makes odd HDD noises on my work laptop?

[suicidal_monkey]

I installed the F@H service on my recently acquired work laptop, but when it runs you can hear what I assume is HDD access going nuts? It's a bit annoying in terms of noise and possibly not great for the laptop drive ... is this normal and/or is there a way to make is use RAM rather than hdd most of the time or something? I will probably disable it due to the noise alone... <_<

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by suicidal_monkey@Aug 10 2005, 04:13 PM
I installed the F@H service on my recently acquired work laptop, but when it runs you can hear what I assume is HDD access going nuts? It's a bit annoying in terms of noise and possibly not great for the laptop drive ... is this normal and/or is there a way to make is use RAM rather than hdd most of the time or something? I will probably disable it due to the noise alone... <_<

[post=91215]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

How much memory is in the laptop and did you configure FAH to permit large WUs (>5Mb)? If not much physical memory and FAH getting large WUs then you could be into virtual memory (HD thrashing)

My PC with large WUs uses about 110mb of memory per FAH core. My work laptop set for small WUs uses under 10Mb IIRC.

You can change setup by running "FAH502-Console -configonly" and the "large WU" option is the last question you get before the "do you want to do advanced config?"

[suicidal_monkey]

i picked the no large work unit option and fah appears to use not-a-lot of ram (laptop has 512mb ram - toshiba tecra m2) and some virtual memory. The hdd is definitely audible going scan-pause-scan-pause-etc... while F@H is active.

[Anonymous]

The only other thing I can think off is to check what time interval it has been set to write back to disk. The default is 15minutes but could it have been set to something silly?

[suicidal_monkey]

the interval is set to 15 in the config file. Is there any way to force a program to not use virtual memory in case it is for some reason paging or swapping unnecessarily? Reducing the cpu useage requirement setting reduces the frequency of the seeks. I assume it's hdd seeks of course - sounds not unlike a quiet version of a cd rom...pretty sure it's the hdd though

[Anonymous]

Got me stumped there  :blink:

[TeaLeaf]

I got it running on a couple of laptops without those symptoms.  Sounds machine specific to me.......

TL.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried stopping the FAH service to see if the sound stops?

[suicidal_monkey]

Originally posted by BlueBall@Aug 11 2005, 08:51 AM
Have you tried stopping the FAH service to see if the sound stops?

[post=91311]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

yip...

service running @ 100%cpu = recurring seek-type noises
service running @  50% cpu = recurring seek-type noises half as often
service stopped = silence

 :huh:

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by suicidal_monkey@Aug 11 2005, 09:19 AM
yip...

service running @ 100%cpu = recurring seek-type noises
service running @ 50% cpu = recurring seek-type noises half as often
service stopped = silence

 :huh:

[post=91322]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

have you considered buying some cheap earplugs?

[suicidal_monkey]

bah :narnar:

[settings]
username=jamena
team=33597
asknet=no
bigpackets=no
machineid=1

[http]
active=no
host=localhost
port=8080
usereg=no

[core]
priority=0
cpuusage=100
disableassembly=no
checkpoint=15
ignoredeadlines=no

[power]
battery=yes

[clienttype]
type=1

[Anonymous]

One thing I don't do is run FAH at 100%; I always leave a bit of headroom and usually pick 90% CPU usage.

However, from your previous post that probably won't help things in this situation.

It could be that you have a dodgy hard disk I suppose.

[suicidal_monkey]

I thought I'd done it and then wham, it starts up again.

I tried turning virtual memory off, rebooted, the noise was still there (and in fact task manager showed all the programs as using virtual memory anyway...)

I tried moving the F@H directory to the C: with windows just in case, for a moment it was quiet, but after a few seconds the swish swish swish of what I maintain sounds like disc-seek-noises started up again (approx 4 - 5 per second)

I tried shutting virtual mem off again now with  and did a shut down, power off, count to 10, power back up, now with f@h no the C:

it seems quiet for a short while after boot...maybe a minute or more(watching task manager shows f@h using up it's allocated slice of the cpu) then it starts up with the noises again. Stopping the f@h service still stops the noise

f@h starts up ... no noise ... task manager shows fahcore_82 jump to 90% cpu useage (it's allocated slice) and as having done 330-odd I/O Writes. At this point the drive is silent. After about one minute @90%cpu&330ishWrites, F@Hcore suddenly jumps to approx 470ish writes and the seek-noise starts up. Apart from the sudden jump in I/O writes (and there is only the sudden jump, no further increases) there is a small increase in memory (real and virtual, despite virtual memory being set to off). I can repeat this observation by stopping and starting the f@H service.

observing it run as a console program (i.e. not as a service) I get the same result. The instant the writes go up from 330ish to 470ish and the noise starts is the point in time where the console displays the message:
[time] Protein: whatever
[time]
[time] Completed x out of y steps (n)
for the first time in that particular instance.

I don't see why f@h should be accessing my hard disk quite so often between checks? it's set to 15 minute intervals, or at least it says 15 in the config file...

watching with task manager I see the following incrementing, but then they increment before and after the noises...
F@H-Console (not the core) doing I/O reads
explorer doing I/O Other


it does the same thing with virtual memory turned back "on"
am at a loss

[suicidal_monkey]

defragging and copying big files around the c: didn't make the same sort of noise either, it's very strange

[suicidal_monkey]

I've started up a thread on http://forum.folding-community.org/viewtop...p=108834#108834 to see if there's any other ideas