hello folks - I have been a BOINC contributor for years now, recently upped my game and formed a team of friends to all tackle the Covid-19 issue, and even replaced old 32-bit only mobo (VERY slow crunching) and put the app on my wife's desktop PC to squeeze out as many tasks as possible - BUT - her machine keeps crashing to BSOD

I have throttled back on CPU usage to 60% and it still crashed (AMD A8-7600 CPU)

I have taken photos of the different crash meessages and some other useful screenshots - if I knew how, I'd attach them to this post?
if that is not allowed, I can upload them to an online folder - please advise?

many thanks - richard

hello folks - I have been a BOINC contributor for years now, recently upped my game and formed a team of friends to all tackle the Covid-19 issue, and even replaced old 32-bit only mobo (VERY slow crunching) and put the app on my wife's desktop PC to squeeze out as many tasks as possible - BUT - her machine keeps crashing to BSOD

I have throttled back on CPU usage to 60% and it still crashed (AMD A8-7600 CPU)

I have taken photos of the different crash meessages and some other useful screenshots - if I knew how, I'd attach them to this post?
if that is not allowed, I can upload them to an online folder - please advise?

many thanks - richard

Have you tried running a memtest? Boinc is very intensive and can show up flaws in the hardware that wouldn’t normally show up.

her machine keeps crashing to BSOD

Install BlueScreenView, run it and it'll show what the BSODs say/said. No need for screen shots or photo's, just give the message that's printed. (Although if you mean to give photo's, they need to be on an external website. You can use Google Photo's with a shared album)

I have throttled back on CPU usage to 60% and it still crashed (AMD A8-7600 CPU)

Throttling the CPU that way still puts it at 100% bursts 6 seconds out of every 10. Better is to set use of one fewer core with the "Use at most N% of the CPUs" value. Set it to 99% to use just 3 cores.

But that said, BOINC doesn't do any crunching, it is a managing program, it doesn't put your CPU under load. That's done by the project's science application(s).
You only mentioned you are doing covid-19, but didn't tell via which project. Rosetta, World Community Grid, GPUGrid, other?

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thank you Jord - screenshots here - http://www.grumpyoldgits.org/BOINC/crashes/screenshots.htm

doing WCG "Open Pandemics - covid 19 7.17"

please let me know if you need any more info?

I'm an old git - used to work in IT but getting slow & forgetful now!

thank you Bryn Mawr - running Windows 10 memory test now
will post test result ASAP
may well also power down, and reseat RAM cards which maybe I should have done when I installed the mobo - Doh!

OK - memory test did not find any faults, but there were a lot of red entries in the event viewer log which mean nothing to me - if one of you helpful people can Use Team Viewer, I am happy for you to take a look in real time -

test results follow

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-MemoryDiagnostics-Results
Date: 16/06/2020 17:25:56
Event ID: 1201
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: DESKTOP-JNVFPUA
Description:
The Windows Memory Diagnostic tested the computer's memory and detected no errors
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-MemoryDiagnostics-Results" Guid="{5f92bc59-248f-4111-86a9-e393e12c6139}" />
<EventID>1201</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2020-06-16T16:25:56.2225931Z" />
<EventRecordID>1972</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="5328" ThreadID="5332" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>DESKTOP-JNVFPUA</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<UserData>
<Results xmlns="http://manifests.microsoft.com/win/2005/08/windows/Reliability/Postboot/Events">
<CompletionType>Pass</CompletionType>
</Results>
</UserData>
</Event>

I'd like you to install BlueScreenView anyway (link in my previous post). As that will tell in what module the system service exceptions happen.
Best get the 64bit version, then use right-click->extract all to extract the contents to a folder of your liking, then start bluescreenview.exe from there.
Expand the window that opens and for the system service exception errors post what it says in the column "Caused by Driver", and if there's nothing there, please type the Bug Check Code.

And do that as well for the "attempted to write to readonly memory" error.

Thank you.

thanks again Jord - I have run BlueScreenViewer and done an Alt-PrtScrn for each of the reports that appeared - will add them to the web page with screenshots and advise you here when that is done

OK - BSV dump files here - TIA - truly & humbly grateful!

http://www.grumpyoldgits.org/BOINC/crashes/screenshots.htm

All your crashes happen in the ntoskrnl.exe system, this is the Windows core kernel. If it truly is ntoskrnl.exe, the system is corrupt and you should reinstall Windows, preferably clean. Crashes in the ntoskrnl.exe usually happen because a third party driver occupies memory that the kernel lives in. At this point the kernel panics and throws a BSOD before damage can be done to the system. At such point the driver will be unloaded from memory, and the system reboots.

A first run of https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/947821/fix-windows-update-errors-by-using-the-dism-or-system-update-readiness may get you on top, but if instability issues persist after that, you'll have to search further. Seeing how one of the crashes happened in CI.dll (Not CL), This is the code integrity module. It also points heavily in the direction of a corrupted Windows.

I think at the end of the day you're best off reinstalling Windows on that puppy.

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many thanks Jord - just did re-install keeping peronal files and apps - crashed again, showing "attempted to write to ROM" message again
I had refitted RAM cards (after power off natch) and was not even running the BOINC Manager, so it looks like I need to do a clean re-install (sigh)
thanks for all your help so far - I'll just have to bite the bullet and get on with it :-( ... now doing "keep nothing" install ... if that doesn't work, will wipe C drive and boot from USB stick - fingers crossed!

"this might take a while" ....no kidding! ;-)

OK - clean install appears to have done the trick (fingers crossed)
I was even VERY brave and did BIOS update, and mobo chipset update
BOINC app now chugging away at 90% with CPU temp 69 - 71C
- at present I have side off casing and a desk fan blowing on CPU (not ideal in a house full of cat fur)
- would like to fit 120mm fan + filter on the front panel (takes up 3 empty drive bays)
- I got an adaptor to do that to my own PC many years ago
- cannot remember where I got it - if you or any of your PC buddies know a source, I'd be VERY glad
Otherwise I will drill out the side panel and fit it there (less ideal for front-to-back airflow)
MANY THANKS again for your excellent help

No, I don't know of any 120mm fans with filter and adapter. I think it depends on the kind of case you have for anyone to give advice.
120mm fans are easily bought anywhere. 120mm fan filters are also easily bought. Even 120mm fan adapters are easily bought. But they're all 120mm square and you seem to talk about a rectangular thing, covering 3 drive bays, 3.5 inch, 2.5 inch?

I Frankenstein'ed fans onto cases before, on the side panels. With triple anti-mosquito gauze to keep as much as possible dust out. Can't do that anymore because my side panels are tempered glass. Besides, all fans in the case are now standard 120mm.

this was a special adaptor mount designed to fit a 120mm fan in 3 empty bays on front panel - overall width of mount 150mm height 127.5mm
if I don't find it for sale again, I can order a bit of 2mm ally that size and drill it out - or (cheapskate version) cut some rigid foam to jam the fan in situ
without extra airflow, CPU temp nudges 80C at 100% BOINC workload which is a worry

Link to close up photo - showing front fan + ruddy cat hair and hole ifn filter so its time to replace that!
White material around fan is a simple card template that I used to fill the gap - not pretty, but does the job!

http://www.grumpyoldgits.org/BOINC/crashes/Img_9500.jpg

There used to be a number of combined fan and filter systems around, but they all appear to have been replaced with separate units. :-(
The best solution looks to be a 120mm fan plus a 120mm filter unit. Given the filters are only a few mm thick with the same mounting hole location and size as the fan you could either sandwich the filter between the case and the fan, or on the outside of the case, if being used on the input side of the case; otherwise just put the filter directly onto the case (you might need a few nuts and bolts or fan mounting plugs, but they are easy to get hold of at the big box shifters over here in the UK)

but they are easy to get hold of at the big box shifters over here in the UK)

At least four of those box shifters have gone bust since I first started building my own PC's. Maplins being just the most recent one and that is just out of the ones I have used.

Currently virtually building my own with pcspecialist as both my laptop and desktop are getting rather long in the tooth.