When a key or dial can’t show a live reading, it shows a status screen instead of a value. Each one names the problem on the first line and the fix on the second. They aren’t errors to dismiss: they’re the plugin telling you exactly what to do next, and every one clears itself the moment HWiNFO is back.
New in 1.1.6: OLED-black redesign. The key status screens are now a true-black background with two short lines: a soft-white headline and a dim fix line (previously three lines of hard white on dark grey). Same guidance, far less glare on OLED Stream Deck hardware. The examples below use the exact 1.1.6 wording.
Key screens
Each key screen is two short lines. The first names the state; the second is the fix.
| Key shows | What it means | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Start HWiNFO / not detected | HWiNFO isn’t running, or isn’t publishing on either interface. | Start HWiNFO in Sensors-only mode with Shared Memory Support enabled; or, on the free version, enable Gadget reporting (no 12-hour limit) and tick the sensors you need. |
| HWiNFO busy / retrying | HWiNFO is running, but its shared memory was locked by another reader at the instant the plugin connected. Momentary contention, not a fault. | Nothing to do. The plugin retries on the next poll; held values stay on screen in the meantime. |
| Shared Memory / is off | HWiNFO reports Shared Memory Support as disabled. | Re-enable it in HWiNFO Settings. On the free version it switches off after 12 hours. In Auto mode the plugin also falls back to the Gadget registry on its own; no action strictly required. |
| Not updating / check sharing | Data is frozen: the same values keep coming back. Shown when reading Shared Memory. | The Sensors window was closed or HWiNFO stopped polling. Reopen the Sensors window; if it keeps happening, restart HWiNFO. (The free version’s 12-hour expiry shows Shared Memory off instead, or falls back to Gadget in Auto mode.) |
| Not updating / check Gadget | Same frozen state, but shown when reading the Gadget registry. | Check that HWiNFO is still running with Gadget reporting enabled. |
| Access denied / un-elevate | Windows blocked access to the shared memory: a privilege mismatch. HWiNFO is running elevated (“Run as administrator”) while Stream Deck isn’t. | Restart HWiNFO without elevation, or run both elevated. On the free version, Gadget reporting works across privilege levels. |
| Tick sensors / in Gadget | Gadget reporting is enabled but the registry is empty: nothing is ticked. | In the HWiNFO sensor window, right-click each value you want on the deck and tick “Report value in Gadget”. |
| Needs x64 / Windows | Unsupported platform: HWiNFO’s interfaces aren’t readable here. | This plugin needs 64-bit (x64) Windows. macOS and Windows-on-ARM are unsupported. |
| Pick a sensor / in settings | The key works, but no sensor is selected yet. | Open the key’s settings and choose a sensor from the picker. |
| Sensor missing / pick again | The saved sensor isn’t in HWiNFO’s current output. | A hardware/driver change or a renamed sensor profile dropped it. Open settings and pick the sensor again. |
| HWiNFO error / restart HWiNFO | Rare. The shared memory didn’t validate: HWiNFO may be mid-restart or an incompatible/corrupt layout. | Usually clears on the next poll; if it persists, restart HWiNFO. |
| Plugin damaged / reinstall | The plugin’s own native HWiNFO bridge (bin/hwsm.node) is missing or was blocked from loading, most often an antivirus quarantine or a half-finished install. | Reinstall the plugin by double-clicking the .streamDeckPlugin file. If it comes back, restore or allow bin/hwsm.node in your antivirus; the file is unsigned, so check it first against the release’s published SHA-256 (how). Restarting HWiNFO cannot fix this one. |
Note: Start HWiNFO, Not updating, and the rest come from the data source (see Data sources). Pick a sensor and Sensor missing are about this specific key’s selection; the data source is fine. Plugin damaged is about the plugin’s own install, not HWiNFO.
Dial screens (Stream Deck +)
Dials show the same states in the touchscreen’s two-slot layout (a title and a value line). The wording is shortened to fit:
| Dial title | Dial value |
|---|---|
| Start HWiNFO | not detected |
| HWiNFO busy | retrying |
| Shared Memory off | enable in HWiNFO |
| HWiNFO stalled | check sharing (shared memory) / check Gadget (gadget) |
| Access denied | un-elevate HWiNFO |
| Gadget empty | tick sensors |
| Needs x64 Windows | “—” (placeholder glyph) |
| HWiNFO error | restart HWiNFO |
| Plugin damaged | reinstall it (the native bridge bin/hwsm.node didn’t load; reinstall the plugin) |
| HWiNFO | rotate to pick (no sensor selected yet; the hint line says “or use the settings panel”) |
| Sensor missing | waiting (the saved sensor isn’t in HWiNFO’s output; the hint says “reselect in settings”) |
Like the key screens, the frozen-data message is source-aware: a dial reading from the Gadget registry says check Gadget, never check sharing.
While Sensor missing / waiting shows, the dial ignores turns so a temporary dropout (an HWiNFO restart, a device asleep) can’t bump you off the saved reading; it recovers on its own when the sensor returns. Separately, a live dial can carry a small “cycle paused” or “pinned” label on its bottom line: those aren’t status screens, they’re the pause and pin states described on Dial controls & presets.
Recovery is automatic
You never have to remove and re-add a key. The plugin keeps probing in the background:
- When HWiNFO is gone, it re-attempts a full open on every poll tick (a cheap failing call), so keys light up again within a second or two of HWiNFO returning.
- When data goes stale (frozen for more than ~15 s), it probes a fresh connection every ~5 s to tell “frozen but alive” apart from “HWiNFO exited.”
- In Auto mode, while running on the Gadget fallback it probes shared memory every ~15 s and silently upgrades back to it the moment it returns.
- When a read fails transiently, the plugin rides it out instead of flashing a screen. An HWiNFO layout change (starting a game that adds GPU readings does it) poisons the open session; the poller reopens the data source at the new size and re-reads it in the same tick, so live values never leave the keys. If that reopen doesn’t land at once, the last values stay on screen for up to ~15 s before any status screen appears. Access denied, Shared Memory off and Tick sensors still appear at once: riding those out would only hide a setup problem you have to fix.
So the fix is on the HWiNFO side (re-enable sharing, tick a sensor, un-elevate) and the deck catches up by itself. No restart of Stream Deck or the plugin is needed. Plugin damaged is the one exception: that failure sticks for the life of the plugin process, so it takes a reinstall rather than a wait.
Related: the Shared Memory off, Not updating, and Tick sensors screens all trace back to how HWiNFO is publishing; see Data sources for the Shared Memory vs. Gadget trade-offs and the 12-hour free-version timer.