HW Blackbox

A hardware monitor and black box for Windows. For the question Windows leaves open: why did the PC switch off, or why did that app close?

Download for Windows Source on GitHub

Free and open source (MIT) · 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 · runs locally, nothing leaves your PC

The dashboard's overview: the service, the sensors, the key readings now, power-offs, disks and this PC

The dashboard, here over made-up demo data.

What it records

Every sensor, every 5 seconds

CPU, motherboard sensor chip, fans, GPU (NVIDIA through NVML; AMD and Intel through LibreHardwareMonitor), load and memory, with minimum, maximum and average.

The rails, four times a second

+12 / +5 / +3.3 V, Vcore, SoC, CPU power and temperature, on their own high-priority thread. Each row is on disk before the next is taken.

A report after every power-off

When the PC really went down (the last logged row, not Windows' guess), how long it was off, and the last two minutes of readings.

Apps closing and crashing

Starts, exits and exit codes in words for the apps you choose, and an incident report with the last three minutes of everything.

Windows' own records

Crashes, hangs, display driver resets, who asked for a shutdown or restart, sign-ins and sign-outs, sleep, and updates waiting for a restart.

Ports and disk space

Who listens on which port, and clashes; every drive's free space, with a warning when the Windows drive fills up fast.

A closer look

Charts of temperatures, power and voltages over three days, with a power-off marked
Charts: any reading over up to a week, with power-offs and your own milestones marked.
The rails four times a second, and the power-offs caught
Power: the rails four times a second, and every power-off caught.
The events list: apps, shutdowns, sessions and Windows records
Events: crashes, shutdowns and who asked, sessions, port clashes.
A power-off report
Incidents: the report written after a power-off.

Built to keep running

A real Windows service

Runs from boot, whether or not anyone signs in, and Windows restarts it within seconds if it ever fails.

A dead man's switch

If any part of it stops moving, a native timer ends the service so Windows starts it fresh, even when Python itself is stuck.

Home Assistant, if you like

A status every minute, for alerts on a problem, a power loss, or a PC that has gone quiet.

Install

  1. For the CPU and motherboard sensors, install the PawnIO driver: winget install namazso.PawnIO
  2. Download HWBlackbox-win64.zip and unzip it.
  3. Double-click Install.cmd and allow admin rights. It isn't code-signed, so Windows may show Windows protected your PC: click More info, then Run anyway.
  4. Open HW Blackbox from the Start menu.

Each release lists the zip's SHA-256, and the installer checks every file against the release's manifest. Running a newer Install.cmd updates it and keeps your settings and history.

Private by design