HDD Temperature Plug-in vBETA - Ready for download, help me to test it !

Hello everybody

I am French, so... basic english

I created a plugin that displays the temperature of the selected hard drive, updating display at a given frequency...

It's working on my computer, but need to be tested on some others...

To work, the plug-in needs a SMART compatible HDD, and a SMART enabled Motherboard...

Code:

--- PLUGIN INSTALLATION PROCEDURE ---

1 - Download ZIP file...;)
2 - Unzip it in the TLB plugin directory ...
3 - Run INSTALL.BAT to register the plugin TLBSMART.DLL ...
4 - Restart explorer ...
5 - Now you can add a "S.M.A.R.T." button in TLB

6 - The properties window permits to choose a drive to display, and an actualization frequency... That's all folks;)

7 - Now you have a new button, displaying the selected harddrive temperature on two digits... (If the HDD or Mobo is not S.M.A.R.T. capable, the button displays only "8"...

Help me to test it, Please return to this Forum to feedback any bug, suggestion and questions...

Thanks to everyone...
.sY4:.

I have 2 SMART compatible HDDs connected to a SMART enabled motherboard, and this plugin displays 8 for both of them. Other system details below.

P.S. Do you plan on supporting skins or at least the option to change font face/size/color?

Hi shapeshifter...

first question to complete your :did you enabled the mobo SMART capabilities in BIOS (default is disabled)?

"8" is error number i get when HDD doesn't responds to SMART commands... so HDD & Mobos must be SMART capable, AND the SMART capabilities of MOBO must be activated (BIOS)

To make sure your SMART configuration is correct, try to get temp with another soft (PC Wizard 2003...)... if you can get temp with other softs, there is no reason you can't with this plug-in...

Psy4

PS: Can U tell me if the props window works properly? I have had some disastrous resusts on some Win2000 systems...

About SKINS support, and Font/Size/Color option
-----------------------------------------------
For the moment, i do not plan to include skin support, or font/size/color apparence...

I'm an industrial programmer, not a Windows programmer... I used the TLBClock example of the TLB Plugin Dev Kit for visual aspect... i just modified some things, and added my code to call SMART functions...
As the example doesn't have such capabilities, my plugin too...

But i'll provide my source code when the plugin will be fully debugged... so if anyone wanna add functionnalities...

Psy4

I made sure my SMART capapbilities were enabled before I posted the bug. However, I've researched some more, and it doesn't look like my motherboard has sensors for HDD temperature. These temperatures are not reported in the BIOS (where all the other temperatures/voltages/fan speeds are reported), nor is it reported in PC Wizard 2003 or MBM5.

By the way, are you aware that TLB has an MBM5 plugin? It seems like the plugin you are developing just duplicates some of the functionality already present in that one? This occured to me before, but my MBM didn't report HDD temps, so I didn't say anything. Now it appears that MBM is capable of reading HDD temps, it's just that my system doesn't monitor them.

And the MBM plugin is skinnable

mmmmm, I see you'r not familiar with SMART...

Briefly, SMART doesn't need sensors to get temperature of HDD, it is the HDD that gets its own temperature (...and others), but the Mobo needs to be SMART enabled to permit getting these infos...

Now, get "Active SMART 2.3" from <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.download.com">www.download.com</a><!-- w --> to verify and view the entire SMART capabilities of your system...

The MBM5 plugin is very "Time & Ressouces consuming" compare to SMART plugin, because it needs MBM5 to run in background... and SMART monitoring is totaly different than Mobo monitoring (No driver, no direct memory access, ...).
Using MBM5 plugin for TLB, plus MBM5 running in background, (... plus SMART plugin for MBM5) to get only your HDD temp is a very big installation for small result...

Bye
Psy4

Nice to see people developing plug-ins!

I gave the plugin a try. I have:

Windows XP Home
True Launch Bar 2.2.0.7 Beta
Gigabyte 7VRXP Motherboard

Drive 0
-Seagate ST340810A (About two years old)
-Reported correct temperature (43 degrees, 4 degrees lower than my CPU temperature.)
-Harddisc light stayed on constantly from the moment I chose the drive until I removed
the plugin from the True Launch Bar.

Drive 1
-Western Digital WD800JB-00CRA1 (About a year old)
-Reported an '8.'
-Drive made a noise like it was working really hard.

Good luck
/Mark

(P.S. I have to check that SMART is on in the BIOS on my next reboot. Anyhow, I'm quite sure it is.)

Hello PsY4
Your installer does not work well. We created a folder within the plugin folder and named it "Smart Mon." We then downloaded the zip and unzipped it in the new folder. Next we clicked on the install.dat file and it seemed to register in DOS. Then we closed TLB and re-opened it. Also we closed Explorer and re-opended it also but there is no Smart Mon available in the plugin option list.

To QSection:

I replied to your private message about installing the
plugin, but your inbox was full. Here's what I wrote:

Hello,

I did more-or-less what you did with the installation.

I notice that you used "Smart Mon" as a folder name
though. None of the Yuri plugin folders have spaces in the
names. You could try making a folder without a space in
the name, move the files and click "install.bat" again. I
used "drvmon"

The only other thing I did differently was completely
re-starting the computer after installing the plugin.

Bye for now,
/Mark

We took your advice and tried it again. Upon clicking install.dat we get a "Bad command or filename" in the DOS window.

Also in "New" we cannot get the folder for HDDmon to appear as an option.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Now, get "Active SMART 2.3" from <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.download.com">www.download.com</a><!-- w --> to verify and view the entire SMART capabilities of your system...

All info is present except for temperature for my two drives. The BIOS reports that both drives are SMART capable and status OK.

The MBM5 plugin is very "Time & Ressouces consuming" compare to SMART plugin, because it needs MBM5 to run in background... and SMART monitoring is totaly different than Mobo monitoring (No driver, no direct memory access, ...).
Using MBM5 plugin for TLB, plus MBM5 running in background, (... plus SMART plugin for MBM5) to get only your HDD temp is a very big installation for small result...

Good point...

We cannot install the plugin. There is no option in "New" to add this plugin. There is no question of the correct data or "8". We know some of the drives are SMART but just so we will all know- we will dl the program mentioned and post results.

To QSection:

I tried to reply to your new message, but it says your inbox is still full. Strange, if you deleted messages from it.

I don't have much else to suggest with getting the plugin working. I can only say what I did myself:

(i) Make a folder named 'drvmon' in the TLB plugins folder.
(ii) Copy the two files from the zip inside.
(iii) Double-click on 'install.bat.'
(iv) Restart computer.

Perhaps the programmer will be more help
/Mark

Perhaps the regsrvr.exe is broken in our computer but "Find" says we have more than one. Here are some images. The main thing wanted was the temperature but none shows.

See? No option for S.M.A.R.T.