Please be sure to read the beta issues and please do provide feedback on the beta version.
The previous builds didn't save/restore the maximum throttle temperature correctly
- fixed in 9c.
Hmm, buggy beta that one... Sorry.
Build 9b adds detection of KM266 chipsets.
Build 9 had a problem with the shared memory section containing only the value of the first fan. This is fixed in 9a.
KT333 support - not really new since the KT333 works pretty much like the KT266 as far as VCool is concerned.
New Throttling - Instead of having two steps that restict the CPU to
50% (10%) you can now define a start and a max throttling temperature.
If the Start Throttling is exceeded VCool will start CPU throttling
(CPU at ~93%) and gradually reduce the CPU load as the temperature rises to
the Maximum Throttling temperture (CPU at ~7%). Keep in mind that the
resolution is 1°C so select a reasonable gap between start and max (>5°C)
if you want a smooth transition.
When throttling is engaged a CPU throttling icon will appear in the tray to remind you that thottling is active (the temperature icon remains visible). The tooltip of this icon displays the current throttling level (appox).
Beeping now starts independent of throttling at the selected temperture. The higher the temperature is above the "beep temp" the faster the beeping.
Fan Monitoring - if the RPMs of any (enabled) fan drops below a threshold
a fan warning icon appears in the tray along with a short beep. The
default threshold is 500 but it can be tweaked via the registry (run regedit):
Change the Fan Min value in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/MPET/VCool
key to a value of your choice (0 disables this feature).
Mini Windows - Now you can display the temperatures and RPMs in small
windows on the desktop.
These windows provide the following functions:
double left click - switch between sizeable and fixed size window.
left down and drag - moves mini window around
right click - opens popup menu where you can
Set Back and Text Color - surprisingly let you assign the
color for text and backround.
Hide the window - remove the current mini window from screen (to get all
mini windows back use Show All - see below).
Lock the window - prevents the mini window from being (accidentally)
moved or resized (to reenable all mini windows use unlock all - see below).
To save the current state, position, color and visibiliy of the mini windows
open VCools Option Menu (right click on the icon and select Options....) and
click OK or APPLY. Next time you start VCool the mini windows will be restored
to the current state.
So if you don't want this feature hide all the mini windows and then open the
"options..." dialog and click on ok and they'll never show up again
- until you click "show all" of course.
To unlock all locked mini windows select Unlock All from the Mini
Win Submenu (rclick on icon).
To restore all windows to their default sizes and positions select Reset
All.
To make all hidden mini windows reappear select Show All.
Driver should now set Halt Detect on KT266/333 chipsets when set cool bit/halt det. on startup is selected.
Degree sybol - For the people who had problems with the degree symbol (ASCII 176: °) you can now select the ASCII code for this symbol via the Degree Symbol entry in the registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/MPET/VCool) - e.g. enter 32 and you should get a space instead.
Added CPUSpeed variable to the shared memory section (see vcool_mapfile.h) to allow readout of current throttling level.
Fixed tiny resource leak on exiting VCool (popup menu wasn't properly destroyed).
Various code tweaks and optimizations.
VCool now provides a section of shared memory to allow other applications to
read the current status and the temperatures. For details of the memory section
download vcool_mapfile.h
The user can disable the periodic update via the "shared MEM" option
for optimum performance - however status changes (cool bit) will still be reflected
in the shared section.
Also you shuold now be able to select what bit VCools cool bit switch controls, the original cool bit (STPGNT) or the HALT DETECT option (seems to be sufficient on some newer boards).
Added an option to disable the idle loops activation when T50 is reached.
Registry entries to change the internal fan divisor: FID1, FID2 and FID3. The
default value is 0 which means that VCool will not change the internal DIV.
The other values set the divisor to 2^(FIDx-1), i.e. 1->1, 2->2, 3->4,
4->8, 5->16, etc.
Note that most boards only support divisors up to 8, i.e. 4 is the maximum value
for FIDx.
Tweaked thread priorities.
Added sensor support for newer ASUS boards (changed IDs).
Minor code optimizations.
A new (rewritten - not tested on all chipsets yet) driver that inludes an idle loop. You can control the loop via an checkbox in the standard dialog. When checked the loop will put the CPU to sleep while vcool.exe is not running, i.e. before someone logs in and starts vcool.exe or after vcool.exe has been terminated normally (no crash).
B6: build 5 contained a bug that would prevent the PCI options from working on some kt266 boards - fixed.
B6a: added check for enabling icon background - if disabled the background is transparent.
Fixed a bug with the PCI options settings.
Added Halt Command Detect option for KT266 boards.
Increased the beep threads priotity to make the beeps occur even when the CPU is VERY busy.
Added L1 and L2 registry settings (HKCU/Software/MPET/VCOOL) to allow tweaking
of the "smart" idle loop:
L1 - period of non-C2 idle time after that the CPU enters C2
L2 - if the C2 sleeping time is shorter than L2 when the CPU wakes up, fall
back to non-C2 idle.
So basically increasing L1 and L2 (default: 400, 1000) will reduce the cooling effect but increase performance and vice versa. These settings are only active when the "smart" idle loop is activated. Please let me know what settings are optimal on your system.
You can now divide the fan rpms by modifying the FD1, FD2 and FD3 registry
entries (default=1). B6a: fixed problem with some sensors.
Note: This does not change the internal hardware divisor of the chip, i.e. it
won't help if you're having problems with the readout - it'll just devide the
calculated rpm by FDx.
This version should work with the SiS735 chipset and SiS950/IT8705 sensors.
Also some PCI Options are now available for the kt266.
Apparently the ALi Magic has problems with the disconnected system bus - at
least I've heard of no working system so far. The first tests on SiS systems
also showed lockup problems.
Please provide feedback if your own such a system.
This version should support ALi Magik 1 chipsets with Asus or Windbond temperature sensors.
Since I've overhauled the whole chipset detection process it is possible that some boards that did previously work now won't - please provide feedback.
You can now choose between an "smart" Idle Loop and the old one.
There was a problem on NT/W2k with the old (1.7) driver on kt266 boards. Build
2 now contains an updated driver that should fix this problem.
Simply replace the old vcool.sys with the one from the 1.8 archive.
This version supports VIAs KT266 chipset and its Idle Loop has been improved to cause less performance loss due to entering C2 state only after being idle for some time.
Since I don't have the datasheets of the 266 I had to find the necessary registers myself. Also it has been tested on very few boards and it is likely that there will be problems on other boards - especially with the thermal sensors.
Windows 98 and Me only (manual installation)
Simply download this beta archive and extract
the executable (VCool.exe) to a folder of your choice. To run VCool double-click
on Vcool.exe.
Windows NT, 2000, XP
Then download the beta archive and put executable
(VCool.exe) into a folder of your choice - if you're upgrading from 1.7.2 replace
the old executable.
Copy the driver (vcool.sys) into the system32 folder, e.g. c:\winnt\system32
- (replacing the one of 1.7.2 if present).
Use Loaddriver.exe (part of the beta archive) to install the new driver, i.e.
enter the full path to vcool.sys (including the file name) and press install
and start.
Note: If you had 1.7.2 (or any of the betas) installed before, you can skip
this step - just stop and (re-)start the driver ot simply reboot.
If you want to remove the beta from your system either run the uninstaller (Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs) or (if you didn't have 1.7 installed before) delete VCool.exe and use Loaddriver.exe to remove the driver and finally delete vcool.sys.
If you also want to clean the registry open the Registry Editior (Start->Run... Regedit - Regedt32 on NT, W2K, XP) and delete the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/MPET/VCool key.
There may also be a HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_VCOOL key that you might want to delete - however you'll need to get the appropriate rights first.
Missing Help file
Since this is a beta no help file is included in the archives - if you want to use the older help file download the 1.7 manual install archive and extract vcool.chm into folder where vcool.exe resides.
Autostarting VCool does not work on XP ("Driver required")
If starting VCool.exe manually some time after log in works then XP processes the autostart folder before all drivers are loaded and VCool fails because vcool.sys is not running yet.
Solution: Change the startup type of vcool.sys to "system":
Open the hardware device manager (right click on MyComputer->Properties->Hardware
Tab- >Device Mgr button) and select "show hidden devices" from
the View menu.
There should be a "non-pnp-devices" group now containing a "VCool
Driver" entry. Right click- >Properties on that entry and switch to
the Driver tab. You now can select the startup type: try "system"
to make it start earlier in the boot process.
Error messages during install
If you get an error message when attempting to start the driver (file not found) please follow these steps.
Make sure that you mainboard is supported by VCool (KX133, KT133(A), KT266(A), SiS735, Ali Magik 1, AMD 751+VIA 686 combo).
Completely remove VCool, i.e. run LoadDriver, enter the complete path (incl.
filename) to vcool.sys and press stop and remove.
Then open regedt32 (Start->Run..) and delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_VCOOL
key. You'll need to get the necessary rights to this key first by using the
Security menu of regedt32.
Also remove the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vcool key
and the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MPET\VCool key if present.
Reboot and try a fresh install - make sure you're using vcool.sys and vcool.exe
of the beta archive (if you had 1.7.2 installed before).
Registry entries
Unless states otherwise all registry entries are DWORDs and can be found in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MPET\VCool key. Please be careful when changing these settings.
Temperature sensors
It is possible that temperature sensors are not working for some boards or they return bogus data.
PCI Options
Although PCI options are enabled in this version it is likely that they won't work as expected on KT266 boards as it seems VIA has changed the responsible registers.
Idle Loop
The Idle Loop has been designed to enter the C2 state only after the CPU has
been idle for some time. This should improve the performance - especially with
disk access.
On my system benchmarks with HDTach show no loss while Sandra indicates a small
drop.
When the Idle Loop is active the current system utilization is indicated by a bar in temperature icon.
Freezes on ALi Magik and Sis
It seems the ALi Magik chipset doesn't like the bus disconnect - at least all users with such a chipset have reported freezes. This seems to be true for the SiS chipset as well.
vcool.sys driver on KT266 and ALi Magik and SiS 735
So far the vcool.sys driver does not support the "set cool
bit on driver startup" setting for these chipsets.
Please do not select this option as it might prevent the driver from starting.
Please do provide feedback so I can improve VCool further:
Send an email with "VCool beta" as subject to mpet@bigfoot.de with the following information
If you're having problems please also indicate whether you're willing to spend some time on running diagnosis programs and debug versions of VCool.
You can also contact me via ICQ #137516918.
Note: There are known issues with system lockups and sound distortions.