SpeedFan suddenly stops being able to detect controllers and sensors mid game

Question

so I'm playing games on my PC and I have some fan control setup using SpeedFan for my PWM fans which usually works really nice. However, the other day my game wasn't running so smoothly and I saw that my temperatures are quite high. I opened up my SpeedFan and saw that it's not detecting the fans or any temperatures. I restarted it and it showed the following output:

Win9x:NO  64Bit:YES  GiveIO:NO  SpeedFan:YES
I/O properly initialized
Linked ISA BUS at $0290
Scanning ISA BUS at $0290...
Found Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB on AdvSMART
Found WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0 (1000.2GB)
Found WDC WD10EZEX-00WN4A0 (1000.2GB)
Found System manufacturer System Product Name
Found ACPI temperature
Found AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
End of detection
ERROR: Fan Controller 0 can't find PWM (Nuvoton NCT6793D@$290(onISA@$290))
ERROR: Fan Controller 1 can't find PWM (Nuvoton NCT6793D@$290(onISA@$290))
ERROR: Fan Controller 2 can't find PWM (Nuvoton NCT6793D@$290(onISA@$290))
ERROR: Fan Controller 3 can't find PWM (Nuvoton NCT6793D@$290(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (1 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (2 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (3 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (4 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (2 from Nuvoton NCT6793D@$290(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (1 from GeForce13C210DE010000)
ERROR: Can't find Fan Controller 1
Can't find temperature sensor (2 from Nuvoton NCT6793D@$290(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (1 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (2 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (3 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (4 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
ERROR: Can't find Fan Controller 2
Can't find temperature sensor (2 from Nuvoton NCT6793D@$290(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (1 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (2 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (3 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
Can't find temperature sensor (4 from INTEL CORE@$0(onISA@$290))
ERROR: Can't find Fan Controller 3
Loaded 0 events

After the restart, it detects only the GPU fan and all the temperatures normally, but none of the other fans. Not their speeds or anything.

I opened up Aida64 which successfully detects everything, including the fans.

After I restart my computer, SpeedFan starts up and detects everything normally and works again normally for a while. However, after some time, the same thing happens.

What is it that is causing SpeedFan to stop detecting controllers and sensors while gaming?

EDIT 26-Jun-2018: Here's the output after I restart the PC and it successfully detects everything.

Win9x:NO  64Bit:YES  GiveIO:NO  SpeedFan:YES
I/O properly initialized
Linked ISA BUS at $0290
Linked Intel Sunrise Point SMBUS at $F000
Found nVidia GeForce GTX 970
Linked nVidiaI2C0 SMBUS at $3D403E3F
Linked nVidiaI2C1 SMBUS at $3D403637
Linked nVidiaI2C2 SMBUS at $3D405051
Scanning ISA BUS at $0290...
SuperIO Chip=Nuvoton NCT6793D
NCT6793D (ID=$C1) found (using SuperIO) on ISA at $290
Nuvoton NCT6793D at $290 msg : Nuvoton NCT6793D uses base address $0A00 too
Nuvoton NCT6793D at $290 msg : Nuvoton NCT6793D uses base address $0A00 too
DUPLICATE --> Nuvoton NCT6793D from ISA at $0290 WAS ALREADY ADDED AS Nuvoton NCT6793D from ISA at $0290
Scanning Intel SMBus at $F000...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403E3F...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D403637...
Scanning I2CNVidia SMBus at $3D405051...
Found Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB on AdvSMART
Found WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0 (1000.2GB)
Found WDC WD10EZEX-00WN4A0 (1000.2GB)
Found System manufacturer System Product Name
Found ACPI temperature
Found AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series
Found Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
End of detection
Loaded 0 events

Solution 1

The issue here is the newest version of the BattlEye anti-cheat software is blocking some functionality of SpeedFan and potentially other similar programs. The following is from the BattlEye FAQ page.

When starting my game with BattlEye enabled, my SpeedFan (or potentially other hardware-related) software stops working. Please fix it!

BattlEye is blocking certain software that is using kernel drivers which contain known security issues that can be exploited by cheats. We cannot support such software and therefore cannot provide a fix. Please ensure that you are using the latest version of such software, or there is no newer version available, contact the developer/vendor of the software to notify them of the problem.

Will it be fixed?

There is an open bug report on Mantis Bug Tracker. It's in an acknowledged state, but I'm not sure if anything will even happen to it. SpeedFan has not been updated since June 29, 2016 and BattlEye has already stated they will not change their anti-cheat software.

There are many games that use BattleEye, so this could happen to multiple people. A few games that I know of are ARK: Survival Evolved, Fortnite, and PUBG.

What are my alternatives?

If you're loyal to SpeedFan, you can try these steps posted by KarlHeinzGrabowski. It could be worth a shot if you want to keep using SpeedFan. Alternatively, you could use other software to monitor temps. I rarely look at temps, but when I do want to look at something I use MSI Afterburner. It has all that I need to see, and is something that is still updated.

After you exit your game, you can fix SpeedFan so it successfully detects everything again. To do so, open the command prompt or powershell as admin and run these two commands:

sc.exe stop speedfan

sc.exe start speedfan

Unfortunately, SpeedFan will most likely continue to become more depreciated if it is not updated. It may be wise to try explore other options. Developer companies will not make workarounds for software that has not been updated in two or more years.

Solution 2

I had a similar problem, turns out for me it was BattlEye blocking Speedfan's access. Currently I don't believe there is a workaround, Speedfan stopped development and Battleye won't unblock it.

https://www.battleye.com/support/faq/

Solution 3

I had this problem after installing ARK: Survival Evolved.

Either you can use the workaround someone mentioned above, or switch software. I switched to Argus Monitor. I dont like it as much, however it does the job. It is not free as SpeedFan is, but it costs like 8 bucks a year so it is pretty cheap.

Comments

[DavidPostill]

You should report this as a bug. It's not a question we can answer for you.

[Sam]

Well that's funny, because before you put it on hold and almost deprived me of seeing the answer and solving my issue, I managed to see the very first answer which got the issue 100% spot on. So I guess it's not too broad for the people this is meant for. And also, just because something is failing, doesn't mean it's buggy or that the failure is caused by the thing that's failing. This could have helped all the people who will be Googling this issue. And I know they will because this is a common problem caused by a game with 2 million concurrent players. I guess now they will never know.

[DrZoo]

Hey Sam, I was going to improve the answer and ask you which game this was about. I saw this is a thing in ARK and PUGB. I'm not sure what other games use battleeye, so I was hoping to get more info from you. The answer that was deleted was spot on, it just needed a bit more detail that I was going to add to.

[Sam]

Yeah, it was PUBG after all. I'm actually quite concerned now, this seems like a massive security issue. It's very intrusive, I never allowed a game the power to decide what software I may and may not run on my own computer. Not to mention it could have caused hardware damage.

[DavidPostill]

I've reopened it for you. It's still, however, a poor question and you should still report it as a bug.

[Scott - Слава Україні]

If you don't have an answer, then you don't have an answer (i.e., this does not provide an answer to the question). Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post. - From Review

[DrZoo]

@Scott I would disagree and say this is a possible answer. The question doesn't state what game is, but it's something that could happen for multiple games because battleeye is used in multiple games. There is a confirmed bug report that the new version of battleeye anti-cheat prevents SpeedFan from working correctly. I don't know if they are actually not going to make changes or not, but the bug is an acknowledged state. I would say the answer needs more detail, rather than saying it doesn't provide any answer.

[Scott - Слава Україні]

@DrZoo: And it’s a gray area simply because the question isn’t a question; it’s just a description of a bunch of symptoms. So it’s hard to judge what’s an answer and what isn’t. If the question had asked “What causes this problem?”, then this would qualify as an answer. If kutori had said that the workaround was to stick to games that don’t use BattlEye, I might have, reluctantly, let it slide. But they come right out and say “I don’t believe there is a workaround”, so I voted thumbs down. If you believe that this is salvageable as an answer, feel free to edit it.

[DrZoo]

@Scott "If kutori had said that the workaround was to stick to games that don’t use BattlEye, I might have, reluctantly, let it slide." Ohhhh my insides are cringing just as hard as yours. I'm going to give it an edit to both the question and answer in a little while.

[Scott - Слава Україні]

@DrZoo: In case you hadn’t noticed, this question has been reopened and the answer has been undeleted.

[veritaS]

how is it that when I close the game, the issue persists? I dont see battleeye running any more so shouldn´t the block be lifted then? Isn´t / shouldn´t battleeye properly unblocking everything when the game shuts down? whats going on?

[Rabid]

if you aren't running speedfan as a service, or use nssm or equivalent, you can use the following Powershell script to restart the driver in Windows 10: Get-WmiObject win32_SystemDriver | ? name -eq "speedfan" | % { $_.StopService(); Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 10000 ; $_.StartService() }

[DrZoo]

@veritaS You have to restart the process after you close the game. You can do so in task manager, or try making the Powershell script Rabit just posted.

[veritaS]

@DrZoo thanks, but I already got that from the post and I was able to fix it. I was however interested in the why and not the how to fix. Cause I dont understand why they would keep the temp changes their application makes alive, after the programm is getting closed.

[DrZoo]

@veritaS it’s hard to tell since the application is closed source and no longer developed. My guess would be that the program would properly close in older versions of Windows. Microsoft may have changed something in the OS to where the implemented close function no longer behaves as it should. An open source alternative you could try is Sidebar Diagnostics. I’ve never used it but it looks fairly similar.

[Exlord]

Happens to me with Heroes and Generals which is using BattleEye :(

[mFeinstein]

In my case the only thing that worked was to Close SpeedFan > Run sc.exe stop speedfan > Run sc.exe start speedfan > Open SpeedFan again