Folding Forum

If already completed some WU's but I actually don't know much about F@H, so I got some questions.

This morning I completed a WU, of 10000, but in my Log file it said 10.000.000 steps, why is there a difference?
And I completed it, but didn't gain any score, why? Because it does say I completed it(username: Devreugkx).

I hope someone can help me
Greetz,
Devreugkx

Welcome to folding and to this support site.

The stats are updating right now, so I can't point you to your current stats at this moment. However, from a moderator database view, I can see you returned a work unit, Project: 7028 Run: 2 Clone: 202 Gen: 2 on date/timestamp: 2011-07-12 00:08:35, for 600 points.

And now that update is complete. Your stats page has been updated to include that WU. See here ---> http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/mai ... =Devreugkx

sortofageek wrote:Welcome to folding and to this support site.

The stats are updating right now, so I can't point you to your current stats at this moment. However, from a moderator database view, I can see you returned a work unit, Project: 7028 Run: 2 Clone: 202 Gen: 2 on date/timestamp: 2011-07-12 00:08:35, for 600 points.

Thanks for helping me, but why did I get 600 points and not 10000? Or doesn't it work that way?

600 points is correct for Project 7028 WUs. The project summary list is here ---> http://fah-web.stanford.edu/psummary.html Scroll down the first column to 7028 and then over to the credit column to see the point value of the work unit.

The 10000 steps you see in your log is an indicator of progression in completing the work unit. It isn't an indicator of credit you will receive.

Ow, it goes that way. I checked the WU I'm doing now and that's also 600.
But, am I able to choose which project I get? Or do I get harder WU's if I've done more?
Some people did 9 WU's and got 15000pts and I did 16 WU's and got 3700pts, why did, for example him, got better WU's?

BTW, my F@H Viewer/Display don't work, how can I fix that?

The projects you get are determined by which client you are running and detected hardware capability, as well as some configuration of the client on your part. Your client first connects to an assignment server with the logic to determine which WUs your computer is able to complete and which of those projects within those capabilities need to be completed. The donor doesn't pick the WUs, no.

I am not familiar with the "F@H Viewer/Display," so I regret I can't help with that.

Devreugkx wrote:...BTW, my F@H Viewer/Display don't work, how can I fix that?

There are two answers to this question depending on what version of the F@H Client you are using.

F@H Client v6.X
Please note that the Display that is bundled with the application is known to be a resource hog/buggy and it is recommend to not use it as it can have an undesirable effect on the system. If you want to monitor the F@H Client, then it is recommended to download a 3rd party monitoring application which can be found here (viewtopic.php?f=14&t=52).
Do note that the issue(s) will not be fixed as all resources are focused towards the V7 development.

F@H Client V7 Beta:
Under normal conditions and correct Drivers, there isn't any issue when running the FAHViewer. Thus can you provide more details?

I'm already folding for a while now.
But I noticed that some people get over 50.000 points a day.
And I don't understand how it is possible to do so many WU's a day.
Or do they get short WU's which give a lot of points.

Devreugkx wrote:I'm already folding for a while now.
But I noticed that some people get over 50.000 points a day.
And I don't understand how it is possible to do so many WU's a day.
Or do they get short WU's which give a lot of points.

Have you seen this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home#Points and this http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-Points ?
Some people earn those large amounts of points because they run Folding@home on powerful machines. Also, they mostly likely have their client set so that they receive work units that require significantly more resources, such as RAM, disk space, network usage, etc. So basically powerful machine + large WUs = lots of points. That's how the point system works. They may not be completing many WUs in a day, but rather they finish extra tough WUs that are worth lots of points. The point system is designed so that everyone gets equal pay for equal work, and that the amount of scientific contribution is roughly tied to the amount of points one gets. This makes the project overall competitive which benefits F@h overall. Now, with that in mind, I would like to strongly point out that every little bit helps. F@h has clients for just about everyone, and they do appreciate every donor. The uniprocessor client returns relatively lower points per day because they give you lots of time to return the WU, the client runs with little to no maintenance, and it doesn't stress your computer very much. So the points are much lower. Some of those people run the SMP or GPU clients, which have pretty short deadlines, they don't run smoothly all the time, and they use lots of computer resources and sometimes cause some lag. Those people are then rewarded with more points. But that is very much okay. Contribute what you can, but please keep contributing. I just wanted to explain to you about those people, but I don't want to make you feel like your contribution isn't helpful or anything. It very much is. Keep it up!

On top of the 600 base points that your WU gets it is eligable for "bonus" points. In order to get the additional bonus points you need a passkey

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-passkey and http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/getpasskey.py

once you have got your passkey, enter it into the client. Then successfully complete 10 work units of the type that you are currently doing (SMP) within 80% of the preferred deadline. Once you have done that you should then get the bonus points which will give you much better PPD - let us know the machine specs and we can give you a guide as to what you can expect ( as long as nothing goes wrong during the WU).

As Jesse V says 50,000PPD is possible with powerful machines and the passkey - depending on the machine you have and the amount of time spent folding 50k is possible on one CPU but that is about the limit - to do more you need dual cpu's in a machine or better

Ok, I now got a passkey, but if I enter the code, will the WU I´m doing atm reset?
And will it already count?

Nathan, you said I'm doing SMP but I don't know what that means...
I saw somewhere that there also are GPU and CPU, but I never had to choose which I wanted to do.
And I didn't even now that there was something like that.

I don't exactly know what specifications you need to now but, I can tell some I know:
I run F@H on my laptop: TravelMate 7730
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo processor T6570 (2.1GHz, 00MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
Memory: 2GB DDR2
Operating System: Windows Vista

If you need more specifications ask me, but I don't know where I can find all those.

I also found this site: http://fahwiki.net/index.php/How_do_I_r ... options%3F
But I can nowhere find something like that.

Devreugkx wrote:Ok, I now got a passkey, but if I enter the code, will the WU I´m doing atm reset?
And will it already count?

The passkey has no effect on the WU, just the QRB (Quick Return Bonus). To qualify for QRB the same username/passkey combination must be present at both the start & finish of the WU. There is also a ten WU requirement to receive the QRB. Once both requirements have been met you will get the bonus.

Here's the benchmark for Project 7028 on two of my classic clients:

Devreugkx wrote:Nathan, you said I'm doing SMP but I don't know what that means...

Project 7028 uses the A4 FahCore, which is capable of running in either classic or SMP mode.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=17528


Since you have a dual-core CPU it can run either client. This can be verified by the top few lines from FAHlog.txt like this:
That is from my classic Systray client. It seems likely you are also running the Systray version. If so the log can be checked by right clicking the tray icon > Status > Log file.

Thanks, yeh I'm also running Systray.
My Log File looks just the same exept this.

Under:
Launch directory: C:\Documents and Settings\Chow\Application Data\Folding@home-x86
Doesn't stay:
Arguments: -verbosity 9 -advmethods
Do I have to add that or something???

EDIT:
I just checked my Log File again and I noticed that the WU stopped en restarted or something.
Now I'm at 0% again...It's the same WU, 2974.
How is this possible? Because the Passkey?

Devreugkx wrote: EDIT:
I just checked my Log File again and I noticed that the WU stopped en restarted or something.
Now I'm at 0% again...It's the same WU, 2974.
How is this possible? Because the Passkey?

Work units are identified by four numbers, Project, Run, Clone, and Generation. These provide all the details regarding what protein is being simulated, its configuration, and where that WU is along the overall simulation. Passkeys should not cause WUs to reset like that. If it is indeed the same WU, then that's pretty strange. If I recall correctly changing some settings in Configure window causes a restart of the WU to apply the changes, but usually the WU picks up just about where it left off. If it doesn't, that usually indicates a problem with the checkpoint. If you compare all four numbers and one of them is different from what you had before, then you just received a WU that had the same project and all is well.

You mentioned you didn't know what the SMP client was. May I take this moment to point out the Wikipedia article on Folding@home, as it is (finally!) a good place to get good coverage about the project. Specifically this section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@ho ... _platforms explains about the High Performance Clients, which includes SMP, GPU, and PS3 client. Every client is very valued by the Pande Group, but I just wanted to answer your questions about it. And by the way, the Wikipedia article also describes passkeys and their purpose.