running only at night

2005-01-28, 14:31

Is there any way I can just have the GIMPS program run at night? People in the lab don't like the sound of the fan during the day-
(running windows XP on some Gateway machines).
thanks for any insights!
Phil
phillipkwood@yahoo.com

PrimeFun · 2005-01-28, 16:07

From readme.txt in your prime95 directory:

You can configure this program to have different properties at different
times of the day and/or to not run during certain times of the day.
Unfortunately, you must manual edit the prime.ini file. Let's say you
want to install the program on a friend's machine and he runs a screen
saver at night. He also runs a disk defragmenter at midnight on weekdays.
This prime.ini file will run the program at a higher priority than his
screen saver at night and on weekends. It also sleeps for an hour when
his defragmenter starts running. Finally, at night fewer save files are
generated to allow his disk to stay powered down longer.
UserID=foo
Other prime.ini entries
Time=1-5/8:30-17:30
Priority=1
DiskWriteTime=30
Time=1-5/1:00-8:30,1-5/17:30-24:00,6-7/0:00-24:00
Priority=5
DiskWriteTime=240
The 1-5 refers to days of the week, with Monday=1 and Sunday=7. The
time portion refers to the hours of the day based on a 24-hour clock.
You do not need to specify days of the week (e.g. Time=1-7/0:00-8:00
is the same as Time=0:00-8:00). Unpredictable results will occur if
there are overlapping time intervals. Also note that any options that
appear in the Time= sections should not appear earlier in the prime.ini
file and you can no longer edit these options from the user interface

Mystwalker · 2005-01-28, 16:14

But is it possible to stop Prime95 with that?

PrimeFun · 2005-01-28, 16:21

Opps!

I thought you could by putting a priority of 0 but I just tried it and it didn't work...

I think you can do what you want with Xp's task scheduler

Start | Accesories | System Tools | Scheduled Tasks

after you set the start time go into advanced options and tell it not to run for longer than x hours...

Another method would be to combine the Time & Throttle functions to put a long delay between iterations during the day

If you are running on a laptop or in a hot room and you want to slow the
program down to reduce heat, then you can add this line to prime.ini:
Throttle=n
where n is the number of milliseconds to sleep after each iteration.

JuanTutors · 2005-01-28, 17:02

If you put only:

Time=1-5/0:03-0:05
Priority=8
DiskWriteTime=30

Prime95 will run for those two minutes at priority 8 on those 5 days, and will not run any other time.

JuanTutors · 2005-01-28, 19:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by dominicanpapi82

If you put only:

Time=1-5/0:03-0:05
Priority=8
DiskWriteTime=30

Prime95 will run for those two minutes at priority 8 on those 5 days, and will not run any other time.

In case I wasn't clear: In general set what times you want it to runat, what priority you want it to run at during those times, and whatyou want the disk write time to be during those times. If there are anytimes you didn't set, Prime95 won't run at those times. That's thepoint I was making.

cheesehead · 2005-01-30, 11:17

(Come on, guys -- give him an example that looks like what he wants. :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by phillipkwood

Is there any way I can just have the GIMPS program run at night?

First, define what times-of-day and days-of-week is meant by "night". Then use Time= cmmand(s) to specify that the program is to run at those times.

A) Suppose "night" means before 5:45 AM and after 6:30 PM every day. Then you would use:

Time=1-7/0:00-5:45,1-7/18:30-24:00

B) Suppose "night" means before 5:45 AM and after 6:30 PM Monday through Friday, before 8 AM and after 4 PM on Saturdays, and all day on Sundays. Then use:

Time=1-5/0:00-5:45,1-5/18:30-24:00
Time=6/0:00-8:00,6/16:00-24:00
Time=7/0:00-24:00

or youcouldsqueezeitallononelinelike:

Time=1-5/0:00-5:45,1-5/18:30-24:00,6/0:00-8:00,6/16:00-24:00,7/0:00-24:00

C) Suppose that in the same schedule as B), you want it to save to disk every 30 minutes on weekdays, but only every 60 minutes on Saturday/Sunday. Then:

Time=1-5/0:00-5:45,1-5/18:30-24:00
DiskWriteTime=30
Time=6/0:00-8:00,6/16:00-24:00
DiskWriteTime=60
Time=7/0:00-24:00
DiskWriteTime=60

or

Time=1-5/0:00-5:45,1-5/18:30-24:00
DiskWriteTime=30
Time=6/0:00-8:00,6/16:00-24:00,7/0:00-24:00
DiskWriteTime=60

cheesehead · 2005-01-30, 13:46

To rephrase what dominicanpapi82 already said:

1) If the prime.ini file has no Time= line, then Prime95 by default runs all the time.

2) But if there is at least one Time= line, then Prime95 runs only during the time intervals specified on the Time= lines.

What happens is that when you start Prime95, it reads the prime.ini and, if there is at least one Time= line but the current time is not within any time interval specified on any Time= line, then Prime95 goes to sleep until the start of the next time specified on any Time= line. (It's a light sleeper, waking for a microsecond every two seconds to check whether the user has entered any command.) "Sleep" means that the OS keeps the program on its list of current tasks, but the program doesn't execute any instructions or use any execution time.

Illustration: If, in my examples B) or C) above, you started Prime95 at noon on a Tuesday, Prime95 would, after reading its .ini files, sleep until 6:30 PM that same day, then start processing tasks from its worktodo.ini file.

When it starts up at the beginning of a Time= specified time interval, it sets a timer for the end of that time interval. When that timer "rings' at the end of the interval, Prime95 sleeps until the beginning of the next time interval.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrimeFun

I thought you could by putting a priority of 0 but I just tried it and it didn't work...

If Prime95 reads "Priority=0", it figures you really meant "Priority=1" (I think -- but I didn't really track it all the way down in the source code).

mggtiger · 2018-01-29, 00:34

Nice, fast i7-7700K that I'd like to contribute to the cause. Windows 10 Home, 32Gb, SSD, no graphics card.

The CPU fan is too loud to run Prime95 in the daytime (or should I say, "prime time"?). I added
StaggerStarts=10
PauseWhileRunning=* during 1-7/0:01-7:00
to both local.txt and to prime.txt, since I wasn't sure from the documentation where they were supposed to go.

But when I start Prime95 during the daytime, it proceeds to run anyway.
What's the trick? I don't want to have to remember to manually start Prime95 every night.

Help will be much appreciated!

SWWright · 2020-09-25, 19:17

Your PauseWhileRunning is pausing Prime95 from midnight until 7 in the morning, after which it is free to run.

If you do not want Prime95 running during the day, the setting should be as follows:

PauseWhileRunning=* during 1-7/09:00-17:00

This will force Prime95 to pause from 9 AM to 5 PM every day of the week.

2005-01-28, 14:31	#1
phillipkwood 37·53 Posts	running only at night Is there any way I can just have the GIMPS program run at night? People in the lab don't like the sound of the fan during the day- (running windows XP on some Gateway machines). thanks for any insights! Phil phillipkwood@yahoo.com

2005-01-28, 16:21	#4
PrimeFun Jul 2003 36₈ Posts	Opps! I thought you could by putting a priority of 0 but I just tried it and it didn't work... I think you can do what you want with Xp's task scheduler Start \| Accesories \| System Tools \| Scheduled Tasks after you set the start time go into advanced options and tell it not to run for longer than x hours... Another method would be to combine the Time & Throttle functions to put a long delay between iterations during the day If you are running on a laptop or in a hot room and you want to slow the program down to reduce heat, then you can add this line to prime.ini: Throttle=n where n is the number of milliseconds to sleep after each iteration. Last fiddled with by PrimeFun on 2005-01-28 at 16:32

2018-01-29, 00:34	#9
mggtiger "mggtiger" Jan 2018 Chicago area 1 Posts	Tried everything -- can't get Prime95 to run only at night Nice, fast i7-7700K that I'd like to contribute to the cause. Windows 10 Home, 32Gb, SSD, no graphics card. The CPU fan is too loud to run Prime95 in the daytime (or should I say, "prime time"?). I added StaggerStarts=10 PauseWhileRunning=* during 1-7/0:01-7:00 to both local.txt and to prime.txt, since I wasn't sure from the documentation where they were supposed to go. But when I start Prime95 during the daytime, it proceeds to run anyway. What's the trick? I don't want to have to remember to manually start Prime95 every night. Help will be much appreciated!

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2005-01-28, 16:07	#2
PrimeFun Jul 2003 36₈ Posts	From readme.txt in your prime95 directory: You can configure this program to have different properties at different times of the day and/or to not run during certain times of the day. Unfortunately, you must manual edit the prime.ini file. Let's say you want to install the program on a friend's machine and he runs a screen saver at night. He also runs a disk defragmenter at midnight on weekdays. This prime.ini file will run the program at a higher priority than his screen saver at night and on weekends. It also sleeps for an hour when his defragmenter starts running. Finally, at night fewer save files are generated to allow his disk to stay powered down longer. UserID=foo Other prime.ini entries Time=1-5/8:30-17:30 Priority=1 DiskWriteTime=30 Time=1-5/1:00-8:30,1-5/17:30-24:00,6-7/0:00-24:00 Priority=5 DiskWriteTime=240 The 1-5 refers to days of the week, with Monday=1 and Sunday=7. The time portion refers to the hours of the day based on a 24-hour clock. You do not need to specify days of the week (e.g. Time=1-7/0:00-8:00 is the same as Time=0:00-8:00). Unpredictable results will occur if there are overlapping time intervals. Also note that any options that appear in the Time= sections should not appear earlier in the prime.ini file and you can no longer edit these options from the user interface

2005-01-28, 16:14	#3
Mystwalker Jul 2004 Potsdam, Germany 3·277 Posts	But is it possible to stop Prime95 with that?

2005-01-28, 17:02	#5
JuanTutors "Juan Tutors" Mar 2004 571 Posts	If you put only: Time=1-5/0:03-0:05 Priority=8 DiskWriteTime=30 Prime95 will run for those two minutes at priority 8 on those 5 days, and will not run any other time.

2020-09-25, 19:17	#10
SWWright Sep 2020 3₁₀ Posts	Your PauseWhileRunning is pausing Prime95 from midnight until 7 in the morning, after which it is free to run. If you do not want Prime95 running during the day, the setting should be as follows: PauseWhileRunning=* during 1-7/09:00-17:00 This will force Prime95 to pause from 9 AM to 5 PM every day of the week.