JohnKalpus.com
HMonitor, Monitor Page
Review: August, 2004
A few weeks ago while editing a few hours of digital video, I finished my current project and was rendering the image to an AVI file. Since this is a rather time-consuming project I left my computer to do its work and rode off into the sunset for some dinner.
When I returned expecting to find the dazzling movie I had created, instead I found deadly silence coming from my laptop. My trusty computer had spontaneously shut itself off. Hmmm, since this hadn't happened before, this was rather puzzling. I retraced my work and decided the shutoff was simply a fluke. Luckily, I had made a backup of my editing work and simply left my laptop to do its work again.
Lo and behold it shut itself off again!! )-; Now I was starting to get annoyed, throwing less than polite words in the direction of Microsoft and Intel. However, this time while retracing my work I decided to check the CPU usage while editing. Not surprisingly I found that my movie editing software, Microsoft MovieMaker, makes an extreme load on the processor. Sure enough, while rendering my video, the CPU was working 100% and overtaxing the cooling fans. Most new computers today contain fail-safe circuitry to shut the system down if above normal temperatures are reached.
A simply search on Google for "CPU temperature monitors" revealed a very useful tool, HMonitor, from www.hmonitor.com. After a simple download and installation, HMonitor presents a very easy to understand interface to present both the CPU temps as well as motherboard temps, and voltage watches! (Yes, it's shareware, but comes with a easy-to-digest cost of only $29 for the whole package.)
HMonitor can also watch multiple CPUs, as well as pesky hard drive temps. I highly recommend the package from www.HMonitor.com.
Hint: I usually keep the program minimized on the system tray. HMonitor then simply reports the CPU temps in a digital display. HMonitor is compatible with any Windows32 OS: Windows 9X/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003.
Very cool!