GPU missing

[Fardringle]

Starting about a week ago, projects that use the GPU have started showing the status "GPU missing, Waiting to run" in the BOINC Manager. The BOINC Event Log says "No usable GPUs found" in the initial startup messages. Granted the GPU in this machine isn't terribly new (it's an ATI Radeon HD 5670) but it has been running GPU projects just fine until now. I thought that a Windows update might have messed with the drivers even though I've configured it not to, so I uninstalled the drivers and installed the latest version from AMD but BOINC is still giving the same error message. I tried some older drivers as well but that didn't help either.

The GPU is definitely not missing since it works just fine in games.

I'm running BOINC version 7.0.28 currently (I usually only upgrade when a project asks for it) and the ATI driver version 9.0.100.2000 (the newest that AMD lists for this GPU).

Any ideas?

 

[petrusbroder]

Do you have a cc_config.xml file which specifies BOINC to use the GPUs?
If not, creating one (using this link to the BOINC-wiki) may help ...

From the wiki:

<cc_config>    
    <options>        
         <use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
    </options> 
</cc_config>

I hope it will help - it has helped me ...

 

[Fardringle]

BOINC tries to use the GPU but says that there aren't any in the system, even though it has been happily using the same GPU for more than a year.

 

[Sunny129]

while its highly unlikely that you'd need to employ a cc_config.xml file now so suddenly when you've been doing fine without it for so long, you never can be too sure. did you give this a try yet?

also, have you confirmed that the Windows OS still detects the 5670? is your desktop still extended to the [real or imaginary] display that the 5670 handles?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Here's what I think may have happened - Windows did an update, that updated a hardware driver. Which, the newer drivers, have issues with OpenCL. So you removed the driver, and installed the newest driver from ATI/AMD's site, which... has issues with OpenCL.

I'm using the 12.4 Cats on my HD4850 card, for MW@Home. Sadly, WCG/HCC does not run on that card, or possibly because of those drivers. WCG gives me a notice message that it is not compatible with my GPU.

 

[Sunny129]

i'm using Catalyst 12.4 drivers for my HD 6950 and HD 7950 too. OP, you might want to roll back a few driver versions to whatever you were using before the last Windows update.

 

[Fardringle]

I did try the cc_config.xml file that petrusbroder suggested. It didn't make any difference. I also tried using several older Catalyst drivers (but not all versions so I'm not sure if I tried 12.4) and BOINC still doesn't detect the GPU. I don't know for sure exactly what version I had before the problem started but I'll see what it does with the 12.4 drivers.

Windows definitely detects the GPU properly. It's the only GPU in the computer, is driving two monitors at their native resolutions, and 3dMark scores are right where they should be for this system. The only thing that seems to be having trouble with the GPU is BOINC, so it may very well be a driver version conflict.

 

[zzuupp]

That seems to limit it down to the open_cl side of the drivers.

After the uninstalls, are you confirming that every last little bit is actually getting uninstalled?

 

[sangyup81]

Unfortunately, uninstalling ATI/AMD drivers through Windows doesn't really uninstall it sometimes. For these cases, use Driver Fusion

http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

 

[Sunny129]

That seems to limit it down to the open_cl side of the drivers.

After the uninstalls, are you confirming that every last little bit is actually getting uninstalled?

you make an excellent point here. while many swear against the use of "driver cleaners," i've found one in particular to be very useful - Driver Cleaner Pro. the key is to just be careful what you remove with it. but i always find driver remnants after uninstalling drivers (both AMD and nVidia). my general procedure for updating drivers is this:

1) uninstall the current drivers
2) restart in safe mode
3) run Driver Cleaner Pro
4) restart in normal mode (not safe mode)
5) install new drivers

it never fails - Driver Cleaner Pro always finds something that didn't get removed by the driver's own uninstaller.

 

[StitchExperimen]

My 2-bits is that from my experience Driver Fusion doesn't remove all of the AMD drivers. I'm going to try Driver Cleaner Pro and I'll get back with a report on another computer with driver removal issues...

 

[biodoc]

Which windows OS are you using?

posting of event log file would be useful too.

i'm thinking if you installed boinc as a service, then Vista or later could be a problem.

 

[Fardringle]

I thought I had included it in the first post, but I guess not. It's Windows XP Pro.

 

[biodoc]

I did a little searching and found that OpenCL runtime is not supported for Win XP in drivers 12.2 and later. So it looks like you need 12.1 or earlier. 11.12 looks to be the safest to try since there is 12.1 and 12.10 (the latter doesn't looks like it will work.

I found this "cheatsheet" link from the berkely forums: http://www.hal6000.com/seti/boinc_ati_gpu_cheat_sheet.htm

 

[lane42]

Fardringle, if all fails, just un/reinstall Boinc and see what happens.

 

[Fardringle]

I tried reinstalling BOINC as well. It didn't help. I haven't tried any of the 11.x drivers yet, though so I'll go with biodoc's recommendation next. The odd thing is that I know for certain that I had at least 12.2 for many months before this started happening because 12.2 was still sitting in my downloads folder from when I installed it to upgrade when it came out last year, and may have had 12.4 but I'm not totally sure about that since I didn't have a copy of that one in the downloads folder until I downloaded it to try it a few days ago.

 

[biodoc]

Maybe you had also installed the AMD APP SDK with OpenCL with 12.2?

http://developer.amd.com/tools-and-...erated-parallel-processing-app-sdk/downloads/

Is there something like that in your download folder?

 

[Fardringle]

Nope, no SDKs installed, and 11.12 drivers didn't work either, so it may be something wrong with the OpenCL support on the card itself.

 

[Rudy Toody]

I remember something about going to the service entry for boinc and tweaking something. I don't have windows, so I didn't really pay attention to the tweak, but I think it should be obvious.

To correct the same problem on Linux, I have to run it in a root terminal instead of through the normal startup process.

 

[Fardringle]

I apologize that I never followed up on this, but wiping everything with Driver Cleaner and reinstalling 12.2 drivers did work (for a while).

Unfortunately, today I succumbed to the constant nagging by the BOINC manager for me to upgrade from 7.0.28 to 7.0.64 and now BOINC says that my GPU is missing again. I completely uninstalled .64 and put .28 back but it still says the GPU is missing.

I know I should just upgrade the card (and probably the whole computer), but that's simply not an option right now, and this currently my only machine running BOINC so I might have to "retire" for a while if I can't get this figured out..

 

[Soggysocks]

I apologize that I never followed up on this, but wiping everything with Driver Cleaner and reinstalling 12.2 drivers did work (for a while).

Unfortunately, today I succumbed to the constant nagging by the BOINC manager for me to upgrade from 7.0.28 to 7.0.64 and now BOINC says that my GPU is missing again. I completely uninstalled .64 and put .28 back but it still says the GPU is missing.

I know I should just upgrade the card (and probably the whole computer), but that's simply not an option right now, and this currently my only machine running BOINC so I might have to "retire" for a while if I can't get this figured out..

I'm using an older ATI card.....4670. Running Win 7-64 Home Premium. Until the recent upgrade to Boinc 7.0.64 Couldn't use my gpu for cruching. Had same issue....GPU not found.
And kept getting message to upgrade my video driver. SO,
I updated Boinc to 7.0.64, then Catalyst control center, the most recent. Also when at the AMD site they said I needed to update Hydravision for the new drivers to work. Did you update hydravision with control center?

 

[Fardringle]

Unless Hydravision installs as part of the normal Catalyst driver package, then I don't have it installed at all (and therefore haven't updated it). Were you able to get your 4670 working with the newest BOINC software and newest Catalyst drivers together?

 

[biodoc]

Looks like hydravision is an optional download.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx#2

 

[Soggysocks]

Unless Hydravision installs as part of the normal Catalyst driver package, then I don't have it installed at all (and therefore haven't updated it). Were you able to get your 4670 working with the newest BOINC software and newest Catalyst drivers together?

Every thing is working as advertized. What windows version and card are you using exactly?

 

[Fardringle]

Windows XP Pro SP3. ATI Radeon HD 5670. Currently the 11.12 drivers since they were mentioned as the last that officially work with the card and BOINC. I did have 12.2 for a while and working, but since it stopped working again I figured I'd try these drivers. Sadly, it's still not working.