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EDITOR NOTES
The download includes Hardware Monitor ($10) and Hardware Monitor Lite, the Lite version is free.
DESCRIPTION
Hardware Monitor is an application to read out all available hardware sensors in Macintosh computers. The program can display and visualize measured values in a large variety of fashions. It can also store and export readings. The application Temperature Monitor is available for free, but is limited to accessing temperature sensors only. The application Hardware Monitor is commercial shareware, but can access additional sensors if your computer is equipped with them. This includes the following sensor types:
- Battery sensors on portable computers
- Voltage sensors
- Current (amperage) sensors
- Fan speed sensors
- Sensors for pulse-width controlled fans
- Power and load sensors
WHAT'S NEW
Version 4.8:
- Support for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther has been removed. The required minimum
OS version is now Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
- Added a feature to reset different aspects of display preferences for
all sensors back to recommended default values. This new feature supersedes
the former features to reset sensor display colors, data acquisition settings
and customized labels.
- Added a feature to display 32/64 bit capabilities of the processor and
the current mode of the kernel.
- Added a feature to display the unique identifier (UUID) of a computer.
- Added a feature to monitor the size of swap space memory which is actually
in use.
- Added a feature to let the user define individual sets of remotely monitored
computers in a network. It is now possible to connect to whole groups of
monitored systems in one step.
- Added a new driver for monitoring of the internal thermal sensors of
Intel processors which is also capable of supporting the 64 bit kernel
version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
- On PowerPC hardware, support for S.M.A.R.T. hard drive sensors accessed
via SATA interfaces has been enhanced. The application will now accept
the temperature sensors of unknown SATA drive models. (This has always
been the standard on Intel-based computers.)
- The support for hard drive sensors controlled via proprietary drivers
of Sonnet and FirmTek has been enhanced.
- By user request, a feature to suppress access to S.M.A.R.T. hard drive
sensors has been added to the command-line version of the program.
- The output channel "Screen Display" will no longer try to keep
its screen position if the user changes a multi-monitor configuration while
the program is not running. This makes sure the Screen Display cannot become
invisible when its target monitor has been removed.
- The default number of displayed digits behind the decimal point is now
automatically set to zero in cases where it is known that the sensor hardware
does not provide more significant digits.
- When exporting readings, it is now possible to also use history windows
in overlay mode as sources to get combined tables of readings for different
physical quantities.
- If the application loses the network connection to a remotely monitored
computer, related warnings will now be suppressed automatically when a
change of the network configuration on the monitoring computer itself is
the main reason for the disconnect. This is useful when a mobile computer
monitoring a network leaves the WiFi area, for example.
- When remote-monitoring multiple computers with repaired logic boards
that have invalid or erased hardware serial numbers, the application will
now better keep track of the individual identifications of the affected
systems.
- If the application is set to automatically reconnect to a set of remotely
monitored computers on startup, the reconnect will now be performed less
aggressively, one by one. This avoids temporary network overload when monitoring
a large number of computers.
- When quitting the application, shutdown of attached alphanumeric LCD
boxes has been enhanced.
- The numbering of labels for user-created sensors monitoring battery units
will now also start with 1 instead of beginning with 0.
- Corrected a problem where the temperature values displayed for the cores
of the Intel P7350 processor have been shifted by 15 degrees Celsius.
- Corrected a problem where no spaces between values have been displayed
in the menu-bar when the display of sensor labels has been switched off.
REQUIREMENTS
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.
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| Hardware Monitor User Reviews (9 posts) | Write A Review |
 | Jan 28 2009 |
PALADINO Been using this gem for the past 31/2 years, first on my Powerbook and now on my MacBook Pro Intel core2 Duo. It's always worked perfectly for me with never a hint of trouble. The developer, Marcel Bresink is a real pro; he really knows his craft. I have the utmost respect for him. This beautifully done little work of art is well worth its very modest cost of, currently, 7 (a little more than $10 US.). I'd say it's a real bargain. (Version 4.6) | |
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 | May 3 2008 |
PDMARSH I saw that Hardware Monitor had been updated to version 4.5 and decided to try it again. Although version 4.3 clearly didn't like my original aluminum iMac, version 4.5 works perfectly for me now. I'm now running MacOS X 10.5.2, and my original aluminum 24" iMac 2.8GHz machine has since been replaced by Apple when it was damaged during a repair, so I don't know whether it was a system software update, a hardware update, or the updated Hardware Monitor software, but my Mac's been running 24x7 for a week now with the new version with no issues. So, I must say this issue is now closed for me. (Version 4.5) | |
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 | Jan 30 2008 |
PDMARSH Well, it's been a couple of months since I turned off Hardware Monitor and I've had NO MORE FREEZES, so this closes this issue out for me. Hardware Monitor is a cool app, but clearly has a problem with my new iMac's 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor. (Version 4.3) | |
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 | Dec 20 2007 |
PDMARSH I migrated my old G5 Tower apps/accounts/data to my new 24" 2.8GHz iMac in early November, and had periodic freezes (from 5 minutes to 3 days) that I was having trouble resolving. To narrow the field of issues, I built a clean partition with Leopard on the iMac and proceeded to install my old apps and data just to use as a control environment. I found that this control environment NEVER froze, so I knew I wasn't having a hardware issue, but my migrated account continued to spontaneously freeze periodically. To see what was happening, I turned off the screen saver and energy saver, left the CPU always on, opened the Console log and Activity Monitor window (selected highest CPU usage column), left iTunes running, and waited. The next time it froze, I looked at the Console log on screen and noted nothing usual was happening when it froze. Activity Monitor showed the iMac was idling at ~6%. Interestingly, I was able to connect ONCE to the iMac from another Mac and play an iTunes song, but multiple selections failed, and then the iMac became unresponsive over the network. I read on a forum of another user who was having sporadic freezes and thought Hardware Monitor might be involved, but he couldn't confirm it. When I rebooted from my control startup partition, I noted that I hadn't yet installed Hardware Monitor on it, so I thought I'd try turning it off on my migrated startup volume. That was nearly four days ago, and the iMac has remained fully operational and functional. I initially tried just turning off the enhanced sensors extension, but that didn't help. My iMac ONLY remained stable with Hardware Monitor turned off. Since it takes anywhere from 5 minutes to multiple days for the freeze to occur, it's difficult to diagnose, but I intend to reactivate all my usual stuff (except for Hardware Monitor) later today, install the pending Apple updates, reboot, and wait some more. If it freezes again, WITHOUT Hardware Monitor running, I'll be sure to update this post. But, it's never survived more than three days before, and it'll be four days this afternoon. I should note I've been using Hardware Monitor for years, and it works just fine on all my PPC Macs (all also running Leopard). But it definitely appears to be having an issue with my new iMac. (Version 4.3) | |
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 | Oct 11 2006 |
SJJ_PUBLIC I had been using the Lite version and liked it, and so downloaded this "Hardware" version and like what seem to be the additional features, but my one big complaint is that the demonstration version does not let you even try the additional features for a limited time, it only tells you what those features are. I still purchased a copy because I wanted to support just the Lite features, but surely having a trial of the added features in the "Hardware" version would only help matters? One other nit is that the purchase procedure does not give instant gratification. A lot of shareware I buy gives you a registration code instantly, but with Hardware Monitor it appears I have to wait for the author to send me the code which I guess is a manual process. Not a huge deal, but definitely could be better. (Version 3.95) | |
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 | Sep 19 2006 |
JUKI Superbly done! And it just keeps getting better. I purchased this app about a year ago and refer to it a lot. And at only $10, it's a bargain. The developer just keeps improving it, offering frequent updates. 5 stars for this beautiful, extremely useful creation, and 5 stars for the developer...a real mensch. Hardware Monitor rocks! (Version 3.9) | |
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 | Sep 8 2005 |
ANONYMOUS A minor heads up. Not all macintosh computers have sensors. Only mostly the ibook/powerbook line which contain temperature sensors and such. But other computers such like old imacs and others might not include sensors at all so your paying for something you can't even use. Plus there are other applications that do this for free. X Resource Graph for example. Later. (Version 3.01) | |
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 | Mar 1 2005 |
HANK I gather if "lite" finds nothing, there's nothing -- right? Ge Pismo, with 900 mhz aftermarket CPU. Nothing found to report. (Version 1.5) | |
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Replies:
 | Aug 29 2005 |
ANONYMOUS No it means get a new computer that actually has hardware it can report from. (Version 3.0) | |
 | Feb 3 2005 |
GIZMOVISION I'm completely unsure if I should buy this... I have a 3rd party CPU upgrade and harddrives attached IDE cards and external drives will this work with these? Can I have my money back if it doesn't? I have the temperature of my SMART drive, but I had that before... but not my externals or EIDE/ATA drives... (Version 2.4) | |
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