SM Bus Controller Driver for Windows 7 (Intel HM70, HP 2000) — Download

I installed Windows 7 on a new HP 2000-2d78SR laptop. Everything went fine except one thing: Device Manager kept showing an unknown SM Bus Controller with a yellow exclamation mark, and I had to dig around to find the right driver.

It turned out the laptop is built on the Intel HM70 chipset.

What is the SM Bus Controller?

SM Bus (System Management Bus) is a small service bus on the motherboard. The chipset uses it to talk to things like temperature sensors, the battery controller and memory modules. It is part of the chipset, so you don’t need a separate “SM Bus driver” — the Intel Chipset Installation Utility (INF files) tells Windows what this device is, and the exclamation mark disappears.

Download the driver

• From my site: sp56517.exe (2.5 MB) — Windows 7 32/64-bit, also works on Windows XP. I checked it: the file is byte-for-byte identical to HP’s original SoftPaq.
• Official HP source: SoftPaq sp56517 — Intel Chipset Installation Utility 9.3.0.1020 (for HP 2000, HP 650 and Compaq Presario CQ58).

Run the file, let it unpack and install, then reboot. In Device Manager the SM Bus Controller should now show up as an Intel SMBus device without the warning sign.

Not an HP 2000? Find the driver by hardware ID

If you have a different laptop or desktop, the driver above may not match your chipset. Here is how to find the right one:

1. Open Device Manager, right-click SM Bus Controller → Properties → Details tab.
2. Select Hardware Ids. You will see something like PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1E22.
3. VEN_8086 means Intel — install the Intel chipset INF package for your platform (from your laptop/motherboard maker’s support page, or Intel’s “Chipset INF Utility”). VEN_1022 means AMD — install the AMD chipset driver instead.

I wrote a step-by-step example of searching by ID here: driver for ven_8086&dev_29b4.

Windows 10 and 11

On Windows 10/11 the SM Bus Controller is usually installed automatically through Windows Update. If it still shows an exclamation mark, run Windows Update (including Optional updates → Driver updates) or install the current chipset package from your PC manufacturer.

Avoid “driver pack” and “driver booster” tools — readers of this blog reported they often install junk along with the driver.