[ozzlo]

The Overclockers.com Folding@home team is now running their "Winter Blaze" folding contest in order overtake our rivals Overclockers.au. For the next month(maybe longer) Team32 invites you to come fold with us for a chance to win weekly prizes. Check out our latest folding video with all the highlights Here.


What is Folding@home? How do I get started? - We have put together a rather extensive FAQ Here To answer most of your questions and help you get started.

I have some questions that I can't find answers to... - Ask away, we pride ourselves on being a very warm positive and motivated community dedicated to helping others. We even have a mentor program thread Here where you can post and we'll get you setup with some Pro's that will take you under their wing and help you get rolling.


How do I Signup for the contest?- Signup in This Thread
You may join the contest at any time but you must post your current total score earned for T32. This information will be used to determine how many points you have folded during the contest. All stats will be based off of Extreme Stats, Use the name search on the left to find yourself and find your current total points folded for T32. If you are a new member, it may take a few hours for your name to show up in the folding stats.


How to participate- Fold for Team 32 under the name you posted in the Signup Thread.

How to earn contest entrys- Fold 1,000 points under your name posted in the signup thread during a drawing period and receive 1 contest entry for drawing held at the end of that drawing period. Example(23,000 points will net you 23 contest entrys.)

How are prizes drawn?- Prizes are drawn weekly, All contest entries will be reset to 0 at the end of each drawing period (week). Your Contest entries do not carry over to the next week (drawing period) with the exception of the final drawing which, all entries earned during the entire contest will be counted, Contest entries will need to be earned each week if you want a shot at every prize.




Drawing periods (A single signup is good for all drawing periods).
-Drawing held on Dec 14th for entries earned between Dec 7th - Dec 13th

-Drawing held on Dec 21st for entries earned between Dec 14th - Dec 20th

-Drawing held on Dec 28th for entries earned between Dec 21th - Dec 27th

-Drawing held on Jan 4th for entries earned between Dec 28th - Jan 3rd

-Possibly more drawings coming up.

- Bonus Drawing held on Jan 7th for entries earned between Dec 7th - Jan 6th - Mystery prize announced Dec 10th
(we are looking at extending the contest so the bonus mystery drawing will likely end up being one of the weekly prizes).

-What Exactly are the prizes and where are the winners declared?
Click Here to goto the Prize and winner announcement thread.


- EUEs: Excessive EUEs will not be tolerated. Violations of this rule will be dealt with on a case by case basis at the sole discretion of the contest administration, possibly resulting in dismissal from the contest if that user does not stop the excessive EUEs. This rule does not imply that a user who has a machine EUE a few times will be dismissed, such a situation will likely go unnoticed. The term excessive is not being defined here and will be left up to the contest admin to determine what is excessive. The bottom line, if a user is contacted about EUEs and they fix the issue, there will be no issue.

- Server Blocking: Blocking of Stanford Server IP addresses will not be tolerated. Violations of this rule will be dealt with on a case by case basis at the sole discretion of the contest administration, possibly resulting in dismissal from the contest.

The rules of this contest are subject to change based upon feedback of the participants, and at the sole discretion of the Administration.

This contest is designed to be fair and fun, If it is not, please provide feedback. The contest administrator (yours truly) may be more flexible than you think.

The members of this Team are honest, respectable people. I don't believe there will be any issue with rule violations. However, the consequences for someone caught intentionally trying to cheat need to be, and have been, clearly stated.

Credit to harlam357 for the design of most of these rules


NOW LET'S HAVE SOME FUN!!! AND GOOD LUCK TO ALL OUR CONTESTANTS!

[Cowboy X]

I'm in.

[AmbientFiction]

Originally Posted by ozzlo

How to earn contest entrys- Fold 1,000 points under your name posted in the signup thread during a drawing period and receive 1 contest entry for drawing held at the end of that drawing period.

How are prizes drawn?- Prizes are drawn weekly, All contest entries will be reset to 0 at the end of each drawing period (week). Your Contest entries do not carry over to the next week (drawing period) with the exception of the possible final drawing for all entries earned during the entire contest, Contest entries will need to be earned each week if you want a shot at every prize.

So what be the prizes Ozzlo? And you are saying that there are 4 prizes with a possible 5th? I like these rules. Let the games begin!!!

[ozzlo]

unfortunately I cannot announce the prizes yet because I have not gotten proof of ownership from our prize donors yet. This is the major reason the contest has been delayed a week.

I will not allow the contest to start until the prizes are announced.

[Jolly-Swagman]

ozzlo you need to change this line

-Drawing held on Dec 4th for entries earned between Dec 28th - Jan 3rd

to
-Drawing held on Jan 4th(?) for entries earned between Dec 28th - Jan 3rd

[ozzlo]

Nice catch

[AmbientFiction]

Originally Posted by ozzlo

unfortunately I cannot announce the prizes yet because I have not gotten proof of ownership from our prize donors yet. This is the major reason the contest has been delayed a week.

I will not allow the contest to start until the prizes are announced.

Understandable

[klear]

Let's do this.

[harlam357]

Ready to Rock & Rumble.

Originally Posted by ozzlo

Credit to harlam357 for the design of most of these rules

Took me a second... but something did feel mighty familiar as I was reading that...

[ozzlo]

bump

The rules have been changed in regards to late entry's


YOU MAY JOIN THE CONTEST AT ANY TIME HOWEVER, AFTER THIS MOMENT, YOU MUST POST YOUR CURRENT POINTS FOR T32 IN ORDER TO JOIN. If you are chosen as a winner, your folding history will be examined and liars will be disqualified.

[Bobnova]

So out of curiosity, how can anyone but the folder tell when their box EUEs?
Mine don't, but i'm still curious.

[ozzlo]

This is a great Question for harlam since it's his rule...

I think this mattered more when the contests were based upon workunits instead of points... I think a EUE still counts as a completed workunit, you just get no or reduced score for em so in theory you could run your system on the brink of bluescreening every couple of min and do "100's of workunits" an hour because your machine just calculates the first line and then it dies... Such a thing would show up as a very low Points/Workunit average... Again, I'm definately not the EUE expert but such are the things I assume...

[Bobnova]

Ahhh, yeah that explains it. Didn't realize you got a WU credit for a crash.

[Porvalsh]

Yeah I don't get what EUE is either but I'll just fold away like normal until someone yells at me, then I'll ask how to fix it.

Edit: Oh and it would be really fun to videotape the drawings for everyone. Nothing like a build up of suspense!

[ozzlo]

the camera I just got can shoot Real 720P video (none of that super compressed "720P" $50 camcorder garbage) and i've been itchin to try it out.

Bump

[Outback_Jon]

Originally Posted by Porvalsh

Yeah I don't get what EUE is either but I'll just fold away like normal until someone yells at me, then I'll ask how to fix it.

Edit: Oh and it would be really fun to videotape the drawings for everyone. Nothing like a build up of suspense!

"EUE" is Early Unit End. It happens when the work unit ends unexpectedly. It can be a normal situation for a work unit, but is usually the result of unstable hardware. (Too much overclocking, overheating, bad memory, bad card or processor)

Ozzlo answered the reason to avoid them in contests, but the reason to avoid them in general is that they hurt the science. (The unstable hardware caused units) The units that are returned with an EUE are resent to other Folders thus lengthening the time it takes to complete them.

[FatCamel]

I had several EUE's getting th GPU client started I hope it wasn't enough for punishment, I don't want to be stripped and flogged.

[ozzlo]

As long as the problem is fixed then your in the clear.... If not post up a thread and we'll help ya out.

[FatCamel]

Yeah I got it running finally. This thing gives me a lot more PPD than I thought it would.

[AmbientFiction]

Originally Posted by Bobnova

Ahhh, yeah that explains it. Didn't realize you got a WU credit for a crash.

Sometimes yes sometimes no. I've had EUEs give me no point, EUEs give me have credit, and full credit.

Ozzlo I just got Linux setup tonight....I got a few(about 10) EUE NANs last night on the GTS client and tonight I ended up getting a NANs on my HD4650.....I dropped back the clocks on it. Let me know if you catch anymore EUEs/NANs out of me. I always keep a close watch on things like that but sometime I'm up and gone for a few days at a time.

[ozzlo]

I love all the EUE confessions i'm getting I appreciate all the honesty.

EUE's do not hurt this contest because of the way it is designed but EUE's do hurt the science...

[harlam357]

Originally Posted by ozzlo

This is a great Question for harlam since it's his rule...

I think this mattered more when the contests were based upon workunits instead of points... I think a EUE still counts as a completed workunit, you just get no or reduced score for em so in theory you could run your system on the brink of bluescreening every couple of min and do "100's of workunits" an hour because your machine just calculates the first line and then it dies... Such a thing would show up as a very low Points/Workunit average... Again, I'm definately not the EUE expert but such are the things I assume...

That's pretty much correct. In the contests I ran that were based on WUs, someone who EUEs a storm could have their entry count skyrocket. During those times the GPU2 Cores weren't as stable as they are now, so it was quite an issue. The issue with server blocking is still valid... however, its more of a deterrent than anything that can be enforced, as there's no way to prove it by looking at the publicly available stats information.

[ebug122]

If our GPU2 core freezes (in terms of several hours up to a day). Are we allowed to cancel it and start a new one?

[torin3]

Originally Posted by harlam357

That's pretty much correct. In the contests I ran that were based on WUs, someone who EUEs a storm could have their entry count skyrocket. During those times the GPU2 Cores weren't as stable as they are now, so it was quite an issue. The issue with server blocking is still valid... however, its more of a deterrent than anything that can be enforced, as there's no way to prove it by looking at the publicly available stats information.

The GPU2 also didn't have a 5 EUE in a row = 24 hour timeout safety lock on them either. I got about 1000 EUEs overnight due to a problem on one of my clients durring a contest. I reported it, and we took them out. Stanford added the lockout shortly after.

[harlam357]

Originally Posted by ebug122

If our GPU2 core freezes (in terms of several hours up to a day). Are we allowed to cancel it and start a new one?

Freeze? How does it freeze?

If you repeatedly see this message, EUE limit exceeded. Pausing 24 hours., at the end of the log file when it "freezes", then there may be an issue with your GPUs stability.

Originally Posted by torin3

The GPU2 also didn't have a 5 EUE in a row = 24 hour timeout safety lock on them either. I got about 1000 EUEs overnight due to a problem on one of my clients durring a contest. I reported it, and we took them out. Stanford added the lockout shortly after.

So very true... I believe this 'EuePause' (as I call it in HFM) is what's happening to our friend ebug here.

[ebug122]

Originally Posted by harlam357

Freeze? How does it freeze?

If you repeatedly see this message, EUE limit exceeded. Pausing 24 hours., at the end of the log file when it "freezes", then there may be an issue with your GPUs stability.

It doesn't happen very often but the progress will just stop at a certain point. Sometimes in the middle, sometimes at 100%. I have to close the client and re-open it for it to continue.

[harlam357]

As long as it's not EUE'ing, you're ok. However, if you're card is OC'd beyond the manufacturers spec, then you may want to try returning it to its stock settings to see if that clears up your issue. It should not just hang like that.

Lastly, noticed your stats link in your sig. There's a newer version of HFM available (0.4.6.99) if you'd like to upgrade.

http://code.google.com/p/hfm-net/

[AmbientFiction]

Originally Posted by ebug122

It doesn't happen very often but the progress will just stop at a certain point. Sometimes in the middle, sometimes at 100%. I have to close the client and re-open it for it to continue.

I've had the same issue with SMP and GPU clients and as ChasR told me just wait it out. I'm sure if you get up to like 30 mins without anything shut it down wait about 3 mins and fire it back up but if you kill the client too soon and restart it right back up it can and will about 50% of the time eat you WU ranter than sending it back to stanford.

[gottcha]

Do i need to with my entry post with my points total as of dec 7?? and how do i find that total?? I thought i saw a post with the points total for the 66 entries some where.

[Bobnova]

Originally Posted by ebug122

It doesn't happen very often but the progress will just stop at a certain point. Sometimes in the middle, sometimes at 100%. I have to close the client and re-open it for it to continue.

Mine'd do that in conjunction (usually, not always) with a VPU recovery popup. My GPU's memory was running hot and dropping bits, causing total annihilation of the folding progress, but without an EUE.