[Todd Madson]

I also have experienced a failure in my G4/400.

It once had three 80 gig IDE drives in it.

The third drive was pulled out and placed in a powered case
as auxilliary storage for my G5.

The second drive just confirmed SMART status as FAILING as
of the night before last. I can't even get it to launch to bring
up any data off of it.

Machine is down to one 80 gig drive now. Still churning away
on BOINC/Seti but I suspect it's not going to be running a year
or two from now. Six years going on seven is a long time to do
something 24/7.

Sorry to hear it, Gecko - at least you got a new machine out of
the deal! Let us know how it runs on Seti eh?

[Gecko_r7]

Thanks Todd.
I shut it down in prep. to move (moved to Las Vegas this past weekend).
Packaged it like a baby in the orig. box, no damage or anything.
One start-up cycle too many i guess. CPU1 locks-up the entire system once the CPU gets to operating temp. I was able to scrounge-up a working 1.25 card for 167FSB, but this is just to allow me to limp it along until I can get our files xferred. What a huge pain. Of course, my wife has 8 gigs of pics on the drive and I have 15gigs of music and the Apple x-fer process between the PPC and new Mactel iMac isn't working, so I'm doing this the old fashioned way. You can imagine how long it takes @ 25gigs to transfer from G4 ATA 66 drive over Firewire 400 to an external drive, then x-fer again and write to the iMac.

Argh!!! Lesson learned!
As for the G4, maybe I'll do a headless cruncher until the 1.25 CPU gives out.
Its a shame that the last of the G4s (167fsb models) are the LEAST serviceable. I could keep a sawtooth going w/ an easy cpu swap from a few different vendors.

On the plus, I've already set-up the iMactel w/ Alex's V7. This thing is stupid fast!
To anyone thinking of upgrading: $1259 for 17", C2D 2.0Ghz, 1Gb DDR2, 160Gb HD, superdrive, airport X, bluetooth and wireless KB & Mouse. I looked at a Mini, but if I wanted to use my perfectly good, only 3 years old 17" flat panel studio display, it's another $100.00 for the ADC to DVI adapter. So, a decent mini similarly equipped was same price as an 2.0Ghz upgraded iMac, but only dual 1.83 Yonah and 2megs cache (and a giant transformer box for the studio monitor). If a person wants an OS X rig and bundled software, iMac is pretty good deal for the $, features and performance. I'll probably upgrade the memory w/ a nice pair of 1GB sticks and rig a big external drive on the relative cheap. In my case, a happy ending afterall.

[arkayn]

I need to save some money up before I move up to a Intel iMac.

[beadman]

Hey, Knightrider - just saw you hit the top 20 computers over at SETI. Congratulations!

beadman

[beadman]

I just received permission to run SETI and Einstein on a 2.0 GHz G5 here at work. The problem is I only know how to have BOINC run when I'm logged in on the machine. That's a problem, as it's a central machine for anyone and I can't stay logged in on it, especially at nights and weekends. The owner doesn't mind letting it run, but I need help figuring out how to have it run when I'm not logged in.

beadman

[Gecko_r7]

Sooo,

1 day running the iMac 2.0 C2D, though certainly not under the best conditions since I've put a lot on the CPU w/ file x-fers, copying, etc.

71.61 credit per hour and still climbing w/ Alex's v7.

vs. 13.10 for P-M 1.6 Banias w/ Simon's 1.3 xB
vs. 12.59 for 1.25 G4 w/ Alex's V6-no graphics.

Wow!

[ChillyWilly5280]

Originally Posted by beadman

I just received permission to run SETI and Einstein on a 2.0 GHz G5 here at work. The problem is I only know how to have BOINC run when I'm logged in on the machine. That's a problem, as it's a central machine for anyone and I can't stay logged in on it, especially at nights and weekends. The owner doesn't mind letting it run, but I need help figuring out how to have it run when I'm not logged in.

beadman

I think you have two options:

1. Add BOINC to every users Log In/Start Up items in the Accounts Preference Pane. Of course, this requires that someone be logged in at all times. Perhaps you could create a dummy user account that has very limited privileges to run nights & weekends, configured with a locked screen saver.

2. Install the Command Line version of BOINC. I think it can be/is configured to run at startup instead of at login.

[Mark Asiala]

Originally Posted by ChillyWilly5280

I think you have two options:

2. Install the Command Line version of BOINC. I think it can be/is configured to run at startup instead of at login.

I highly recommend this option. It is what I do for all of my machines. I have my G5 set to startup at 6am when I wake up and BOINC starts right up with it, works nicely.

I can send details on how I have my machine set up if you are interested.

[tomsax]

Originally Posted by ChillyWilly5280

I think you have two options:

1. Add BOINC to every users Log In/Start Up items in the Accounts Preference Pane. Of course, this requires that someone be logged in at all times. Perhaps you could create a dummy user account that has very limited privileges to run nights & weekends, configured with a locked screen saver.

2. Install the Command Line version of BOINC. I think it can be/is configured to run at startup instead of at login.

Option 2 is the best bet: it's easier, more reliable, and requires less upkeep. Install the command line version, then use either crontab (pre-Tiger) or launchctl (Tiger and later) to keep it running all the time.

I can send you instructions for either method.

[tomsax]

SETI is making my Mac Pro unusuable. When running, it makes the UI intolerably unresponsive. I switched it to run only when the machine is inactive, but it eats up enough cycles that it kills the file sharing and Apache services. My machine has also taken to hanging when left unattended.

I'm very bummed to have to stop crunching on the Mac Pro. The machine made it up to #7 on the top computers list before the problem became intolerable.

I don't know if there's something broken with my machine, or if the OS X kernel has scheduling issues with the dual Xeon setup. I was hoping 10.4.8 would fix the problem, but it didn't. I've tried reinstalling the system from scratch twice now, and I get the same problem.



Tom Saxton

[Gecko_r7]

Originally Posted by tomsax

Option 2 is the best bet: it's easier, more reliable, and requires less upkeep. Install the command line version, then use either crontab (pre-Tiger) or launchctl (Tiger and later) to keep it running all the time.

I can send you instructions for either method.

HI Tom,

I'll take you up on those instructions, especially using launchctl.
I'm going to try and set-up a headless G4 that I can control via ssh from the iMac.
Would you e-mail to preslerd945 at mac dot com Thanks!

[jedimstr]

Originally Posted by tomsax

SETI is making my Mac Pro unusuable. When running, it makes the UI intolerably unresponsive. I switched it to run only when the machine is inactive, but it eats up enough cycles that it kills the file sharing and Apache services. My machine has also taken to hanging when left unattended.

I'm very bummed to have to stop crunching on the Mac Pro. The machine made it up to #7 on the top computers list before the problem became intolerable.

I don't know if there's something broken with my machine, or if the OS X kernel has scheduling issues with the dual Xeon setup. I was hoping 10.4.8 would fix the problem, but it didn't. I've tried reinstalling the system from scratch twice now, and I get the same problem.



Tom Saxton

Odd, I'm not having cpu scheduling problems on my 3Ghz 4GB FDIMM MacPro. I have SETI running all the time (set to run even when active) and I compress and edit videos (HD and SD clips) in Final Cut Pro, Compressor all day long. I also edit plenty of RAW photos in Aperture which is memory/cpu/gpu hungry like almost no other app out there. SETI is doing as it should by only using my spare cycles allowing me to crunch away with my work at pretty much full speed and still make it to #4 on SETI's Top Computer List. My MPro is as responsive with BOINC on as it is with BOINC Snoozing or when it isn't running at all.

3 Things that you may want to try:
1. Use Alex's v7 SETI worker and the beta 5.4.9 Team MacNN Universal client available here.
2. Make sure you have as few PPC/Rosetta processes running as possible. Under Activity Monitor you can sort by "Kind" and see if you have any legacy services running. I only have Snapz Pro running as a PPC process and I wish Ambrosiasoft would hurry up and get a Universal version out. PPC/Rosetta processes can definitely rob your system of memory/cpu cycles.
3. Try running the Combo update for 10.4.8 from an external drive/emergency boot partition, and select your main boot drive as the target. Apple has a notice out for Mac Pro problems on some 10.4.8 installs causing Kernel Panics on startup.... though this doesn't describe your issues, it probably wouldn't hurt.

[Andy Cotton]

Quote:
Originally Posted by tomsax
SETI is making my Mac Pro unusuable. When running, it makes the UI intolerably unresponsive. I switched it to run only when the machine is inactive, but it eats up enough cycles that it kills the file sharing and Apache services. My machine has also taken to hanging when left unattended.

I'm very bummed to have to stop crunching on the Mac Pro. The machine made it up to #7 on the top computers list before the problem became intolerable.

I don't know if there's something broken with my machine, or if the OS X kernel has scheduling issues with the dual Xeon setup. I was hoping 10.4.8 would fix the problem, but it didn't. I've tried reinstalling the system from scratch twice now, and I get the same problem.



Your problem with slow running should be diagnosable. Maybe you know this already, but Seti should run as a "nice" process (as can be seen in activity monitor) and faithfully not interfere with other running processes. I have read before that there is a preference (somewhere) that sets the level of relative priority for a process, and you can change that priority by editing the preference. I'm sure somebody knows how to check/do this. As long as there is enough RAM to go round. Good luck, shame to have to back off such a productive cruncher.

[beadman]

Mark, please send me the details. The computer is runningOS 10.4.x. I'm not very conversant with unix or command line stuff, so details would help. Email is beadman at mac dot com

Thanks!
beadman

[bobpalmer]

Originally Posted by beadman

I just received permission to run SETI and Einstein on a 2.0 GHz G5 here at work. The problem is I only know how to have BOINC run when I'm logged in on the machine. That's a problem, as it's a central machine for anyone and I can't stay logged in on it, especially at nights and weekends. The owner doesn't mind letting it run, but I need help figuring out how to have it run when I'm not logged in.

beadman

Run the unix CLI version. I start mine using launchd, so BOINC starts during the boot process.

[Gulliver64]

Originally Posted by alexkan

I know most of these WU links are dead, but it's important to look at the actual clock speed that people are running these chips at, since the chip identifies itself as its stock clock speed, rather than what speed it's currently running at. I looked at those results a while back, and IIRC the ones that were turning in faster times than the G5s were overclocked.

As for what's been happening on my end, here's a prerelease version of v7 for Intel. This was as far as I could get for now, since halimedia temporarily needs his Mac mini back for other things. It's also (finally) compiled with ICC and IPP, which gives a little extra boost. In general, no miracles between v6.1 and v7, but a noticeable speed gain nonetheless.

Try it out and let me know what you think. I wasn't totally finished implementing new tweaks, but hopefully it should be stable and correct enough to be usable. The real version of v7 for PPC will be soon to follow, since none of my PPC dev tools are Intel-specific.

And please, please, if you have a Mac Pro, run v7 and post links to your results! (It doesn't seem like anyone has one yet, though...)

Hi alex,

it's been almost a month since you posted the prerelease v7 for Intel. What happened to the PPC-version? Anytime soon?

Thanks for your commitment!

[Todd Madson]

Interesting someone is mentioning a MacPro with certain apps making the thing
intolerably slow:

I tried running a music session on a MacPro at a store (2.66 dual with 1 gb ram)
using Logic Express. I brought in a DVD-ROM with one of my own sessions from
the same version of the application and copied it to the hard drive of the machine
in question.


This session was something that makes my dual G5 barely shrug at.....
(64 tracks, every track had at least two effects, compressors, platinum verbs,
gold verb, tons of delays and choruses, etc.)

My G5 does very well with this, but I wanted to see how much better the
MacPros do.

Well, this thing with four theoretical processors was practically shuddering and
quaking and seizing up was experiencing constant errors indicating it was having
problems running the session. Shades of my old G4 all over again! I wanted to
see how well these new boxes would run my stuff and I was horrified to find that
my G5 runs it significantly more efficiently.

I thought for sure it had to be broken - no apps were being run in the background,
and it wasn't being used as a webserver or running any other things.

I figured it had to be an energy saving setting or something because it was almost
like someone shut off two of the cores or something - I've never seen anything
quite like it and the user interface was shuddering along like an old jalopy.

I'm told that the Mac Pro apps are all pretty much converted over to x86 so it
shouldn't be a problem with Rosetta translation.

I wonder if that particular MacPro had some kind of serious problem....

[zombie67]

Did you use the Universal version of Logic Express? Some programs are terribly slow with rosetta.

Why do you say "four theoretical processors"? There should be four *actual* processors unless someone pulled out one of the chips.

[jedimstr]

Originally Posted by Todd Madson

Interesting someone is mentionin