Q: "How do I join the team?"
A: From the web control page, in the top left click “Change Identity”. From there, you can create a username, enter our team number (240440), and generate and enter a password for yourself!
Q: Why isn’t my computer working on WUs?
A: Our best advice for people who are having trouble is in the desktop client, right-click any process that's been sitting at "Ready" for a while, pause it, wait 5 seconds, and then right-click and select "Fold". It'll bring the retry counter down from several minutes to about 30-60 seconds. Do this whenever the retry timer gets really high. Additionally, from the web client, you can click the "Stop folding" button, and click the "Stop folding" button in the next window (not the finish current WU option). Then, when the button turns green, click it to restart. This sometimes fixes stuck WU. The final thing that seems to help is, if both CPU and GPU are stuck at ready, go into your task manager, sort alphabetically, find the FAH32 process, and kill it. Then relaunch the desktop and web client simultaneously. None of these are guaranteed fixes, but they sometimes get the program to work again. Best to try one of these suggestions and then let it sit for about 5 mins, and if it still isn't working, try another suggestion.
Q: My computer isn’t working on a coronavirus project right now. Why is that?
A: With such an influx of new users, FAH is having a tough time serving every computer that is ready to fold (and that's a good thing!). They are doing their best to add more and more WU specifically for COVID, but in the meantime, you may get WUs for other diseases. If you aren't getting any WUs at all, please see the question above. You can learn more by clicking here!
Q: If I interrupt a WU partway through, do I lose progress?
A: It depends. If you manually pause it, you shouldn't lose any progress. If your computer crashes or loses power, you might. For instances like this, FAH periodically automatically makes checkpoints, so if the program gets interrupted in this way, it’ll pick up from its last checkpoint the next time it is run. You can set your checkpoint interval in the desktop client.
Q: In general, how can I optimize my computer's performance?
A: Generally speaking, a lower thermal environment leads to better automatic performance, i.e. the cooler you keep your computer, the farther your components should boost themselves! You can also often set manual fan curves for your case fans in your system's BIOS that are more aggressive than the default ones (note that depending on how aggressive, it could add extra wear to your cooling solution, but help the lifespan of the other components).
Q: More specifically, How can I optimize GPU performance?
A: Look into the program "MSI Afterburner" if you don't already have it. It lets you fine-tune your graphics card's performance. Most of the time it's an overclocking tool, which is great if you're into that, but for the average user, we find that the simple fan control slider is a huge boon. For example, at default settings, Sam P.'s blower-style GPU would sit at ~80C. But after disabling the stock fan curve and moving the slider to be at 75% fan speed, not only did his temps get down to ~70C, but now his core clock is higher meaning he can finish a WU in a slightly shorter period of time. Bear in mind however, that the fan(s) on your GPU (if air cooled) is a point of failure, and running at 100% fan speed could affect its lifespan, hence why Sam is sticking to 75-80% max fan speed. Another option is to set a custom fan curve to dynamically adjust fan speed vs temperature, thereby allowing your fan to spin down when the GPU isn’t as hot (say in between WUs). Click the "gear" icon and navigate to the "Fan" tab (note that many laptops seem to not have this option). You can make all of your adjustments here. After making an adjustment, make sure to click "Apply", and then on the main monitoring screen, click the "check" box to apply your settings.
TL;DR: using MSI afterburner to set your GPU fan speed to 75% decreases temps and ups performance.
Q: The webpage is constantly refreshing and I can’t see any stats. What should I do?
A: This has to do with browser caching/cookies. You can manually clear the cache/cookies, but instead of clearing the cache/cookies every time, there are a couple of options. Going into the developer tools in your browser and disabling caching specifically for the webpage is one way. Just using another browser, for example, Microsoft Edge, is another. Edge can be configured to clear the cache, cookies and everything else everytime you close Edge. Just poke around in the settings!
Q: My CPU(s)/GPU(s) aren't being used by the FAH client. How can I add them?
A: FAH is a little bit finicky with GPUs in particular, but as long as the GPUs you are trying to use are listed in C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\FAHClient\GPUs (or the equivalent for other OS), much like for CPUs, you should be able to add slots for the GPU in the FAH "Configure" menu, so long as the OS detects them. Additionally, if your GPU isn't on the list, you can find the most up-to-date GPU compatibility list here, and update your local file with this list.