I have been running BOINC for World Communiy Grid for a zillion years. After installing Windows 10 Insider Build #16226, it stopped working (never unsuspends and does work):

https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/06/21/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-16226-pc/

The BOINC client thinks that the computer is always busy, and remains suspended. If I uncheck "Suspend when computer is in use" in my Computing Preferences, then the BOINC client will run 100% of the time, it never suspends. Otherwise it never does any work.

Can someone please look into this? It's true of the official release as well as 7.8.0 (64-bit).

Thanks - Jim

I'd feel you best post this at the Microsoft forums and the BOINC Alpha email list (requires registration). It being an insider version, things can still change before it's going out to the public. So this can well be a bug in that Win10 version, which is then for Microsoft to fix, instead of for BOINC to fix (and probably break the same idle detection on all other Windows versions).

When it's a true code change that Microsoft says they're going to stay with, there's always time for it to be added to BOINC code.

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I think I know what's causing that problem, now!
Can you please confirm, and if you confirm it, submit feedback using the Windows 10 Feedback Hub?
Thanks.

Build 16226 introduced some enhancements to Task Manager, to show GPU info. And they (Microsoft) indicated that things may be a bit buggy.
https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/06/21/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-16226-pc/

Well, I can confirm that:
***When the user is looking at the Details tab of Task Manager on Build 16226, timeout timers do not work correctly.***
These include breaking: BOINC Activity timeouts (tested using a 0.1 minute timeout), Windows power display timeouts, screen saver timeouts, etc.

Note: I have not yet tested the Release channel to see if this issue exists in the current public release (15063.447), yet.

My testing details:

Interferes with timeout timers:
- Processes tab > Details tab

Works normally:
- Staying on Processes tab
- Processes tab > Performance tab
- Processes tab > App history tab
- Processes tab > Startup tab
- Processes tab > Users tab
- Processes tab > Details tab > Processes tab
- Processes tab > Services tab

Regards,
Jacob Klein

I confirmed that
- 15063.447 (Release), works fine.
- 16232 (Insider Fast), is broken.

Here's a link to my Feedback Hub item. Please UpVote it, if you can reproduce the same issue.
https://aka.ms/Rccr3v

Jacob, I just upvoted it. Maybe something will happen. It's still broken in build 16257.

Jacob, I just upvoted it. Maybe something will happen. It's still broken in build 16257.

Fyi, the issue where idle timeouts stopped working on Windows 10 Insider Builds, was resolved in a release today. Build 16273 makes it work properly for me now.

Thanks,
Jacob

Jacob Klein wrote:

"Fyi, the issue where idle timeouts stopped working on Windows 10 Insider Builds, was resolved in a release today. Build 16273 makes it work properly for me now."

It's still not working for me. When "Suspend when computer is busy" is chedked, BOINC *never* runs. When it's unchecked, it runs all the time.

I'm up to build 16278 now. Here are my settings. Did you do anything different?

Use at most: 75% of the CPUs
Use at most :100% of CPU time

[x] Suspend when computer is on battery
[x] suspend when computer is in use
'in use' means mouse/keyboard input in last [ 1 ] minutes.
[x] suspend when non-BOINC CPU usage is above 25%

I did *not* install it to run as a service.

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You are correct. It is still broken, when Task Manager is open to the Details tab. I must not have properly re-tested, early. The easiest test is to "Suspend when computer is in use" along with "In Use means:" set to 0.1 minutes (6 seconds).

Thanks for replying back on this.

Short for, cannot reproduce with last official release!

It might be helpful to try that test again with the v7.8.2 'release candidate' build announced Tuesday - just to be on the safe side.

SekeRob:

Are you for sure testing with Task Manager open to the Details tab?
The problem only happens, when Task Manager is open to the Details tab, on Build 16226 or later. As mentioned in the thread.

I've been asked for clarification on the summary and the details. They are below, to the best of my knowledge.

Note:
My original Feedback Hub item to Microsoft, dealt with the display timeouts. Since they've fixed that, I've decided to submit a new Feedback Hub item regarding BOINC's 'In Use' detection.
So, if you can reproduce the issue, please UpVote this new Feedback Hub item:
https://aka.ms/Mrocu7

Summary:
When Task Manager is open to the Details tab, 'In Use' detection is hosed :) Details below. Easiest to test using an "'In Use' means" setting of: 0.1 minutes.

Details:

On Windows 10 Insider Builds 16226 through 16257:
- If you open Task Manager, to the Details tab
- Timeouts were completely broken
- Settings > System > Power & sleep > Screen > Turn off after > Did not work when set
- Settings > Personalization > Lock screen > Screen Saver settings > Wait > Did not work when set
- BOINC > Suspend when computer is in use > 'In Use' means > Did not work when set (BOINC never resumed!)

On Windows 10 Insider Builds 16273 or newer, they fixed some, but BOINC is still broken:
- If you open Task Manager, to the Details tab
- Settings > System > Power & sleep > Screen > Turn off after > WORKS NOW
- Settings > Personalization > Lock screen > Screen Saver settings > Wait > WORKS NOW
- BOINC > Suspend when computer is in use > 'In Use' means > STILL BROKEN

Thanks,
Jacob

It's not a non-issue. Things should not break when Task Manager is open! :) It works just fine on non-Insider builds. So it is a new issue, too.

In earlier builds, my screen wouldn't even turn off in this scenario. They fixed that, but still have BOINC broken. So, it is an ongoing issue.

Please be more respectful. We're trying to track the issue, reproduce the issue, and get the issue fixed. Be helpful instead of dismissive, if possible, please. The issue may not matter to you, but it does to us.

PS: I haven't had the problems you describe, with Task Manager. Seems possible that some other software might be involved in causing your problems.

I did a quick experiment last night. I booted my computer running Windows Insider Build 16281 into Safe Mode with Networking. I configured BOINC to suspend if there was any keyboard/mouse activity, and I set the timer to 1 minute. I think this is what I saw:

- BOINC was suspended
- after 1 minute, BONIC started running
- I moved the mouse
- BOINC was suspeneded

... but BOINC never un-suspended (started running) after sitting there for at least a minute.

I want to try this experiment again because I don't understand why it un-supended once, but not a second time.

I load a dozen things at startup - DropBox, OneDrive, Google Backup and Sync, ShareX, Weather Watcher Live, Carbonite, etc. My motiviation for trying Safe Mode was that one of these things might be causing the problem. If I can get BOINC to work as expected in Safe Mode, I guess I can try to start up one thing at a time and see if it breaks. I like to run the Task Manager 100% of the time, but I realize that may be part of the problem too.

I am disappointed that Microsoft made it so hard to boot into Safe Mode with Windows 10.

- Jim

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Jim,
From my testing, I think Microsoft may have fixed this "Task Manager - Details tab - BOINC doesn't resume" problem, in Build 16288!
Can you confirm please? Note: I do my testing with "In Use Means" "0.05 minutes" :)

It does indeed seem fixed in build 16288. It was not available for me to install until Thursday morning. I'm glad they sorted out their problems.

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Thanks for getting back to us with confirmation! :)