Any Idea What Happened here?

[smilodon]

What happened here?

[00:16:20] Writing local files
[00:16:22] Completed 275000 out of 500000 steps  (55)
[00:41:15] Writing local files
[00:41:20] CoreStatus = 1 (1)
[00:41:20] Client-core communications error: ERROR 0x1
[00:41:20] Deleting current work unit & continuing...
[00:41:40] + Attempting to get work packet
[00:41:40] - Connecting to assignment server
[00:41:47] - Successful: assigned to (171.67.89.149).
[00:41:47] + News From Folding@Home: Welcome to Folding@Home
[00:41:47] Loaded queue successfully.
[00:42:01] + Closed connections
[00:42:06]
[00:42:06] + Processing work unit
[00:42:06] Core required: FahCore_78.exe
[00:42:06] Core found.
[00:42:06] Working on Unit 03 [November 16 00:42:06]
[00:42:06] + Working ...
[00:42:07]
[00:42:07] *------------------------------*

Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. "Voodoo" economics.

[TeaLeaf]

You were unfortunate enough to have a core crash and probably lost the half WU you had completed.  At least it was only a small WU....

TL.

[TeaLeaf]

According to the Common Errors thread in the Bugs forum, this could be related to several things:

1. An overclocking or overall system stability problem.

2. Long shot, but there are known incompatability problems with F@H some versions of glibc under linux, particularly redhat whose glibc's are known to be a little 'unique'.  If it is a linux box then try replacing your glibc with this: ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/rawhide/1.0/i386/RedHat/RPMS/.

If it is not 1 or 2 then they have no idea and are still working on it.

TL.

[TeaLeaf]

Another topic that may or may not have relevance:

TL.

The first thing to remember is that "-forceasm" and overclocking both involve a tradeoff: you are trading the stability of the client for speed. The client's default settings and your machine's stock settings are both optimized for stability. When you apply "-forceasm" or OC your machine, you are giving up the stable defaults in favor of completing units "faster." The problem is that "faster" isn't always faster. Sometimes, the errors generated as a result of these methods will result in an overall speed loss: your machine is so unstable that it is unable to complete a significant fraction of its assigned work units. This is a bad thing for all involved. "-forceasm" forces on SIMD instructions that the client may have otherwise determined were unusuable due to stability problems. These instruction sets are usually faster, but if they don't work right, why use them?

"-advmethods" is different than either "-forceasm" or overclocking. "-advmethods" is a special client flag that signifies that you are willing to accept beta work units to be tested. Most of these work units have been stable, but lately people have been receiving units, using "-advmethods", that have not been processed properly. Most likely, this is the result of either of the two options described above. However, when using "-advmethods", you agree to accept beta test work units that may or may not be considered stable. In the past, units assigned under "-advmethods" have been the desirable Gromacs units, and this was the only way to get them. This is no longer true. Gromacs units are now distributed widely to clients not using any flags at all. In fact, I would expect to soon see a drop in the number of Gromacs core units on "-advmethods", as a new F@H core is released that will require beta testing. When, or if, this will happen is not known.

The end result of any of these three options is that you may be seeing stability problems where there have not been any in the past. P3xx and P10xx series work units seem to push machines much harder than other work units we have before. If you are seeing problems, the typical troubleshooting procedure we will ask you to follow where one or more of these options is used will look like this:

Reduce or remove any overclock that may be present. Overclocking your system beyond its rated specs always brings the possibility of large stability problems. Gromacs, in particular, has been known to highlight these problems. So, the first thing to do is reduce your OC.

Remove "-forceasm". If you remove this flag, you will be running with what the client considers the best SIMD instructions for your machine. You may incur a speed penalty, but which would you rather have: a working client, or a faster client that has errors on, in some cases, all of its work units, causing them never to be credited?

Remove "-advmethods". Using "-advmethods", as mentioned, means you agree to accept work units that are in the late beta stages of testing. They cannot be guaranteed stable; by definition, they are still under testing. If you cannot process "-advmethods" units, please do everyone involved a favor and remove the flag.

[smilodon]

I'm using -forceasm so I'll keep an eye on it and if this occurs too often I'll turn bionic speed off and fold at a more stable pace.

Ta