CPU and system temperatures

  • Thread starter Thread starter Doug Gordon
  • Start date Start date
D

Doug Gordon

The updated PC that I just generated an XPE image for has a BIOS screen that
shows a lot of interesting values such as the CPU temperature, enclosure
temperature, fan RPM, voltages, etc. I'm wondering if this is a standard
feature of more recent PCs and if there is an XPE component that can display
these values while the system is running.

Anyone know about such a feature?

Doug G
 
It's going to probably require WMI, but you'll need an app or vbscript to
query it for you, not sure which WMI components you'll need. Check out the
WMI helper macro in SP2 that exposes all WMI components in the config ui,
the component is located in the category: Software | Test & Development.
It's called "Windows Management Instrumentation Technologies"

Andy
 
You can, of course, write your own WMI app to do this, but for the
purpose of investigating this capability I recently looked at a few
applications that would do this from the shareware/freeware world. The
two that I liked were:

I. Hardware Sensors Monitor
-----------------------------------
http://www.hmonitor.com/
version: 4.2.2
Program Capabilities: Very nice Task-manager like performance monitor
covering CPU temperature, HDD temperature, and CPU Fan speed.
Cost $29 personal use.
Extremely crippled - Exits after 10minutes, dies after one week.

II. SpeedFan
----------------
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
Version: 4.27
Capabilities: Decent graphing capability. Required some configuration
to get working.
Cost: Freeware, donations accepted.

Some programs of this type have reporting options when temperature
exceeds specified limits, such as error logging, popping up a dialog,
beeping, or even emailing an administrator.

Some info on what you should expect for CPU temperatures can be found
here:
http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=maxtemp.shtml
Info on Pentium IV CPU Throttling:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/104

Finally the BIOS itself may have some capabilities, the Award BIOS 6.00
in the Advantech PCI-6870 P-III motherboard that we are using has
options for 'CPU Warning' (I think it beeps the speaker when temp
limits are exceeded), and 'CPU Shutdown Temp' This could
automatically shutdown the system in the event of a fan failure. Hard
to diagnose in the field though.

I would be curious to hear if others are using these BIOS capabilities,
a homegrown WMI solution, or a 3rd party app to protect their products.


Steve S.
SteveDOTSchilz@eyeDASHimagingDOTcom
 
Hi Doug,

If you are interested in learning more about how to access custom features of motherboards you might start your investigation from
this link which specify standard for accesing low speed devices and how to configure them:
http://www.smbus.org/

Regards,
Slobodan
 
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