Guide: Automated pausing of Folding@home. - Overclock.net

MadCatMk2 · 09-07-09

A common issue with GPU folding is the fact that it has to be paused/stopped to play games or run other GPU intense applications.
Users often forget to disable it before running those applications or forget to start Folding@Home again once they're done.

In this guide we will automate this proccess. Designed for XP. Have fun with permissions in Vista and making files from CMD. You will probably have to "Run as administrator", especially for the second variant of this program.

Set up your GPU2 folding@home console client to run as a proccess and reboot your computer.
This can be done during initial run of the folding@home .exe as illustrated:

After rebooting, go to Start -> Run -> Type services.msc

Scroll down to the entry that begins with Folding@home-GPU- and write that name down. (ie "Folding@home-GPU-[3]")

Now we're going to make a tiny batch file that shuts down this process every time we start a specific application.

Create a simple .txt file and type in the following

Code:

@echo off
net stop Folding@home-GPU-[<x>]
<HDD>:
cd "<HDD>:\<dir>"
start /wait <application_executable>.exe
net start Folding@home-GPU-[<x>]

x: Machine ID we got from services.msc.
HDD: The hard drive the executable file is located in.
dir: Directory to desired executable.

Here is an example:

Code:

@echo off
net stop Folding@home-GPU-[2]
C:
cd "C:\Live for Speed S2 ALPHA Z\LFS_S2_ALPHA_Z"
start /wait LFS.exe
net start Folding@home-GPU-[2]

Save the file you have created as anything.bat and run it.

You should get the following window and your application will start:

That was it! This should do the trick for most games.

[=================================================]

If you are running a game in which the executable you run to start it is not the game itself then this application will not work (ie MMO updaters that begin before the game itself). Here's what can be done:

First run the game. Once in 3D mode hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the task manager to find out the game's actual proccess name (ie WoW.exe).

Our .bat file should contain the following code:

Code:

@echo off
net stop Folding@home-GPU-[<x>]
<HDD>:
cd "<HDD>:\<dir>"
start /wait <application_starter>.exe
goto check

:check
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq <actual_executable>.exe" /FO CSV > search.log

FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end

net start Folding@home-GPU-[<x>]
goto end

:check

:end
del search.log

application_starter: The .exe that runs the game/application (updater usually).
actual_executable: The game name you got from the task manager.
wait 10 tells the program how often to check for the running application in seconds. Suit it to your needs.

Here's an example:

Code:

@echo off
net stop Folding@home-GPU-[2]
C:
cd "C:\Live for Speed S2 ALPHA Z\Live for Speed S2 ALPHA Z"
start /wait LFS_starter.exe
goto check

:check
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq LFS.exe" /FO CSV > search.log

FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end

net start Folding@home-GPU-[2]
goto end

:check

:end
del search.log

That's all folks! Enjoy.
v0.1 ~ (8 Sep 09) ~ Initial release.
v0.2 ~ (9 Sep 09) ~ Allowing auto-updaters to finish before checking for game instance.

zodac · 09-07-09

Wow, nice guide. Rep+

Don't think I'll use it myself though; I don't game that much, so instead I just forget to pause folding while I playing agmes

MAD_J · 09-07-09

O nice I was thinking about making something similar but I couldn't find out how to do cron jobs on Windows.

Im definitely going to use this.

My arms stuck · 09-27-09

I don't pause folding while I play games and don't notice any difference. I'm confused, I assumed it auto-paused or at least gave priority to the game by default.

MadCatMk2 · 09-27-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by My arms stuck

I don't pause folding while I play games and don't notice any difference. I'm confused, I assumed it auto-paused or at least gave priority to the game by default.

Firstly, this is mainly intended for GPU folding (in case you don't fold on your GPU).
And yes it is meant to give priority to other apps, although it does not seem to work, at least for the most of us. Not to mention how many work units I've personally lost cause of forgetting to close it. But no, it does not auto-pause.

On another note,
This guide is also useful for "pausing" cpu/smp/vmware CPU clients when you need the RAM.

My arms stuck · 09-27-09

Didn't mean to offend, I was just asking. I'm assuming that right clicking the icon and pausing works the same as the auto-pause and therefore isn't sufficient? Or are you talking more about command line style folding, which I know nothing about?

xxbassplayerxx · 09-27-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by My arms stuck

Didn't mean to offend, I was just asking. I'm assuming that right clicking the icon and pausing works the same as the auto-pause and therefore isn't sufficient? Or are you talking more about command line style folding, which I know nothing about?

This guide (+rep, by the way) will pause folding any time you open a certain application, for instance, COD4, and resume once you've closed that application. It will also start by itself when the computer is started.

MadCatMk2 · 09-27-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by xxbassplayerxx

This guide (+rep, by the way) will pause folding any time you open a certain application, for instance, COD4, and resume once you've closed that application. It will also start by itself when the computer is started.

Yep, the whole point is not having to do it every time you start an application.

Command line has no way to pause by the way, you have to close it and start it again. As some of us like to run it as service it's quite troublesome doing the whole process.

Of course no offence taken

My arms stuck · 09-27-09

Alright good. I'm new to folding, didn't mean to step on any toes lmao. Thanks for the info.

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Guide: Automated pausing of Folding@home.

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