Prime95 Stops Mid-Test, Starts New One

[jinydu]

A dreaded bug appears to have reared its ugly head again:

39405757     70  21461505   211.6  11.5  71.5  11-Jul-08 02:10  17-Dec-07 00:57  C040FD929    2659 v19/v20
40792421     69  16308479    59.0  25.0  61.0  15-Jul-08 15:42  17-May-08 15:34  C040FD929    2659 v19/v20

Apparently, on July 11, a certain instance of Prime95 stopped working on M39405757 and since then has instead been working on M40792421. There's probably more to the story than that though, as it couldn't possibly have finished over 16 million iterations in just 4 days. I don't know what happened to the backup file for M39405757, or even whether it still exists. Note that I always set Prime95 to contact the server daily, so that I can detect problems quickly.

This is really starting to get on my nerves. I've already suffered wasted CPU years from this sort of problem before (a computer stopping work on an exponent before it has finished and starting a new one). In the past, I tolerated the problem; I just let the old exponent expire and accepted the CPU work as lost. But my patience is wearing thin.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[S485122]

Is there anything in your prime.log or results files ? you could increase the rate at which results file are written via the Options / Preferences menu and you could use the following options :

You can have the program generate save files every n iterations. The files will
have a .XXX extension where XXX equals the current iteration divided by n.
In prime.ini enter:
	InterimFiles=n

You can have the program output residues every n iterations. The default value
is the InterimFiles value. In prime.ini enter:
	InterimResidues=n

In this specific case anyway by querying the V5 server you get the following result :

Exponent User name Computer name Residue Error code (if any) Date found 
39405757 Jin Y Du C040FD929 753D0A98BE5DC5__

So I suppose you got the credit and did not loose anything...

Jacob

[Brian-E]

To add to what Jacob says:
The status file which I collected from the v4 server on 10 July 2008 gave the following information:

39405757     70  18566145   206.6 -22.3  37.7  02-Jun-08 08:48  17-Dec-07 00:57  jinydu         C040FD929

last updated on 2 June. So it seems that your machine was not updating its information every day for some reason.

It seems that, as Jacob indicates, your test of M39405757 did in fact finish. It does seem strange though that the status which you give from the update of 11 July indicates a progress of only 21+ million iterations.

[jinydu]

Strangely enough, the prime and results files are very short and contain only one entry each, both from 2007. But I know that many exponents have come and gone since then.

Also, M39405757 is on the worktodo file.

One other thing is that this is a dual-core computer; so I am running two instances of Prime95. However, I only see one prime and one results file.

Thanks

[S485122]

Which version of the program are you running ?
Can you check in which directory they run (under windows see Services 'Path to executable'.
Could you post or PM your configuration files (after removing password and e-mail address ?

Jacob

[robo_mojo]

permissions

[jinydu]

I'm running version 24.14.

Not so sure what you mean by your second question; there is a folder C:/windows, but no sub-folder called Services in there. Also, the Task Manager does have a tab called Services, but Prime95 is not listed there.

Here is the prime file:

Windows95Service=0
OldUserID=
OldUserPWD=
UserPWD=***************
UserName=Jin Du
UserEmailAddr=****************
Newsletters=0
UserID=jinydu
AskedAboutMemory=1
UsePrimenet=1
DialUp=0
DaysOfWork=5
WorkPreference=2
OutputIterations=1
ResultsFileIterations=999999999
DiskWriteTime=30
NetworkRetryTime=2
NetworkRetryTime2=60
DaysBetweenCheckins=28
TwoBackupFiles=1
SilentVictory=0

... and the local file:

OldCpuType=12
OldCpuSpeed=2660
CPUHours=24
DayMemory=300
NightMemory=300
DayStartTime=450
DayEndTime=1410
ComputerID=C040FD929
LastEndDatesSent=1185395015
RollingStartTime=0
Affinity=0
SelfTest2048Passed=1
RunOnBattery=1

And finally, here is the results.txt file. As you can see, it definitely can't be right:

[Thu Jul 26 04:23:01 2007]
UID: jinydu, User: Jin Du, *****************
[Thu Jul 26 05:25:44 2007]
Self-test 2048K passed!

(******** means that I am omitting the email address or password)

[S485122]

I was a bit criptic to say the least. I meant "If you are running windows and running Prime95 as a service, go to the services applet (via Manage or via the Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services). Then look at the Prime95 service(s) properties one non editable fiels is 'Path to executable'."

How are running your two instances ? In different directories ? By setting affinity ? But then you should have a prim0000.ini and a prim0001.ini file.

Jacob

[jinydu]

When I first set up Prime95 on the computer (around a year ago), I set up one instance normally (i.e. it just appeared after the installation finished). I got a second instance running by going to Command Prompt, typing cd c:\Program Files\Prime95 and then typing prime95 -A1. Finally, I opened the Advanced tab on the first instance, went to Affinity, unchecked "Let program run on any CPU, set it to run on CPU 0; and did the same with the second instance (except I set it to run on CPU 1 instead).

I don't really know what is going on when I do that (other than one instance affects only one core while the other instance only affects the other core); I was just following the instructions from one of the more obscure sections of the Prime 95 readme.

[S485122]

You should have used two different directories... When you start Prime95 -a1 or Prime95 -a0 the configuration files are loca0000.ini and loca0001.ini, instead of local.ini. the same for prime.ini (prim0000.ini and prim0001.ini), prime.log (prim0000.log and prim0001.log), result.txt (resu0000.txt and resu0001.txt) and worktodo.ini (work0000.ini and work0001.ini). You should try to reconstruct the files in two different directories. What happens now is that both instances mix up their work, reporting time, results... Make a backup copy of the directory first to be shure you do not lose to much work if you make a mistake while setting up the two directories.

Jacob

[jinydu]

Sorry to resurrect this thread; but I have three facts that are together quite amusing.

1) According to Primenet v5, I already finished a first-time LL test on M39405757.

2) M39405757 still appears on my Primenet v4 Individual account report under "Exponents Assigned".

3) The relevant computer has Windows Vista and 5 user accounts (let's call them a, b, c, d and e). If user b is not logged on and I log into a, two instances of Prime95 automatically start up (neither of which is testing M39405757). If user b is logged on and I log into a, nothing happens. If user a is not logged on and I log into b, one instance of Prime95 automatically starts up and tests M39405757. If user a is logged on and I log into b, nothing happens. Nothing ever happens with the other 3 users, as far as I know.

Interesting, The two user accounts prevent each other from running Prime95 simultaneously; but seem otherwise unaware of each other. The workaround seems easy enough though; I just make sure to login to a first every time I turn on the computer, and not log off until I turn off the computer.