CPU fan speed question - Gigabyte mainboard

[NickC]

I just upgraded my main system to the specs listed below. First of all, the confidence with which I built this system was WAY more than when I built my previous system! (before I discovered VDR and what made me seek out a site like VDR! ) A big thanks to all here for helping me increase my knowledge over the past couple of years!!

Anyway, the Gigabyte board came with a software called EasyTune4 - which lets me change CPU clock speed, etc. It also has a little button (upper left) which opens the hardware monitoring window. Lets me check fan speed, CPU temp, etc. On my software, this button is disabled. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling to no avail. I checked Gigabyte's website but was unable to find a link to download the program. The program's help was no help.

1. Does anyone else have this program and have this button work?

2. Can this program let me adjust the CPU and system fan speeds? Or is there another good utility that lets me check CPU temp and adjust fan speed?

[SuperSparks]

I always use Everest for monitoring temps, voltages and fan speeds:

Everest

I'm not sure that you'll find a utility that will let you adjust the CPU fan speed though, nor do I think it's a particularly great idea to do so, there is no such thing as a CPU that is too cold

[NickC]

Thanks - I will try that. I believe the CPU fan speed is adjustable - but automatic. You're right that messing with this is not always advisable, but I was wondering if I could experment: that way I could see if I could reduce speed (to make it more quiet) and still maintain CPU temp.

[Ridgerunr]

As Nick says on "CPU,never too cool",I agree. But if you have a CPU fan such as the Delta 'screamer' that may run at 6,000rpm. It's the 'noise' factor that makes speed adjustment worthwhile. Fans can be purchased with a controller built in. Or you can purchase a 'Pot'(potentiometer) from an electronics outlet and install it yourself. A couple bucks and some simple soldering will do it...

[NickC]

I do have a 4 channel fan speed controller, but I've got that hooked up with my case fans. I could always use one channel for CPU fan speed.

I just installed Everest: it shows my mobo temp as 26 degC and my hard drive as 29 degC. Is the mobo temp the same as CPU temp? That sounds low for a CPU temp, but I can't figure out a way to read CPU temp. And how can it read hard drive temp??

[Ridgerunr]

Don't use the Gigabyte boards,but not having a reading for cpu temp is really strange.It should be at the top of the list. Have you checked in bios under the power menu(usually)for monitoring to see if the cpu temp is listed there?

[Train]

Or PC Health or words to that effect in BIOS. Just a add to Ridge's psot.

[Undertaker02]

1. Does anyone else have this program and have this button work?

2. Can this program let me adjust the CPU and system fan speeds? Or is there another good utility that lets me check CPU temp and adjust fan speed?

Yes.. but not on all boards
NO

If you go into the BIOS and check the PC HEalth.. you should see temps for the CPU there.. IF you don't .. READ the MAnual for the mobo, Refer to where you purchased the Motherboard..
Now If you do see temps for the CPU in the BIOS the OS is not talking to the BIOS correctly..

QUESTION: When you did the Upgrade.. was the WinXP a clean Install?

[NickC]

Yup - that was the problem: BIOS had the CPU temp disabled (I thought I had enabled it, but I must have not saved). Now Everest reads the CPU temp. Boneheaded me! I'm still not sure how it reads hard drive temp.

Undertaker02: Yes, I did a clean install of XP. I find it's more trouble to upgrade the OS than to just do a clean install and redo all the application and data reinstall.

[NickC]

Okay, this is weird. As I was monitoring the temps, Everest claimed the mainboard and hard drive temps to be ~ 28-30 deg C. But the CPU temp is showing ~3-10 deg C - way too cold. And then the CPU line just disappeared! I thought it could be a bad CPU temp sensor, but I tried another program called SpeedFan, and that seemed to read it okay: ~30 deg C lightly loaded.

[photolady]

I use Gigabyte boards and never had Everest not read my cpu temps right. Course there is the off chance that since you got a 64bit, maybe Everest isn't wired to that bit yet. Also, 30C is good for cpu temps.

[NickC]

I can't get Everest to read the CPU at all - now it doesn't even show up in the list. It seems to recognize the details of the 64-bit chip okay. Just now I was looking within Everest at the Motherboard -> CPUID under the CPUID Features and it says Thermal Monitor and Thermal Monitor 2 as Not Supported. Does that have anything to do with this? When I was reading about this board and CPU on Newegg's (where I bought them from) customer reviews, I think people commented on the CPU temps. So there must be some way to find out...

[silvershield]

Try SpeedFan.. It automatically detects cpu, hdd, and power supply temperatures and adjusts the speed of your fans. ( www.almico.com/speedfan.php )

[Equinox]

Hello,
What is the model of your motherboard cause some of motherboard to not support Smart-Fan Example: the GA-7N400S-L.

If u read the manual of your motherboard at the troubleshooting page, u will notice that some motherboard doesn't support certain function of EasyTune depending of the MB chipset. if smart-fan doesn't work on your computer, speedfan won't work too.

-------------------
Atlhon XP 2600 Barton @ 2.300 Mhz A7n8x-E deluxe 2 x 512 MB DDR 400
Asus Geforce 6800GE 16piplineand 6 Vertex shader enabled AKA 6800 GT 256MB
etc .....

[NickC]

silvershield: Good suggestion! I've been running SpeedFan for the past several days, and it IS great! I should have posted back. But it does not adjust the fan speeds.

Equinox: My mobo is in my sig - it's the K8NS. You're right: from what I can tell, it does not support fan speed adjustment. What I did is connect my CPU fan to one of my fan speed controllers (hardware). By monitoring the temps using SpeedFan, I just manually control the fan speed.