Frequently Asked Questions

In the case you want to build a Windows PE (WinPE) environment to diagnose a computer without Windows installed on it, please refer to the following documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-create-usb-bootable-drive AIDA64 using Win32 binaries to run, so you'll need to create an x86 WinPE in order to be able to run AIDA64. You can do this with the following command in the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment copype x86 C:\Tmp\WinPE_x86

Currently, we're waiting for Corsair to unlock the possibility of 3rd party software accessing Corsair hardware concurrently 
with their own monitoring software (iCUE). Unfortunately, until this happens and you experience issues while using AIDA64, 
as a temporary workaround you can disable monitoring of  your AIO by unchecking (disabling) one or both of the options: 
AIDA64 / main menu / File / Preferences / Stability / Corsair Hydro Platinum sensor support and Corsair Link sensor support.

You can find the list of the supported LCDs on the following page: External display support

AIDA64 has full support for all current 32- and 64-bit PC Windows systems including Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT4/2000, Windows XP, Windows PE, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022

Custom Variables feature in AIDA64 Business and Network Audit is ready to do that. It can be configured in main menu / File / Preferences / Custom Variables page.

The /SILENT command-line option can be used to hide AIDA64 icon on the System Tray (also known as Notification Area) including the bubble shown on specific events under Windows. 
The /ACCEPTBG command-line option can be used to launch AIDA64 hidden in the background and make it stay in the memory and wait for incoming remote connections. 
Full list of command-line options with explanation is available in the AIDA64 Manual.

In most cases the generated .ADO file contains information about the actual issue. In the case it is about improper MDAC version, the MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components) should be updated to the latest version. MDAC 2.80 is available for download at: http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Data-Access-Components-MDAC/3000-2070_4-10040711.html

Firmware version of optical drives and SCSI hard disk drives is displayed on the Storage / ASPI page. Firmware version of ATA and SATA hard disk drives is displayed on the Storage / ATA page.

AIDA64 Business and AIDA64 Network Audit support standard text, HTML, MHTML (HTML with images), XML, CSV, MIF (for Microsoft SMS), INI reports and direct report inserting into SQL databases. AIDA64 Extreme and AIDA64 Engineer support only standard text, HTML and MHTML reports.

Most modern processors work best while running below 70 degrees Celsius, but will not fail or break as long as they are below 80-90 Celsius. Modern Intel processors use a special hardware logic to prevent overheating: they throttle themselves down to prevent physical damage, and they shut the computer down automatically when – even despite throttling – the CPU keeps getting hotter.

Most motherboards can function reliably while running below 50 Celsius, and physical damage will usually not occur under 60 Celsius.

Modern GPUs can heat up to 100-110 degrees Celsius, but their video drivers include overheating protection.

Most hard disk drives operate best below 50 Celsius, and they are rated to operate reliably below 60 Celsius. On hard disks, data integrity is not guaranteed anywhere beyond 60 Celsius.

There is no standard for sensor registers layout, so the "Aux" temperature could show the temperature of the CPU or the motherboard, or might be a non-connected wire of the sensor chip, and so it could show a bogus value.

Only AIDA64 Business, AIDA64 Network Audit and AIDA64 Engineer support command-line options. A list of command-line switches supported by a given edition is available in / Help / Command-line Options and, with detailed explanations, in the appropriate user manual. Using command-line options, it is possible to automatically create customized reports in any of the supported report formats. Reports can be saved to file, inserted into an SQL database, sent in e-mail or uploaded to an FTP server.

These two products target different customers. AIDA64 is for business customers, and accordingly offers functions developed with companies' and organizations' needs in mind, whereas AIDA64 Extreme is for home users and enthusiasts.

AIDA64 Extreme is a system information and diagnostic tool, which provides extremely detailed information about both hardware and installed software, helps users diagnose issues and offers benchmarks to measure the performance of the computer.

AIDA64 Business is our flagship product which, besides all the functionality of AIDA64 Extreme, offers such unique functions as network inventory, remote control and SQL database support. These are not available in AIDA64 Extreme.

To find out which AIDA64 edition is right for you, consult the product comparison table here.

"CPU" temperature means the temperature measured around the CPU socket, whereas "CPU Diode" temperature means the temperature of the CPU core.

AIDA64 Extreme and AIDA64 Engineer are downloadable not only as a self-extracting exe, but as a ZIP compressed package as well, which can be simply extracted to an empty folder. When using the latter, no installation is required.

AIDA64 Network Audit and AIDA64 Business are only available in a ZIP package.

AIDA64 Business is the most comprehensive edition in the product portfolio, which, besides all the features available in AIDA64 Engineer, supports automated network audit, remote control, remote system information and SQL database connection. Its licensing allows it to be used in a corporate environment on several PCs.

The main features of AIDA64 Engineer include precise and detailed system information, benchmarking, hardware diagnostics and sensor monitoring. Its license is not tied to a network of computers, but rather to a person (engineer). This license can be used on an unlimited number of computers but only by a single engineer.

To find out which AIDA64 edition is right for you, consult the product comparison table here.

It is not possible with AIDA64.

No, and it is not recommended either. Instead, AIDA64 files can be copied to a file server in a shared folder from which all network users can access the AIDA64 files. AIDA64 then can be launched from any computer using a shortcut such as:

\\server\share\aida64folder\aida64.exe

As a further step, the command-line can be extended with network audit options, and then it can be added to the users' logon script that will be executed at the logon of each network user.

Example:
\\server\share\aida64folder\aida64.exe /R \\server\share\reportsfolder\$HOSTNAME /AUDIT /CSV /SAFE /SILENT

A complete list of command-line options with explanations is available in the user's manual.

AIDA64 Business is the most comprehensive product in the portfolio, containing all the functionality available in Extreme, Engineer and Network Audit. Network Audit, on the other hand, is specifically developed for those business customers who are looking for a dedicated hardware and software inventory solution, and do not need other AIDA64 features. It does not support some of the functionality available in other AIDA64 editions, such as remote control and remote monitoring, as well as hardware diagnostics and benchmarks.

To find out which AIDA64 edition is right for you, consult the product comparison table here.

Modern Intel processors use DTS on-die temperature sensing diode to provide core temperature measurement. AIDA64 fully complies to the latest Intel DTS Specifications, and uses the TJMax values published by Intel. With DTS the measured core diode temperatures are relative to a TJMax temperature value, which is specific to a particular CPU model & stepping. By adjusting TJMax, it is possible to adjust the measured core temperatures in both directions. The TJMax value AIDA64 uses can be changed in main menu / File / Preferences / Hardware Monitoring.

It is not possible to connect to remote computer(s) without running AIDA64 on both the local and the remote computer(s). Installation procedure is not mandatory, but at least AIDA64 should be automatically launched from the users logon script using a command-line like:

\\server\share\aida64folder\aida64.exe /ACCEPTBG /SAFE /SILENT

The /ACCEPTBG command-line option automatically enables the main menu / Remote / Accept Incoming Remote Connections feature that will enable the connections from remote computers. Full list of command-line options with explanation is available in the AIDA64 Manual.

Yes, both in order to make the job of OpenCL compilers a bit easier. The OpenCL compiler may still use additional optimizations, like further unrolling, but it is completely compiler dependent.

We scan all AIDA64 files we upload to our web site for viruses and other malware. Our files are 100% free of any malware or adware. In the case a security solution fires an alarm about AIDA64, then it is advised to remove AIDA64 from the computer, and download the latest version from our web site (www.aida64.com). It is also important to update the security software to its latest version, since there have already been numerous occasions when anti-virus products fired false alarms about AIDA64 files in the past.

AIDA64 license module is capable of detecting product key of Office XP, Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010, and Office 2013 only.

AIDA64 CPU benchmarks are heavily optimized for Haswell – and all other modern CPU architectures –, and they utilize all available instruction set extensions, such as SSE, AVX, AVX2, FMA or XOP as well as full vectorization.

Using FMA and AVX2, a quad-core Haswell's x86/x64 part can indeed perform exceptionally, way better than the GT2 iGPU. It is, however, much easier to write such optimized code for the iGPU in OpenCL than for the CPU using a machine code generator or x86/x64 assembly.

MCP is part of nVIDIA chipsets, and stands for Media and Communications Processor. It is a computer component that is designed to operate at very high temperatures.  80-90 Celsius is normal temperature for MCPs.

Since Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, logon scripts are executed with a 5-minute delay after the user has logged on. If we want to run the logon script without delay, we need to disable this feature in Computer Configuration / Policies / Administrative Templates / System / Group Policy / Configure Logon Script Delay.

AIDA64 supports Microsoft Windows systems only.

Yes, except for the memory benchmarks.

Currently, memory benchmarks don't work with HSA, because the current AMD HSA implementation doesn't yet support forcing the usage of device memory, instead it automatically assumes that allocated memory blocks are to be shared between the CPU and GPU. As soon as AMD's OpenCL 2.0 and HSA implementations become more mature, these issues will be resolved.

Create a new text file (e.g. using Notepad) in the AIDA64 folder, name it: "AIDA64.INI". Write the following 2 lines into the new file:

[Generic]

LowLevelPCI=0

Yes, but on such dGPUs, where clock boosting and/or throttling is used, it is very important to decide whether you want to measure the absolute maximum attainable performance or average performance. If you're interested in maximum performance, only start AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmarks when the video card is cool and power limits are set to a relaxed value (AMD PowerControl). If you're interested in average performance, then make sure to disable the CPU benchmarks, and execute the GPU benchmarks at least 10 times consecutively, so that the video card heats up.

It is fully supported. AIDA64 files can be simply extracted from the ZIP package and burnt to a CD/DVD/BD disc, or copied to a DVD-RAM disc or flash drive.

No, currently this is not supported because OpenCL CPU drivers are simply not suitable for proper benchmarking. They execute code a lot slower than native x86/x64 machine code or sometimes even regular multi-threaded C++ code.

AIDA64 implements full support for 64-bit systems, including 64-bit version of all its benchmark methods. Benchmarks are backwards compatible with legacy 32-bit processors.

When activated, AIDA64 creates a file called pkey.txt, in which it stores the encrypted license key. If you do not run the software as administrator, it is unable to create the file. Run AIDA64 with administrator privileges, or use the portable ZIP package.

Unfortunately there is no standard for sensor chip registers layout, hence in several cases the registers layout that AIDA64 uses could fail to be accurate. In such cases please contact us through the AIDA64 Discussion Forum, under the "Hardware Monitoring" forum. When you open the new topic, please make sure to indicate the version number of AIDA64 you're using, the model of your motherboard; and also copy-paste the full content of the Computer / Sensor page into the new topic you open.

The reliability and accuracy of DMI information depends on the manufacturer of the motherboard or the computer (when a brand computer). When vendors do not take the time to fill in the DMI tables properly, all applications reading DMI will indicate the same wrong information. This is not the fault of AIDA64.

Not all USB, eSATA, or FireWire disk enclosures support SMART readout. But out of the ones that do implement that feature, AIDA64 supports most of them. In the case you can find one that is supported by other monitoring software (e.g. HD Sentinel), but unsupported by AIDA64, please contact us through the AIDA64 Discussion Forum, under the "Hardware Monitoring" forum.

The /SAFE command-line option could be used to disable several of AIDA64 low-level features -- in most cases this could eliminate all issues. Alternatively the /SAFEST command-line option could be used to completely disable all AIDA64 low-level features.

SMART information (including disk temperature measurement) for RAID array member drives can be displayed for 3ware, Areca, HighPoint RocketRAID 26xx, Intel, JMicron, and LSI MegaIDE RAID controllers. Other RAID controllers either do not have a driver that makes SMART readout possible, or they are not supported by AIDA64. Starting from AIDA64 v1.70, RAID SMART support is disabled by default. To enable SMART support for RAID arrays, you need to go to AIDA64 / main menu / File / Preferences / Stability, and enable the option "RAID SMART support" there.

The options to enable/disable debug information, report header, report footer are available in main menu / File / Preferences / Report.

AIDA64 releases up to v3.00 are incompatible with Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2. Under these operating systems only AIDA64 v3.20 and later versions can be used.