12/18/03 Client Problems & Errors

A fresh "install" running a Win2K system starting about 6PM 12/23/03. At 3:30am, found it stopped. I re-started it at 3:31am Here's the error.log:


========================[ Dec 24, 2003 2:28 AM ]========================
Starting foldtrajlite built Dec 18 2003
Wed Dec 24 02:46:57 2003 ERROR: [001.001] {trajtools.c, line 3641} Unable to open trajectory distribution file .\xxxxxxxx_protein_42.trj
Wed Dec 24 02:46:57 2003 FATAL ERROR: [002.003] {foldtrajlite2.c, line 5628} Unable to read trajectory distribution .\xxxxxxxx_protein_42, please create a new one

========================[ Dec 24, 2003 3:31 AM ]========================
Starting foldtrajlite built Dec 18 2003


Lines before this show an inability to connect to my proxy server as it was turned off. Even thought "no-net" was selected in GUI 3.2, on the first run of a client, it always seems to ignore the "no-net" selection. A "Save Config" doesn't do it until the GUI is stopped and re-started once or twice...:)


edited out my handle and replaced with "xxxxxxxx"

Change client settings in DFGui only when client is stopped (be sure it is stopped by checking Task Manager), otherwise, even when you say "save config", nothing will be applied.

After you configure DFGui, start the client for 10-20s, then stop it again. Now check foldit.bat and try to see what settings are applied on line starting with ".\foldtrajlite -f protein -n native".

You could see something like this:

.\foldtrajlite -f protein -n native -qt -rt -i f -g 5 -p 10

Each corresponding setting (or switch, starting with "-") has the meaning described in readme.1st - I'll repeat it here:

Code:

---

-qt  use the quiet mode
-rt  use more memory
-i f  fold offline
-g 5  update progress.txt every x structures (5 here, 0 denotes no progress.txt)
-p 10 set priority of client to 10 (-20 to 20 are valid numbers)

---

When uploading only, the only switch used should be "-u t". Note the spaces - they are necessary for proper client functioning.


DFGui does nothing else but applying those settings to foldit.bat when client starts.

The error you describe usually comes from the system that is not 100% stable (usually memory glitch) - no matter what all other benchmarks (including Prime95) may say - *.trj file gets corrupted while writing it to the disk. You can easily rectify it (if you were folding offline) by replacing "_42.trj" with "_41.trj" or even "_40.trj", and no work will be lost. In this case science scores will probably suffer a bit, as client has to redo wrong.

To avoid this error, back down your memory settings a bit, or your FSB. It will make the whole folding process more stable.

I've got to say that this latest client version seems to be more stable than previous ones (Linux and WinXP), be it while folding online, or no-net. Will take me another few days to check if the empty or corrupt filelist.txt problem has been rectified.

Thanks for your insight!

While this system is overclocked, it has been running like that for at least 3 months without error... I thought it was the new client...May be just a quirk......:)

If you've overclocked to the limits of stability, three months worth of dust in the heatsinks, degradation of thermal paste, a change in ambient temps, etc. could easily let errors creep in.

And, I think this client is a bit more demanding than some of the previous.