Regain control with disappeared BOINC manager icon?

[gavink]

Every now and again when another application hangs and I have to end the task, the BOINC systray icon also disappears. All the processes, including boincmgr are still running quite happily it seems, but without access to the BOINC manager interface I lose control.

Starting another instance of boincmgr picks up the thread and shows the progress of the model but doesn't seem to enable a way to exit the model cleanly whether or not the other instance is still running.

As this only happens now and again I've just ended up crossing fingers and rebooting when convenient.

Is there a way to regain access to the BOINC GUI when it disappears or do I have to rely on the crossed finger method?

[MikeMarsUK]

Try this:

Open up a dos box (AKA command prompt)

type
cd "c:\program files\boinc"
boinccmd --quit (you can use --help to show all the commands)

Hopefully you should be able to then start Boinc normally (fingers crossed).

[gavink]

Thanks ... thread bookmarked because it'll probably be few months before it happens again and I'm bound to forget.

[Jorden]

Actually, it's a problem with Windows Explorer crashing. A quicker way would be to log off and log back on, or use RefreshEm to refresh your icon cache. (79KB)

[gavink]

A quicker way would be to log off and log back on

Surely log-off/log-on would force BOINC to close anyway, which is what I'm trying to avoid as it carries a small risk of killing the model. I've got the classic windows logon with fast user switching disabled.

Thanks, I'll give RefreshEm a go when it happens again.

[MikeMarsUK]

I added this thread to the README since I think RefreshEM sounds like a useful tool (it would have the advantage of not losing the work since the most recent checkpoint).

[Iain Inglis]

Try this:

Open up a dos box (AKA command prompt)

type
cd "c:\program files\boinc"
boinccmd --quit (you can use --help to show all the commands)

Hopefully you should be able to then start Boinc normally (fingers crossed).

Interesting tip, Mike. I get quite a few Explorer crashes which take down the system tray.

Having written a few applications that are controlled through icons in the system tray, my memory is that an application should respond to the Windows 'TaskbarCreated' message: many applications don't - the icon disappears but the application is still running. Might this be a simple change for the BOINC people to implement?

[MikeMarsUK]

You could try posting it onto the Boinc developer's mailing list :

http://www.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev

Registration is required I think.

[gavink]

Anyone tried RefreshEm successfully since Jorden suggested it? As I've just lost the icon again and RefreshEm hasn't made it visible.

[Maurice Vaughan]

I've solved the problem in the past by clicking on Boinc Manager in All Programs/BOINC. The manager windows pops up and you can minimize it back to the system tray.

[Iain Inglis]

I've solved the problem in the past by clicking on Boinc Manager in All Programs/BOINC. The manager windows pops up and you can minimize it back to the system tray.

I think that only half solves the problem because you'll then have two copies of the BOINC Manager process running. What I've done in that case is to use the second BOINC Manager to suspend the model after a checkpoint, exit BOINC manager and re-boot the PC, which kills the invisible process - and hasn't crashed the model, yet.

[MikeMarsUK]

There's a new facility for reporting Boinc problems/enhancements, BOINC/Trac. It's a lot more straightforward to use than BoincZilla, it'd be worthwhile adding an item about the TaskbarCreated() event handler.

[Jorden]

I'm not sure if it would help to add it to Trac as any icons going missing is because Windows Explorer crashed on the person's computer. Repairing Windows Explorer would be the first priority.

Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Viewer, check the System Log and Application Log. Find what is causing WE to crash.

To fix Windows Explorer, your best bet is to use this:
Start->Run, type sfc /scannow and press OK. Make sure you have your Windows CD handy. See the MSKB for more information on this command.

If you want to go for the re-registering of BOINC, try this:
Start->Run, type cmd and press OK.
In the command line window that opened, navigate to your BOINC directory. I'll use the default position:
type cd\program files\boinc (press enter)
type regsvr32 /u boinc.dll (press enter)
type regsvr32 boinc.dll (press enter)

If all that doesn't help and you are still losing your system tray icons, your Windows is broken further than the System File Checker can repair. Then you can only reinstall Windows.

[Iain Inglis]

When Explorer crashes a new one is started and there is not generally a need to re-boot, except that some applications do not reset their system tray icon. BOINC Manager is one of those applications. It's definitely possible to do the reset because I've programmed the code in one of my own system tray applications.

Were BOINC Manager to respond to the crash then posts of the type 'where has my BM gone?' would not appear, as they have done here and on the BBC. Fewer problems, less support required, fewer workarounds to remember, happier crunchers ...

Mike did post a link to the developer forum before, but it looked like a bit of a steep hill to climb, so I thought I'd download the BM code and do the fix myself before submitting the request - to save the developers throwing it out as not worth the effort. Of course, there may be good reasons why such a change could not be made (cross-platform etc.). The new change system looks a lot easier.

[gavink]

It's a little difficult to be certain exactly what happened when with this instance of 'the disappearing icon'.

When I got back from work and got around to looking at the machine my firewall (Kerio V4) was asking permission for BOINC to communicate, I wondered why but as it was BOINC I just OK'd it (looking in the firewall permissions just now I see it was asking to download the 5.40 exe). Looking a bit closer I noticed the BOINC icon was missing. RefreshEm didn't recover it. When I restarted I found the model had crashed around 10:30 and downloaded a new one. I've restored the crashed model with a 4 day-old backup.

Event viewer shows no system errors, warnings or information messages at all for 3/3/07, the only application message is a series of warnings "The COM+ Event System failed to fire the ConnectionLost method on subscription ...." one of these was at 10:34 which was about the time of the crash (I can't say for certain as I overwrote the entire BOINC folder when restoring from the backup)

These COM+ Event system warnings seem to be very common I've noticed, but I've just ignored it as it doesn't seem to cause any problems as far as I can see. The COM+ Event System service is manual startup and is running at the moment and 13 warnings have been logged so far today.

Could the long gap between BOINCs exe download attempt and the firewalll getting the OK be a factor?

Regarding sfc /scannow. I've only got a pre-SP1 XP installation CD, if sfc decided it needed the windows installation source files would that be a problem?