0000294: Speedfan as a service - Almico's Bug Tracker

Notes
(0001115) tmaila (reporter) 2005-08-23 17:59	Speedfan can be ran as a service. My instructions on sudhian forum for certain machine are below: Goal The goal of this article is to describe how to set up SpeedFan to run as a service on Shuttle XPC SN45Gv3 with Athlon XP 3200+ processor. This posting propably applies to many other models as well. Normally when one uses speedfan it starts when you login and exits when you log out. I myself require that the speedfan keeps control of the fan speed when ever the computer is turned on and never exits. The only way to do it is to run SpeedFan as a service. Speedfan drops FSB and processor speed My first problem was that when ever I executed speedfan the FSB speed dropped from 200 to 100 Mhz and processor clock speed from 2.2 Ghz to 1.1 Ghz after next power off or reboot. This problem can be overcome by running speedfan with /NOSMBSCAN command line parameter. Setting up SpeedFan First install and setup SpeedFan normally. I have been using SpeedFan 4.24. Note that you should run it with /NOSMBSCAN option. (Click SpeedFan shortcut with right mouse button and select properties and make sure you have "C:\Program Files\SpeedFan\speedfan.exe" /NOSMBSCAN as Target. Don't forget quotation marks.) Remove SpeedFan from Start \| All Programs \| Startup folder. If you have already installed speedfun previously but have ran it without /NOSMBSCAN option, shut down your computer and remove the power cord for 15 seconds to restore original processor and FSB speed. First of all you should give SpeedFan control to the system fan. Start SpeedFan (with /NOSMBSCAN) and select configure \| Advanced \| Chip \| IT8712F on ISA \| PWM 1 mode \| Set to \| Software controlled. Then configure speedfan according to speedfan documentation. Check that it can control your fan speeds. Finally from SpeedFan option tab (Configure \| Options) check "start minimized" and uncheck "minimize on close". Exit SpeedFan now, do not just minimize it. Setting up speedfan to run as a service To set up Speedfan service one needs srvany.exe and instsrv.exe programs. These utilities can be obtained for example from the following address (http://www.tacktech.com/pub/microsoft/service/srvany.zip). [^] Expand the zip file to some path for example C:\reskit. From now on I expect these files to reside in C:\reskit directory. At a MS-DOS command prompt(Start \| Run \| "cmd.exe"), type the following command: C:\reskit\INSTSRV.EXE "RunSpeedFan" C:\reskit\SRVANY.EXE This creates the "RunFanSpeed" service in the Services manager and the registry keys to setup what program to run. Next open regedt32.exe (Start \| run \| regedt32.exe) Next navigate to this registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RunSpeedFan Add new key and name it Parameters (Edit \| New \| Key). Select this Paramters key. Add new string value to Parameters key and name it Application (Edit \| New \| String Value) Select this newly made Application value and add "C:\Program Files\SpeedFan\speedfan.exe" to the data field (Edit \| Modify). You MUST include the quotation marks!!! Add new string value to Parameters key and name it AppDirectory (Edit \| New \| String Value) Select this newly made AppDirectory value and add "C:\Program Files\SpeedFan" to the data field (Edit \| Modify). You MUST include the quotation marks!!! Add new string value to Parameters key and name it AppParameters (Edit \| New \| String Value) Select this newly made AppParameters value and add /NOSMBSCAN to the data field (Edit \| Modify). You can now exit regedt32.exe. Go to Service Manager (Start \| Control Panel \| Administrative Tools \| Services). Locate RunSpeedFan service. To test the service start it manually (right click \|start). Note that SpeedFan will not be visible as tray icon but it controls the fan speed on backgroun. You cannot run normally simultaneously when RunSpeedFan service is running. If SpeedFan starts properly try to stop it (right click \| stop). If everything went ok you can set SpeedFan service to start automatically (right click \| properties \| startup type \| automatic). Now next time you restart your computer SpeedFan should start even if nobody logs into the computer and it should not exit until you shut down or restart. ------------------------- Shuttle XPC SN45Gv3.0 AMD XP 3200+ 400 FSB 2x512Mb Buffalo PC3200 Sharkoon SL1 Silent fan Club 3D R9550 SE 128MB Nec ND-3520 DVD+-RW DL SAMSUNG SP80 160GB DMA/133 7200 RPM

(0001245) lightwired (reporter) 2005-09-30 03:46	Thanks tmaila for the great guide on how to set up Speedfan as a service, I found it very helpful. Just one correction, tmaila, you say "Note that SpeedFan will not be visible as tray icon" Good news is that you CAN make it visible as a tray icon. IN Service Manager (Start \| Control Panel \| Administrative Tools \| Services), in RunSpeedFan properties, click the "Logon" tab you can check "Allow service to interact with desktop"

(0001253) OA (reporter) 2005-10-01 19:11	AFAIK, no matter what you do, the SpeedFan icon will only be visible in the systray of one user. When a second user logs on, the tray icon is not visible. To run SpeedFan as a service, I find NT Wrapper much easier to setup than the combination of Srvany and Instsrv. See: http://www.duodata.de/ntwrapper/ [^] According to NT Wrapper the problem of disappearing tray icons is due to "buggy applications" (sorry Alfredo!) but "Those applications can be fixed by their developers easily, a tray application must restore its tray icon each time the taskbar is (re)created."

(0001255) flachschippe (reporter) 2005-10-02 02:08	Looks like it works, thanks for posting this. Note to any who try this: The bit about checking "start minimized" is important. Otherwise, SpeedFan will hang for a minute or so (or until someone has logged in?) after login, holding back other tray and Startup programs from doing their work. It looks as if unchecking "Minimize on close" is not necessary, at least as long as the service is allowed to interact with the desktop. The /NOSMBSCAN flag prevents SpeedFan from accessing the graphics card sensor. Since those are the most important to me, I disabled that parameter. With SpeedFan 4.26 it still works for me (mainboard is A8N-SLI), the CPU clock works as it always does (Cool'n'Quiet). Looks like the /NOSMBSCAN is needed only for specific mainboards.

(0001260) tmaila (reporter) 2005-10-02 10:39	Lightwired's proposition to "Allow service to interact with desktop" doesn't work correctly, at least not for me. My experience is that SpeedFan starts correctly at windows start. When one logs in, it correctly comes visible as a tray icon. But when one logs off, speedfan also exits. Propably, as a tray icon, Speedfan follows the normal exit signal, that windows sends to all running user level programs on log off. When SpeedFan is not allowed to interact with the desktop, an exit signal is not sent to it, and it stays alive. If you are not absolutely certain that speedfan doesn't exit on log off, DO NOT turn on "Allow service to interact with the desktop". This applies to at least SpeedFan 4.24 on Shuttle XPC SN45Gv3.0.

(0001261) tmaila (reporter) 2005-10-02 11:02	One more note for the previous. When one logs off, RunSpeedFan service keeps still running, but speedfan executable (speedfan.exe) exits and the RunSpeedFan service leaves as an empty ghost.

(0001262) flachschippe (reporter) 2005-10-02 14:13	tmaila, you are right. This is bad for those who really do log in under different accounts (I don't). I still like to run SpeedFan as a service (with Desktop interaction, to get at the charts), because this way SF starts up before I log in. This shortens the log in time (but not the total start up time, of course).

(0001263) OA (reporter) 2005-10-02 17:47	This is a good reason for using NT Wrapper instead of Srvany and Instsrv. When one logs off, SpeedFan stops, but NT Wrapper restarts it immediately and keeps it running while no one is connected. This is transparent to the user.

(0001264) lightwired (reporter) 2005-10-02 18:52	Thanks tmaila for pointing that out regarding multiple accounts, I did not test it for that as I am using just one account. You are right, for when I log out, speedfan service does stop and does not restart on login. So for those that have multiple accounts, it sounds like OA's suggestion of using NT Wrapper is best.

(0001279) l3stat (reporter) 2005-10-06 10:37	Hi, am I allowed to ask questions here? If not please ignore. I'm totally new to SFFs, recently built a SN95 v3 with the latest BIOS in. But have used a laptop for quite some years. Got some questions: 1. When you run SpeedFan as a service, do you still get the usual UI and icon where you can change settings? I display the CPU temp in the system tray. Mine's a solo machine, so I'm not that worried about user log-ins and offs. If "Allow service to interact with desktop" is disabled, do you still get to tweak settings on the fly (like run the app from the shortcut)? Also, is it a complex task to remove the service if I wish to install a newer version etc? 2. AMD's chips work with the CoolnQuiet driver which I have installed. With that, I don't require SF making further modifications to bus and CPU speeds. I've read that having the /NOSMBSCAN switch solves this, but since most of the useful monitoring chips/sensors (at least for my machine) reside on this bus (CPU/GPU), I can't disable it without rendering SF useless as an app to optimize fan speeds. Does the latest 4.26 modify the bus/CPU speeds by default? Under the clock settings tab, I left everything blank. Am I right to assume that SF would not tweak my CPU/bus speeds? Sorry if I sound like I'm extremely unwilling to experiment. Went to great pains just to get the box working normally, last thing I want to is to screw it all up again. Thanks for your patience!

(0001324) KernelSoftware (reporter) 2005-10-29 22:21	In my case, I really do not care if the end-user sees the tray icon or not. I am mostly interested in just having SpeedFan do its thing in the background. To that end, the easiest method I have found is to simply run SpeedFan as a Scheduled Task that starts when Windows starts. Thus, like a service, SpeedFan runs at startup and performs it tasks even while no one is logged on. As an administrator, if you want to interact with SpeedFan, you can right-click the task, select End Task, and then run it interactively.

(0001952) markus (reporter) 2006-08-27 22:36	Alfredo, please make speedfan survive a logoff AND interact with the desktop / be visible in tray when run as service according to tmailas instructions. Thank you.

(0002453) kike_1974 (reporter) 2007-04-14 01:36	Searching in the web I found this program to let speedfan run as a service: http://www.skipyrich.com/sfsvc.ptml [^] I've tried it and it works with the latest version of speedfan 4.32.

(0003198) mrQQ (reporter) 2007-11-26 22:01	please fix this issue! we need speedfan as service!

(0003661) JohnnyFu (reporter) 2008-05-21 15:59	I agree speedfan as a service is a must have. Speedfan is one of the most valuable pieces of software available on the internet to me.

(0003663) alfredo (manager) 2008-05-21 19:11	Thank you. I'm slowly refactoring the code. Every new release includes some changes to ease the migration. It's not easy to continue to add new hardware support and migrate the code. Anyway: I'm currently exploring services and communications.

(0004225) CSMR (reporter) 2008-10-18 16:38 edited on: 2008-10-18 16:39	Hi. I agree with the original poster. A service is the correct approach for speedfan. Speedfan is a very essential program and it would be great if it were released as a service. How is progress? Thanks!

(0005073) tocotc17 (reporter) 2009-12-25 15:34	Please any news for this feature ? Creating a scheduled task seems to do the trick but sometimes speedfan is not reading the settings...

Issue History
Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2005-06-20 16:12	Pieter	New Issue
2005-06-20 16:12	Pieter	Video Card Model	=> ATI9600Pro
2005-08-23 17:59	tmaila	Note Added: 0001115
2005-08-23 18:00	tmaila	Issue Monitored: tmaila
2005-08-25 23:09	flachschippe	Issue Monitored: flachschippe
2005-09-30 03:46	lightwired	Note Added: 0001245
2005-09-30 03:47	lightwired	Issue Monitored: lightwired
2005-10-01 19:11	OA	Note Added: 0001253
2005-10-02 02:08	flachschippe	Note Added: 0001255
2005-10-02 10:39	tmaila	Note Added: 0001260
2005-10-02 11:02	tmaila	Note Added: 0001261
2005-10-02 14:13	flachschippe	Note Added: 0001262
2005-10-02 17:47	OA	Note Added: 0001263
2005-10-02 18:52	lightwired	Note Added: 0001264
2005-10-02 23:46	alfredo	Severity	major => feature
2005-10-02 23:46	alfredo	Status	assigned => acknowledged
2005-10-02 23:46	alfredo	Category	Fan control => User interface
2005-10-06 10:37	l3stat	Note Added: 0001279
2005-10-29 22:21	KernelSoftware	Note Added: 0001324
2006-02-06 02:10	mikkokh	Issue Monitored: mikkokh
2006-08-10 22:31	adampk17	Note Added: 0001913
2006-08-10 22:31	adampk17	Note Deleted: 0001913
2006-08-27 22:36	markus	Note Added: 0001952
2006-10-04 05:06	sam0120	Issue Monitored: sam0120
2007-01-02 09:58	dnoiz	Issue Monitored: dnoiz
2007-04-14 01:36	kike_1974	Note Added: 0002453
2007-11-26 22:01	mrQQ	Note Added: 0003198
2007-11-26 22:02	mrQQ	Issue Monitored: mrQQ
2008-04-03 13:19	Coool	Issue Monitored: Coool
2008-04-07 07:42	akaleshian	Issue Monitored: akaleshian
2008-05-05 12:51	alfredo	Relationship added	has duplicate 0001128
2008-05-21 15:59	JohnnyFu	Note Added: 0003661
2008-05-21 19:11	alfredo	Note Added: 0003663
2008-06-24 22:27	JohnnyFu	Issue Monitored: JohnnyFu
2008-09-11 21:30	CSMR	Issue Monitored: CSMR
2008-10-18 16:38	CSMR	Note Added: 0004225
2008-10-18 16:39	CSMR	Note Edited: 0004225
2009-10-28 23:40	drogba	Issue Monitored: drogba
2009-12-25 15:34	tocotc17	Note Added: 0005073