Hey guys, I'm having issues with the Seti Enhanced causing my computer to slow down and become sluggish. I looked in process explorer and noticed that the priority at one time was set to '8', the same as other processes on the machine, but now it is set to '6'. I don't know if that is what is causing the issue. I do know that when I suspend that work unit, the system returns to snappy again. Feel free to hit me up for any information you need.

System:
AMD X2 6400+
2 GB Ram
WinXP 32, SP3
Nvidia 8800GT, driver 181.22

I haven't updated my video card drivers in some time so I can try that, but I will wait untile I need too, or you say it is ok.

Feel free to request any more information you need from me.

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Looks like you're CUDA-capable. CUDA has been known to cause sluggish responses while the user is using the computer. Upgrading your graphics drivers and upgrading BOINC to v6.6.20 should help since v6.6.20 suspends all CUDA processing while the user is active (if I remember correctly). This only happens on certain types of workunits that are computationally intense, leaving little else for the GPU to be able to do such as simple screen redraws.

There has been much talk of this in Number Crunching and elsewhere already. Since nVidia developed the CUDA app, and nVidia doesn't seem to be too interested in fixing the issue, its unknown if it will be fixed or if an official work-around will be implemented anytime soon. There is an unoffical work-around that requires installing an optimized graphics app, but then you'd be responsible for all application updates after that (you would not get automatic updates to the apps anymore, including SETI MultiBeam and AstroPulse.

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... and upgrading BOINC to v6.6.20 should help since v6.6.20 suspends all CUDA processing while the user is active (if I remember correctly).

Not quite. v6.6.20 allows you to use the control on your Computing preferences page at line 3, "Suspend GPU work while computer is in use?" (wrongly labelled as needing BOINC v6.7), but you'll have to turn it on yourself.

The next version (v6.6.23 is available for testing, and v6.6.24 is on its way) will have the "Suspend GPU work while computer is in use?" option turned on by default, and you'll be able to turn it off if you find you can live with the sluggishness.