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I have the same device listed more than once on my device list. Why is that?

When a device first contacts the server, the server creates a database record for the device. This record stores details like Operating System, available memory and how many times the device has communicated with the server. Each time the device communicates with the server, it compares various details about the device with its record on the server in an attempt to identify if it is the same device contacting the server. If anything appears different, the system will create a new record for the device and treat it as a new device. This prevents issues that can arise in different installation scenarious (such as in computer labs where each computer is setup identically and gets an identical installation image). Sometimes this leads to multiple entries for the same device in the website device list, but it ensures the proper functioning of the overall system.  

In situations where a new device listing is created, the previous device listing will no longer act as a contributing device (even though it is showing up in your device list). The Device Manager page and the Device Statistics page shows, by default, all of your devices that were registered within the past 7 days or that have returned a result within the past 14 days. Unused devices do not appear on this page when these time periods have passed.

Can devices listed on my Device Manager page be deleted or merged?

Devices listed on your Device Manager page cannot be deleted or merged at this time.

I have received the error message "Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high" in my Message Log. What action can be taken to fix this?

This message means that other applications on your device are using your processor to do work. In order to allow those applications to run as fast as possible, the World Community Grid software is suspending the research until your device is once again idle.
If you wish to change the level of processor use that is required before World Community Grid stops running the research application, then please take the following steps:

What happens if I check the box labeled 'Remember Me' when I sign into World Community Grid?

If you check the 'Remember Me' box when you sign into World Community Grid then you will be automatically signed into the website the next time that you visit from the same device. This means that you will not have to sign in again in order to access your My Contribution pages or post in the forums. You can have World Community Grid 'Remember' you on as many devices as you wish. If you wish World Community Grid to stop remembering you, then all you need to do is click on 'sign out' at the top right of our pages.

As a security precaution World Community Grid will not automatically sign you into the website if you have not accessed the website from a device for more than two weeks. Additionally, if you change your password, then World Community Grid will continue to remember you only on the device where you changed your password. However, next time you visit World Community Grid you can then check the 'Remember Me' box and World Community Grid will continue to remember you from that device.

How do I set up my device so that it will download enough work to keep my device working for several days?

You may set up the BOINC agent so that it will keep a cache of work units to keep your device busy. You can do this on the website by going to your Settings page, and then selecting Device Manager. This screen will show you a list of your active devices. Associated with each device is a device profile. Click on the device profile associated with the device you want to cache additional work units on. On the Device Profile screen select 'Custom Profile' and then find the field labeled 'Work Unit Cache Settings', change the fields to meet your requirements and save the profile. Please do not use values longer then 4 days, as the scheduling algorithm in the client may prevent you from getting as much work as you would like.

How do I configure my settings so that World Community Grid uses my device's GPU?

By default, World Community Grid will not use your device's GPUs. To allow World Community Grid to use your GPUs:

• Go to Device Profiles and select the relevant profile. (If you're not sure which profile relates to the device on which you want to run GPU work, refer to your Device Manager list).
• Ensure that the selected device profile is a Custom Profile.
• Scroll through the Advanced Options to the 'Graphics Card Usage' section.

• In order to get GPU work, select "Yes" for the type of GPU card (AMD/ATI, Intel or NVIDIA) you wish World Community Grid to use. You can set all three types (AMD/ATI, Intel, NVIDIA) as "Yes" if you do not know what card you have or wish to run GPU work on all cards available in a computer. 

Another option is "Do work on my graphics card while computer is in use?". This is an advanced option and is set to "No" by default, as in some cases choosing "Yes" can cause the device performance to appear sluggish while the GPU is used for mouse movements and other system operations.

If I have more than one GPU, can I limit which one is used?

Yes. In order to do this, you can make these changes in your Device Profile page by selecting which vendor they would like to use. You can choose between AMD/ATI, Intel, and NVIDIA.

How do I participate and donate my Android device's computing time?

Simply register for a World Community Grid account - during the registration process, you will be prompted to install the BOINC software on your Android device from the Google Play Store. Make sure to select 'World Community Grid' from the list of BOINC projects when you start the application.

If you're already a World Community Grid member, login to your account and go to the Download page instead.

Do I have to leave my device on all the time for this to work? Or always be online?

The software can run only when your device is on. The software doesn't need to be connected to the Internet to work its task, but once finished, it needs to reconnect to return data and to get a new task to work on. We do not ask our members to change their normal habits and schedule for using the device. The software will adapt to your usage patterns and only utilize the device's processing power when you don't otherwise need it.

What are the advantages of running World Community Grid on a computer's GPU?

GPUs can perform certain types of computations significantly faster than the central processing units (CPUs) that power computers. When the manufacturers of GPUs realized this, they extended the capabilities of some GPUs so that they could run tasks that were written in a specialized development language. As a result, applications that are modified to use this specialized development language–and can leverage GPUs' specialized capabilities appropriately–can potentially run many times faster on GPU than on the CPU. 

If you run a World Community Grid project that is modified to use GPU power on a device that has a GPU, and you adjust your settings accordingly, that device can complete work units more quickly than a device using just a CPU. 

However, GPU processing is different than CPU processing on World Community Grid. Specifically, GPUs don't have operating system capabilities that allow us to ensure that running work units doesn't interfere with your use of your computer. Many GPUs can run World Community Grid without any interference; however, some will cause your computer to be slow in responding to you. GPU usage for World Community Grid is therefore opt-in only; by default, World Community Grid will not use GPUs. You can opt in through the Device Profiles page - please refer to "How do I configure my settings so that World Community Grid uses my device's GPU?" for details.

Do I have to do anything on a daily basis?

No. Once you have downloaded and installed the agent, there's nothing that you have to do. The agent will run on your device whenever it determines that there is unused processor capacity available. When it finishes with a calculation, it will send the completed work to the grid server and then ask the grid server for more work.

How do I remove my member information from the World Community Grid system?

To permanently delete your account and remove your World Community Grid member information from our system, please take the following steps:

1. Log in to your World Community Grid member account.
2. Go to the Delete Account page (located in the My Profile section of your Settings). Read the instructions on this page carefully, as this is a permanent action and your account and information cannot be recovered once deleted.
3. Once you submit the request for your account to be deleted, we will ask you to confirm that action via email. Therefore, first check that the email address listed on the page is correct, then enter in your World Community Grid account password, and click the Delete Account button.
4. You will receive an email from us, to the email address that was listed, asking you to click a link to confirm your request to delete your account. If you don't click on the link within 24 hours, the action will be cancelled.

After clicking on the Delete Account link in the email that was sent, you will have up to 48 hours to return to the Delete Account page and cancel the action, if you choose.

How do I set my preferences so that World Community Grid will use my GPU while I am actively using my computer?

Once you have allowed World Community Grid to use your GPU, we only use your GPU while you are not actively using your computer. 

If you want World Community Grid to use your GPU at all times, you must manually enable this option by going to the Device Profile page under the Custom Options section. This option is labeled "Do work on my graphics card while computer is in use?". You may select either "Yes" or "No."

How may I tell how much my team is contributing?

There are two ways to do this:

1. Go to the home page and sign in. On the My Contribution page, the team that you are a member of will be shown in the center of the page next to My Team. Select that link to view the team statistics.
2. Click Here to search for a team. This section is listed under "Find a Team" in the My Contribution section, but will allow you to search through all the teams that have been created at World Community Grid.

How do I get the software to use 100% of the available CPU?

The software has a default setting of 60%. You may change the CPU utilization setting to 100% CPU utilization, we certainly welcome the additional contribution this setting brings to our projects.

• To change your preferences for all computers under your member name, sign on to our website and go to your “Settings” page. Select “Device Manager”, then “Device Profiles from the left hand Navigation. Click the Profile Name that you want to alter and select “Custom Profile”. Under “Disk Usage” change your setting to reflect: “Use no more than: 100% of total disk space” and select “save”. The new settings will take effect when the agent software next communicates with the servers.
• To change the preferences for a particular computer under your member name. Double left click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC, icon in the system tray of the appropriate computer. Select Preferences from Simple View. Then check “I want to customize my preferences for this computer only” and the information panel should reflect “Use no more than 100% of the processor” and “save”. The setting changes made here take effect immediately and override those in the device profile above.

The software keeps writing "Deferring communication with project for W days, X hours, Y minutes, and Z seconds". What does this mean and how do I get it to connect now?

This message appears when the software has experienced a problem connecting to the server. This may be because of some problem on your local device or because World Community Grid's servers are temporarily unavailable due to maintenance or updates.

The software will delay the attempt to reconnect because during the time that the servers are unavailable, more and more volunteers' devices will try to connect to the servers. Once the servers became available the servers could become overwhelmed if all of the local devices attempted to contact them at once. This delay mechanism reduces the chances of the servers being overwhelmed.

Why does my device show high CPU use?

The CPU in computers and other computing devices is actually highly utilized no matter what is going on, except when it is powered off, or stopped. There is a hidden "idle" task running in the background that runs at lower priority than everything else in the device, even lower than the World Community Grid software. The idle task counts up the percentage of the time it runs and calls this "idle time" and reduces the reported CPU utilization figure accordingly. Neither the World Community Software software nor the idle task will run if your device has other work to do. However, since our software runs at a slightly higher priority than the idle task, the idle task won't run at all and thus report that your computer will be 100% utilized*. Having our software run in the background along with other applications is usually not a problem unless you have a system with relatively little memory. For such systems you may want to change your preferences to meet your requirements.

An overview of the various performance settings may be found here.

* Note: If you set the throttle in the BOINC agent (called: Use no more than: % of processor time) to 60%, the agent will run at 100% for three seconds, and then at 0% for two seconds.

I want to contribute to one of World Community Grid's research projects. How do I register for a particular research project and start contributing?

Members only need to register and attach once to World Community Grid in order to contribute to any, or all, of our research projects. In order to contribute, please take the following steps:

1. Register with World Community Grid
2. Select which of our research projects you wish to contribute to:
   • The registration process gives you a list of research projects to choose from
   • If you are already registered, you may change which projects you contribute to on your My Projects page
3. If you do not already have BOINC installed, download and install the software
4. If you already have the current version of BOINC installed, then you may participate in World Community Grid using your existing BOINC software. Just attach to World Community Grid using the URL: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org and the email address and password you used at registration.

May I invite more teams to my Team Challenge after I issue it?

Once a Team Challenge has been issued (by pressing the submit button on the Issue Team Challenge page), no more teams may be invited. If you have issued an Open Challenge, other teams may still join the challenge up to the Start Date, or until the end of the challenge if you have chosen to allow Late Joiners (Late Joiners only get credit for statistics accumulated after joining the challenge).

If I have more than one GPU on my computer, how do I let World Community Grid run on all of my GPUs?

In order to do this, you have to use the <use_all_gpus> tag in the cc_config.xml file. Instructions to do this are available here.

I can't run the agent all the time. Is there a way to establish a set schedule?

Yes, you may customize when the agent runs. This is done by updating the device profile associated with the device where the agent is running. You can update the device profile by visiting the Device Manager. Once there, click on the device profile for the device whose schedule you want to change. Once on the Device Profile page, you can set a customized schedule for each day that you need one. When finished, press save. After you press save, the schedule will go into effect the next time your grid agent communicates with the grid servers. When establishing the customized schedule, the drop-down for Hard drive space may be ignored.

If needed, you can create additional device profiles by visiting the Device Profiles screen. This screen has an option that allows you to create new profiles.

Changing your profile on the website will change your preferences for all of the computers you have under your member name. If you need to have different preferences for different computers you may set preferences for each computer by double clicking on the World Community Grid or BOINC icon in your system tray and selecting Advanced View. From the menu at the top of your screen, select: Advanced>Preferences and then set your preferences for that specific computer. Remember to select “OK” after you have set your preferences. Please note: Local preferences set at your computer will override preference settings on the website

Why does the World Community Grid software only use 60% of my CPU time?

When World Community Grid was started in 2004, we heard isolated reports of computer instability while running the software at 100%. Because of this we changed the default setting to only run at 60% of the unused processor time. Members are able to modify the cpu time from 10% to 100% to suit their own needs by making a change to their device profile. However, anyone making the change to more than 60% should monitor their device to ensure that the change has not had an adverse impact. If it does then they should revert back to the default settings.

Why are my work units failing with exit code 233 “ERROR: Kernel execution time estimate too high, exiting”?

At the beginning of each work unit run on your graphics card, a small portion of the workload is run to estimate the execution time of a single kernel execution on the graphics card. If this estimate is too high, the application will exit to reduce the risk of Windows restarting the display driver due to the Timeout Detection and Recovery feature of Windows. If this occurs, the above error message will be written to the stderr log. If this occurs multiple times, it is likely the graphics card is not capable of running the project. Please refer to the "What graphics cards are not able to participate in the Help Conquer Cancer research project?"FAQ for a list of graphics cards which are not supported.

If it occurs occasionally but not on every execution, it could be that other graphics intensive work is interfering. We recommend that you set your preferences to not allow World Community Grid to run while you are actively utilizing your computer. This option is available on the Device Profile page under the custom options section. This option is labeled "Do work on my graphics card while computer is in use?". Select "no" and save.

If I re-install the software, will the work that I am doing be lost forever?

No. When the BOINC version of our software is reinstalled it will stop the current work unit(s) that your device is processing, install the new version of the BOINC software, and continue to process the same work unit(s).

Can I set the agent not to run while I am using the device?

Yes, you may customize the agent not to run when you are using the device. This is done by updating the device profile associated with the device where the agent is running. You can update the device profile by visiting the Device Manager on our website. Once there, click on the device profile for the device whose schedule you want to change. Once on the Device Profiles page, select 'Custom Profile'. Under 'Advanced Options' 'Processor Usage' set 'Do work while computer is in use' to 'No' and 'Do work only after computer is idle for' to the number of minutes you want the agent to delay. When finished, press save. After you press save, the schedule will go into effect the next time your grid agent communicates with the grid servers.

What will World Community Grid's calculations produce?

The calculations done on World Community Grid will predict which small molecule compounds, out of the millions contained in a library database, should be tested for their ability to inhibit the flavivirus protease. This is a major step towards the ultimate goal of discovering new drugs to stop flavivirus infections.

Phase 1 of this project predicted how each small drug molecule might bind to the active site of the viral protease. This phase also produced preliminary "energies" that coarsely rank the strength of the intermolecular interactions between the compounds and viral protease.

Phase 2 will accurately predict free energies of binding between each drug compound and the viral protease. This calculation utilizes the binding orientations calculated in Phase 1. Due to computation time required for each free energy of binding calculation, only compounds with "good" scores from Phase 1 will be selected for Phase 2 calculations.

As an analogy, Phase 1 will tell us how two people might hold hands, whereas Phase 2 will tell us whether or not they want to hold hands.

Phase 2 of our project is designed to reduce the number of Phase 1 false positives (i.e., dead ends) that are tested in our laboratory. Phase 2 will take several thousand Phase 1 hits, run each hit through computationally demanding free energy calculations, and remove many of the false positives from the hit list. Phase 2 is expected to produce an updated list of hits that contains ~80% true positives. Testing Phase 2 hits in the laboratory will be much more productive, efficient, and rewarding than testing Phase 1 hits. For instance, to find 25 small molecules that stop dengue virus replication in the laboratory, we would need to synthesize and test either 250-500 Phase 1 hits or ~30 Phase 2 hits.

How do I create a Team Challenge?

As the captain of a team, you may create as many Team Challenges as you want; the only requirement is that they have different names so members can tell them apart from other Team Challenges.

To create a Team Challenge, go to My Contribution and click on My Team in the lefthand navigation. Just under the Team Information, you'll see the Team Control Panel with an Issue Team Challenge button. Click the button to be taken to the Issue Team Challenge page.

Once on the Issue Team Challenge page, you start by picking a name for your Team Challenge. After that, decide if you want your Team Challenge to be open to all teams, or if you want to choose which teams to invite. If you want an Open Challenge, check the box next to "Open Challenge?"

Next up, pick the dates for your Team Challenge. The Start Date must be at least one day in the future, but not more than 30 days away. The End Date must be at least one day after the Start Date, but not more than 180 days after the Start Date.

Once you've chosen the dates, select what type of Team Challenge you'd like. The choices are Points, Run Time, and Results Returned, or an Increase in one of Points, Run Time, or Results Returned. For more in the "increase" challenges, read this FAQ.

Next choose whether or not you want to allow Late Joiners; that is, allow teams to join the challenge after the Start Date. This applies to teams that are invited as well as for Open challenges. Teams that join a challenge after the Start Date will only receive credit for statistics after they join the challenge.

Last but not least, you may invite other teams to participate in your Team Challenge. You may invite teams even if your are issuing an Open Challenge. If you are issuing a Closed Challenge you must invite at least one team.

To invite teams, just search for the name of the team you want to invite, and click the link to "Invite This Team." For more general searches, only the first 25 teams are returned. If this happens, try being a little more specific in your search.

What are points?

Your device's contribution is shown in three measures: points, total run time and results returned. The term points is simply used as a way of measuring the amount of computation your device has contributed. For instance, if your device works for three days on one work unit, or in those same three days completes five work units, you will accumulate the same number of points assuming that your device worked at about the same level of effort in each scenario.

Why does this application require zero redundancy, i.e. no comparison of results across devices?

Unlike many of our research projects, FightAIDS@Home – Phase 2 does not require redundancy, where the same research task is sent to two devices and the results are compared for consistency. Instead, this project will be using various processing metrics during the computation of a research task to validate that the task is progressing without errors.

This sounds too good to be true. Am I missing something?

Everything benefits! Members who volunteer their unused processing power benefit by not only making their devices more productive, but also by helping make scientific inroads on humanitarian problems. Research organizations benefit by having access to huge amounts of computing power at no cost, enabling them to make more effective use of critical funds. The scientific community benefits because the project results are shared and made available in the public domain. The world benefits because humanitarian research is advanced.

How can I help reduce the energy usage associated with my computer?

The World Community Grid software and the workstation power management software may work in a complementary fashion. A World Community Grid participating computer may be set so that when it is in active use, the World Community Grid software harvests the unused CPU time. When a computer is not in active use for more than ten minutes, then power management software may be activated in accordance with the user's setting to enable energy saving. This may be enabled by going to your Device Profiles and selecting your 'Default' (or appropriate) profile and then selecting the 'Power Saving' option. There's plenty of computing power in the majority of our member's computers – enough to do their job, be productive, contribute to humanitarian research and still conserve energy at the end of the day.

By utilizing the Power–Saving Capability, we can all actively work towards reducing our energy use. And if you also participate in World Community Grid, you will be contributing to valuable humanitarian research.

I'm using the BOINC agent, how do I choose which project or projects my device processes work for?

You may select which projects you participate in using the My Projects page. This will set the projects you participate in for all of your devices. To set projects to run on certain device profiles, go to the Device Profiles page on our website. From there you can set each of your BOINC device profiles to run a different set of projects.

Why is my device uploading result data (intermediate upload files) while a research task is still in progress?

We are using a mechanism called intermediate uploads whereby at certain processing milestones, your device would send us back partial results for the research task your device is currently working on. This allows us to validate the work you have completed up to that point and helps the researchers examine and interpret the results being returned by the volunteers.

Why did my firewall just log an attempt to access my device right after I visited the World Community Grid website?

Some users have noticed, via their software firewall, that trace-route scans occur after communicating with the World Community Grid server. These are in fact normal and not someone trying to break into your machine. These are used to measure which of several paths through the Internet give the best communication performance to your machine. The servers are located in a massive hosting center, which regularly optimizes traffic between users and the servers by shifting communications among several Internet providers, depending on the destination and trace-route measurements.

How do I limit the number of tasks assigned to one of my devices for a specific project?

Some projects can be very memory intensive, and some devices are not able to handle these memory intensive projects starting up multiple tasks for that project at a single time. Limiting the number of tasks allowed for a project will help to keep that from happening.

To limit the number of tasks for a specific project, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your member account.
2. Click on Settings and then Device Manager.
3. Select the device profile you would like to make the changes to.
4. On the Device Profiles page, select Custom Profile.
5. Scroll down to the Project Limits section and set the tasks limits to your preferences.
6. Click the Save button.

How many characters may I use in a forum post?

The database limit is 32,700 characters. If special characters are used, the character count is decreased due to how special characters are stored in the database. If you have more than 32,700 characters, or utilize special characters, you will need to create 2 or more posts.

I am running SETI@home on my computer? Will I be able to run both SETI@home and World Community Grid?

Yes and no. Any non-grid.org agent, such as SETI@home, will be able to continue to run on your computer after you download and install the World Community Grid agent. However, while you can run both clients at the same time, SETI@home runs at a higher priority than the World Community Grid agent, so SETI@home will receive all the extra available CPU cycles and will starve the World Community Grid agent. Because of this, you should only run one or the other at any given time.

What is validation?

World Community Grid is a volunteer computing grid. This means that work is being sent to computing devices that are outside the control of World Community Grid. Most devices that perform this work are reliable. However, there are a few devices that are not reliable due to things such as users over-clocking their machines, memory errors, disk errors, CPU errors or viruses being present. This means that the results returned need to be validated to make sure that they represent the correct answer.

We perform three different types of validation at World Community Grid:
 

• Redundant Computations: In this type of validation, two copies of the work unit are sent to members devices. Once both results are returned, they are compared to ensure that the results are identical. If they are, then the result is accepted. If they are not identical, then additional copies are sent until several devices agree on what the result should be. This policy establishes a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. Mapping Cancer Markers and Uncovering Genome Mysteries are examples of projects that use this technique.
• Single Validation - Type 1: In this type of validation, only one copy of a work unit will be sent to a device if the device is "trusted", that is, if it has been participating long enough and returning good results. If the device is not trusted, then it will still be assigned the work unit, but a second copy will be sent to another device and the rules for redundant computation above apply. As a precaution, the research code computes certain items that allow us to quickly check on the server if the computation is likely to have finished correctly. Additionally, trusted devices are randomly sampled to have their results double-checked. These techniques provide a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. FightAIDS@Home and Outsmart Ebola Together are examples of projects that have used this technique.
• Single Validation - Type 2: This is similar to Single Validation - Type 1 except that due to the fact that different results are generated each time the work unit is run (due to the research techniques applied in the application), we send out many copies of each work unit. We currently do not have any research projects utilizing this technique.

I entered in my proxy information but I still cannot get work. How do I get it to work?

If after you enter your proxy information and you still see messages such as those displayed in the FAQ "How do I determine why I cannot connect to the World Community Grid servers?" above and you have checked and made sure that you are on the latest version of the World Community Grid software, then you will need to take the following additional steps:

You need to determine what type of proxy authentication you are using. To determine your proxy authentication please refer to this FAQ.

Once you have determined your proxy authentication, open windows explorer and go to C:\Program Files\BOINC. In this directory you will see a file called cc_config.xml. Assuming you are using windows, right mouse click on the this file and select 'Open With' and select 'Notepad'.

This will open a new window that will be populated with the contents of your cc_config.xml file. It will look something like the following:

<cc_config>
 <log_flags>
  <file_xfer_debug>1</file_xfer_debug>
  <http_debug>1</http_debug>
  <http_xfer_debug>1</http_xfer_debug>
  <proxy_debug>1</proxy_debug>
 </log_flags>
</cc_config>

You want to replace this with additional settings for your 'ntlm' or 'basic' proxy.

<cc_config>
 <log_flags>
  <file_xfer_debug>1</file_xfer_debug>
  <http_debug>1</http_debug>
  <http_xfer_debug>1</http_xfer_debug>
  <proxy_debug>1</proxy_debug>
 </log_flags>
 <options>
  <force_auth>xxxxx</force_auth>
 </options>
</cc_config>

Replace the above 'xxxxx' with either ntlm, basic or gss-negotiate based on what type of authentication you are using and save the file.

In order to make the software re-read the file do the following:

    Double click on the World Community Grid icon in the system tray
    When it opens, if you see some text that says 'Advanced View', then click on it
    From the options on the top of the screen select 'Advanced' -> 'Read config files'

Finally, in order to check that you are able to download work, please do the following:

    Select the 'projects' tab
    Select World Community Grid from the list
    Click on the 'Update' button.
    Go to the messages tab

If all is working correctly, then you will see that you are downloading work and you will start processing it. If this has not helped you, then you can seek further help in the forums or by contacting us through the contact us feature on our website.

Why do some work units remain on the Results Status page for a long period of time after they have been validated?

When more than one work unit for a particular research project shares the same input files, they are removed from the database in a different way than normal work units. All the work units that share the common input are left in the database until all work units that share the input files have completed successfully. If there a few work units in that group that error out, we then discuss with the research scientists how they would like the work units handled. In those cases, the work units will not be cleared from the database until we have agreement with the research scientists on how to proceed. This can cause some work units to stay in the database for an extended length of time.

How do I join the FightAIDS@Home Project?

All you need to do to join FightAIDS@Home is download and install the free software. Once that has been done, your device is then automatically put to work, but you can also continue using it as normal. Click here to get started.

Will running the World Community Grid Software affect my regular use of my device?

No. Configured correctly, the software will never interfere with your ability to use your own device. Most devices never use all of their resources and it is estimated that up to 90% of the processing power of an individual device can go unused. The World Community Grid distributed computing model is based on the ability to utilize this "idle" capacity from individual devices.

Which GPUs can participate in OpenPandemics - COVID-19?

GPU work units for OpenPandemics - COVID-19 are designed to run on OpenCL version 1.2 and above. However, there are certain cards that still have issues due to having GPU drivers that aren't 100% compatible with OpenCL 1.2. Most of the issues are with cards that were released before 2016. Please check our GPU forum for a list of GPUs that are known to not work. 

How do you change team captains?

If you are the current team captain, you may appoint a new team captain by following these steps:

1. Log in to your World Community Grid account.
2. Click on My Contribution, then click on My Team on the left side of the page.
3. Click on the 'Appoint New Captain' link, next to your Member Name listed as Captain.
4. Choose the team member who you would like to become captain, and click the 'Appoint as Captain' link next to their name.

Why am I not contributing?

There are a number of reasons why you may not be contributing to World Community Grid. One of the primary reasons this happens is that you may have a new device, or a new storage disk, and you did not download the World Community Grid software to your new device. To understand why you are not currently contributing and learn how to start contributing again, please click here.

Will I be able to select to run work units only on my CPU, or only on my GPU, or both?

There are separate and independent settings for World Community Grid to run on either your CPU or on your GPU.

By default, World Community Grid is set up to only run work using your CPU and not using your GPU. The CPU preference is available on the Device Profiles page under the custom options section. This option is labeled "Allow research to run on my CPU?" You may select either "Yes" or "No."

To run World Community Grid work units on your GPU, refer to "How do I configure my settings so that World Community Grid uses my device's GPU?" for details.

What is my BOINC account key and where do I find it?

The BOINC Account key is a unique identifier that is used by the BOINC client and the BOINC server to uniquely identify you and the devices registered under your member name. You may find your BOINC account key on your My Profile page.

How might the data generated on this project be useful to Zika researchers?

World Community Grid volunteers’ computers and Android devices will complete virtual screenings of chemical compounds that may be effective against the Zika virus. These virtual screenings will generate data about the potential effectiveness of chemical compounds that could be used as antiviral medicines. Once the virtual screenings are complete, researchers will use the data to test promising compounds in laboratories.

In compliance with World Community Grid policy, the researchers will make their data openly accessible, thereby allowing other scientists to apply their own methods and approaches to further study promising compounds. The open data component of this project (and all other World Community Grid projects) means that the likelihood of finding effective drug treatments for Zika may be higher than if the researchers worked in isolation.

Will work unit deadlines be different for Android devices?

No. For now, all work units for projects that run on Android have been made smaller for all platforms, and are small enough to compute on an Android device in a reasonable amount of time. There are future plans to size work units dynamically based on the device a task is being computed on.

How does an organic solar cell work?

Organic solar cells convert sunlight into electricity. The first step is that the organic solar cell must absorb light. This absorbed light adds energy into the material, causing the electrons in the material to increase their energy and move through the material, leaving behind a hole. Second, electrons must travel to a region where they can be collected by an acceptor material, lowering their energy (i.e., the donor-acceptor interface). Once the electrons are collected, they can be extracted to give a current, or they can remain in the device to give rise to a voltage. The electrons that leave the organic solar cell as current can deliver their energy to whatever is connected to the circuit.

How does an organic solar cell work?

Organic solar cells convert sunlight into electricity. The first step is that light must be absorbed in the organic solar cell. This absorbed light causes the electrons in the material to increase their energy. Second, electrons must travel to a region where they can be collected (i.e., the donor-acceptor interface). Once the electrons are collected, they can be extracted to give a current, or they can remain in the device to give rise to a voltage. The electrons that leave the organic solar cell as current can deliver their energy to whatever is connected to the circuit.

How can I change the screensaver resource limits on my computer?

You will need to modify your Device Profile on the website. On your Settings page, select Device Manager, and then Device Profiles. Under Profile Name, select which Profile you would like to change (Default, School, Home, etc.). Then select the Custom Profile radio button. Under Advanced Options, scroll down to the Graphics section. The defaults are set to 7 frames per second and 5% cpu usage. If you would like the screensavers to refresh quicker, change the frames per second to 30. If the screensavers are taking up too much CPU power, decrease the percentage from 5% down to 2% to keep the screen saver usage to a minimum. Click Save at the bottom of the page to save your changes. The next time your computer communicates with our website, the preferences will be updated.

I know that my device has returned several results. Where can I check the status of those results?

You may check your World Community Grid results by logging into our website using your existing member name. On the left hand menu on your "My Contribution" page, select "Results Status". You may access this page here. A detailed description of the various statistics may be found here.

What operating systems are supported by World Community Grid on BOINC?

World Community Grid currently supports the operating systems listed in our System Requirements FAQ, which you can find here. Although they are not supported by World Community Grid, some of our members have had success using other platforms found here.

Where do I check on the status, statistics, etc. for my Team Challenge (or a challenge my team is participating in)?

Just go to your My Team page, and scroll down to the Challenge Control Panel. All team members will see up to five Current and Upcoming Team Challenges (team captains will see Pending Team Challenges as well). If your team has more than five Current Team Challenges or more than five Upcoming Team Challenges, you may click the link at the bottom of the Challenge Control Panel to view your team's entire Team Challenge History. In the Challenge Control Panel or Team Challenge History View you may click on the name of the challenge to view more details about the challenge; for example: scores for all teams in the challenge, the names of the other teams participating in the challenge, and whether the challenge is open or not. The Team Challenge History page is where you may view your team's past challenges.

Which Android devices are supported?

The BOINC application for Android is supported on most, but not all, devices running Android 4.1 and higher (Android Jelly Bean or more recent versions). If BOINC is not able to run on your Android device, you will see a message that states your device is not compatible when you attempt to install the BOINC app from the Google Play store.

Why won't the project suspend when I'm using my device?

You are probably on an older version of BOINC. This issue was fixed with the BOINC World Community Grid release of 5.10.22 or higher. Please download the latest version here.

Why did my device stop processing a research task? And what is a trickle down message?

Using the information your device intermittently sends to us during the processing of a research task, we determine the likelihood of your device finishing the task before the completion deadline. If we determine that you are very likely to miss that deadline or you have already missed the deadline, we would send your device a trickle down message to instruct it to stop working on that research task and we then pass it along on to another volunteer.

There are two types of trickle down messages:

• Soft stop: Instruction for your device to continue until the next milestone before stopping the computation of the current research task. This happens when your device is not making sufficient progress on the current calculation. We would then hand over your partial result to another volunteer to continue working on.
• Hard stop: Instruction for your device to stop working on the current research task immediately. This happens when you have already passed the processing deadline without sending in the final full result or that there may be a communication error in sending us your progress. In this case, we would hand over the research task from the point of your last intermediate milestone to another volunteer to resume working on.

In either case, you will be awarded credit for the work you completed up to the point of the last checkpoint.

This mechanism allows work to be completed quicker and for the researchers to receive valuable results sooner.

How do I make World Community Grid run while my computer is on batteries?

You may change your preferences to allow World Community Grid to run while you are on battery power as follows:

• To change your preferences for all computers under your member name, sign on to our website and go to your “Settings" page. Select “Device Manager”, then “Device Profiles" from the left hand Navigation. Click the Profile Name that you want to alter and select “Custom Profile”. Under “Processor Usage” change your setting to reflect: “Do work while computer is running on batteries: Yes” and select “save”. The new settings will take effect when the agent software next communicates with the servers.
• To change the preferences for a particular computer under your member name. Double left click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC, icon in the system tray of the appropriate computer. Select Preferences from Simple View. Then check “I want to customize my preferences for this computer only” and then click “Do work while on battery” and “save”. The setting changes made here take effect immediately and override those in the device profile above.

How do I clear my local preferences and use the preferences set on the website?

To clear your local preferences, you will need to pull up your preferences. To do this, double click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC icon, in your system tray and select Advanced View. Then in the top menu, pull down the "Advanced" menu and select "Preferences". Then click the "Clear" button. After you have done this, press "OK" to close the preferences window. Once this is done, select the "Projects" tab and click on World Community Grid. From the left hand menu, select "Update". This will retrieve the preferences from the website and clear your local preferences.