EM3, Vista and FAH

[Underwater Mike]

Just assembled my new rig with Vista 64 Ultimate, and moved all my files over. I still use EM3 because I like the functionality as well as being able to kill all the clients with a single click when gaming.

I created four copies of the text console, set them each up appropriately, and tried to get EM3 to run them all on my quad core. No dice. There was absolutely no activity on the CPU. So, I shut down EM2 and restarted. To my surprise, all my configuration info was gone.

Any ideas on how to get all four cores crunching at once without resorting to installing as a service?

[VSEKH]

Make sure you have created separate folders for each FAH text console. In each folder, put copy of the FAH exe file. Create a shortcut for the FAH exe file, then add at the end of the Target column -local at the end. Do this for each FAH text console. Configure each FAH text console with the correct username, team number, different Machine ID, and setup the advanced settings. You should be able to startup each FAH text console one at a time.

[Underwater Mike]

Yup, did that in the launch string for EM3. It always worked under XP, but not now...

Originally Posted by VSEKH

Make sure you have created separate folders for each FAH text console. In each folder, put copy of the FAH exe file. Create a shortcut for the FAH exe file, then add at the end of the Target column -local at the end. Do this for each FAH text console. Configure each FAH text console with the correct username, team number, different Machine ID, and setup the advanced settings. You should be able to startup each FAH text console one at a time.

[VSEKH]

Since I fold with the Windows SMP client now, I monitor the protein with Fahmon (you can download it from here: http://fahmon.net/). I believe that it will also work with 4 text consoles.

I tried to go to the EMIII website, but it looks like it is down. Weatherman stopped updating the protein file awhile back. This is another reason why I stopped using it.

[Underwater Mike]

EM3 has been dead for a while, but I kinda liked it. I can't start the consoles with Fahmon, and if I reinstall as services, I'll lose the ability to kill them while gaming, without using the task manager.

Should I consider the SMP client? What is the benefit of that? All the posts I read look like it's a lot of trouble compared to the text clients.

[zsaz1029]

Well, I don't really think you should be killing them with the Task Manager ever.

You can install all of them as services, and then create a batch file that issues the commands to stop the services.

net stop FAH1 (or whatever the service name is)
net stop FAH2
net stop FAH3
net stop FAH4

Just a double click before gaming and you're good. You could then create a batch file with the 'net start' command to start each one back up again when you're done gaming.

And I used to use EMIII until it disappeared too. I just started using the SMP client again, and now use FAHMON. Though it's not interactive with the client, being able to start it and whatnot, I do like it's monitoring ability. Plus there doesn't seem to be a lot of options anymore.

[VSEKH]

Originally Posted by Underwater Mike

EM3 has been dead for a while, but I kinda liked it. I can't start the consoles with Fahmon, and if I reinstall as services, I'll lose the ability to kill them while gaming, without using the task manager.

Should I consider the SMP client? What is the benefit of that? All the posts I read look like it's a lot of trouble compared to the text clients.

The SMP client is giving me 3000plus points of production everyday for the Asus Maximus system. Though, I do turn the SMP client off when I am playing games. Otherwise the games will stutter a lot. The SMP client will utilize all 4 cores in a Quad-core CPU and give you a lot more point production compared to folding 4 separate text consoles.

[Underwater Mike]

Yes, killing with TM is what I wanted to avoid, as EM3 shut them down nicely. If I wanted to do as you mentioned, would I simply enter that text in the batch file, and then swap out "start" for "stop" in the complementary file? I know zilch about that stuff. If it is that easy, I'll do it that way.

BTW, thanks for all the help!

EDIT: After reading up on the SMP client, I think I would have trouble with that, as Verizon is giving me a lot of netork issues lately. So, I went ahead and installed all four text consoles as services. Now for another brainless question:

Even though I went into the Services dialog and specified the -local flag for when the service starts up, that option isn't persistent. That is, once the properties dialog for the particular service entry is closed, the -local flag disappears from the field when I go back into the properties.

If all four cores are banging away when the services start on their own, am I to assume that each thread has been assigned to its own core, just as it would with the -local flag? Or, is there some other way to set processor affinity which remains persistent?

[VSEKH]

I believe the newer text consoles that have the built in feature to run as a service will not need the -local option added as long as you created separate folders for each text consoles.

Each FAH.exe should show within Task Manager under processes tab taking up 25% CPU utilization if they are all working properly. When I had 4 text consoles folding in the past, sometimes the affinity for all FAH.exe's were set to just CPU1. I had to manually check all 4 CPUs for all FAH.exe's to get all of the 4 consoles folding properly.

[Underwater Mike]

Gotcha. Thanks for all the info.

BTW, after doing some reading, I was going to try the "sc pause SERVICENAME" command, rather than killing the service altogether. See any problems with that?

[VSEKH]

I checked on Microsoft's technet site here :Microsoft Corporation

Not sure if you would issue another pause command to resume the service. You might want to test it out on one of the text consoles. If it does not work, then you are better off issuing a "SC Start" command to startup the services and SC Stop command to stop the services.

[VSEKH]

Hey Mike, were you able to get 4 FAH text consoles folding successfully on your Quad Core system?

[Underwater Mike]

Originally Posted by VSEKH

Hey Mike, were you able to get 4 FAH text consoles folding successfully on your Quad Core system?

I did by following your recommendations on running as a service. I had to remove it, though, because my system is a bit unstable. Not sure why, as the memory passes an overnight run of Memtest, and the CPU passes an overnight run of Prime with the in-place FFTs. But when I do the blended test, it fails within five minutes on at least 1 core. And this is running at stock.

I probably need to just bump the voltage a bit, but I have not even started tweaking things -- work's just been beating me. Also, I have not read up on all the nuances of the mobo yet, so I'm reluctant to start messing with things without knowing what I'm doing. (Big change for me there!)