Readme Information for Intel(R) Desktop Utilities, version 3.1.4 Date: April 27, 2011 Table of Contents 1. Overview 2. Supported Intel(R) Desktop Boards and Intel(R) Chipsets 3. System Requirements 4. Compatibility Information 5. Known Issues 6. Notes and Tips 7. Legal Disclaimer 1. Overview =========== Intel(R) Desktop Utilities provides a hardware monitor that checks sensors on your Intel(R) Desktop Board and, if alerting is enabled, alerts you if the sensors go outside of their specified ranges. If an alert occurs, Intel Desktop Utilities can provide you with several different types of alert notifications: a flashing red icon in the system tray, a pop-up window alert message, and an audible alert. The hardware monitor retains a history of the previous alerts on your system. Intel Desktop Utilities also provides easy access to system hardware and software information. Note: Only one user at a time (with administrator rights) can run Intel(R) Desktop Utilities. If other users try to open additional instances of Intel(R) Desktop Utilities, no prompt or activity will appear for those users. This readme file contains information specific to this release and provides information about the application that was discovered too late in the development process to be included in the help file. This version (3.1.4) of Intel(R) Desktop Utilities includes: - Support for newer Intel(R) Desktop Boards. - Some minor software bug fixes. Intel(R) Desktop Utilities is only qualified to run on Intel Desktop Boards with specific Intel(R) chipsets. In addition, the specific heatsink/fan combination must have been qualified for the Intel Desktop Board (check your board's installation instructions). Note: Any displayed temperature measurements are approximate and should not be used for design or validation of thermal solutions. 2. Supported Intel(R) Desktop Boards and Intel(R) Chipsets ========================================================== For updates to Intel Desktop Utilities, and the most current information on new board support, go to the following Intel website: http://www.intel.com/go/idu NOTE: On older Extreme Series Intel(R) Desktop Boards, the monitoring and adjustment of system parameters can only be performed by using Intel(R) Desktop Control Center. Please use the guidance provided by the following Intel site to determine BIOS and applications supported for your board: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ Users will create system issues by attempting to run an inappropriate application for their specific board. 3. System Requirements ====================== 1. Supported operating systems: - Microsoft* Windows* 7 Ultimate and Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premier (both 32-bit and 64-bit Editions) - Microsoft Windows Vista* Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit Editions) (Service Pack 2 and up) - Microsoft Windows XP* Professional and Home Editions (32-bit) (Service Pack 3 and up) 2. The system sees an Intel Desktop Board featuring supported onboard hardware management sensors and the board's supported Intel processors: 3. A minimum of 800x600 resolution with 16-bit color display configuration. 4. Intel Desktop Utilities has been qualified only with the heatsink, fan, and processor combinations listed for Intel(R) boxed processors. The heatsink must be properly installed with adequate but not excessive thermal grease. For more information, check your Product Guide, Technical Product Specification (TPS), or the installation instructions for your specific Intel Desktop Board. 5. Intel Desktop Utilities requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or newer. 4. Compatibility Information ============================ Intel Desktop Utilities may fail when run at the same time as other monitoring software (such as LANDesk* Client Manager, the CPU-Z* program from CPUID*, or with other third-party monitoring programs) that access the same hardware resources, such as the monitoring ASIC chip and the SMBus driver. NOTE: On older Extreme Series Intel(R) Desktop Boards, the monitoring and adjustment of system parameters can only be performed by using Intel(R) Desktop Control Center. Please use the guidance provided by the following Intel site to determine BIOS and applications supported for your board: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/ Otherwise, users will create system issues by attempting to run an inappropriate application for their specific board. 5. Known Issues =============== ISSUE-1 -- When using Intel(R) Desktop Utilities, some Intel(R) Desktop ===== Boards do not display system information when UEFI Boot is enabled in BIOS. UEFI refers to Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. STATUS – Fixed with a BIOS update on a few products, other BIOS updates are pending. Please use the workaround below. WORKAROUND – If you see this issue, download and install the latest BIOS release for your board at the Intel site: http://downloadcenter.intel.com If this does not resolve the issue then check back in the near future for an updated BIOS. ISSUE-2 -- For some 5-series Intel(R) Desktop Boards, a Memory Controller ===== Hub (MCH) gauge will appear on the Intel(R) Desktop Utilities screen even when the board does not have an MCH. STATUS – Fixed. Please use the workaround below. WORKAROUND – Download and install the latest BIOS release for your board at the Intel site: http://downloadcenter.intel.com ISSUE-3 -- If a fan cable is moved from one board connector to another, ===== Intel(R) Desktop Utilities might identify the fan by its original connector position after the system restarts. STATUS – Under investigation. Please use the workaround below. WORKAROUND – Click "Fans Redetect" from the "Set Sensor Threshold" dialog. The identification of fans will then correct after a system restart. ISSUE-4 –- Basic hard disk information on the 'Hardware Monitor' pages and ===== SMART attributes on the Hardware Monitor/Hard Drive page do not display expected information. This may simply be that the RAID volume does not report with details, only individual drive information is reported. STATUS – Intel Desktop Utilities does not support having Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager enabled. Please use the Intel(R) Matrix Storage Console to view each individual drive's RAID information. ISSUE-5 –- Unable to install an older version of Intel Desktop Utilities over ===== the current version. STATUS – Overinstall to an older version is not supported. Please use workaround below. WORKAROUND – To install an older version of Intel Desktop Utilities, first Manually uninstall the IDU program. Then reboot the computer and reinstall the desired build of Intel Desktop Utilities. ISSUE-6 -- The speed of all memory devices plugged into the system may be ===== reported as the "current speed that the devices are running" instead of the "rated speed of each device" under the System Information page of Intel Desktop Utilities. STATUS – Under investigation. WORKAROUND – There is no workaround for this issue at this time. ISSUE-7 -- The DH55TC Intel(R) Desktop Board may report the value for ===== the +1.5 V memory voltage at a higher level when used with BIOS version: TCIBX10H.86A.0031.2010.0327.0304 STATUS – This is a BIOS issue which is now fixed. Please use the following workaround. WORKAROUND – Download and install the latest BIOS release for your board at the Intel site: http://downloadcenter.intel.com ISSUE-8 -- Any external eSATA S.M.A.R.T drive monitoring is not displayed ===== by Intel Desktop Utilities. STATUS – Under investigation. WORKAROUND – There is no workaround for this issue at this time. ISSUE-9 -- Modifying a large number of sensor thresholds in a single ===== operation can take a significant amount of time to apply (for example a worst case is around one minute). This currently applies to Intel(R) Desktop Boards that start with the following product nomenclature: DB65…, DH61…, DH67…, DP67…, and DQ67… STATUS - Currently under investigation. Note that the user interface for Intel Desktop Utilities will display an hourglass while sensor threshold changes are being applied. Please wait for this operation to fully complete. ISSUE-10 - Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology (RST), versions 10.0 and ===== 10.1 might prevent Intel(R) Desktop Utilities from extracting temperatures from hard disk drives configured within RAID arrays. STATUS – Under investigation. This issue has been root-caused to the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) software. WORKAROUND – Once available, upgrade to Intel Rapid Storage Technology version 10.5 or later. ISSUE-11 - Users might see an out-of-range alert message for the +3.3V Standby sensor, even though the voltage is within the +/- 15% guideline. This is a BIOS related issue for Intel(R) Desktop Boards DH61CR, DH61BE, DH61DL and DH61WW. STATUS – Under investigation. Future BIOS updates for the impacted boards are expected to deliver a fix for this issue. WORKAROUND – There is no workaround for this issue at this time. Watch for BIOS updates that address this issue. 6. Notes and Tips ================= The following notes and tips provide additional information about Intel Desktop Utilities (IDU): 1. If the IDU Hardware Monitor screen does not show temperature information for data storage devices, you should first ensure that the Intel INF Update package is installed. If the problem persists, note the following secondary possibilities: - Many newer solid state drives (SSDs) and some rotating hard disk drives (HDDs) do not have internal temperature sensors. Temperatures will only be shown for HDDs and SSDs that have sensors and support a temperature attribute within their S.M.A.R.T. analysis support. - Early drivers for Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology (such as versions 10.0 and 10.1) had defects that prevented disk drive temperatures from being displayed. As a workaround, please try the newest RST driver for your board (version 10.5 or newer). - Temperature information is only supported starting with newer 6-series Intel Desktop Boards (for example; DH61xx, DH67xx, DP67xx...). We don't provide HHD/SSD temperature reporting support for other 3rd-party fan controllers such as those used on some Intel Desktop Boards earlier than Intel's 6-series boards. 2. The sensor name for Processor Thermal Margin cannot be changed. This only happens on Intel(R) Desktop Boards that show the sensor name for Processor Thermal Margin and does not apply to boards that only show the sensor name Processor Temperature. Thus, the display of the processor temperature falls into two categories: The first category includes Processor Thermal Margin (where a delta value or difference between current processor temperature and Processor Maximum Temperature is displayed). In this category, the sensor name for Processor Thermal Margin cannot be changed. The second category includes Processor Temperature where the processor temperature is displayed. It is left to the user to determine to what extent this is below the processor's maximum temperature. For this second category, the user can change the sensor name for Processor Temperature as desired. 3. In the System Information's Detail scene, the External Clock value is the speed of the physical clock cycle (such as 133 MHz) not the actual programmed bus speed (such as 533 MHz). 4. Only hard drives with S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) are monitored. 5. For audible alerts, a Windows audio device must be correctly installed. 6. Fan silkscreen labels on Intel Desktop Boards are not meant to correspond to the Intel Desktop Utilities fan sensor names (Processor Fan 1, System Fan 1, etc.). 7. Note that Intel Desktop Utilities does not support system monitoring from a Guest account. 8. The tray icon will continue to blink after all messages in Alert History are deleted. This is normal activity for Intel Desktop Utilities. 9. Keyboard navigation is not supported (such as using Arrow keys or the Tab key) for Intel Desktop Utilities. 10. Intel's recently released user survey and automatic notification exists only if a new Intel(R) Desktop Utility program release supports your computer's specific Intel(R) Desktop Board. Also note that at this time surveys and automatic notification features are only available on computers with an English language operating system. 11. Some of the gauge text has been shortened so titles fit within the description fields. These include: CPU = Central Processing Unit GPU = Graphics Processing Unit ICH = Input/Output Controller Hub IOH = Input/Output Hub MCH = Memory Controller Hub PCH = Platform Controller Hub PSU = Power Supply Unit VR = Voltage Regulator 7. Legal Disclaimer =================== Intel is not responsible for any errors which may appear in the documentation or the Software. Intel reserves the right to make changes to this document or Software at any time, without notice. Intel may make changes to the Software, or to items referenced therein, at any time without notice, but is not obligated to support, update or provide training for the Software. UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED IN WRITING BY INTEL, THE INTEL PRODUCTS ARE NOT DESIGNED NOR INTENDED FOR ANY APPLICATION IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE INTEL PRODUCT COULD CREATE A SITUATION WHERE PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH MAY OCCUR. Intel products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, life sustaining, critical control or safety systems, or in nuclear facility applications. Intel may make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time, without notice. Designers must not rely on the absence or characteristics of any features or instructions marked "reserved" or "undefined." Intel reserves these for future definition and shall have no responsibility whatsoever for conflicts or incompatibilities arising from future changes to them. The information here is subject to change without notice. Do not finalize a design with this information. The products described in this document may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request. Intel, Intel Core, Pentium, Celeron, and the Intel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Copyright (C) 2011 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Readme ver-3.1.4 042711-z7