Folding Forum

Hi there,

I'm new to folding, been using SETI earlier and I tried to set up Folding a few days ago, but I'm not sure if it is doing anything.
I'm using the Windows client with the system tray. When I hoover about the Icon, it says:
CPU-F@H: Working 7/750
But when I click on the "My folding info", it says:

Current Work Unit
-----------------
Name: Gromacs
Tag: -
Download time: September 19 23:24:13
Due time: October 15 06:36:13
Progress: 0% [__________]

I have deleted once the "queue.dat" and the entire contents of the FAH "work" folder as I read this could help if folding is stuck,
but now I'm even more confused.
I'm also not sure about the way folding is working, does it only do the folding if I'm not doing anything or can there be several processes running
(for example surfing, writing, etc.) and folding is still doing its job?
Would be glad to receive some advices, thanks!

When folding is running you can use the task manager (CTRL-Alt-Del -> task manager) to see if folding is running. There should be one or more FAHCore_??.exe running under the process tab. Make sure that the show processes for all users is check-marked (lower left corner).

There can be many processes simultaneously running but only a few will actively be using your CPU. Folding runs at a very low priority so that if you are using your CPU for other purposes it will suspend itself till the CPU becomes available again. Do note that for most applications on most CPU's the amount of CPU usage required is small so even if you are writing, surfing, or whatever folding will still occur but perhaps at a slightly slower speed.

Hej,
thanks for the quick reply, I could see, that the task is runnin gin the task manager and the progress is no longer 0%
I see, so mostly when I'm working folding won't be active? My computer is a quadcore, I sometimes need it for university related high priority tasks, but most of the time
I need it for research, listening to music, reading and so on. Is it possible to assign more ressources to folding except changing the core priority from lowest possible to slightly higher?
The CPU Usage Percent is set to 100% and Do NOT lock cores to specific CPU is not ticked.

Your settings are fine. The priority setting for slightly higher is for the GPU cores when running simultaneously with the SMP/Uniprocessor. If set the same, the SMP/uniprocessor will starve the GPU client of its needed share of the CPU. It is not significant for folding vs everything else in that both are still far below any normal application so folding still gets out of the way of everything else. SMP/UNI Folding is designed not to interfere with your normal usage. GPU folding can cause issues though because there is no priority system for GPU usage but there are some things that you can do to help with that.

The vast majority of applications like browsing, music, or writing only use only a very small amount of CPU usage. They won't interfere significantly with folding even if it gets out of the way whenever they are running. You can keep the task manager up on the screen (try sorting on the CPU column) and watch it while doing your thing to see the effect your usage is having.

Thanks so much for your reply!
Currently Folding takes about 25% of my CPU, as far as I understand it is not possible to assign more ressources to Folding except copying additional instances of the client in order to use the
other cpu cores? Would doing so result in working on several work units or will all cores work on the same unit?

Dimenolde wrote:Thanks so much for your reply!
Currently Folding takes about 25% of my CPU, as far as I understand it is not possible to assign more ressources to Folding except copying additional instances of the client in order to use the
other cpu cores? Would doing so result in working on several work units or will all cores work on the same unit?

The uniprocessor is acting normally, and both of those are actually a possibility. You can make additional instances of the uniprocessor client to use more CPU. But, we also have the SMP client, which by default uses all CPU cores. The SMP client completes one work unit very rapidly, so its much more productive. However, associated with that is shorter deadlines, so unless you run it on your computer the majority of the time (24/7 is preferable, but there's a little leeway) you may not make those deadlines. The advantages of the uniprocessor is that its extremely stable, is a set-and-forget client, has long deadlines, and doesn't use much resources. The SMP client isn't quite as stable, and has shorter deadlines, but is extremely scientifically productive. It's your choice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@ho ... _platforms

I think, you did put your precious time to create such decent post with wiki page reference. I appreciated !