The mystery of lm-sensors
Timothy Murphy
tim at birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
Mon Nov 27 13:39:28 UTC 2006
Tom Horsley wrote:
>> If you read the docs for lm_sensors you can see that the interpretation
>> it does on the raw reading from the temperature sensor is grossly
>> different depending on the type on sensor, the motherboard, phase of
>> moon and so on, and there is nothing to check you have the correct
>> sensor approximation or to calibrate it.
>
> Yep, the motherboard manufacturers never document how they have
> this stuff hooked up. If you have Windows installed as an alternate
> boot you can often install the manufacturer's monitor program (which
> you'd think they would get right), and see what it says when running
> windows, then get some idea of which lm_sensors stuff is which
> by comparing it.
I do run Windows also on this machine,
but I don't know anywhere in Windows that the temperatures, etc, are shown.
(This is almost certainly a reflection of my ignorance of Windows software.)
However, according to Bios Setup=>Power=>Hardware Monitor:
-------------------------------------
CPU Temperature: 66(C)
MB Temperature: 25
CPU Fan Speed: 1513RPM
VCORE Voltage: 1.536V
3.3V Voltage: 3.328V
5V Voltage: 5.053V
12V Voltage: 11.520V
-------------------------------------
which fits in pretty well with some of the lm-sensors readings.
The CPU temperature varies astonishingly on this Athlon 64 machine.
If I leave the Hardware Monitor running,
the temperature steadily rises from 35C to nearly 70C.
The fan speed seems rather low, by comparison with other machines I run.
I thought of changing the fan,
until I read of attempts by others with this machine (Targa),
where I saw pictures of an expert apparently boiling CPU + heatsink
in a frying pan, as the thermal grease apparently goes solid -
this man reported that his CPU temperature reached 101C,
which I find puzzline, as my machine halts,
I presume when it reaches some critical temperature.
> If the "Motherboard Monitor" program has information
> on your motherboard in its list, that might also tell you how
> to calibrate things (but I think the author gave up trying to
> keep up with the impossible task of figuring it all out).
>
> Motherboard Monitor is at: http://mbm.livewiredev.com/
Thanks very much, I'll try that.
I did try the program mbm5370.exe. which someone recommended, under Windows,
but I didn't find the output any more comprehensible than lm-sensors.
--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
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