How to monitor the temperature of your computer hardware during high heat

botond published March 2019, 06, Thu - 27:13 time

Content

 

Introductory

During these hot periods, not only us, but also our computers and laptops are affected by the heat. In this case, we need to pay more attention to our machine, whether it is properly cooled, whether there is a lot of dust in it, which hinders the air flow around the hardware, etc. At higher temperatures, the fans turn to a higher speed, which produces even more heat and also increases the amount of dust entering the machine. And the processor takes its power down to try to cool back to its optimum temperature range. In this case, the total power of the machine decreases, and a higher load can even lead to a hardware failure, so it is advisable to look at the temperature data of the devices in the machine from time to time.

In this description we will install lm-sensors program, which first detects the temperature sensors available in your computer and then you can query their current data at any time. We will install the hddtemp which can be used to read the temperature values ​​of the sensors on our hard drives separately. This allows us to monitor our machine data on a regular basis during the hottest periods to ensure optimal use. 

 

 

Hardware temperature measurement with the lm-sensors program

Installation

Install as root lm-sensors package below apt-get command:

apt-get install lm-sensors

Detection of sensors

Then run the program sensor detection command:

sensors-detect

This will launch a search engine that detects the temperature sensors in your computer. This gives different results for each motherboard. In the meantime, you are asked at each stage whether you want to run the detection of a particular sensor. Answer each question with "yes".

For me, the output looks like this:

# sensors-detect revision 6284 (2015-05-31 14:00:33 +0200)
# Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. B75M-D3H
# Kernel: 4.9.0-7-amd64 x86_64
# Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz (6/58/9)

This program will help you determine which kernel modules you need
to load to use lm_sensors most effectively. It is generally safe
and recommended to accept the default answers to all questions,
unless you know what you're doing.

Some south bridges, CPUs or memory controllers contain embedded sensors.
Do you want to scan for them? This is totally safe. (YES/no): yes
Module cpuid loaded successfully.
Silicon Integrated Systems SIS5595...                       No
VIA VT82C686 Integrated Sensors...                          No
VIA VT8231 Integrated Sensors...                            No
AMD K8 thermal sensors...                                   No
AMD Family 10h thermal sensors...                           No
AMD Family 11h thermal sensors...                           No
AMD Family 12h and 14h thermal sensors...                   No
AMD Family 15h thermal sensors...                           No
AMD Family 16h thermal sensors...                           No
AMD Family 15h power sensors...                             No
AMD Family 16h power sensors...                             No
Intel digital thermal sensor...                             Success!
    (driver `coretemp')
Intel AMB FB-DIMM thermal sensor...                         No
Intel 5500/5520/X58 thermal sensor...                       No
VIA C7 thermal sensor...                                    No
VIA Nano thermal sensor...                                  No

Some Super I/O chips contain embedded sensors. We have to write to
standard I/O ports to probe them. This is usually safe.
Do you want to scan for Super I/O sensors? (YES/no): yes
Probing for Super-I/O at 0x2e/0x2f
Trying family `National Semiconductor/ITE'...               No
Trying family `SMSC'...                                     No
Trying family `VIA/Winbond/Nuvoton/Fintek'...               No
Trying family `ITE'...                                      Yes
Found `ITE IT8728F Super IO Sensors'                        Success!
    (address 0xa30, driver `it87')
Probing for Super-I/O at 0x4e/0x4f
Trying family `National Semiconductor/ITE'...               No
Trying family `SMSC'...                                     No
Trying family `VIA/Winbond/Nuvoton/Fintek'...               No
Trying family `ITE'...                                      No

Some systems (mainly servers) implement IPMI, a set of common interfaces
through which system health data may be retrieved, amongst other things.
We first try to get the information from SMBIOS. If we don't find it
there, we have to read from arbitrary I/O ports to probe for such
interfaces. This is normally safe. Do you want to scan for IPMI
interfaces? (YES/no): yes
Probing for `IPMI BMC KCS' at 0xca0...                      No
Probing for `IPMI BMC SMIC' at 0xca8...                     No

Some hardware monitoring chips are accessible through the ISA I/O ports.
We have to write to arbitrary I/O ports to probe them. This is usually
safe though. Yes, you do have ISA I/O ports even if you do not have any
ISA slots! Do you want to scan the ISA I/O ports? (yes/NO): yes
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM78' at 0x290...       No
Probing for `National Semiconductor LM79' at 0x290...       No
Probing for `Winbond W83781D' at 0x290...                   No
Probing for `Winbond W83782D' at 0x290...                   No

Lastly, we can probe the I2C/SMBus adapters for connected hardware
monitoring devices. This is the most risky part, and while it works
reasonably well on most systems, it has been reported to cause trouble
on some systems.
Do you want to probe the I2C/SMBus adapters now? (YES/no): yes
Using driver `i2c-i801' for device 0000:00:1f.3: Intel Panther Point (PCH)
Module i2c-dev loaded successfully.

Next adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at f040 (i2c-0)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes
Client found at address 0x50
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'...                     No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'...                     No
Probing for `SPD EEPROM'...                                 Yes
    (confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip)
Probing for `EDID EEPROM'...                                No
Client found at address 0x51
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'...                     No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'...                     No
Probing for `SPD EEPROM'...                                 Yes
    (confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip)
Client found at address 0x52
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'...                     No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'...                     No
Probing for `SPD EEPROM'...                                 Yes
    (confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip)
Client found at address 0x53
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1033'...                     No
Probing for `Analog Devices ADM1034'...                     No
Probing for `SPD EEPROM'...                                 Yes
    (confidence 8, not a hardware monitoring chip)

Next adapter: i915 gmbus ssc (i2c-1)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes

Next adapter: i915 gmbus vga (i2c-2)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes

Next adapter: i915 gmbus panel (i2c-3)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes

Next adapter: i915 gmbus dpc (i2c-4)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes

Next adapter: i915 gmbus dpb (i2c-5)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes

Next adapter: i915 gmbus dpd (i2c-6)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes

Next adapter: DPDDC-B (i2c-7)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes

Next adapter: DPDDC-D (i2c-8)
Do you want to scan it? (yes/NO/selectively): yes


Now follows a summary of the probes I have just done.
Just press ENTER to continue: 

Driver `it87':
  * ISA bus, address 0xa30
    Chip `ITE IT8728F Super IO Sensors' (confidence: 9)

Driver `coretemp':
  * Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9)

To load everything that is needed, add this to /etc/modules:
#----cut here----
# Chip drivers
coretemp
it87
#----cut here----
If you have some drivers built into your kernel, the list above will
contain too many modules. Skip the appropriate ones!

Do you want to add these lines automatically to /etc/modules? (yes/NO) yes
Successful!

Monitoring programs won't work until the needed modules are
loaded. You may want to run '/etc/init.d/kmod start'
to load them.

Unloading i2c-dev... OK
Unloading cpuid... OK

So in many places you are asked, everywhere you answer yes. Once again, as many machines as there are so many temperature sensors, the program produces so many outputs. So let's just go through this for comparison.

Then restart the kmod service (also as root):

service kmod start

 

 

Read temperature data

Once you have got here, you can read the thermometer data at any time sensor command, which you can run as a regular user:

sensors

For me, the output at the moment:

it8728-isa-0a30
Adapter: ISA adapter
in0:          +1.07 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +3.06 V)
in1:          +1.98 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +3.06 V)
in2:          +2.03 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +3.06 V)
in3:          +1.94 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +3.06 V)
in4:          +2.22 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +3.06 V)
in5:          +0.94 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +3.06 V)
in6:          +1.51 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +3.06 V)
3VSB:         +3.36 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +6.12 V)
Vbat:         +3.29 V  
fan1:        1674 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan2:        1157 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan3:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan4:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
fan5:           0 RPM  (min =    0 RPM)
temp1:        +37.0°C  (low  = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
temp2:       +127.0°C  (low  = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)  sensor = thermistor
temp3:        +40.0°C  (low  = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)  sensor = Intel PECI
intrusion0:  ALARM

acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +27.8°C  (crit = +106.0°C)
temp2:        +29.8°C  (crit = +106.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0:  +50.0°C  (high = +85.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 0:         +48.0°C  (high = +85.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1:         +50.0°C  (high = +85.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 2:         +48.0°C  (high = +85.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 3:         +46.0°C  (high = +85.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

Here you can see some temperature data and more. About the different sensors read more here.

Interestingly, I also ran it on the server, which is in a normal server room:

[...]
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0:       +27.0°C  (high = +83.0°C, crit = +99.0°C)
Core 1:       +25.0°C  (high = +83.0°C, crit = +99.0°C)
Core 2:       +28.0°C  (high = +83.0°C, crit = +99.0°C)
Core 3:       +26.0°C  (high = +83.0°C, crit = +99.0°C)

jc42-i2c-0-18
Adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at 0400
temp1:        +26.8°C  (low  =  +0.0°C)
                       (high =  +0.0°C, hyst =  -1.5°C)
                       (crit = +68.8°C, hyst = +67.2°C)

jc42-i2c-0-19
Adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at 0400
temp1:        +26.0°C  (low  =  +0.0°C)
                       (high =  +0.0°C, hyst =  -1.5°C)
                       (crit = +69.2°C, hyst = +67.8°C)

jc42-i2c-0-1a
Adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at 0400
temp1:        +26.5°C  (low  =  +0.0°C)
                       (high =  +0.0°C, hyst =  -1.5°C)
                       (crit = +68.8°C, hyst = +67.2°C)

jc42-i2c-0-1b
Adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at 0400
temp1:        +26.5°C  (low  =  +0.0°C)
                       (high =  +0.0°C, hyst =  -1.5°C)
                       (crit = +69.2°C, hyst = +67.8°C)
[...]

Well, iron feels quite better here, where the temperature of the processor cores and other hardware is lower than the room temperature at home. I'd love to sit down next to the server now. : D

 

Hard disk temperature measurement with hddtemp

It is also possible to separately measure the temperature of the hard disks using the hddtemp program.

Installation

Install the program as root with the following command:

apt-get install hddtemp

Read temperature data

In this program, the readout can only be done as root. Let's run a hddtemp command, giving it the appropriate hard disk parameter as follows:

hddtemp /dev/sda

I have an SSD and a standard winchester in the machine, so for these you get:

Read hard disk temperature using hddtemp

If you do not know the exact names of your devices, you can use the following command to find out about the drives on your machine:

fdisk -l

 

 

Conclusion

With these two simple little programs, you can control the temperature of your computer and take the appropriate steps if necessary, e.g. installing an additional fan in the machine, blowing out the machine, cleaning it with compressed air spray, etc.