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THE EPOX UNIFIED SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC
MANAGER
One of the standard features on the Epox EP-MVP3G-M, EP-51MVPE-M and EP-58MVPC-M Super7
motherboards, which are a real plus as far as I am concerned, is the Winbond
W83781D hardware monitoring chip. If the CPU or the system gets too
hot, the motherboard sounds a distinctive speaker alarm which allows you
enough time to shut-it-down your computer before the CPU starts corrupting
data or becomes a crispy fry. Believe me, it can happen. During
the dog days last summer I saw more than one hard disk scribbled-all-over
with garbage being pumped-out by a hot CPU and more than one burned-out,
expensive processor.
Previously, with these motherboard's, one had to
go into the CMOS setup to see the system monitoring parameters and set the
alarm thresholds. Now, Epox has improved this capability with a Windows  95/98
Unified System Diagnostic Manager (USDMTM). With
the USDM you can see your CPU temperature, the system temperature, and power
supply voltages, and set the alarm thresholds from Windows 95/98. And
if you have a 3-pin CPU fan (one that plugs into the motherboard) you can
actually see the fan RPMs. The monitor allows you set high and low alarm
points for all of these system-critical measurements.
The software is presently a Beta version, but it was stable
in preliminary testing by yours truly. So, skip over to Epox and
grab yourself a copy. Epox also has a version for their Pentium II
motherboards with the LM75/78 monitoring chip.
Larry
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