Q:

PHP and Windows WMI, CPU Temperature and false readings?

I wrote this PHP function:
<?php
//windows cpu temperature
function win_cpu_temp(){
    $wmi = new COM("winmgmts://./root\WMI");
    $cpus = $wmi->execquery("SELECT * FROM MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature");
    foreach ($cpus as $cpu) {
        $cpupre = $cpu->CurrentTemperature;
    }
    $cpu_temp = ($cpupre/10)-273.15 . ' C';
    return $cpu_temp;
}
echo win_cpu_temp();
?>

My problem, is that the script displays 59.55 C which I had thought was correct. I checked this value several hours later, and it's exactly the same. I just put the CPU to work at 90% compressing video for ten minutes, and this value is the same still.
Can anyone help me find the "true" value for this function?
I've read (to no avail):
MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature class not showing actual temperature
How is, say, "Core Temp" getting its values? Same computer, it reports between 49 and 53 Celsius.

A:

With a little digging around I found the common issue with using MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature was that it is dependent upon being implemented on your system.
You could try querying Win32_TemperatureProbe and see if you have any luck there.
Neither MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature or Win32_TemperatureProbe worked on my system, although if you have admin access, you can use http://openhardwaremonitor.org/ which provides a WMI interface for all available sensor data.
This worked great for me and I was able to accurately report CPU Core temp from a PHP script:
function report_cpu_temp(){    
    $wmi = new COM('winmgmts://./root/OpenHardwareMonitor');
    $result = $wmi->ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Sensor");
    foreach($result as $obj){
        if($obj->SensorType == 'Temperature' && strpos($obj->Parent, 'cpu') > 0)
            echo "$obj->Name ($obj->Value C)"; // output cpu core temp
        else
            echo 'skipping ' . $obj->Identifier ;
        echo '<br />';
    }
}

Hope this helps.

