Accessing CPU temperature in python

Question

I need an example code for accessing CPU temperature in python.

I'm running windows 7, BTW.

Answer 1

Use the WMI module + Open Hardware Monitor + its WMI interface described here.

Sample code:

import wmi
w = wmi.WMI(namespace="root\OpenHardwareMonitor")
temperature_infos = w.Sensor()
for sensor in temperature_infos:
    if sensor.SensorType==u'Temperature':
        print(sensor.Name)
        print(sensor.Value)

Answer 2

Download http://openhardwaremonitor.org/downloads/ and http://www.cputhermometer.com/ and extract OpenHardwareMonitorLib.dll and CPUThermometerLib.dll and place these in a directory.

You can then use the pythonnet module to address the .dlls and pull any stat that these programs offer. cputhermometer offers per-core CPU temps, openhardwaremonitor offers everything else. No need to use WMI which requires the program to be active in the background.

I have written a small script (python 3.6.5) to show every temperature sensor available on the system, you can of course easily modify this for other sensor types. You must run this as administrator:

import clr #package pythonnet, not clr


openhardwaremonitor_hwtypes = ['Mainboard','SuperIO','CPU','RAM','GpuNvidia','GpuAti','TBalancer','Heatmaster','HDD']
cputhermometer_hwtypes = ['Mainboard','SuperIO','CPU','GpuNvidia','GpuAti','TBalancer','Heatmaster','HDD']
openhardwaremonitor_sensortypes = ['Voltage','Clock','Temperature','Load','Fan','Flow','Control','Level','Factor','Power','Data','SmallData']
cputhermometer_sensortypes = ['Voltage','Clock','Temperature','Load','Fan','Flow','Control','Level']


def initialize_openhardwaremonitor():
    file = 'OpenHardwareMonitorLib.dll'
    clr.AddReference(file)

    from OpenHardwareMonitor import Hardware

    handle = Hardware.Computer()
    handle.MainboardEnabled = True
    handle.CPUEnabled = True
    handle.RAMEnabled = True
    handle.GPUEnabled = True
    handle.HDDEnabled = True
    handle.Open()
    return handle

def initialize_cputhermometer():
    file = 'CPUThermometerLib.dll'
    clr.AddReference(file)

    from CPUThermometer import Hardware
    handle = Hardware.Computer()
    handle.CPUEnabled = True
    handle.Open()
    return handle

def fetch_stats(handle):
    for i in handle.Hardware:
        i.Update()
        for sensor in i.Sensors:
            parse_sensor(sensor)
        for j in i.SubHardware:
            j.Update()
            for subsensor in j.Sensors:
                parse_sensor(subsensor)


def parse_sensor(sensor):
        if sensor.Value is not None:
            if type(sensor).__module__ == 'CPUThermometer.Hardware':
                sensortypes = cputhermometer_sensortypes
                hardwaretypes = cputhermometer_hwtypes
            elif type(sensor).__module__ == 'OpenHardwareMonitor.Hardware':
                sensortypes = openhardwaremonitor_sensortypes
                hardwaretypes = openhardwaremonitor_hwtypes
            else:
                return

            if sensor.SensorType == sensortypes.index('Temperature'):
                print(u"%s %s Temperature Sensor #%i %s - %s\u00B0C" % (hardwaretypes[sensor.Hardware.HardwareType], sensor.Hardware.Name, sensor.Index, sensor.Name, sensor.Value))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("OpenHardwareMonitor:")
    HardwareHandle = initialize_openhardwaremonitor()
    fetch_stats(HardwareHandle)
    print("\nCPUMonitor:")
    CPUHandle = initialize_cputhermometer()
    fetch_stats(CPUHandle)

Here is the output on my system:

OpenHardwareMonitor:
SuperIO Nuvoton NCT6791D Temperature Sensor #0 CPU Core - 42.0°C
SuperIO Nuvoton NCT6791D Temperature Sensor #1 Temperature #1 - 35.0°C
SuperIO Nuvoton NCT6791D Temperature Sensor #2 Temperature #2 - 34.0°C
SuperIO Nuvoton NCT6791D Temperature Sensor #3 Temperature #3 - 25.0°C
SuperIO Nuvoton NCT6791D Temperature Sensor #4 Temperature #4 - 101.0°C
SuperIO Nuvoton NCT6791D Temperature Sensor #5 Temperature #5 - 16.0°C
SuperIO Nuvoton NCT6791D Temperature Sensor #6 Temperature #6 - 14.0°C
GpuNvidia NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Temperature Sensor #0 GPU Core - 60.0°C
HDD ST31000528AS Temperature Sensor #0 Temperature - 37.0°C
HDD WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 Temperature Sensor #0 Temperature - 36.0°C
HDD WDC WDS100T2B0B-00YS70 Temperature Sensor #0 Temperature - 40.0°C
HDD WDC WD80EFZX-68UW8N0 Temperature Sensor #0 Temperature - 31.0°C
HDD WDC WD30EFRX-68EUZN0 Temperature Sensor #0 Temperature - 30.0°C
HDD WDC WD80EFZX-68UW8N0 Temperature Sensor #0 Temperature - 33.0°C
HDD Crucial_CT256MX100SSD1 Temperature Sensor #0 Temperature - 40.0°C

CPUMonitor:
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Temperature Sensor #0 CPU Core #1 - 39.0°C
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Temperature Sensor #1 CPU Core #2 - 38.0°C
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Temperature Sensor #2 CPU Core #3 - 37.0°C
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Temperature Sensor #3 CPU Core #4 - 41.0°C
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Temperature Sensor #4 CPU Core #5 - 36.0°C
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K Temperature Sensor #5 CPU Core #6 - 47.0°C

For further documentation (however you should be able to infer everything you need from the above code), refer to the https://github.com/openhardwaremonitor/openhardwaremonitor/ (or cputhermometer, on the website) source code, the functions and methods are identical when you use these with python.

I haven't tested this on any other computers, so different processor architectures may not function identically.

Ensure you run Hardware[x].Update() between taking measurements (and SubHardware[x].Update() if needed).

Answer 3

You can use pywin32 to access the native Windows API. I believe it should be possible to query the Windows API for the CPU temperature if the manufacturer for your mainboard driver registers a WMI Data Provider through their driver. Assuming this is the case you could download the pywin32 extensions and the Python WMI module mentioned in the answer by ars, and then proceed as follows:

import wmi
w = wmi.WMI()
print w.Win32_TemperatureProbe()[0].CurrentReading

Looking at the IronPython script in the ars' answer there seems to be another way to do it too, using a different WMI object. Using the same API and approach you could try receiving the temperature value with

w = wmi.WMI(namespace="root\wmi")
temperature_info = w.MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature()[0]
print temperature_info.CurrentTemperature

which apparently should return the temperature value in tenths of Kelvin, thus to receive the degree in Celsius I guess you just divide this value by 10 and subtract ~273.

Answer 4

I received a C++ project from a 3rd party and found how to get the CPU and Board Temp using C++. I then found this which I used to to help me mimic the C++ functions in python with ctypes, a lot of this code is copied directly from that repository. '\\.\AdvLmDev' is specific to the PC I was using, and should be replaced with '\\.\PhysicalDrive0'. There is also a function to get other CPU power measurements. I did this because I didn't want to use Open Hardware Monitor. You may have to run the code as administrator for it to work.

import ctypes
import ctypes.wintypes as wintypes
from ctypes import windll


LPDWORD = ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.DWORD)
LPOVERLAPPED = wintypes.LPVOID
LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES = wintypes.LPVOID

GENERIC_READ = 0x80000000
GENERIC_WRITE = 0x40000000
GENERIC_EXECUTE = 0x20000000
GENERIC_ALL = 0x10000000

FILE_SHARE_WRITE=0x00000004
ZERO=0x00000000

CREATE_NEW = 1
CREATE_ALWAYS = 2
OPEN_EXISTING = 3
OPEN_ALWAYS = 4
TRUNCATE_EXISTING = 5

FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = 0x00000080

INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1
FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN=0x00000022
METHOD_BUFFERED=0
FUNC=0x900
FILE_WRITE_ACCESS=0x002

NULL = 0
FALSE = wintypes.BOOL(0)
TRUE = wintypes.BOOL(1)


def CTL_CODE(DeviceType, Function, Method, Access): return (DeviceType << 16) | (Access << 14) | (Function <<2) | Method




def _CreateFile(filename, access, mode, creation, flags):
    """See: CreateFile function http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa363858(v=vs.85).asp """
    CreateFile_Fn = windll.kernel32.CreateFileW
    CreateFile_Fn.argtypes = [
            wintypes.LPWSTR,                    # _In_          LPCTSTR lpFileName
            wintypes.DWORD,                     # _In_          DWORD dwDesiredAccess
            wintypes.DWORD,                     # _In_          DWORD dwShareMode
            LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES,              # _In_opt_      LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES lpSecurityAttributes
            wintypes.DWORD,                     # _In_          DWORD dwCreationDisposition
            wintypes.DWORD,                     # _In_          DWORD dwFlagsAndAttributes
            wintypes.HANDLE]                    # _In_opt_      HANDLE hTemplateFile
    CreateFile_Fn.restype = wintypes.HANDLE

    return wintypes.HANDLE(CreateFile_Fn(filename,
                         access,
                         mode,
                         NULL,
                         creation,
                         flags,
                         NULL))


handle=_CreateFile('\\\\.\\AdvLmDev',GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_WRITE,OPEN_EXISTING,ZERO)

def _DeviceIoControl(devhandle, ioctl, inbuf, inbufsiz, outbuf, outbufsiz):
    """See: DeviceIoControl function
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363216(v=vs.85).aspx
"""
    DeviceIoControl_Fn = windll.kernel32.DeviceIoControl
    DeviceIoControl_Fn.argtypes = [
            wintypes.HANDLE,                    # _In_          HANDLE hDevice
            wintypes.DWORD,                     # _In_          DWORD dwIoControlCode
            wintypes.LPVOID,                    # _In_opt_      LPVOID lpInBuffer
            wintypes.DWORD,                     # _In_          DWORD nInBufferSize
            wintypes.LPVOID,                    # _Out_opt_     LPVOID lpOutBuffer
            wintypes.DWORD,                     # _In_          DWORD nOutBufferSize
            LPDWORD,                            # _Out_opt_     LPDWORD lpBytesReturned
            LPOVERLAPPED]                       # _Inout_opt_   LPOVERLAPPED lpOverlapped
    DeviceIoControl_Fn.restype = wintypes.BOOL

    # allocate a DWORD, and take its reference
    dwBytesReturned = wintypes.DWORD(0)
    lpBytesReturned = ctypes.byref(dwBytesReturned)

    status = DeviceIoControl_Fn(devhandle,
                  ioctl,
                  inbuf,
                  inbufsiz,
                  outbuf,
                  outbufsiz,
                  lpBytesReturned,
                  NULL)

    return status, dwBytesReturned

class OUTPUT_temp(ctypes.Structure):
        """See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363972(v=vs.85).aspx"""
        _fields_ = [
                ('Board Temp', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('CPU Temp', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('Board Temp2', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('temp4', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('temp5', wintypes.DWORD)
                ]

class OUTPUT_volt(ctypes.Structure):
        """See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363972(v=vs.85).aspx"""
        _fields_ = [
                ('VCore', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('V(in2)', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('3.3V', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('5.0V', wintypes.DWORD),
                ('temp5', wintypes.DWORD)
                ]

def get_temperature():
    FUNC=0x900
    outDict={}

    ioclt=CTL_CODE(FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN, FUNC, METHOD_BUFFERED, FILE_WRITE_ACCESS)

    handle=_CreateFile('\\\\.\\AdvLmDev',GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_WRITE,OPEN_EXISTING,ZERO)

    win_list = OUTPUT_temp()
    p_win_list = ctypes.pointer(win_list)
    SIZE=ctypes.sizeof(OUTPUT_temp)


    status, output = _DeviceIoControl(handle, ioclt , NULL, ZERO, p_win_list, SIZE)


    for field, typ in win_list._fields_:
                #print ('%s=%d' % (field, getattr(disk_geometry, field)))
                outDict[field]=getattr(win_list,field)
    return outDict

def get_voltages():
    FUNC=0x901
    outDict={}

    ioclt=CTL_CODE(FILE_DEVICE_UNKNOWN, FUNC, METHOD_BUFFERED, FILE_WRITE_ACCESS)

    handle=_CreateFile('\\\\.\\AdvLmDev',GENERIC_WRITE,FILE_SHARE_WRITE,OPEN_EXISTING,ZERO)

    win_list = OUTPUT_volt()
    p_win_list = ctypes.pointer(win_list)
    SIZE=ctypes.sizeof(OUTPUT_volt)


    status, output = _DeviceIoControl(handle, ioclt , NULL, ZERO, p_win_list, SIZE)


    for field, typ in win_list._fields_:
                #print ('%s=%d' % (field, getattr(disk_geometry, field)))
                outDict[field]=getattr(win_list,field)
    return outDict