Yes, I downloaded Speedfan yesterday and have tried if for 2 days. I certainly appreciate the authors work - I know programs like this are a labor of love and very hard work. He has captured most of what I would like to see in a good program, but it is certainly not a mature program. This is just my observations and opinions, not a review.
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<br>First, I am using it on a new machine with an Intel D845BG MB w/2.0A P4 CPU and Zalman 5500CU cooler, 2 Seagate 80GB drives, running Win2K SP2, and little else that is relevant here.
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<br>I've been using Intel's Active Monitor to look at fan speed and voltage and give alarms if needed. It is primitive, but works.
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<br>Speedfan downloaded fine and has a nice installer that worked well.
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<br>The program doesn't run (or appear to have an option to) as a service, so I guess it needs put into startup and then minimized if I want it on automatically - haven't tried that yet.
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<br>When it starts, it scans some busses and gives lots of info, mostly error messages in a window in the program - I'd certainly prefer something more polished here.
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<br>So, I went through the configuration stuff (very intuitive <IMG SRC="modules/phpBB_14/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif"> ) and think I have everything set up ok.
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<br>I'm not trying to adjust fan speed (the real use of the program, of course) rather just monitor what's happening.
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<br>So what do I really have to report:
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<br>The program performs sensor reading quite erratic so I don't have confidence to use it for modifying fan speed.
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<br>Details:
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<br>The program detects my board chipset as Intel82801BA ICH2 - ok, I suppose
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<br>It detects Fan01 (my CPU fan) and reports 0 rpm, periodically it will report either 1982 or 2014 rpm for a minute or so then go back to 0. The fan is actually running at 2050 rpm (measured with an automotive strobe) and Intel (program mentioned above) reports it consistantly at 1991.
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<br>It detects Fan02 (motherboard), but only reports 0 rpm, never the proper fan reading.
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<br>SpeedFan reports my CPU at (all temp are degrees C.) 31 and board at 32 - correct, but the detection isn't stable. Periodically as I watch it update, it will report the CPU at +125 and the MB at -64 for 20 sec or so, then go back to the proper values - disconcerting.
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<br>The voltages are also hard to use - the documentation does state he doesn't have enough information to be sure what he is reporting, but that isn't very useful to me. The voltage labeled +2.5 reports as 1.47 so I suppose that's a 1.5 output?? 12v consistantly reports as 0v, so no help there. Vcc is similar to fan and temp above in that it varies - usually it is reported as 3.27 (it's 3.3 according to my Fluke meter), but sometimes it get's reported as 0.55v for a time.
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<br>The SMART feature detects my drives just fine and seems to work in reporting the drive data. Same problem on stable detection and reporting though. Both drives usually reported at 35 degrees, but the second drive would sometimes report at 0 degrees.
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<br>Finally, the program seems to keep some configuration database, even though it does bus scans each time it starts. After about 7-8 times using the program it's database got corrupted, I guess. All voltages were reported as 1.47v and wouldn't change, even with a machine reboot. Also, the second disk drive was stuck on 0 degrees. Being pretty sure it was the program, not my machine, I uninstalled the program, reinstalled it and everything came back to working as earlier.
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<br>An aside. The Intel program doesn't like it when it is running and SpeedFan is. Something SpeedFan does causes Intel to report (sometimes) a fan (CPU) going to zero (causing an alarm) or a voltage going to zero (also an alarm). So, of course I stop the Intel Active Monitor service before using SpeedFan. The author might be interested in why there is this interaction when the two programs are just reading sensor data (my theory).
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<br>Another aside. Again, lots of hard work and a good program, but I do like the graphics in the Intel program. If SpeedFan had some graphics, us simple-minded users could see at a glance what's happening.
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<br>Thanks for listening - my comments are meant to be useful, based only on my limited observations.
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<br>-mg
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<br> [addsig]
_________________ Marsha
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