Monitor HD temperature without SMART

[Paulo Jan]

Hi all:

I have a Western Digital WD1200JB disk, and no matter how I've
tried, I haven't been able to get its temperature using one of those
SMART monitoring programs (HDD Temperature Monitor, Active SMART,
etc.). I have read about some people who monitor their HD temperatures
by adding another diode on the HD and plugging its cable in the
motherboard (or something like that, I'm not clear on the details),
and my question is: can it be done? If so, how? I have a Gigabyte
8IPE1000-L board, and all I see in it is a connector for a case fan,
which I'm not using, but nothing about additional temp. sensors. Can
anybody clarify a bit about this subject?


Thanks in advance,

Paulo.

 

[S.Heenan]

Hi all:

I have a Western Digital WD1200JB disk, and no matter how I've
tried, I haven't been able to get its temperature using one of those
SMART monitoring programs (HDD Temperature Monitor, Active SMART,
etc.). I have read about some people who monitor their HD temperatures
by adding another diode on the HD and plugging its cable in the
motherboard (or something like that, I'm not clear on the details),
and my question is: can it be done? If so, how? I have a Gigabyte
8IPE1000-L board, and all I see in it is a connector for a case fan,
which I'm not using, but nothing about additional temp. sensors. Can
anybody clarify a bit about this subject.

Download AIDA32 Enterprise from here:
http://www.aida32.hu/aida32-download.php

Run it. Storage|SMART| You should now see the HD temperature.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi all:

I have a Western Digital WD1200JB disk, and no matter how I've
tried, I haven't been able to get its temperature using one of those
SMART monitoring programs (HDD Temperature Monitor, Active SMART,
etc.). I have read about some people who monitor their HD temperatures
by adding another diode on the HD and plugging its cable in the
motherboard (or something like that, I'm not clear on the details),
and my question is: can it be done? If so, how? I have a Gigabyte
8IPE1000-L board, and all I see in it is a connector for a case fan,
which I'm not using, but nothing about additional temp. sensors. Can
anybody clarify a bit about this subject?

While it is possible to add a temperature-sensor (diode is pretty bad,
should at least be transistor), there are several problems
with this approach:

a) Where to put the sensor? The HDDs maximum allowed temperature
is specified with regard to the internal sensor.

b) How to connect the sensor to the mainboard? You need one
free diode/transistor-to-temperature input on a sensor IC
or one free A/D input and some additional circuitry.

c) You need to do all the programming for reading this yourself,
unless you have software that allows you to configure
additional sensor inputs.

Better get some SMART monitor that works. (No idea what does
under Windows. The popular ones under Linux "smartctl" and
"hddtemp" both work for any drive I have tried so far. hddtemp
sometimes needs a new database entry.)


Arno

 

[Rod Speed]

While it is possible to add a temperature-sensor
(diode is pretty bad, should at least be transistor),

Crap, a diode is fine.

there are several problems with this approach:

a) Where to put the sensor? The HDDs maximum allowed
temperature is specified with regard to the internal sensor.

Varys with the hard drive manufacturer.
Some actually specify the ambient temp.

b) How to connect the sensor to the mainboard? You need
one free diode/transistor-to-temperature input on a sensor
IC or one free A/D input and some additional circuitry.

Or decide that you're more interested in the
HD temp than in say the cpu socket temp.

c) You need to do all the programming for reading
this yourself, unless you have software that
allows you to configure additional sensor inputs.

Better get some SMART monitor that works.

Not even possible if the hard drive doesnt have a
SMART temperature sensor, and its only the most
recent WD drives that actually have one of those.

(No idea what does under Windows.

He's listed the ones that do when the
drive has a SMART temperature sensor.

The popular ones under Linux "smartctl" and
"hddtemp" both work for any drive I have tried so far.

And wont with the WD drives that dont
have a SMART temperature sensor.

 

[wlloo]

While it is possible to add a temperature-sensor
(diode is pretty bad, should at least be transistor),

Crap, a diode is fine.

there are several problems with this approach:

a) Where to put the sensor? The HDDs maximum allowed
temperature is specified with regard to the internal sensor.

Varys with the hard drive manufacturer.
Some actually specify the ambient temp.

b) How to connect the sensor to the mainboard? You need
one free diode/transistor-to-temperature input on a sensor
IC or one free A/D input and some additional circuitry.

Or decide that you're more interested in the
HD temp than in say the cpu socket temp.

c) You need to do all the programming for reading
this yourself, unless you have software that
allows you to configure additional sensor inputs.

Better get some SMART monitor that works.

Not even possible if the hard drive doesnt have a
SMART temperature sensor, and its only the most
recent WD drives that actually have one of those.

(No idea what does under Windows.

He's listed the ones that do when the
drive has a SMART temperature sensor.

The popular ones under Linux "smartctl" and
"hddtemp" both work for any drive I have tried so far.

And wont with the WD drives that dont
have a SMART temperature sensor.

 

[Rod Speed]

Download AIDA32 Enterprise from here:
http://www.aida32.hu/aida32-download.php

Run it. Storage|SMART| You should now see the HD temperature.

Not with a WD drive that doesnt have a SMART temperature sensor.

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a Western Digital WD1200JB disk, and no matter
how I've tried, I haven't been able to get its temperature
using one of those SMART monitoring programs (HDD
Temperature Monitor, Active SMART, etc.).

Thats because only the very latest WD
drives have a SMART temperature sensor.

I have read about some people who monitor their
HD temperatures by adding another diode on the
HD and plugging its cable in the motherboard (or
something like that, I'm not clear on the details),
and my question is: can it be done?

Yes, at least in theory.

In practice its simpler to just swap the drive
for one that has a SMART temperature sensor.

If so, how? I have a Gigabyte 8IPE1000-L board,
and all I see in it is a connector for a case fan, which
I'm not using, but nothing about additional temp. sensors.

Thats right, it doesnt have any provision for extra temp sensors.

 

[S.Heenan]

Not with a WD drive that doesnt have a SMART temperature sensor.

Hmmm, I wonder what this means?

WDC WD800JB-00ETA
C2 Temperature 0 106 253 37 OK: Always passing


Perhaps the OP will find a similar output from AIDA, since the 1200JB has
not been around as long as the 800JB.
The WD WinDlg.exe utility reports C2 as an unknown attribute.

 

[Rod Speed]

Rod Speed wrote:

Hmmm, I wonder what this means?

WDC WD800JB-00ETA
C2 Temperature 0 106 253 37 OK: Always passing

Just that its a copy of that drive made
after the SMART temp sensor was added.

Perhaps the OP will find a similar output from AIDA,

Or perhaps not.

since the 1200JB has not been around as long as the 800JB.

Thats not relevant. What matters is when the drive was made.

The WD WinDlg.exe utility reports C2 as an unknown attribute.

Presumably it hasnt been updated to allow for the addition of the
SMART temperature sensors to their drives relatively recently.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Crap, a diode is fine.

Obviously you don't know how a modern differential junction
temperature sensor works....

Arno

 

[wlloo]

Obviously you don't know how a modern
differential junction temperature sensor works....

Fraid I do with the sort of accuracy required in that
situation, particularly given what's used to read it.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Obviously you don't know how a modern differential junction
temperature sensor works....

Apparently you don't know that they come in several package forms
like in DO34 (diode) or TO92 (transistor).

 

[Paulo Jan]

Perhaps the OP will find a similar output from AIDA, since the 1200JB has
not been around as long as the 800JB.
The WD WinDlg.exe utility reports C2 as an unknown attribute.

Nope. I downloaded AIDA, but didn't find anything resembling a
temperature read either. It looks like the hard disk doesn't have a
SMART temp. monitor. Mmrpf. What a bummer.
Also, I reread the Usenet post that I had found about people
adding their own temperature sensors, and it turns out they were
talking about specific cases that have temperature LEDs on the front,
and about how to install the sensors that come with them. Oh well.
Thanks for the replies to everybody.


Paulo.

 

[Eric Gisin]

Does the other SMART stuff work? Some IDE controller drivers don't support ATA
pass through.

 

[Paulo Jan]

Does the other SMART stuff work? Some IDE controller drivers don't support ATA
pass through.

Yes, I can see other SMART data, just not the temperature.


Paulo.

 

[Arno Wagner]

On Mon, 8 Mar 2004 16:00:25 -0800, "Eric Gisin"


Yes, I can see other SMART data, just not the temperature.

Quite strange. Temperature is a pretty much standardized field, in
most drives at SMART field 194 as Temperature_Celsius.

The database of "hddtemp" (free Linux temperature-via-smart
commandline tool, has a payware MS version with the same DB, I think)
does list it as

# "WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1" 9 C "Western Digital 1200JB-00CRA1"

which means it is at offset 9. However the entry is disabled and
in a section marked "not sure about the next". Since this database
is regularly maintained, this is not a good sign.
This entry is in the current list as of 1/1/2004, available here:

http://coredump.free.fr/linux/hddtemp.php

It might be that the HDD does indeed not have the sensor or that
nobody was able to figure out how to interpret it. (No tech-docs
with this info on WDs site.) The field 194 used by most drioves
is just plain degrees Celsius.

Arno