I want to help this project by providing some feedback about an issue I experienced:
Movies that I play while BOINC processes MalariaControl WUs seem to skip -- they freeze for 1-2 seconds, then continue. This happens about every minute, which is very annoying. It didn\'t happen back when I was only running WorldCommunityGrid WUs.
Also, as BOINC splits the resources 50%-50% between WCG and MalariaControl, I can tell that it only happens when malaria WUs are being processed, and not when WCG WUs.
I noticed that these pauses coincide with \"dents\" in the CPU load (as observed in the Task Manager), and heavy disk activity. I assume these are when MC switches WUs, and / or saves state or records progress. A file monitor tells me that the \"client_state*.xml\" files, the slot directory and the malariacontrol directory are written at these times -- except not at ONCE, but in 100 little pieces, 1kb at a time!! I thought defragmenting the drive would solve this, but apparently it doesn\'t.
In comparison, WCG seems to write just as much, but much less frequently, and without interrupting movie playback.
Does anyone else experience this? I\'m talking about the Windows version. I have an Athlon64, XP, plenty of RAM, system is stable otherwise. The issue is observed with several media players, including Windows Media and MPlayer.
Is this happening because this project is still in beta?
I really want to contribute to this project, but as it is, it decreases the usability of my computer a lot.
On the other hand, I really like that MC consumes much less memory than WCG. Great job on that!
Thanks for any input on the issue!
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