Anyone know a utility that will sound an alarm if a specified sensor in
the PC goes above a specified temperature? I remember some BIOSes used
to (but I'm not aware of one for this Lenovo ideapad - only that it unceremoniously shuts itself off, for which I'd like some warning!). I
do have SpeedFan, but that's output is only visual, and - even though it
does have a tray option - it's easy to miss. (Or, if there was a way to
make SpeedFan's tray option change colour above a settable threshold,
but I'm not aware of such.)
Anyone know a utility that will sound an alarm if a specified sensor in
the PC goes above a specified temperature? I remember some BIOSes used
to (but I'm not aware of one for this Lenovo ideapad - only that it unceremoniously shuts itself off, for which I'd like some warning!). I
do have SpeedFan, but that's output is only visual, and - even though it
does have a tray option - it's easy to miss. (Or, if there was a way to
make SpeedFan's tray option change colour above a settable threshold,
but I'm not aware of such.)
J. P. Gilliver wrote on 9/18/2026 1:58 PM:
Anyone know a utility that will sound an alarm if a specified sensor in
the PC goes above a specified temperature? I remember some BIOSes used
to (but I'm not aware of one for this Lenovo ideapad - only that it
unceremoniously shuts itself off, for which I'd like some warning!). I
do have SpeedFan, but that's output is only visual, and - even though it
does have a tray option - it's easy to miss. (Or, if there was a way to
make SpeedFan's tray option change colour above a settable threshold,
but I'm not aware of such.)
Core temp has an option to execute a program when the temp goes above
the set value.ÿ You could try having it run a program or batch that has
an audio clip or other sound maker.
I haven't tried it, but it looks like it might be what you need.
https://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
There's a forum there that might help more.
SpeedFan can execute a command, any command i.e. also a .bat file, on certain temperature conditions, so you only need a command which plays
the alarm you want. (I don't do sounds, so can't help with that part.)
See this article for details:
'SpeedFan's events'
<https://almico.com/sfarticle.php?id=4>
For example, I had [1] things like this in the Configure -> Events
section:
If Core (temp) from AMD K15 > 40
For 1 times Allow every 3600 seconds
Then execute C:\home\franks\local\bin\CPU_temp_high.bat 40
Hope this helps.
[1] 'had', past tense, because I no longer have.need SpeedFan.
On 2026/9/18 20:29:44, Frank Slootweg wrote:
[]
SpeedFan can execute a command, any command i.e. also a .bat file, on
certain temperature conditions, so you only need a command which plays
the alarm you want. (I don't do sounds, so can't help with that part.)
See this article for details:
'SpeedFan's events'
<https://almico.com/sfarticle.php?id=4>
For example, I had [1] things like this in the Configure -> Events
section:
If Core (temp) from AMD K15 > 40
For 1 times Allow every 3600 seconds
Then execute C:\home\franks\local\bin\CPU_temp_high.bat 40
Hope this helps.
[1] 'had', past tense, because I no longer have.need SpeedFan.
Thanks a lot! I was wondering if I could just put a sound file in the relevant place, since just "running" a sound file opens the associated player; however, in the drop-down after "then", one of the options is
"beep", so I didn't even have to do that. Works a treat! Thanks again.
(The recent very hot weather sometimes - like most British homes, I
don't have A/C - caused my laptop to shut down. I have a big fan which
keeps it [and me!] from overheating, but have to know when to turn it
on; if the PC can tell me when it's getting uncomfortable, I can avoid
that [the PC gives no warning].)
On Fri, 9/18/2026 4:28 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:[]
Thanks a lot! I was wondering if I could just put a sound file in the
relevant place, since just "running" a sound file opens the associated
player; however, in the drop-down after "then", one of the options is
"beep", so I didn't even have to do that. Works a treat! Thanks again.
(The recent very hot weather sometimes - like most British homes, I
don't have A/C - caused my laptop to shut down. I have a big fan which
keeps it [and me!] from overheating, but have to know when to turn it
on; if the PC can tell me when it's getting uncomfortable, I can avoid
that [the PC gives no warning].)
Are you sure the cooling system is working properly on the machine ?
Using Speedfan, you can watch the fan speed, versus the core temperature,
as the core temperature goes up.
You would have to be pretty familiar with "what is normal" for the thing,
to decide it has a cooling problem. You should be able to feel a good
flow of cooling air, when the fan is ramped up.
Paul
Well, the odd times it has suddenly turned itself off seem to have
correlated with the temperature reading being very high.
On 2026/9/18 22:13:41, Paul wrote:[...]
Are you sure the cooling system is working properly on the machine ?
I suspect not. Probably blocked vents - but it's fiddly to dismantle.
Using Speedfan, you can watch the fan speed, versus the core temperature, as the core temperature goes up.
Unfortunately, SpeedFan (4.5.2) doesn't seem to see the fan(s?) on this Lenovo ideapad laptop. (It only sees two temperatures - HD0 and GPU -
but I think the GPU is in the main processor, so that's OK.)
J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:[...]
On 2026/9/18 22:13:41, Paul wrote:[...]
J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
On 2026/9/18 22:13:41, Paul wrote:[...]
Are you sure the cooling system is working properly on the machine ?
I suspect not. Probably blocked vents - but it's fiddly to dismantle.
Yes, been there. I just cleaned the vents from the outside. Too risky
(for me) to try to open/disassemble it.
Using Speedfan, you can watch the fan speed, versus the core temperature, >>> as the core temperature goes up.
Unfortunately, SpeedFan (4.5.2) doesn't seem to see the fan(s?) on this
Lenovo ideapad laptop. (It only sees two temperatures - HD0 and GPU -
but I think the GPU is in the main processor, so that's OK.)
If you want the 'see' (and control) the fan, you may want to (also,
i.e. in addition to SpeedFan) have a look at 'NoteBook FanControl'
(NBFC) [1].
NBFC works with a configuration files for different types of Embedded Controllers (EC) for different laptops. Several configuration files are supplied. I used one for a similar (HP) laptop than mine.
I used SpeedFan and NoteBook FanControl side-by-side, using each's
unique features.
Hope this helps.
On Fri, 9/18/2026 5:29 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
Well, the odd times it has suddenly turned itself off seem to have
correlated with the temperature reading being very high.
It should have responded to the high temperatures by throttling.
You might notice the machine being a little slow to do stuff.
When the temperature rises another 10-20 degrees, that's when it
shuts off. And to rise that additional 10-20 degrees,
you pretty well need a cooling failure to help you get there.
(Blocked vent, fan stopped turning, bad thermal paste,
lack of normal force, leaking heatpipe - no fluid,
partial short circuit in VCore...)
The original screened-on thermal paste is usually
a lifetime application. If the user has disassembled the
heatpipe assembly and used AS3 or AS5 paste, you might have
to re-do that every five to ten years, as conditions
deteriorate. The original phase-change paste is rough and
hard stuff (when cold), and if you don't change it out, it's
difficult to get it to work a second time. And the phase-change
paste is best, on a lidded CPU - not all laptop processors are
lidded and some have a bare die to work with, so you can't
be as rough with them.
It likely just need a vent and fan cleaning, and
no particular dramas. You'll have to work through the
possibilities and decide what is going on there. Do a google
on the model and see if there is a history of cooling
problems.
Paul
J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
On 2026/9/18 22:13:41, Paul wrote:[...]
Are you sure the cooling system is working properly on the machine ?
I suspect not. Probably blocked vents - but it's fiddly to dismantle.
Yes, been there. I just cleaned the vents from the outside. Too risky
(for me) to try to open/disassemble it.
Using Speedfan, you can watch the fan speed, versus the core temperature, >>> as the core temperature goes up.
Unfortunately, SpeedFan (4.5.2) doesn't seem to see the fan(s?) on this
Lenovo ideapad laptop. (It only sees two temperatures - HD0 and GPU -
but I think the GPU is in the main processor, so that's OK.)
If you want the 'see' (and control) the fan, you may want to (also,
i.e. in addition to SpeedFan) have a look at 'NoteBook FanControl'
(NBFC) [1].
NBFC works with a configuration files for different types of Embedded Controllers (EC) for different laptops. Several configuration files are supplied. I used one for a similar (HP) laptop than mine.
I used SpeedFan and NoteBook FanControl side-by-side, using each's
unique features.
Hope this helps.
SpeedFan is out of support, and when new SuperIO show up, the Hardware Monitor may not be supported by the hobby community. That's why the
three machines in the room at the moment, Speedfan does not work on
two of them. If you have brand new equipment, there's a good
chance you'll be in for some surprises. The OEM may offer a utility
for the purpose, but the security of the driver may cause Windows Defender
to ask to purge it. You can't win really. It's the year 2026 after all.
I had hoped that some day, the common feature set of SuperIO hardware monitors, would become ACPI tables and could be passed with ACPI calls.
And this would make the construction of such utilities, a lot easier
for hobbyists. (Would no longer need a signed driver to install
on Windows, to access the hardware monitor registers. The Speedfan
dev, had some local company sign his driver, as it would have
cost too much for a hobbyist to sign a driver properly.)
Paul
On 2026/9/19 16:59:2, Paul wrote:
[]
SpeedFan is out of support, and when new SuperIO show up, the Hardware
Monitor may not be supported by the hobby community. That's why the
Not sure how old this laptop is, but far from new. Let's see, Speccy
(yes, I know, but it does what I need) tells me it has a socket FP4
(968), Radeon R5, BIOS date 2017/4/17; My SpeedFan says it (SpeedFan) is 2000-2016, so it might indeed not know the hardware.
On Sat, 9/19/2026 3:50 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
On 2026/9/19 16:59:2, Paul wrote:
[]
SpeedFan is out of support, and when new SuperIO show up, the Hardware
Monitor may not be supported by the hobby community. That's why the
Not sure how old this laptop is, but far from new. Let's see, Speccy
(yes, I know, but it does what I need) tells me it has a socket FP4
(968), Radeon R5, BIOS date 2017/4/17; My SpeedFan says it (SpeedFan) is
2000-2016, so it might indeed not know the hardware.
There is a list of FP4 socket processors here, but I don't know
how complete this is. These are mostly relatively low power.
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/?socket=AMD%20Socket%20FP4
You could try the ZIP-English here, as that might be the portable one.
If the screen gets covered up, do a Reload of the page. The first pane
of CPUZ shows processor details. The last button, has an option to
save a text file, if you want to pick bits out to make a text posting
with them. The text file has a lot of details that only a few people
are interested in (DIMM SPD contents and the like).
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
Paul
On 2026/9/20 1:43:28, Paul wrote:
On Sat, 9/19/2026 3:50 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:Sorry - Speccy does tell me a lot about the CPU; I didn't mention it as
On 2026/9/19 16:59:2, Paul wrote:
[]
SpeedFan is out of support, and when new SuperIO show up, the Hardware >>>> Monitor may not be supported by the hobby community. That's why the
Not sure how old this laptop is, but far from new. Let's see, Speccy
(yes, I know, but it does what I need) tells me it has a socket FP4
(968), Radeon R5, BIOS date 2017/4/17; My SpeedFan says it (SpeedFan) is >>> 2000-2016, so it might indeed not know the hardware.
There is a list of FP4 socket processors here, but I don't know
how complete this is. These are mostly relatively low power.
https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/?socket=AMD%20Socket%20FP4
You could try the ZIP-English here, as that might be the portable one.
If the screen gets covered up, do a Reload of the page. The first pane
of CPUZ shows processor details. The last button, has an option to
save a text file, if you want to pick bits out to make a text posting
with them. The text file has a lot of details that only a few people
are interested in (DIMM SPD contents and the like).
https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
Paul
I was really only looking for the age of the laptop, to see if it was
later than SpeedFan to explain why the latter might not be able to see
its fans. Here's what Speccy says about the CPU:
AMD A10-9600P
Cores 4
Threads 4
Name AMD A10-9600P
Code Name Bristol Ridge
Package Socket FP4 (968)
Technology 28nm
Specification AMD A10-9600P RADEON R5, 10 COMPUTE CORES 4C+6G
Family F
Extended Family 15
Model 5
Extended Model 65
Stepping 1
Revision BR-A1
Instructions MMX (+), SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A, AMD 64, NX, VMX, AES, AVX, AVX2, FMA3, FMA4
Virtualization Supported, Enabled
Hyperthreading Not supported
Bus Speed 99.8 MHz
Stock Core Speed 2400 MHz
Stock Bus Speed 100 MHz
Caches
L1 Data Cache Size 4 x 32 KBytes
L1 Instructions Cache Size 2 x 96 KBytes
L2 Unified Cache Size 2 x 1024 KBytes
Cores
Core Speed Multiplier Bus Speed Threads
Core 0 2594.7 MHz x 26.0 99.8 MHz APIC ID: 0
Core 1 2594.7 MHz x 26.0 99.8 MHz APIC ID: 1
Core 2 2594.7 MHz x 26.0 99.8 MHz APIC ID: 2
Core 3 2594.7 MHz x 26.0 99.8 MHz APIC ID: 3
(While I'm watching it, the core speeds shown are varying - mostly just
by a little, e. g. to 2395.1, occasionally to 1996.0, but only for a
moment [I had to wait some tens of seconds to catch that]. And only one
of the four changes - though as I typed that I saw two of them start
with 1 for one sample.)
On Sun, 9/20/2026 5:08 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:[]
[]Sorry - Speccy does tell me a lot about the CPU; I didn't mention it as
I was really only looking for the age of the laptop, to see if it was
later than SpeedFan to explain why the latter might not be able to see
its fans. Here's what Speccy says about the CPU:
AMD A10-9600P
Cores 4
Threads 4
Name AMD A10-9600P
Code Name Bristol Ridge
OK, this is the information we need.(Well, mine doesn't restart, it just shuts down.)>
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5g270f/is_the_a109600p_26ghz_any_good/
"Also, I have the problem where my laptop gets too hot and restarts,
someone also mentioned this, so it might be minimal.(Blame the laptop fans
and HP's build)
"
That suggests the THERMTRIP is set too low. An Intel one might be set
at 110C or 120C or so, whereas the outboard (third party chip for safe shutdown)
those can be set at 85C. An AMD of that era, should have internal THERMTRIP just
like Intel, so it should not be artificially trimmed to 85C. My AthlonXP board
had the outboard safety chip (added late in the design cycle, you had to check
the revision on the motherboard before buying), and that chip it was hard to tell
exactly what it was really designed for. It was a small chip and not designed for infinitely variable trip point. (They could have used a couple of precision
resistors to set the trip point.) The safety chip was included, to protect against
"my CPU cooler fell off" accidents :-) The processor would overheat instantly (2 seconds) and it could crack the die, the code running at the time would crash
and so on. Those were bare die days, and you could chip little pieces out
of the edge of the thing, without too much trouble. They used to include a shim
to help protect the die, for some of those designs.
A Geekbench lists it as
A10-9600P
2400Mhz Base
3300Mhz (Turbo of sorts)
4C 4T 15W TDP <=== allowed to go higher for 80-100 seconds
Radeon R5 iGPU (which throttles when the CPU turbos)
and the multicore rating is only 2x the single thread, so
it's "pretty strangled" by circumstances beyond its control.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Bristol-Ridge-in-Review-AMDs-A10-9600P-Against-the-Competition.168477.0.html
"While idling, the Pavilion 15-aw004ng runs at 5.7 to 9.3 watts"
And that's the level of heating it has to be able to withstand
in your hot weather. Yours is running at 26x multiplier while
the claimed lower limit is 24x. Yet some of the NotepadCheck benchmark results find the CPU clock is lower than the 2400MHz number, it
does appear the multiplier can go lower. Throttling is an additional
effect possible in CPU design, where no-operation codes are injected
into the instruction stream to reduce power consumption.
Might need more fan... Or some hand-optimizing of the cooling path.
After all, every customer is a thermal engineer, right ? We live
for these opportunities to stamp out stupid stuff.
I've told you before, of my buying electronics having a "decorative" fan.
You could see the fan hole OK. But, they placed no intake holes on the other side of the housing for the thing. The result is the fan spins, but
it can't cool anything. My electric drill fixed the two items designed
that way. I must have put 20-30 holes in a front area, to provide
an intake vent. That is your job as the customer, to have your
electric drill handy, to finish the design. And I don't really enjoy
drilling hard plastics, as some of them prefer to crack rather than
be drilled.
Paul--
(The recent very hot weather sometimes - like most British homes, I
don't have A/C - caused my laptop to shut down. I have a big fan which
keeps it [and me!] from overheating, but have to know when to turn it
on; if the PC can tell me when it's getting uncomfortable, I can avoid
that [the PC gives no warning].)
J. P. Gilliver <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:
[...]
(The recent very hot weather sometimes - like most British homes, I
don't have A/C - caused my laptop to shut down. I have a big fan which
keeps it [and me!] from overheating, but have to know when to turn it
on; if the PC can tell me when it's getting uncomfortable, I can avoid
that [the PC gives no warning].)
I'm confused about your setup. Didn't you have the laptop sitting on a 'laptop cooler'? I.e. something like this:
<https://www.mediamarkt.nl/en/product/_deltaco-gam-072-laptop-cooler-88183585.html>
(I could only find this one. They (Media Markt) used to have several
one, also simpler/more_elegant ones.)
(When I was having ticking fan issues, I thought about buying such a
laptop cooler, but in the end I used the scientific method and gave the laptop a slight drop on the table: No more ticking! :-))
BTW, while I was looking for this, I saw this on the site of my
favourite supplier:
'5 tips for cooling your gaming laptop' <https://www.coolblue.nl/en/advice/tips-for-cooling-your-gaming-laptop.html>
Of course you don't have a gaming laptop, already know most of this
and most of this has been covered in this thread, but AFAIK, the
'Lower voltage' method has not been mentioned. I don't know if that is useful/applicable, but better safe than sorry.
On 2026/9/20 19:3:22, Paul wrote:
it can't cool anything. My electric drill fixed the two items designed
that way. I must have put 20-30 holes in a front area, to provide
an intake vent. That is your job as the customer, to have your
electric drill handy, to finish the design. And I don't really enjoy
drilling hard plastics, as some of them prefer to crack rather than
be drilled.
Indeed. I sense putting some (mechanically) absorbent material - putty, plasticine, some foodstuff - around the point where the drill bit goes
in _might_ prevent that, but I haven't tried it.
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