==============================================================================
==== CPU Monitor 2.02                                                     ====
==============================================================================

Welcome to my personal version of the CPU and Mainboard temperature monitor.

It was originally designed for the Asus TX97-(X)(E) mainboard series, but 
may work with other systems too, supposed temperature compensation is
adjusted properly and they use the same LM75/78 sensors and setup. I've got
reports that it runs on some Asus P2L97, Asus P2B and Abit BX6 boards as well.
It runs under Windows 95 and Windows 98. 

I've added the fan and voltage display in version 2.0. For those who preferred
the small "only-temperature" display of version 1, version 1.12 is still
available for download on my homepage.

In order to read out the sensors, the program has to write to some hardware
ports, first. If you've got a system different from the Asus TX97, this may
result in a program crash, hang, or bogus values being displayed. Currently
i'm still collecting information about which boards and sensors are supported,
so there's no code to block out some systems yet. Sorry!

This program is freely redistributable, as long as the original archive is
kept intact. There is absolutely no guarantee that this program serves for 
any special purpose, especially that values shown by this program have an 
actual meaning of any kind! You are using it at your own risk. 


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==== Installation                                                         ====
==============================================================================

Just extract the .zip archive into any directory. 
If problems occur with missing dlls or anything, please send me a message.

To deinstall, simply delete this directory and the cpumon.ini file in your
main windows drawer (usually C:\Windows).


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==== Settings                                                             ====
==============================================================================

On first startup, CPU Monitor opens a settings requester asking you to adjust
some values. You can access this dialog through the system menu (click on the
icon in the window's upper left corner) afterwards.

Of main importance is the first item:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
o CPU temperature compensation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The background is, there's some space (air) between the LM75 CPU sensor and
the actual CPU, and different brands have the CPU core placed on different
positions (near the top, near the bottom) in the plastic CPU package. So you
have got to add a specific temperature value to compensate for this and 
correctly guess and display the inner value.

To give you some hint, here are some estimated values:

  Processor brand            compensation    critical
  ------------------------   ------------    --------
  AMD    K5 PR133                 8C (*)
  AMD    K5 PR166                17C (*)

  AMD    K6 166                   8C          70C
  AMD    K6 200                   8C          70C
  AMD    K6 233                  20C          70C

  Cyrix  M2 PR200                15C (*)

  IDT    WinChip C6              20C (*)

  Intel  Pentium (P54C)          32C (*)      80C
  Intel  Pentium MMX (P55C)      22C          80C     (*) not confirmed yet


! Warning: !
DO NOT RELY ON THESE VALUES, AND CHECK THEM AGAINST THE VALUES SHOWN IN YOUR
BIOS SETUP! If in question, always suppose the values shown by the BIOS are
the correct ones.

Especially, the Author of this program can not be made reliable for any damage
caused by overheating your system due to conclusions based upon wrong tempera-
ture display! I can only recommend to keep CPU temperature below 65 C.

To derive the correct values, let the system temperature settle, then reset
your machine and press 'Del' to enter BIOS setup. The temperatures are shown
in the Power Management section. Then start Windows95 and CPU Monitor, go to
the settings menu and adjust the temperature compensation.

If your values differ from mine, please send me a note, so i can adjust the
documentation! If you get the program to work on any system other than the
Asus TX97-(X)(E) series, please let me know!


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
o Other Settings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This section has been removed, now that there is context help available.

The last window position is remembered in the settings file automatically.

Again, you can open the settings dialog anytime via the program's system menu.
Settings are automatically saved to disk when you leave the settings requester
pressing OK.


==============================================================================
==== revision log                                                         ==== 
==============================================================================

Version 2.02, 24.Aug.98

o added a warning message that the program may crash or hang on some systems.


Version 2.01, 21.Aug.98

o added timeout for chip reading retry loops (should have done that before!)
o changed cpu core voltage display to three digits (e.g. 2.96)
o changed program messages to nicer design
o changed linkage to dynamic again, to reduce archive size


Version 2.0, 12.Aug.98

o actually Pedro's sources contained the fan/voltage readout all the time, so
  it's not like i've really added this support in only one day  :-)
  anyway, three fans and five voltages are monitored now, also.


Version 1.12, 11.Aug.98

o when reading out the LM75 cpu temp sensor, a timeout has been added now so
  the program will not block if the sensor is missing.

o taskbar title formats have been slightly modified.

o "updating..." title message display removed. Someone got annoyed by this.
  When the window is open, cpu temp blanks out for 50 msec (i.e. very short)
  when values are updated now.


Version 1.1, 25.Feb.1998

o context help added to the settings dialog. Actually i had to start from 
  scratch and reprogram the whole thing, as i forgot to check the context
  help flag in the original project setup. Took me some 20 hours total to
  figure how it works and get it to run. Current help implementation in
  Visual C++ 5.0 is way too complicated, i say!

o added EMail and WWW address to the about box; now that there's context help,
  noone will read this documentation i thought. Hm. Looks like i was wrong :-)

o added a few more 'minimized title' format alternatives. Got some reports
  about the CPU temperature not working on Asus P2L97(S) series boards.

o "updating..." message display time reduced to 125 msec (was 200). 


Version 1.01, 18.Feb.1998:

o window forgot its position when minimized, then quit. Fixed. 
  Actually noone reported this one, i had to find it myself :o)

o some DLLs were required on some systems. Hope to have them included now.


Version 1.0, 22.Jan.1998:

o first beta release
o first public release 




==============================================================================
==== ToDo                                                                 ==== 
==============================================================================

o currently there's no fan warning yet, so when the fan breaks down you'll 
  only get a cpu temperature warning after some time.

o draw a temperature evolution graph

o system tray support is no longer scheduled for inclusion, since there's a
  very nice program "Motherboard Monitor" from Alex van Kaam for this. See my
  homepage for more. I have eagerly awaited it as so many, but now i think my
  cpumon display is also very nice, so i run them both :-)

o your suggestions are welcome!


==============================================================================
==== Contacting the Author                                                ==== 
==============================================================================

This program is copyrighted (c) 1998 by Martin Grote. 

It is my very first Visual C++ program, so please don't blame me for it :-)

It is based on sources by Pedro Ortigao. Thanks, Pedro!

My Address:
  Martin Grote
  Bernhard-Koethenbuerger-Str. 91
  33102 Paderborn
  Germany

My EMail:  chandler@uni-paderborn.de, chandler@c-lab.de
My Homepage:  http://www.c-lab.de/~chandler/ 
    (newest version can be downloaded there)

Looks like finally someone read that far :-)
If you like my work, send me a note!

