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Monitoring Your Laptop's Health?

Posted by Cliff on from the digital-vitals dept.

paulius_g asks: "I have an eMachines laptop running Windows and I would like to know how today's geeks monitor their laptops caracteristics (CPU temperature, fan speeds, SMART, etc.) There are software to monitor normal motherboards, but laptop motherboards are usually unsupported on these kinds of software. I am in desperate need in such a software as my laptop overheats a lot while the fan is running at a low speed. So, what do you use to monitor your laptop?"

67 comments

  1. duh by Bin_jammin · · Score: 3, Informative

    blow out the dust from the heat sink over the processor, and the one over the video card it it has one. dust makes for a great insulator, all the fan activity in the world won't help you out if you don't blow it out.

  2. My Monitoring Method by randomiam · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, as a 12" PB user, I just monitor my left wrist for minor burns.

    1. Re:My Monitoring Method by fm6 · · Score: 1

      I used to own a Sony Picturebook, which generated the same kind of heat. Except that it contained a Crusoe processor, which is supposed to have a lot fewer transistors than the equivalent Pentium. Since the thing only got 4 hours on a charge, I also had to wonder what all the Crusoe hype was about.

    2. Re:My Monitoring Method by aventius · · Score: 1
      I completely agree. Thankfully Apple at least tried to address the problem. My 1ghz 12" Powerbook is about 10 degrees cooler on the palm rests than my buddies 867mhz 12". Anyone know how they accomplished this?

      My thought is the hard drive is positioned under the left palm rest and they switched to a different model or brand that ran cooler.

      --
      [insert lame joke here]
    3. Re:My Monitoring Method by b17bmbr · · Score: 1

      ask.slashdot.org

      --
      My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
  3. Speedfan by Wooo · · Score: 2, Informative

    I use Speedfan

    Not sure how it will work on a laptop but give it a try

    --

    When life gives you lemons, you squeeze the lemon juice into your enemies eyes and steal his apples.
    1. Re:Speedfan by ForestGrump · · Score: 1

      it doesnt work on my dell.

      Firstly, I'm running defer's i8k utils (fan control program).
      First it BSOD with ACPI.sys complaint, then i reboot.

      Kill i8k utils, run speefan, it shows blank output. OH well.

      --
      Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
  4. GKrellm by brilinux · · Score: 2, Informative

    I do not normally boot my laptop into windows (I usually use Debian and NetBSD), but GkrellM is a nice tool: http://www.redbog.com/products/gkrellm.aspx. Like I said, though, I do not use it too much, so I do recall exactly how capable it is on Windows, but it ought to be useful. Good luck; my laptop has similar problems.

    1. Re:GKrellm by brilinux · · Score: 1

      Oh, and that should be "Debian or NetBSD". I do not run them at the same time. And I do not know how well GKrellM works in NetBSD; I have been having problems lately, like my Prism Cardbus WiFi adapter not really working, and ACPI acting up in it, so I usually use Debian.

    2. Re:GKrellm by brilinux · · Score: 1

      And it should have been "do not recall" too. Spring break is killing my brain.

  5. Generally I use... by rusty0101 · · Score: 1

    lmsensors. But since you are using Windows, I would suggest petitioning Gateway, or Microsoft to supply you with the tools you need to monitor your laptop.

    You might check and see if there are support tools on the CD's that came with the laptop, or possibly monitoring tools available from the support pages of eMachines web pages, relavent to your laptop. I know that simalar tools are available for download from Toshiba and IBM, two companies I have had laptops from. That is no evidence that such tools exist fo your laptop, but it's a good place to start.

    For Windows you will probably find that any "general" purpose monitoring tools will be either useless, or even worse misleading as they may not know how to interpret the data on your laptop, or may intepret it incorrectly.

    Then again, that's just my opinion. You very well may be able to go to download.com, enter your laptop model number in the search field, and find dozens of tools that will work for your laptop.

    -Rusty

    --
    You never know...
    1. Re:Generally I use... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Fair points. But my impression is that if the original poster is aware that his machine is overheating a lot, that sort of indicates to me that there is already something wrong (e.g. as one poster mentioned, dust on components) which he should get fixed before he loses the thing.

      It's better to fix the problem now than to wait until the thing fails, which Sod's law tells us will happen at the worst possible time.

  6. Sensors by digitalchinky · · Score: 4, Informative

    gkrellm for windows. http://www.redbog.com/products/gkrellm.aspx It also monitors fan, hard drive, and other temps, though you have to get an external program similar to lm_sensors - the name escapes me at the moment though.. I'm not running windows right now to check.

    1. Re:Sensors by digitalchinky · · Score: 1

      Doh... Two posts above, someone wrote much the same thing as me - gkrellm - I swear it wasn't there when I posted!

  7. First ID the problem... by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 1, Insightful
    I have an eMachines laptop running Windows...

    Well, there's your problem right there...

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
    1. Re:First ID the problem... by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

      Actually, from what I've heard, the eMachines LAPTOPS are fine. It's the desktops that are crap.

    2. Re:First ID the problem... by Oxy+the+moron · · Score: 1

      I can verify this. I've owned an eMachines M5312 now for about a year and I've had no problems at all. Difficult finding drivers for the crappy IGP320M chipset that have reasonable 3D acceleration (currently trying the latest Omega drivers... no luck there) but other than that, the laptop works great.

      Well... there is the broken DVD/CD-RW... but that is due to a fellow student gratuitously sitting down in the desk next to me just as the drive popped open... *sigh* =[

      --

      Proudly supporting the Libertarian Party.

  8. motherboard monitor by supersuckers · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ok, everyone knows on linux you use gkrellm, but on windows it's gotta be motherboard monitor http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

    1. Re:motherboard monitor by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Everyone should keep in mind that MBM is horribly incorrect on an awful lot of sensor hardware. Don't believe anything MBM tells you until you run a tool from your vendor (or chipset manufacturer) that tells you the same thing.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  9. How do you know it's overheating? by JacquesPinette84 · · Score: 2, Informative

    It may seem like your laptop is a little warm, but most laptops are designed to throtle the fan speed so that the cpu is cool enough and to conserve the battery at the same time. Most CPUs are designed to stand 70 - 80 degrees celcius temperatures and still be safe.

    I wouldn't worry about it.

    1. Re:How do you know it's overheating? by white1827 · · Score: 1

      My guess is that by "overheating" he is referring to "overheating causing to laptop to automatically shut down". Check your user manual. You may be obstructing an important vent during use. One thing that I have noticed, new laptop users sometimes don't realise that you can't obstruct the vents. Apple builds their vents in places you can't obstruct them, but everyone else puts them in places less well thought out (I've even seen them on the bottom of a laptop).

    2. Re:How do you know it's overheating? by Seq · · Score: 1

      Owning a laptop that has gone back for service twice due to damage caused by prolonged overheating, I'd say to definately worry about it.

      Luckilly Xorg supports Dynamic clocks on Radeon GPUs, otherwise I get about eleven minutes of use before my screen begins to corrupt the image.

      --
      -- Seq
  10. Po' Man's CPU Thermometer by XsynackX · · Score: 5, Funny

    Step 1) Take your laptop off your lap.
    If Step 1 cannot be completed because it is melted to your legs, the temperature is too high.

    --
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    I'm not a vegan because I love animals, I'm a vegan because I hate plants!
  11. SMART by DustMagnet · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There have been lots of good replies here, but so far no one has talked about SMART. SMART has warned me of serious hard disk problems before a crisis a number of times. I did a hard search and the only SMART monitoring program I could find for Windows has been spammed on USENET. I won't buy from spammers.

    --
    'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
    1. Re:SMART by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      hard search? pretty shitty search, maybe try a soft search next time.

      for example, speedfan does it. but seriously though.. smart gives sometimes shifty results.

      seriously though, this guy should know quite easily if he's emachine is overheating or not: just leave it decoding a dvd or whatever. if it fails then yeah, something is wrong with it. if he is just worrying over his lap getting warm and wanting some magic feelgood number program.. then just about anything that shows him some number, any number, would do nicely.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:SMART by DustMagnet · · Score: 0
      hard search? pretty shitty search, maybe try a soft search next time.

      I see you still haven't fixed your shift key. Can't afford the $10 for a new keyboard?

      smart gives sometimes shifty results.

      Of course, but it's easy to check if something is really wrong. So far, I've never had a false warning, but I can't get SMART support on most of my drives, so they fail with no warning.

      this guy should know quite easily if he's emachine is overheating or not

      No kidding. My laptop cooling fan doesn't even run full time when I'm at 100% cpu load.

      I'll take a look at speedfan. I probably missed it because I didn't search for "S.M.A.R.T.".

      --
      'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
    3. Re:SMART by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see you still haven't fixed your shift key. Can't afford the $10 for a new keyboard? I think he said it was a 'laptop' [although he probably meant 'notebook computer'].

    4. Re:SMART by confused+one · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Most manufacturers have a SMART monitor utility. Otherwise, look for smartmon tools.

    5. Re:SMART by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I think he said it was a 'laptop' [although he probably meant 'notebook computer'].

      I think you should pay more attention to which comment is the parent.

  12. MobMeter by thomasdn · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use MobileMeter. It works perfectly for the three laptops I've owned and every one of my friends's laptops.

    --
    thomasdamgaard.dk.
  13. Bios upgrade? by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 1
    If your ACPI is messed up, that could explain it.

    Try booting up Knoppix or Kanotix and see if the problem disappears or the boot messages complain about ACPI.

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
    1. Re:Bios upgrade? by Eil · · Score: 1


      Also, a few laptops actually use software to monitor the CPU temp and then speed up/slow down the fan as appropriate. Obviously, your laptop will overheat in any OS other than Windows and if Windows was reinstalled, the software might not have been installed.

      Since this is an eMachines, I wouldn't doubt that this is the case for a second.

      My suggestion to the guy: Get a real laptop. I have a low-end Dell Inspiron that always runs quiet and cool. It is well-supported by Linux and BSD and even outperformed a lot of similar machines that cost hundreds of dollars more. Thinkpads are supposed to be nice as well. If you buy eMachines or Packard Hell or any of those other rickety pieces of dogshit, well, you get what you pay for.

    2. Re:Bios upgrade? by aminorex · · Score: 1

      "Buy a Dell, go to hell".

      Michael Dell is a major supporter of mass murder in the middle east.

      I like Toshiba kit for durability.

      --
      -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
    3. Re:Bios upgrade? by unitron · · Score: 1
      "Michael Dell is a major supporter of mass murder in the middle east."

      Only in the middle east? Is it more profitable there? But seriously, got any further details, like, say, evidence, explanations, stuff like that?

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    4. Re:Bios upgrade? by Zorilla · · Score: 1

      Nice troll. You can't even touch the BIOS settings on a Toshiba laptop last time I checked unless you use a Windows-only frontend they provide. Do they even use TFT screens yet?

      --

      It would be cool if it didn't suck.
    5. Re:Bios upgrade? by aminorex · · Score: 1

      Political contributions by Michael Dell.

      --
      -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
    6. Re:Bios upgrade? by RMH101 · · Score: 1

      press Escape on boot. Press F1 at "check system" prompt.

  14. overheats or not? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

    does the computer keep working as expected? then it's not overheating. what would you do to the thing anyways? try to take it back? "yes it's most certainly overheating! look at these numbers!!" -"but sir, those are perfectly acceptable, good day."

    stupid numbers that mean nothing in the long run.. you don't really neeed much of them. but try speedfan for example.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  15. 2 words: by epsilon720 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Smoke detector.

    Yes, my laptop is fine now, but it was a rough couple of weeks.

  16. The question is not how, but why? by fm6 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Why do you even worry about your laptop overheating? Standard consumer and business systems are designed to be OK provided the environment doesn't exceed 85 degrees F. (At least that's what it says on the A+ exam.) The only people who need to worry about their systems overheating are people who customize -- case modders, overclockers, or people who've replaced fans and power supplies with quieter versions.

    I once considered doing that last thing myself, so I did a little Googling and found a couple of gadgets that let you stick a temperature prope through a case slot so you can check for overheating. You'll have to find them for yourself.

    In any case, suppose your laptop is overheating. What are you going to do about it?

  17. I too would like to know.. by Supernoma · · Score: 1

    I have an Acer Travelmate 274xc. Speedfan, MBM, and MobilMeter do not work for me, they all say my mainboard is not supported, any suggestions for me?

    --
    I'll Find You Peer, If It's The Last Thing I Do!!!!
    1. Re:I too would like to know.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hmonitor usually works, works on my thinkpad and an old gateway machine. You pretty much have to buy a licence for it though, and it's tied to your hardware, so for me it's not useable.

  18. Nexus TDD 3000 Heat Pipe by Gary+Destruction · · Score: 1

    Why use software to monitor heat, when you can pull the heat away from the system? Check this laptop cooler out. Nexus TDD 3000 Heat Pipe. It uses no fans. It makes no noise and uses zero power. There's a chart on the bottom that shows the difference it makes in cooling.

  19. Re:You would admit to buying emachines and Windows by barzok · · Score: 2, Informative

    We purchased an eMachines Athlon64 laptop about 6 months ago with no internet access contract even offered...just went in, picked the machine out, paid for it and that was it.

  20. I've heard that... by bergeron76 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... iBooks are a great solution to eMachines (and most other x86) issues.

    Flame Disclaimer: I don't have an iBook, yet.

    --
    Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
    1. Re:I've heard that... by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      g4's heat your lap pretty well.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:I've heard that... by white1827 · · Score: 1

      My iBook is silent. It stays very cool compared to a similarly powered laptop.

    3. Re:I've heard that... by tonsofpcs · · Score: 1

      And Amigas [m680x0] are great solutions to iBooks, 80686+, and most other modern computer issues that weren't issues 10 years ago.
      Isn't it amazing how the software companies just 'invent' these 'features' that only create new problems?

      --
      Video Production Support
    4. Re:I've heard that... by confused.brit · · Score: 1

      And i thought i was old remembering playing lemmings on the amiga....

      --
      Sigs are for wimps
    5. Re:I've heard that... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are. I just bought my first Amiga in 1999 ;).

    6. Re:I've heard that... by confused.brit · · Score: 1

      yeah, but the guy above knows the architecture of the amiga...

      --
      Sigs are for wimps
    7. Re:I've heard that... by Zorilla · · Score: 1

      So, how's that new AmigaOS 4? Oh, wait...

      --

      It would be cool if it didn't suck.
  21. Re:DTemp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use DTemp. I'm not sure how it compares to a commercial product, but it's small and unobtrusive.

  22. There are variations ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/11/22/man_burns_ penis_with_laptop/

    1. Re:There are variations ... by confused.brit · · Score: 1

      ouch!

      --
      Sigs are for wimps
  23. maybe he lives in texas by dj_virto · · Score: 2, Interesting

    where it's above 85 half the year. :)

  24. eMachines laptops have a known overheating problem by Jemm · · Score: 3, Informative

    eMachines laptops have a known overheating problem which causes these machines to simply power down when they reach a certain temperature.

    Overheating is caused by two factors on these machines: First unsufficient air flow through the cpu heatsink and fan caused by poor engineering. Second, dust buildup behind the heat sink.

    The issue with dust buildup and system overheating is well known, see [http://www.dexplor.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=171 ].

    The solution to your problem involves periodicly clearing the heat sink of dust, and running a freeware cpu throttling program such as speedswitchxp. There is also a patch from Microsoft here [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?f amilyid=2898f8dd-10f8-4107-9f7b-16c5a525de1e&displ aylang=en] for XP which provides some cpu scaling support for AMD Powernow processors.

    If you can get support from eMachines, send them your laptop and have them install a more powerfull fan for you.

    eMachines did not manufacture these laptops. They were designed and manufactured by a company in Taiwan called Arima and were branded eMachines in North America. In Europe they were sold under the Medion label, and in Australia under TPG Online.

    If I remember correctly, these machines do not reliably provide sensor data to any programs including MBM5. I don't think that has ever been fixed by eMachines.

    As a further annoyance, eMachines' stock bios is full of errors, the most significant of which is that the cpu tables are incorrect. You will notice this if you try to install ACPI under linux.

  25. Install a real OS e.g. Linux and run GKrellM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uninstall the Windows crap, install a real operating system, preferably Linux, and run GKrellM with lm_sensors and you'll see the various temperatures and about anything relating to your computer's health.

  26. For Dell laptops by ikea5 · · Score: 1
    use this excellent untility: i8kfan

    http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/

    1. Re:For Dell laptops by DramaGeek · · Score: 1
      I'm not sure if it works for other brands, but I know the program was originally written for the Dell Inspiron 8000 series (hence the name) I do know that it works pretty good for other models of Dell laptops. I use it on my Inspiron 5150 and it works well. You can program custom settings for the fan(s). (At what temp to speed up) Also different profiles can be set up, if you want it quieter in certain situations.

      Unrelated to I8kfan, I also use Winbar, available at http://www.winbar.nl/.

      It runs along the top of your screen, and shows CPU usage, memory use, battery life, a news tracker (how I keep track of slashdot), and other various tools. Both programs are free, of course.

  27. Because laptops *can* overheat by billstewart · · Score: 1
    The only hardware customization I'd done to my work laptop was adding cat hair to the fan, which I've subcontracted to several of the local felines. Nonetheless, a month or so ago, my laptop started announcing that its cooling system had failed and that it needed to shut down immediately, and that I'd better save my work and press the OK dialog box when I was done. I'd typically get about 15 minutes of uptime before this happened. Fortunately I had relatively recent backups, so I only had to do a week or two of incrementals (external USB drives are a wonderful thing, even if you're stuck with USB1!) so it wasn't too tough to do.

    The main hardware repair was blowing the cat fur out of the fan, but it still overheated after a while, so they also replaced the temperature sensor board.

    Since this was a work laptop, there was an identical spare machine that I could swap disks with, so I could continue to work while waiting for my hardware to get fixed. Unfortunately, that machine got stolen :-(, but that meant that my backups got used on the repaired hardware.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks