Never fails...walk out the door and computer crashes
 

My machine runs for days and days while I am at home. I leave for a three-week vacation in the Dakotas and the next day TeamViewer reports the computer offline. So I won't be reporting any trial factoring results until the first week of October.

Happened twice for me but luckily only for a couple days at a time.

Sounds like you need a minion or twelve to look after things while you are away.

[QUOTE=retina;353023]Sounds like you need a minion or twelve to look after things while you are away.[/QUOTE]

Indeed!

Promise to give them a good reference, but make their life living hell doing the best work they're likely to do for several years.

Meanwhile pay them peanuts, and you'll be surprised by just how much work you can get by squeezing lemons....

You *might* be able to MacGyver something for next time.

I think there's an "automatically restart after crash" feature somewhere. Maybe a BIOS setting. I remember seeing some option somewhere to turn your computer on at a certain time.

Then if you tell your computer to run a few batch files off bootup.

[QUOTE=TheMawn;353034]You *might* be able to MacGyver something for next time.

I think there's an "automatically restart after crash" feature somewhere. Maybe a BIOS setting. I remember seeing some option somewhere to turn your computer on at a certain time.

Then if you tell your computer to run a few batch files off bootup.[/QUOTE]

I use that ...but there are a couple gotchas:
1. With Windows7+ you can no longer use (easily?) start at bootup.
2. So you need to use start at logon ... which only works if there is only 1 user id (otherwise it presents a logon to who? screen)
Most of my PCs pass the above 2 tests but 2 including my Ivy fails #2.

I think you computer is becoming self-aware... having slaved for many many weeks it decided to take a good break and realizing you were going away you couldn't stop it... :razz:

[QUOTE=TheMawn;353034]You *might* be able to MacGyver something for next time.

I think there's an "automatically restart after crash" feature somewhere. Maybe a BIOS setting. I remember seeing some option somewhere to turn your computer on at a certain time.

Then if you tell your computer to run a few batch files off bootup.[/QUOTE]

I've done both of the BIOS options. You can set it to restart after a failure, and also set it to boot up (say) every morning at 9am, then you are assured that you will be offline for at most 24 hours. (Unless, of course, you have a bigger (i.e. hardware) problem.)

No need for batch files or start-at-bootup if you configure Prime95 to run as a service at the "system" level. This can be done quite easily for Windows Vista, 7, or 8. The only downside is that you lose desktop interaction with the Prime95 GUI. See [URL=http://www.mersenneforum.org/showpost.php?p=240247&postcount=7]this[/URL] post, and [URL=http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=14276]this[/URL] thread for the details.

[QUOTE=petrw1;353035]I use that ...but there are a couple gotchas:
1. With Windows7+ you can no longer use (easily?) start at bootup.
2. So you need to use start at logon ... which only works if there is only 1 user id (otherwise it presents a logon to who? screen)
Most of my PCs pass the above 2 tests but 2 including my Ivy fails #2.[/QUOTE]

Run Prime95 as a service...:smile:

[QUOTE=kracker;353054]I think you computer is becoming self-aware... having slaved for many many weeks it decided to take a good break and realizing you were going away you couldn't stop it... :razz:[/QUOTE]

See, this is why any serious GIMPSter just loads up worktodo with twice as much work as would normally be performed during the vacation, connects to a UPS-with-battery-backup, and sets the BIOS to restart every morning just in case. :lol:

So, I take a couple of extra days off from work....
And it seems that all of my minions have fallen off the face of the planet.:max:
So, it seems that 5 days of total wall time will have passed before I can tend to them. I don't know if it was a power outage (happens about once a quarter), a forced update and reboot (~twice a year), or some change with the proxy settings. :bangheadonwall:

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;354487] a forced update and reboot (~twice a year),[/QUOTE]

Wow. Only twice for you? It's happened to me three times since the month of may. :love: windows

[QUOTE=TheMawn;354489]Wow. Only twice for you? It's happened to me three times since the month of may. :love: windows[/QUOTE]
That's Windows for you. However, power goes out very briefly here every two or three months roughly. In the winter time, we get a lot of storms and I'm not in a big city so we experience outages for 4-5h+ sometimes.

I'll be back from my three-week trip (not vacation, I am retired and on permanent vacation) in a couple of days. I'll be anxious to see what stopped the computer. The cable modem is OK since another laptop has been reporting P1s and LLs the whole time.

I'll look into the BIOS thing to reboot the computer every day. I never noticed there might be such a setting.

I'm back and processing TF again after a three week absence. I can't tell what happened to the machine. The screen blanker had activated and I had to do a cold start to get it going again. I looked at the event viewer but I couldn't find any information.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;354487]So, I take a couple of extra days off from work....
And it seems that all of my minions have fallen off the face of the planet.:max:
So, it seems that 5 days of total wall time will have passed before I can tend to them. I don't know if it was a power outage (happens about once a quarter), a forced update and reboot (~twice a year), or some change with the proxy settings. :bangheadonwall:[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=TheMawn;354489]Wow. Only twice for you? It's happened to me three times since the month of may. :love: windows[/QUOTE]And again, since of course I will be away for 4 days this weekend...

Check for updates on your way out of the house to maximize [STRIKE]your odds of not getting an update[/STRIKE] the amount of time before an update.

[QUOTE=TheMawn;355895]Check for updates on your way out of the house to maximize [STRIKE]your odds of not getting an update[/STRIKE] the amount of time before an update.[/QUOTE]
They will be doing it after I leave work on friday.

[QUOTE=Chuck;355156]I'm back and processing TF again after a three week absence. I can't tell what happened to the machine. The screen blanker had activated and I had to do a cold start to get it going again. I looked at the event viewer but I couldn't find any information.[/QUOTE]

I looked through the BIOS settings in the manual (ASUS P6X58D mobo) and couldn't find anything about setting up periodic automatic rebooting.

[QUOTE=Chuck;355939]I looked through the BIOS settings in the manual (ASUS P6X58D mobo) and couldn't find anything about setting up periodic automatic rebooting.[/QUOTE]

That seems like the sort of thing to do through an OS task scheduling function, if the log in situation can be dealt with.

[QUOTE=Chuck;355939]I looked through the BIOS settings in the manual (ASUS P6X58D mobo) and couldn't find anything about setting up periodic automatic rebooting.[/QUOTE]
Not quite rebooting, but look at section 3.7.6 APM Configuration and the Power On By RTC Alarm option.

I don't ever recall a BIOS level option schedule a reboot, but the APM options make sure your computer restarts after a power outage (or for middle of the night updates).
If you want to remotely power cycle computers, there are web-connected devices for that (I remember using modem based ones back in the stone ages) like [URL="http://www.synaccess-net.com/remote-power.php/1/8"]this $150USD model[/URL].

[QUOTE=sdbardwick;355946]Not quite rebooting, but look at section 3.7.6 APM Configuration and the Power On By RTC Alarm option.[/QUOTE]

Thinking back a week, when I got home the computer was on, but nothing was processing and I couldn't see what state it was in since the screen had blanked and I couldn't wake it up. It was somehow hung up and I had to cold start it.

Thanks for mentioning that paragraph, I read about the settings.

What I do not like about APM settings to restart after a power outage, is I don't trust power right away after it just failed. The RTC alarm wake/power-up sounds better to me but I haven't noticed that in BIOS settings in recent years, is it still there?

[QUOTE=only_human;355951]What I do not like about APM settings to restart after a power outage, is I don't trust power right away after it just failed. The RTC alarm wake/power-up sounds better to me but I haven't noticed that in BIOS settings in recent years, is it still there?[/QUOTE]

Many UPSes have the feature of waiting until the power has been back for x minutes before turning the battery-backed circuits back on. Using that in conjunction with the power-last-state setting in the BIOS can accomplish what you're looking for.

I believe that a "watchdog" is more appropriate for at least several of the above posts. I have made such hard-wired computers in the past for inexpensive security systems that allowed access to buildings. In my systems, the security software periodically sent a signal to a parallel port pin (older systems, indeed), and that signal tripped a watchdog timer circuit installed within the computer. If no signal was detected within a configured time span, the watchdog sent a hard reset to the motherboard.

A watchdog program can be made to do a similar task - there are probably such programs already in existence. But, they would depend on the OS continuing to run while a "watched" program is hung. In order to respond to a hung OS, you would need an external (to the OS) solution.

I suppose a (rather awkward) solution could be a remotely controlled UPS with the control managed by a program running on the system to be "watched," perhaps via a USB port. If the program stops sending the signals, the UPS can be switched off and on with a delay between states.

Perhaps someone knows of these types of equipment/programs already available...

[QUOTE=EdH;355973]Perhaps someone knows of these types of equipment/programs already available...[/QUOTE]

There are many such solutions available COTS. I can't remember the manufacturer I used several years ago for our wireless relay sites, but [url]http://www.pc-watchdog.de/[/url] is just one of many examples.

Note I've not used this particular model, nor do I have any financial relationship with them; it's just an example. Search around.

[QUOTE=chalsall;355985]There are many such solutions available COTS. I can't remember the manufacturer I used several years ago for our wireless relay sites, but [URL]http://www.pc-watchdog.de/[/URL] is just one of many examples.

Note I've not used this particular model, nor do I have any financial relationship with them; it's just an example. Search around.[/QUOTE]


Thanks, I didn't know such products existed. It's probably not worth it for me to invest in this technology, but interesting to see what's available.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;354487]So, I take a couple of extra days off from work....[/QUOTE][QUOTE=Uncwilly;355901]They will be doing it after I leave work on friday.[/QUOTE]And they will be doing it again this long weekend......:tantrum: