Gigabyte SIV (App Center program)

[Bill]

I have a new system on a Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H board.

I am having trouble configuring fan speed in a convenient way.
It would be very helpful to have "documentation" for the various programs
that come in the "SIV folder" (and some of their inter-dependencies--for
example, what does "prerun.exe" do?). I would like to configure the
program to run at startup (and am "floundering" with that so far). I
have it controlling the fan speed acceptably, at start up, in my admin
account, but not my user account, using the Windows7-Pro-64bit OS. It
seemed to work better (i.e. without prompting me) after I reinstalled my
Norton Security software "on top of it"--rather than the other way
around. Is there a 64-bit version of the app center program?

I think I could do a better job of this if I had more information. The
one page in the
user manual is not sufficient (the app center doesn't even run as
described in the user
manual--I cannot bring up the window shown on page 95 of the manual, for
instance).

Thank you for any assistance!
Bill

[Paul]

Did you check the BIOS Setup screens first ?

Sometimes, you can set up the fans in there, and
never need a Windows (or Linux) program for it.
Look for "Fan Speed Percentage" around page 49 of the manual.

*******

For a free fan control program, there is Speedfan from almico.com.
Maybe that will have better options than SIV. The program is for Windows.

*******

If the SIV application is a Metro tile, it may not have the
best behavior. Apparently, if you're not viewing the Tile window,
the program can suspend itself (go to sleep) for later.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11942006/auto-startup-a-metro-app

*******

"I disabled C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Gigabyte\GBTUpd\PreRun.exe
in the msconfig start menu using CCleaner program."

Prerun looks to be a software updater, that runs at startup.
Just based on "GBTUpd" naming convention alone.

Paul

[Bill]

Hi Paul,
This is the same "Bill" you've assisted on another forum.

I see the fan speed percentage. If I increase the percentage is it
likely I could get it up to 1000 RPM at idle or so? I guess the question
is whether the PWM value can be close to 0, because if so, then it would
cause fan-"hiccup'ing" (which I've described to you before). I was
assuming the answer to that was yes, which is why I didn't try it--but I
may well be wrong.

>
> *******
>
> For a free fan control program, there is Speedfan from almico.com.
> Maybe that will have better options than SIV. The program is for Windows.

I guess I don't know how to use Speedfan to adjust my fan
speeds. I AM using it to read my fan speeds. I don't think Speedfan
knows my motherboard model, but I only have one fan I need manage
(CPU_OPT).

>
> *******
>
> If the SIV application is a Metro tile, it may not have the
> best behavior. Apparently, if you're not viewing the Tile window,
> the program can suspend itself (go to sleep) for later.
>
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11942006/auto-startup-a-metro-app

I never heard of a "Metro app" before. Is that a Windows 8 concept?

>
> *******
>
> "I disabled C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Gigabyte\GBTUpd\PreRun.exe
> in the msconfig start menu using CCleaner program."
>
> Prerun looks to be a software updater, that runs at startup.
> Just based on "GBTUpd" naming convention alone.

I think it may also help set up the AppCenter. I think without doing
that, the thermald program doesn't appear able to do fan management,
even if it's running. That's why I was asking about documentation-so I
could try to do it right. Finding an alternative to the Gigabyte
programs sounds like a fine idea, even if it costs a few dollars--the
programs have irritated me enough. But I will accept some of the "blame"
for trying to run Admin and User accounts properly. In the past, I just
ran an Admin account, but I am trying to do "better" this time. If I
was only running an admin account now, I wouldn't have any fan issues.
Also, I woudn't learn anything new.

Thank you for your kind help!

Bill

>
> Paul

[Bill]

>> *******
>>
>> For a free fan control program, there is Speedfan from almico.com.
>> Maybe that will have better options than SIV. The program is for
>> Windows.
> I guess I don't know how to use Speedfan to adjust my fan
> speeds. I AM using it to read my fan speeds. I don't think Speedfan
> knows my motherboard model, but I only have one fan I need manage
> (CPU_OPT).

I just registered at Speedfan's website. Maybe I am reading it wrong,
as I didn't see configurations for any "1150" CPU motherboards. Mine is
Gigabyte z97x-... I thought I would have seen something in that category?

Bill

[Paul]

I would guess the motherboard table is no longer updated.

I can see a few sockets missing.

I don't think you'll have trouble finding the settings,
as there is a "Configure" button, a "Speeds" tab, and
an "Advanced" tab.

The Speeds one, allows setting Min and Max fan speed.
The "Automatically Variated" enables fan speed control
as near as I can tell.

The "Advanced" is the hard part. For my chip, it lists
several of the trade names for fan speed control methods,
but the actual chip will only have one of those. So I
don't know what to do with that one. But at least the
"Speeds" one, you can try setting the minimum speed,
tick the box, and see what happens.

I'll have to go back and use Linux "sensors-detect", to
see if the chip identification agrees with Speedfan.
Speedfan sees two SuperI/O chips for some reason.

And it's hard for me to verify Speedfan on this system,
as there are no PWM fans installed in the case. My
newer system has at least one PWM fan (which was
running too slow, the first time I fired up the
computer). I'd have to do my testing over there.

Paul

[Bill]

Paul wrote:
>
>
> I don't think you'll have trouble finding the settings,
> as there is a "Configure" button, a "Speeds" tab, and
> an "Advanced" tab.
>
> The Speeds one, allows setting Min and Max fan speed.
> The "Automatically Variated" enables fan speed control
> as near as I can tell.

When I click Speeds, with or without "Automatic Fan Speed", I don't
see anything in the panel. My CPU_FAN should run at 1850 all the time
(which it is doing).
And my CPU_OPT should control my radiator fans--which as you recalled,
I would like to set to about 1000 RPM min. And it would be nice if the fan
sped up when the CPU runs hot. Now that I'm registered, maybe Mr.
Comparetti will try to assist me?

Bill

[Paul]

OK, using lmsensors in Linux and the sensors-detect
program, I can verify my SuperIO is 83627DHG.

Around PDF page 62, you can see some of the control options.

http://www.nuvoton.com/resource-files/DA00-WW83627DHG-P.pdf

So my chip does have multiple named speed control methods.
To get a slope-based method, I select "SmartFan III". And
set the PWM1 Type to PWM output instead of DC output. I doubt
any of my stuff should be set to DC output, because that
kind of thing stopped years ago. It's "PWM" or nothing, now.

It doesn't appear you can set the registers in SmartFan III.
Just enable it. Maybe the setting of the target temperature
in the temperature section, has something to do with the
setup ?

*******

Do your other Speedfan panels show that a chip was
detected ? Does the main log show that ? If so,
then the speeds should show up. Maybe if there is
other software controlling things, it doesn't
show up ? Or, you'd disabled it somehow.

Paul

[Bill]

I read in a forum in the last hour that you have to choose "manual" in
the BIOS in order to allow softare to control the CPU fans.

I still like you idea of taking care of things in the BIOS too. I
noticed that when my computer wakes it self up (I hate that, and will
keep working on doing something about it) to update something, the fans
"hiccup" because the fan-monitoring software isn't running. If
increasing the PWM-% might work, that's worth a try.

Cheers,
Bill

>
> Paul

[Bill]

I noticed that the newer version (4.51) of Speed Fan "fully-supported" my
temperature sensor, so I installed it. BTW, it's getting harder and harder
to locate software that is not embedded in bloatware! I believe I got a
clean copy
at Softpedia.

I did see a few more options in the software. Nothing as clear as a
"minimum speed setting".
There is a "variated speed" setting, I think you mentioned that. Right
now, my fan settings are set to "SmartGuardian"--so evidently I'm in
good hands! ;)

BTW, I went back and looked at those percentages in the BIOS--and they
were changes to PWM per degree-Celcius. So even when I advanced it
"all the way up to 2", it still did not turn on the fan at start up.

My computer is too warm for me to do any good debugging now. I found
the Speed Fan "Help " folder too, and I read quite a bit of it (not
enough yet).

I have a "more annoying" software issue I will tell you about if I can't
fix it in a few more days.
I trust your computer is running like top!

Cheers,
Bill

[Paul]

Bill wrote:

> I trust your computer is running like top!
>
> Cheers,
> Bill

Current machines are well behaved.

And my fans on this machine are fixed speed,
so nothing can go wrong. In fact, I've hacked
the video card fan, so it can't change either.
I tested the video card fan, pushed the video
flat out, and measured the video card fan speed.
Then, disconnected the video card plug from the
video card. And fed the fan from a separate
power source. The power source is adjusted to
the same level the video card needs when it is
flat out. That happens to be around 30% fan
speed.

You might ask, why would you unhook a perfectly
good cooling solution ? Well, when I'd run this
setup with Linux, the video card fan would
spin at 100%. And it really makes a lot of noise
(like a vacuum cleaner). And, it wouldn't stop
doing that. So I "fixed" the machine, so the
"Windows noise level" is the same as the
"Linux noise level". I can do stuff like this,
because the video card is pretty gutless.
It's not a $200 gamer card or anything.
The video card is carefully adjusting the fan
speed right now, while I'm typing, but it's
not actually driving the fan :-)

Paul