Folding Forum

Quick question: how does FAH detect system 'idle'? If I set it to Medium does it only run on GPUs when the FAH screensaver engages - i.e. I'd still like to have it running on idle state but don't like screensavers?

It uses the Windows system notification to detect if the system is idle or not and then turning on the slots in idle mode. The two ways are:
1) Enabling F@H Screensaver
2) Set the monitor to switch off after X minutes

With either option set, the F@H Slots should start folding.

As described in http://folding.stanford.edu/English/V7- ... iate#ntoc5 when the Medium setting is chosen the GPU will engage when the system becomes "idle". There are two ways for the system to become idle, as PantherX pointed out.

Thanks guys, this answers my question. Thing is 'idle' can mean a ton of things - from screensaver timeout, to monitor timeout, to ACPI S1/S2/S3... Anyway, Q answered, cheers.

Uh... Does this mean I should run the F@H screensaver on GPU machines, or SMP also? I've never used the F@H screensaver. Or any screensaver for that matter. I use the power button on the monitor.

I would configure Windows to go to "black screen" or to "turn off monitor" after a short period of inactivity. I, too, use the power button on my monitor, but this saves a similar amount of power if I forget, and it also sets Windows to an AFK-idle state which will inform FAH that work can be given to the GPU. I don't think the power button will activate the idle state the same way. Running the FAH ScreenSaver is optional and I don't use it, myself.

I used to use my power button, till the button wore out and I had to replace the monitor because of it. Now I automatically power down the monitor so as not to wear out the power button.

What I did was that I selected 'Blank' as screensaver to engage after 5 minutes and set my monitor to turn off itself after 20. So FAH can activate in 5 mikes and I don't have to watch the spinning protein which steals precious GPU resources away from FAH