Getting iStat Menus Sensors to Work (or any sensors at all)

[Haravikk]

Okay, so I finally got some replacement parts for my ailing Hackintosh (damned mSATA drive failed), and have things set back up. However, I never did find a way to monitor internal temperature for anything but my hard-drives (via S.M.A.R.T.).

 

During start-up FakeSMC reports that it is loading "13 preconfigured keys" and then "5 keys exported by Clover UEFI" which suggests that there should be something to monitor, but I don't see any sensors at all in iStat Menus.

 

​Is it possible to get these working at all? At the least I'd like to be able to monitor CPU temperature, though I'd also like to see system temperature and fan speeds (if possible), but nothing I've tried seems to display anything.

 

 

I'm running 10.10.2 on a Gigabyte GA-Q87TN (Thin Mini-ITX) motherboard, with an i7-4790T processor (4-core, hyper-threaded, 2.7ghz to 3.9ghz Haswell refresh with HD4600 graphics).

[Stabi]

Are you sure that you have the required plugins installed in …/FakeSMC.kext/Contents/PlugIns/ ? 

 

I am using ACPISensors.kext, CPUSensors.kext, GPUSensors.kext and LPCSensors.kext with iStats without problems.

[Haravikk]

I had no idea FakeSMC required plugins to provide these, though it certainly would explain my difficulties!

 

In that case, where do I get them and is the procedure to simply drop them into the Plugins folder within FakeSMC.kext? I forgot to mention that I'm using Clover as my boot loader.

[Maniac10]

Get the installer from hwsensors.com and install the LPC, GPU and CPU sensors. The installer will place them in /S/L/E, but if want them in Clover's kext folder then download the "binaries" instead (it's a dmg).

 

The plugins can be placed outside FakeSMC just fine, no need to add them inside FakeSMC.

 

And remember to remove the older FakeSMC first!

[Haravikk]

Just wanted to update and confirm that HWSensors did the trick! A lot of guides just mention installing FakeSMC.kext, they don't cover HWSensors, I just assumed FakeSMC did the whole thing!

 

Anyway, I do have one other related query though; now I can see my CPU temperature, die temperatures, current speed and multiplier. I also see two entries labelled "Thermal Zone 1" and "Thermal Zone 2", anyone know what these are? Their temperatures are much lower than the CPU itself, so initially I thought they were erroneous entries, but their values do appear to be changing so they must be for something. I just don't know what as my system is tiny. In case it's a motherboard thing, I have a Gigabyte GA-Q87TN motherboard.

 

Also, as a side note it turns out that my i7-4790T is more than happy to run at 3.2ghz average 760% load, even though it's basic speed is 2.7ghz and it's only being passively cooled, which is pretty impressive. This is partly why I'm confused by these thermal zones though, as the CPU is happy to run around 80ºC, which warms up everything inside the case (I did end up installing a tiny fan to help with this), yet these thermal zones are around 30ºC which is surprisingly low, so I'd be interested to find out what they might be.

[Allan]

You install AppleLPC plugin too? With this plugin maybe the "thermal zones" can show the correct value. 

 

But you need know if the AppleLPC is running.

[Haravikk]

I installed everything in the HW Sensors binary into the appropriate kexts folder for Clover. I can see AppleLPC listed in System Information -> Software -> Extensions, but it reports that it isn't loaded.

[Allan]

Ok.

 

You need apply patch in your DSDT, or use Clover patches: Power Management for your Hackintosh

[Maniac10]

Those sensors may come from installing the ACPISensors kext that requires DSDT editing which usually isn't done. So adding it to the system may result in a couple of dummy sensors that may actually duplicate the ones detected by the LPCSensors kext. Delete the kext and check your sensors again.

 

For the CPU make sure you've got the power management working as suggested by Allan, and check the p/c states with the AppleIntelInfo kext.

 

 

 

Ok.

 

You need apply patch in your DSDT, or use Clover patches: Power Management for your Hackintosh

 

 

Nice guide you've got there Allan, but do you know if the FakeLPC DSDT fix requires the "AddDTGP" one? I don't use those fixes so I can't verify this.

[Allan]

Nice guide you've got there Allan, but do you know if the FakeLPC DSDT fix requires the "AddDTGP" one? I don't use those fixes so I can't verify this.

 

In some cases (or in some Hacks) mark "AddDTPG" is not necessary. But it is a "fake" DSDT, then it would be interesting to use this option. 

[Maniac10]

It would be nice if Clover applied DSDT fixes without DTGP so we don't have to enable a fix to make other fixes work. This way for example: 

Method (_DSM, 4, NotSerialized)
{
    If (LEqual (Arg2, Zero)) { Return (Buffer() { 0x03 } ) }
    Return (Package()
    {
        "device-id", 
        Buffer (0x04)
        {
            0x59, 0x1E, 0x00, 0x00
        }, 

        "compatible", 
        Buffer (0x0D)
        {
            "pci8086,1e59"
        }, 

        "IOName", 
        Buffer (0x0D)
        {
            "pci8086,1e59"
        }, 

        "name", 
        Buffer (0x0D)
        {
            "pci8086,1e59"
        }
    })
}