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Messages - Erich56 [ switch to compact view ]

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1
Ah, that's interesting.

From what you know, does this mean that the default priority of the process/program acemd.exe,  is "below normal" on all computers where it is installed, but that it is just on the single older computer that you suspect that is what causes the program to abend with no(?) error message?

Are all these computers running the same OS and, if not, then what are the differences?
Is there an Event Log for the computer (with the abending process) in question? That might help to identify/indicate a possible root cause of the abend. Similarly, the Event Logs for the other computers might be able to throw some light on the behaviour of the non-abending process' default operation.
At the moment, it seems that you cannot be certain as to what the root cause of the abend actually is. You only know (presumably by trial-and-error) that the abend seems to not occur if the process priority is set to normal. (Is that correct?)

Thus, altering the process priority with PT (Process Tamer) might only be a workaround to an as yet undefined problem, at best.
the computers are running different OS, and everywhere acemd.exe has "below normal" priority.  And there is no problem at all with this, except for this one computer in question.

My guess regarding the root cause for the problem here is: the CPU is an old Intel Quad Q9550, with various grid computing tasks, 4 in total, hence 1 for each core.  What comes in addition is that for the process acemd.exe (GPUGRID), the CPU uses the GPU as co-processor.  And what I notice is that the higher the GPU clock, the more the chance that acemd.exe stops - whenever it runs "below normal" priority.
This does NOT happen if it runs "normal" (also, the problem does not come up if I run only 3 tasks altogether, leaving 1 core free).
So, to me, it seems that I only need to give the CPU processing of acemd.exe some more support by increasing it's priority.

And yes, you are right: altering the process priority with PT obviously is a workaround, but seemingly one that works.

2
I, too, don't think that PT changes the priority to "below normal" (why should it?).  It must be something else.
Also, on all my other PCs where acemd.exe is running, it's set to "below normal".  However, there it doesn't matter, acemd.exe does not stopp suddenly.
It's only this one machine.  That's why I am so desparately looking for a tool which sets acemd.exe priority to "normal" for the whole time it's running.

3
@Erich56: I'm intrigued by this: Why would the process acemd.exe be changing (lowering) its default priority? This would likely be a deliberate design feature, rather than an error, yet you - the user - clearly don't want it to do that.
I wonder - would it make any difference to the default priority if you set the process to "Run as Administrator"? (Not sure whether that is relevant.)
I don't think that acemd.exe changes it's default priority.  The default priority seems to be "below normal", and what Mouser is suggesting is that once PT changes it to "normal", it's being changed back to "below normal" (after quite variable time spans, which seems strange, anyway).
On all other machines with which I run acemd.exe, there is no problem.  It's just this one PC with an older CPU, where acemd.exe suddenly stopps running. And what I have found out was that this does NOT happen once it's priority is at "normal".
This is the reason behind the whole thing.

4
What's probably happening is acemd.exe is changing its own priority to below normal soon after it starts a new job.
And PT is only trying to change it once.
I can fix that -- I can make PT try multiple times.
hello Mouser, further testing has shown that it might indeed be the case that acemd.exe is changing it's own priority back to below normal, at least sometimes, and in totally different intervals.
So if you could adapt the PT to try changing the priority regularly (I don't know: in intervals of 1 minute, or so), it would be great.  Please let me know.
Many thanks for you help.

5
I now tried the whole thing with "force to normal" - and this worked (yesterday I had the same situation, and then I tried it with "above normal", and for a short while this worked, too).
So meanwhile I'll let it run on "normal" and see what will happen.

6
Enable the Process Tamer log file, and check that from the GUI.
okay, I did that, and re-started the process.  The Log file says:

Sun Jul  8 12:31:32 2018  -> Forcing priority Above Normal due to explicit rule | acemd-918-80.exe


7
...
The thing is that these jobs take between 10 and 14 hours, so I don't always have a chance to watch what's happening when a job gets finished and a new one starts.  Some time this happens during the night, some time I am not at home exactly at that moment, ...
5 Minutes ago, I was lucky and could watch what was happening when acemd.exe was closed because a job got finished, and a new job (and hence acemd.exe) started:

There was the Windows Notification below on the right hand side, saying that Process Tamer is changing the priority of acemd.exe to "above normal" - but when I checked this seconds later, the priority was "below normal".  As shown in the Windows task Manager as well as in the PT GUI - see here:
Process Tamer_2.JPG
so something is going wrong  :(


8
It's too bad that I can't tell whether one of the following two scenarios happened during last night:

1) acemd.exe stopped after finishing a job, then restarted with a new job, PT changed the priority to "above normal", and lateron, at some point of time, acemd.exe changed the priority back to "below normal".

2) acemd.exe stopped after finishing a job, then restarted with a new job, and - for whatever reason - PT did NOT change the priority to "above normal".  Although I had seen PT already once (some time yesterday) changing the priority right when acemd.exe started.

The thing is that these jobs take between 10 and 14 hours, so I don't always have a chance to watch what's happening when a job gets finished and a new one starts.  Some time this happens during the night, some time I am not at home exactly at that moment, ...

9
unfortunately, I was too early when saying that everything works well now.
Last night, when a running acemd.exe got finished and a new one startet, the new one stayed "below normal".
The Windows Task Manager as well as the entry in the ProcessTamer GUI shows this - see screenshot attached.Process Tamer.JPG (although the Explicit Rule says "fore above normal".
So, sometime it works, sometime it doens't.  Too bad  :(

10
@Erich56, have you already downloaded and used the latest PT as released this week?
no, I havn't - since two days ago Mouser has recommended me to try the x64 beta (which I installed an hour ago and which, at least at this point, seems to work) -I didn't even know that there was a new version released this week - I had not detected a download link for it either.

11
hm, I now tried to reproduce the situation as described by me above - however, now it seems to work properly: I set the Process Tamer to "above normal" for acemd.exe, and after stopping and restarting acemd.exe, the Windows Task Manager (as well as the Process Tamer GUI) show "above normal".
I will watch the situation for the next hours and days and let you know (whatever the outcome is).

12
hello Mouser,

the download now worked fine.

This version functions to some degree.  What this means: it works when I set the priority to "normal".  When I set it to "above normal" (what I'd wished to do), the priority stays "below normal", as set orgininally.  This is strange, isn't it?
But, all in all, it's an improvement.  Maybe, for my purpose, "normal" will work anyway, let's see, I have to watch things for a while.
The attachment shows the Windows notification which pops up at the lower left corner after starting the progem acemed.exe - the same notification is shown when I set to "above normal", except that in this case, the Windows Task Manager shows that the process is "below normal".ProcessTamer.JPG

13
hello Mouser,

the link you provided for downloading a newer beta version did not lead to a download page.  Also, a search with other links, like:
Unified win32 and x64 setup betas:

    http://www.donationc...rocessTamerSetup.exe

Or if you prefer portable version:

    x64 version: http://www.donationc...sTamerPortable64.zip
    and win32 version: http://www.donationc...sTamerPortable32.zip


did not work :-(((

how can I obtain the beta version you are recommending?

14
hi, I just downloaded and installed ProcessTamer on my Windows 10 64-bit system.  The reason why I did this is that I need to set the process priority of one of my processes to "above normal" - and this should be remembered each time this process gets started.  Hence, besides "above priority" in column "Priority, under "Explicit Rule" I put in "force above normal".  I guess that's exactly what I am supposed to do.
However, whenever the given process ends and get's stared again, the process priority is "below normal" (the way it's been all time so far) - so ProcessTamer obviously does not do it's job in this case.
I guess I remember heaving read somewhere in a forum that as of the Windows 10 Creators Update, such changes to a process priority, by whatever tool, is no longer possible.
Is this correct?
Or do you have any specific advice to me as to how I can get this setting done effectively?

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