Alternating a website device profile between "Minimum Impact" and "Custom" shows the limitation is automatically set to 75%

Use no more than: 75 % of total memory

That is free ram! Rather tight on e.g. 256mb.

version 5.8.15

For readers wanting to know the actual specific fix, it was to first recognise that;-
a) BOINC seems to look at RAM usage at the exact moment when the download is requested.
b) In the local pref's there is no RAM usage preference so one
has to fall back on the device preference specified on the
website.

Then take this action;-
1) At wcgrid website;
in My-Grid-->Device-Manager-->Selected-Profile(for device)
select 'Maximum Output' option',
click 'save'. Caution this will effect all devices associated with
that profile.
2) On Taskbar and at TaskManager;
Just Before attempting a download (from the update button in
Boinc Managers projects tab);-
Close non essential applications and services. And remember
if you use task-manager to close processes:
then close task manager itself before the download.
I was able to close avg*.exe(antivirus) guard.exe(avg antispyware)
via taskmanager, plus messenger and AVG manager from taskbar.
3) Reduce garphics shared memory from 32Mb to 16Mb (min allowed)
from BIOS setup menu reached by hitting DEL key on reboot -
on my device.

Only the combination of all 3 did the trick.

This is safe because also up to 600Mb of virtual memory is available to the system for times of peak RAM usage, and most of the devices are not used for other RAM hungry apps most of the the time.
(RAM=Random Access Memory)

@seabrookb

That's why I asked.
I am currently on 5.10.13 (not recommended by WCG) and it has memory usage in the local preferences... Let's hope that the current 5.10.18 beta will be the good one.

If someone ever says that you are not motivated for Distributed Computing s/he will only show that s/he has not read your post or that s/he is a liar!

@sekerob
Is it just plain curiosity or are you thinking it is reasonable to display graphics after having been obliged to close everything around?

Cheers. Jean.

yes - thankyou for pointing that out.


I also reduce XP's DisplayProperties-->Settings-->ColorQuality from 32bit to 16bit - which is still 65536 colours per pixel - more than adequate!!

No Change. i.e perfect with FA@H, Perfectly stable and robust with HPF2 meaning all numbers are displayed OK - however I've always had the proteome picture area blank lot of the time, I think the proteome molecule does appear If graphics is left on display long enough, but I'm happy with the simple view slideshow. As long as it contributes.

--- I didnt know that -- thanks for that helpful tip I will do that.

Yes - fine thanks, I had forgotten about RAM and its effect on the perfomance of the computer because of the talk about lo priority processes giving way to normal proirity processes. Also when I had the problem -- as with all problems -- it happened at an akward busy time just before setting off to work which is partly why the meaning of some of the memory usage parameters was misread in a hurry. I prefer not to leave the machine idle for whole days.