Which nvidia software allows for smart monitoring?

[HeXploiT]

Using a 680i and not using raid but I want to enable smart disk monitoring through the control panel. Which nvidia app is it that lets you do this?

 

[BustaBust]

Go find the 630i drivers, they work for yours too. I have them and it includes the app you need. You may have the option to just do a custom install for only the app.

 

[HeXploiT]

Originally posted by: BustaBust
Go find the 630i drivers, they work for yours too. I have them and it includes the app you need. You may have the option to just do a custom install for only the app.

That's my question. What is the app? Is it supposed to be included with the chipset driver pack?

 

[HeXploiT]

Ohcomeon! No one on anandtech knows this?! :laugh:

 

[BustaBust]

Just go to nvidia --> driver downloads --> nforce --> 6 series --> 680i

If not...just download the 630i 88mb take the program and erase the driver

 

[HeXploiT]

Originally posted by: BustaBust
Just go to nvidia --> driver downloads --> nforce --> 6 series --> 680i

If not...just download the 630i 88mb take the program and erase the driver

Well I tried that. I presume it's mediashield. Still nothing. It installs but doesn't show up in the control panel.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

It depends on the BIOS on your motherboard. When you enable smart disk monitoring in the BIOS it's automatic in Windows. Some nVIDIA programs in Windows may initiate changes to the 680i BIOS, but it doesn't matter where you do it from.

If your 680i BIOS doesn't have the option for S.M.A.R.T. it's probably because it's automatically enabled at boot.

 

[Nothinman]

It depends on the BIOS on your motherboard. When you enable smart disk monitoring in the BIOS it's automatic in Windows.

No, Windows doesn't do any SMART monitoring on it's own. The BIOS option will enable it on POST but Windows won't do anything about it, you need a 3rd party tool to look at the SMART status and alert you.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

It depends on the BIOS on your motherboard. When you enable smart disk monitoring in the BIOS it's automatic in Windows.

No, Windows doesn't do any SMART monitoring on it's own. The BIOS option will enable it on POST but Windows won't do anything about it, you need a 3rd party tool to look at the SMART status and alert you.

Kind of true.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/smartdrv.mspx

By default, WMI polls the hard disk periodically; this polling frequency can be configured using a WMI (WBEM) method call, for example, ExecMethod or ExecMethodAsync.

Most 3rd party smart monitoring utilities use WMI, where the polling is already enabled by default. It's just that XP doesn't have a built-in utility to provide a graphical display of that information.

 

[HeXploiT]

For some reason my bios on the abit 680i doesn't have the smart option so I downloaded "active smart" and sure enough it is enabled on my motherboard. Why the mediashield s.m.a.r.t. is not showing up I don't know as I'm not receiving any errors upon install.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Perry404
For some reason my bios on the abit 680i doesn't have the smart option so I downloaded "active smart" and sure enough it is enabled on my motherboard. Why the mediashield s.m.a.r.t. is not showing up I don't know as I'm not receiving any errors upon install.

If you wanted to retrograde your BIOS you'd probably find that some earlier BIOS versions for your motherboard allowed you to enable or disable SMART. nVIDIA changed this in later BIOSes to enable SMART by default with no user selectable options in the BIOS. Unless the individual manufacturer of your motherboard tweaks their BIOS to permit that user selection, you won't find it on many 680i-based m/bs with the later BIOS versions.

 

[Nothinman]

It's just that XP doesn't have a built-in utility to provide a graphical display of that information.

Or alert you about changes in the SMART data which is the most important thing. It's actually even stupider that they provide a WMI interface to the data while not even generating an eventlog entry when a SMART problem occurs.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

It's just that XP doesn't have a built-in utility to provide a graphical display of that information.

Or alert you about changes in the SMART data which is the most important thing. It's actually even stupider that they provide a WMI interface to the data while not even generating an eventlog entry when a SMART problem occurs.

Agreed that it's kind of stupid. otoh, I can understand why they don't do it. MS has to be careful about stepping on 3rd-party sotware/utility vendors. Seems like every time they add some new feature, no matter how insignificant, someone beefs that MS is killing innovation or putting software vendors out of business. It's a rock and a hard place for them.

 

[Nothinman]

Agreed that it's kind of stupid. otoh, I can understand why they don't do it. MS has to be careful about stepping on 3rd-party sotware/utility vendors. Seems like every time they add some new feature, no matter how insignificant, someone beefs that MS is killing innovation or putting software vendors out of business. It's a rock and a hard place for them.

Who makes money by selling SMART monitoring software? And I doubt writing an entry to the eventlog would step on too many toes since any SMART monitoring software worth running will notify you with an email or something.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Agreed that it's kind of stupid. otoh, I can understand why they don't do it. MS has to be careful about stepping on 3rd-party sotware/utility vendors. Seems like every time they add some new feature, no matter how insignificant, someone beefs that MS is killing innovation or putting software vendors out of business. It's a rock and a hard place for them.

Who makes money by selling SMART monitoring software? And I doubt writing an entry to the eventlog would step on too many toes since any SMART monitoring software worth running will notify you with an email or something.

Apparently some make money, or at least try:

http://www.diskmonitor.com/dm/Drive-Space-Monitor.aspx

For the causal user SMART monitoring is rarely considered anyway. For business servers there's likely some money to be made by providing that software service.

 

[Nothinman]

Apparently some make money, or at least try:

http://www.diskmonitor.com/dm/Drive-Space-Monitor.aspx

SMART monitoring is only one bullet-point of almost 20 features. And the alerting and reporting would be their selling point of that feature.

For the causal user SMART monitoring is rarely considered anyway. For business servers there's likely some money to be made by providing that software service.

Which is why it should be included. Windows writes an entry when it has a paging error to/from a disk so why not do very basic SMART monitoring and write an event when those numbers get out of the norm?

The OS' main job is to manage hardware and this is a core piece of managing your drives. There is absolutely no reason why MS shouldn't be doing that.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Apparently some make money, or at least try:

http://www.diskmonitor.com/dm/Drive-Space-Monitor.aspx

SMART monitoring is only one bullet-point of almost 20 features. And the alerting and reporting would be their selling point of that feature.

For the causal user SMART monitoring is rarely considered anyway. For business servers there's likely some money to be made by providing that software service.

Which is why it should be included. Windows writes an entry when it has a paging error to/from a disk so why not do very basic SMART monitoring and write an event when those numbers get out of the norm?

The OS' main job is to manage hardware and this is a core piece of managing your drives. There is absolutely no reason why MS shouldn't be doing that.

Doesn't Vista do that now? I stopped using Vista Ultimate because I wasn't going to pay for upgrades for software that functions perfectly fine on XP. But I seem to remember that Vista, at least Vista Ultimate (and possibly Premium and Business too) have tools to monitor operational aspects of your hardware, including your hard-drives. Can't recall if SMART is part of that though.

 

[Nothinman]

I didn't think so, but I could be wrong.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I didn't think so, but I could be wrong.

I re-installed Vista out of curiosity and because I'd been meaning to set up a dual-boot system, and checked it out.

It's in the Performance and Reliability Monitor Software under Data Collector Sets/System/System Diagnostics - SMART Disk Check.

You can also configure user defined collector sets that will monitor very specific aspects of your system, including SMART, and alert you to thresholds being exceeded. Doubt I'll ever use it, but it's there.

 

[Nothinman]

Alert how? Email, Windows popup, etc ?