GUIDE How to Enable Temperature Monitoring and Fan Control on macOS

[EliteMacx86]

How to Enable Temperature Monitoring and Fan Control on macOS​

An EliteMacx86 Exclusive Guide - This guide covers temperature monitoring and fan control on macOS for PC and Laptop users.

Overview

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The Hack users have been using HWMonitor since a long time which uses FakeSMC and other related sensors for hardware sensing. Since, the release of VirtualSMC, it has been difficult to monitor temperature and fan control. However, there's a progress with HWMonitor2 which uses VirtualSMC instead of FakeSMC.

An alternative to HWMonitor is iStat Menus from Bjango which offers 14 days free trial.

Requirements

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Following are the requirements for enabling temperature monitoring and fan control.

Kexts	Notes
VirtualSMC*	SMC Emulator and is required to boot the system.
SMCProcessor*	SMCProcessor is required for CPU sensing.
SMCSuperIO*	SMCSuperIO is required for fans reading.
SMCLightSensor*	Required for Ambient Light Sensor on Laptops.
SMCDellSensors*	Only required for Dell systems supporting System Management Mode (SMM).

Notes:
*Requires Lilu.kext to function.
SMCBatteryManager.kext must be installed for Battery Meter monitoring. Enabling Battery Meter will also require DSDT patching.

Enabling Temperature Monitoring and Fan Control

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Now, you know about the requirements, you can continue following the guide to enable temperature monitoring and fan control.

Adding SMC Sensors Kexts
To enable the hardware sensing and monitoring, you'll need to the sensor kexts.

Mount your ESP using OpenCore Configurator.

For Clover:
If you're using Clover, copy the required kexts to EFI/Clover/Kext/Others

For OpenCore:
If you're using OpenCore, copy the required kexts to EFI/OC/Kexts. You'll also need to add the kexts entries in Kernel section of your config.plist

Restart your System
After performing all the above steps, restart your system for the applied changes to take effect.

Install iStat Menus
1. To install iStat Menus, visit this link and click on Download. If you want to buy or already have a subscription and need to upgrade, you can do so by clicking on "Buy or Upgrade" button just right next to the Download button.
2. Open the .zip file.
3. Double click on iStat Menus and click on Install.

Notes:
For real Mac users, you don't need to add any kexts. Just install iStat Menus and you should be good to go.
iStat Menus does not support MacPro7,1 SMBIOS yet.

Now, you can monitor the temperature and control Fan speed

 

[oldman20]

HWMonitor2

Would u provide link? I just found HWMonitor, not that

 

[EliteMacx86]

Would u provide link? I just found HWMonitor, not that

You can follow the guide to enable temperature monitoring.

 

[oldman20]

You can follow the guide to enable temperature monitoring.

Already before, but I curious about HWMonitor2

 

[EliteMacx86]

Already before, but I curious about HWMonitor2

Haven't used it.

 

[oldman20]

without SMCDellSensors kext, iStat menu can't show Fan speed through my device has no SMM

SMCDellSensors*

Only required for Dell systems supporting System Management Mode (SMM).

 

[EliteMacx86]

without SMCDellSensors kext, iStat menu can't show Fan speed through my device has no SMM

Required for all Dell Systems.

 

[oldman20]

Required for all Dell Systems.

SMCDellSensors*

Only required for Dell systems supporting System Management Mode (SMM).

yes, but u said ONLY, so i checked my system but has no SMM in Bios

SMCLightSensor*

Required for Ambient Light Sensor on Laptops.

In windows has no ALS in device manager, but in DSDT has ALS Device, what's mean of it? thks

 

[EliteMacx86]

yes, but u said ONLY, so i checked my system but has no SMM in Bios

But is still required. I'll update the Notes.

In windows has no ALS in device manager, but in DSDT has ALS Device, what's mean of it? thks

If it has, you need to disable it and create a Fake ALS Device.

 

[oldman20]

But is still required. I'll update the Notes.

If it has, you need to disable it and create a Fake ALS Device.

I extract bios.exe from Dell.com support for my device 3558 and funny in txt extract has name Dell Latitude E6530. So I think it same bios, DSDT too? that why Windows said has no ALS but DSDT exist