Message from server: Incomplete request received

So your BOINC is working for months without a problem and then all of a sudden it stops working, it has calculated all the work you had but is unable to upload the work, download new work or report anything. You're being stonewalled with a Message from server: Incomplete request received.

Going on forums, people can't help you as they don't know where to start. Or they give up after having tried everything in their book. Sorry, it happened to me as well, trying to help you but eventually giving up as I didn't know anymore.

But not this time. It looks like with the help of David Anderson, we've cracked this case. The solution is simple.

OK, first off, what does the message mean?

As you may know, when BOINC contacts a project server it sends information about who you are, which computer you're on and what work you had or want to the project server. For this transfer of information it sends along some of your preferences.

And that is where the problem lies. When (the content of) your preferences file has become corrupted, it sends this corrupted information to the project server, which cannot compute this info and it gives you the Incomplete request received message.

The solution to this problem is simple.

In BOINC 5.10 and earlier: - Exit BOINC. - Navigate to your BOINC directory. Default at C:\Program Files\BOINC - Find the global_prefs.xml file. - Delete it. - Restart BOINC. - Contact any of the projects out there to get the preferences file rewritten.

In BOINC 6.1.0 and above: - Exit BOINC. - Navigate to your BOINC Data directory. -- In Windows 98/SE/ME, default at either C:\Windows\All Users or C:\Windows\Profiles\All Users -- In Windows 2000/XP, default at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\BOINC -- In Windows Vista, default at C:\ProgramData\BOINC - Find the global_prefs.xml file. - Delete it. - Restart BOINC. - Contact any of the projects out there to get the preferences file rewritten.

How can this file become corrupted? Examining global_prefs.xml with an XML editor or changing its format can do this. The format used is legal XML, but it is not comprehensible by BOINC. Other possibilities are corruption of the hard drive (check the disk with chkdsk) or another program had a glitch while writing to a sector on the disk next to where this file was written.

When you edit any XML file used by BOINC, use a clear text editor only. In Windows, the default to use is Notepad. When saving make sure you don't let the editor add another extension to the XML file (.TXT, .DOC, .RTF etc.)

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