Hi, I am not happy that I wasted 9+ hours on a WU that I consider as defective (WU ID 1351175). It has gone bad on two computers. And I have to loose credits for this...............

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Well ...
There is only one solution for not having bad WU's at all and that is ... never crunching and not using computers.

Unfortunately I think that that day might be closer at hand then I think.

Unfortunately I think that that day might be closer at hand then I think.

You make a valuable contribution to this project don't let a couple of bad results stop you we all get them from time to time for a myriad of reasons.

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Thank you for the encouraging words.

Unfortunately I think that that day might be closer at hand then I think.

As others have said, there is an inherent risk to running any task for any project. The risks increase if the project and or task is part of a beta run and the rise even higher if an Alpha test is being run. In the case of GPU applications the driver version and the BOINC version have impacts also...

So, when we run projects that have multi-hour or multi-day tasks our risks increase that bad things can happen and the consequence is the loss of credit earnings.

This is one reason I have long been an advocate of running as many projects as possible in part because there are so many that need our help. Moreover, you get a much broader mix of tasks with most taking less time than is "normal" here ...

On the system I am looking at right now, I am running one GPU Grid task that looks to be 10 some hours in length ... not sure why, if it is the task, the new Win7 installation, the fact that I am running Nvidia and ATI cards in the same system, or just a long task ... if it fails, well, 10 some hours shot until I can figure out the issues ... I have a similar problem with the 5870 ATI card and MW tasks not validating (until I stopped MW work on that system, and since I have not seen an all clear yet, I am still not doing MW work on my fastest system because the failure rate was too high).

In the mean time, on that same system, I am pumping out Collatz tasks with about 6 minutes per task on the ATI GPU ... If I start MW again those will run in even less time ... in the mean time the CPU cores are hard at work on the other 50+ projects I am attached to (just added a couple tonight, though one has no work today)...

Remember, the point is the science, and science has failures ... credit is only our way to measure how much valid science we have done ... but in no way reflects any virtue... what I mean, is that the fact that I have done "x" amount is really quite meaningless in the grand scheme of things ...

So, the point, you have not seen the last failure ... there will be more ... how many and when is the only question ... I hope you stick with it ... just remember if the failure rates are higher than you like ... try another project ... there are quite a few out there and I even just found a new one that supports both GPU classes (DNETC@Home) though I am not sure how well they run (yet) ...

It is a cyclic theme that results from project development and card aging.
I use to run my GTX260sp216 on Folding@Home, but out of the blue it stopped working. I tried different computers and different operating systems, but it still would not work. It works perfectly here!

I had a couple of cards that use to work on GPUGrid but stopped, so I put them on MilkyWay. MW changed their requirements to CC1.3, so I had to put them on folding@home for a while.

In the end I sold them and used the return to buy cards that work well here.