Windows Screensaver RPC Miners (CPU/4way/CUDA/OpenCL)

[puddinpop]

Here are RPC miners that work as Windows screensavers.  They have all the functionality of the RPC Miners.  Place the files in your Windows system32 directory if running a 32 bit OS, or SysWOW64 directory if running a 64 bit OS, and configure in the standard Windows screensaver dialog.  You can use the console RPC miners to determine the best settings for your computer, and then configure the screensaver with those settings.

Download (Updated 2011-02-27)
Windows Screensaver RPC Miners

Use the CUDA screensaver for NVidia cards.
Use the OpenCL screensaver for ATI cards.

[LZ]

Well done. Can you do that CUDA/OpenCL miners will use all available video cards in several threads?

[td]

I simply cannot understand how this has not attracted more attention. What a wonderful set up for a computer to be used while idle. This makes me think more of projects like the @home screen savers for grid work. Bravo.

[atomicsewer]

puddin, is this okay to use on 64-bit systems?  I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, and am unable to view any settings when clicking on the Settings button.

[LZ]

It works fine on 64-bit systems. You may try to use this reg-file:

Code:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bitcoin Screensaver]
"workrefreshms"=dword:000001f4
"url"="http://mining.bitcoin.cz:8332/"
"username"="login.suffix"
"password"="password"
"statsurl"="http://mining.bitcoin.cz/stats/json/"
"aggression"=dword:0000000a
"threadscpu"=dword:00000001

[puddinpop]

puddin, is this okay to use on 64-bit systems?  I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, and am unable to view any settings when clicking on the Settings button.

Did you put the screensaver and related files in the SysWOW64 directory?  If you put it in the system32 directory, that might be why you cannot see the settings.  system32 is only for 64 bit files on 64 bit Windows, but the screensaver is a 32 bit application.

[krepta3000]

I don't understand what to put into any of the blank spaces for these screen savers.

What do I put into these fields?  If I leave them empty, is it going to see my bitcoin app, and send bitcoins it manages to generate to my virtual wallet?

URL ?
User Name ?
Password ?
Status URL ?
Threads (CPU) ?

What if I only want it to use very few threads, so as not to overload my poor old computer?  How many threads does it absolutely need to work?

[LZ]

URL - one of mining pools or your own (http://mining.bitcoin.cz:8332/, http://bitpenny.dyndns.biz:8332/, http://127.0.0.1/)
User Name - it is your pool account or rpcuser in your bitcoin.conf file (if you do not use any pool)
Password - your pool password or rpcpassword in your bitcoin.conf file (if you do not use any pool)
Aggression - you may try to play with it from 1 to 32 (if you use GPU for mining)

You may left blank all other fields.

[krepta3000]

Uhm, I didn't see a setting for aggression.

Ok, I've joined a pool, I put in the user name and password, and the URL.  But when I run the screen saver I see lots of little coins, but the info in the corner looks like it is doing absolutely nothing.  Why?

[LZ]

Maybe a firewall? Try to use RPC Miners first. Then just use working settings for Screensaver RPC Miners.

[krepta3000]

I think it isn't working because I still haven't figured out how to register a worker in the pool at http://mining.bitcoin.cz:8332.  Until I figure that part out, I don't think it's going to even grab anything to work on.

Ok, I've finally figured it out.  There needs to be better instructions for how to get all this working, I shouldn't have had such a hard time.

So, I'm going to explain what I did to get my screensaver to finally start working on something.

I logged into http://mining.bitcoin.cz after successfully creating an account there and verifying my email.  Then I told it my bitcoin address for my wallet, send threshold, etc.  Then clicked on register worker.  This is the part that really screwed me up!  I did not understand what it wanted from me.  I put in Gateway, because my computer is a gateway computer, so, why not.  Right?  Then put in a password, and saved it.  Now I have a registered worker.  Back at the screensaver I put in, for the URL http://mining.bitcoin.cz:8332, then for the username I put <username>.<workername>, remember I called my worker Gateway, put in the password, clicked OK, and ran the screensaver.  Now it is actually getting something to work on and working on it.  Yay!

[slush]

Then clicked on register worker.  This is the part that really screwed me up!  I did not understand what it wanted from me.

What exactly you're missing? All instructions are step by step on pool homepage.

[puddinpop]

Updated source to bitcoin SVN rev 241.  Download available in the first post.

[pla]

Love it!  This makes it ever so much easier to keep my machines chugging away at mining.

Question (or feature request, perhaps) - Any way to make them just blank the screen, rather than showing stats and the coins dancing around?

[puddinpop]

Update first post with latest release.  The connection to the RPC server will now be kept open if the server supports it instead of opening a new connection for each request.

[khal]

I've a problem with the new version of the 4way miner (previous version of 20/02 worked fine). At launch, it says "temPowerStatus" not available in kernell32.dll and halt.

[LZ]

puddinpop, can you make a hybrid mode (e.g. 4way+CUDA)? It would be very convenient.

[ryepdx]

Looks awesome. Unfortunately I can't bring up the settings, nor can I run the screensaver. When I try to run it from the display settings dialog, it does nothing. When I try to run it directly, by double clicking on it in the system32 directory, I get this error:
"The procedure entry point cuMemAlloc_v2 could not be located in the dynamic link library nvcuda.dll"

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit with an NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS video card.

Any idea as to what's going on?

Thanks.

[SleepMachine]

I really like the idea of running a miner as a screensaver (read: when computer is idle), but unfortunately these RPC miners aren't the ones I'd like to run. To solve this. I've created a C# program that can start any application after X amount of inactivity and end the application when the computer becomes active. With this you automatically start mining when a computer is idle and stop mining when someone wants to use the computer. The started application (miner) can also be made invisible (it doesn't create a window in the taskbar or systray), if wanted.

I use this for running miners on computers belonging to my relatives without their computers becoming sluggish when they want to use them for something computationally intensive.

I can post the application and source here if anyone is still interested.

[don]

I really like the idea of running a miner as a screensaver (read: when computer is idle), but unfortunately these RPC miners aren't the ones I'd like to run. To solve this. I've created a C# program that can start any application after X amount of inactivity and end the application when the computer becomes active. With this you automatically start mining when a computer is idle and stop mining when someone wants to use the computer. The started application (miner) can also be made invisible (it doesn't create a window in the taskbar or systray), if wanted.

I use this for running miners on computers belonging to my relatives without their computers becoming sluggish when they want to use them for something computationally intensive.

I can post the application and source here if anyone is still interested.

I was just looking for something like this but can't find it, please do!