I have BOINC set to run whenever my computer is idle, and I figured this was perfect because I leave my laptop on almost always. When leaving to work or going to sleep I usually just close the top and set it down. I figured that's a lot of idle time when it could be helping science! However, watching the stats I'm getting a growing suspicion that when I close my laptop it doesn't run anymore. I may be missing something obvious... to quote Macklemore- "Honestly, I don't know nothing about mopeds computers."

Is my laptop closed not considered 'idle'? I'm not using it and it's still on. I can't run BOINC while I use my laptop because otherwise everything is slow and terrible. But I feel bad that it sits there for hours a day and idn't running BOINC. Is there some setting I can change? I'm running Windows 8 on an ASUS laptop.

Summary of idle:

1) Default BOINC only computes when the computer is not in use [delay a few minutes]. You can set it to also compute when in use.
2) Default BOINC only uses 50 or 60% of CPU time. Increase/decrease as needed to reduce any 'user' interference or temperature build up occurs.
3) Default BOINC is set to run based on preferences. Many switch quickly to 'Run always' when finding that BOINC actually does back-off real fast [always runs at lowest priority]. This cancels point 1 and 2 above, with full 100% computing / use of any spare CPU cycle.

'Crunching' actually uses all 'spare' CPU cycles in the periods it is allowed to crunch i.e. it loads the CPU at those times up to 100%. Closing lid is one of those signals for a laptop to go to sleep/standby or hibernation and when crunching is not advised to be done because of heat build-up, the keyboard is often also a heat dissipation surface. Large areas around mine are metal and get quite warm, where the GPU is actually very warm at times, so the thought of closing lid and continue computing would not feel like a good move. Also the laptop site on a 3 fan NotePal to give extra cooling from below.

FYI, there are power management options with which to set what has to be done when the laptop lid is closed or the power button is operated [short or long], but would not mess with those unless you know what you are doing.

Good luck

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

BOINC's definition of idle after X minutes should be after the last keyboard/mouse activity. You can check the event log to see if the computer is in fact going to sleep or not when you close the lid, as there will be a log entry with a timestamp.

You can change the behavior of your computer when you close the lid, under the Windows control panel it's in "Power Options". There should be a link in the left-hand column that says "Change what closing the lid does". However, as pointed out, running with the lid closed can block vents and provide an extra layer of "insulation" keeping the system from being able to radiate heat away from itself. If you want it to keep running, I would just set your display to turn off after a short interval (i.e., 10 minutes) and leave it open.

I think you'll also find that BOINC won't really cause any performance issues unless you are using GPU computing while in use. The only time I pause BOINC CPU computation, is when I'm playing some (but not all) games that need heavy CPU load.

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My Detailed BOINC Stats