that refuses to get along with BOINC... it's running Win2K Pro, SP 4 (all updates) like the other Windows boxes... it can play EverQuest and HalfLife without a hitch... but here's what happens when I try to run BOINC on it...

regardless whether I install it as a service or not, everything works fine until it starts to actually run a project... then, 30 or 40 seconds into the work the machine freezes... have to do a hard reset and suspend the work before it starts back up...

I've tried a number of things, but I'm stumped on this.. everything about the machine seems fine, and it's the only machine I own that does this...

has anyone else seen this problem before, or have any suggestions on what it might be?

Thanks in advance...

Is it the same project it tries to start working on every time the machine freezes? If so, which is it, what version and what is the name of the wu?

No, actually... it doesn't matter what project it is... and it's always between 29 seconds and 45 seconds after it starts to run one... tried with six different projects, all of them did the same thing... weird, eh?

Have you tested your memory or CPU for errors.

Nice tools to test with are:
Memtest86+, runs from floppy or CD
Alegr Memtest, runs in DOS and in Windows. You can start it multiple times in Windows to stress the CPU a bit as well.
CPU Burn-in

Thanks, Willy... the utilities I've been using for this are a bit dated... as in, the source code is in cuneiform...

Will give these a try and see if the machine locks up.

Bah.. the computer passed all memory tests, CPU Burn-in, Quake3 timedemo... no errors, it works fine.
So, I uninstalled BOINC and tried downloading it again, on the off chance that the installer was corrupted. Still doing the same thing... I'm truly stumped. Locks up within a minute of running a WU and have to do a hard reset, as mouse and keyboard are both dead in the water. Tried changing some hardware, including the video card. Made no difference.

I even tried running three instances of EverQuest and although things were a bit laggy, I had no trouble 3-boxing with it... I think I can safely rule out there being any problem with the hardware. And there isn't any software on it that isn't on all the other Win2K machines that are running BOINC without a hitch...

Well, maybe I'll try a non-boinc DC project on it and see what happens...

Thanks for the links, Willy...

it could be an access permission problem, is boinc allowed full access to it's installation folder?

have you checked your disks for errors? (including a surface scan, not just a data check)

try running an app (ideally getting it to crunch a WU) independandly of boinc to see if it's an app problem, or a boinc problem

No, checked disks when I first experienced the problem... but tried Folding@Home client... it ran a few hours then started doing the same thing... so rebooted to bios real quick and checked CPU temp... bingo!

I have no idea why CPU Burn-in wouldn't catch the thermal problem... but set machine up on bench and took the sidepanel off... the HSF was too hot to even touch... so I'm going to slap the cooler off one of my game boxes on it and try again...

I'm hopeful that this will cure the problem... think I'll go back to leaving covers off DC crunchers until they're up and stable, and use the old reliable "can you fry an egg on the heatsink?" method of determining whether or not the HSF is big enough...

I should have done this as soon as the problem manifested itself, and saved myself a bunch of typing and headaches... thanks for your patience and help, will post one more time if this turns out to be the problem.

oh yes, happens to the best of us
just today i was having trouble accessing the primegrid site, i was having a look at Ethereal captures and lots of other higher-level stuff

but the problem was that my DNS cache didn't have the latest records, so i was trying to connect to the old IP address lol
always the really simple stuff

My re-occuring classic is when I'm doing PHP. When things don't work I spend hours looking for the error - always looking at everything else than the missing ; that courses the thing not to work

Well, I am happy to report that after replacing the junk Turbo Toilet spaceage looking HSF on the proc with a stock AMD unit that ships with the XP 3000+ boxed retail procs, the problem went away, and the machine has been happily crunching for Predictor@Home and uFluids for a day and a half with no isssues.

Will attach more projects tomorrow and keep an eye on it, but it all looks fine, now...

oh god, defenetly the most annoying type of mistake, same goes for javascript too, it's always something like a missing closing bracket or something really stupid like that (i spent days trying to work out why my javascript based proxy configuration file wasn't working properly!)

How about opening a string with ' and closing it with " like