Still Unbuilt

All 100 ideasDesktop and OS

#89 of 100 · Desktop and OS

Why is my computer doing that

Users want a tool that tells them which process keeps the machine awake, drains the battery, causes hangs or load, in plain answers.

12asks, each re-read
11separate threads
7of 19 years
2since 2024
2010first asked

Asks per year

’081’10’12’14’1623’182’201’221’242’26

What the askers want

  • Would pay0%
  • Want it local or private50%
  • Object to subscriptions0%
  • Want it open source or self-hosted0%
  • Want AI to do it0%

Share of the 12 asks that say so, as judged by Jev.

What exists on Show HN

Built, still asked for12 Show HN launches do this job, and 24 more do part of it. People still ask, so the launches are missed, unknown, or not what they want. Ask what they’re missing before you build.

Instead of: Activity Monitor, Task Manager

The idea, as matched

A diagnostics tool that explains what the computer and its programs are doing: why it won't sleep, what drains the battery, which process causes hangs, disk writes and I/O, and real spare capacity.

Jev first matched 13 requests to this idea; a second reader kept 12 of 13.

Every ask, newest first

Each line is an AI paraphrase of what the writer wanted. The link goes to their own words on Hacker News.

Reader’s note. 17346070 and 17334461 share a title.

  1. Aug 2025Wants a Windows equivalent of Sleep Aid to diagnose what blocks the screensaver and sleep. Read it: a comment in “MacBook Pro Insomnia”
  2. Jul 2025Wants a tool showing why the machine did not sleep and what consumed power recently. Read it: a comment in “MacBook Pro Insomnia”
  3. Jan 2023Asks for a Linux tool to help debug random UI hangs. Read it: a comment in “No Start Menu for You”
  4. Jul 2022Wants an easy way to drill down on what consumes power on a Mac. Read it: a comment in “Ask HN: What's your experience with working M1 and M2 Macs?”
  5. Jul 2019Wants a tool that diagnoses high load average and names which programs and resources cause it. Read it: a post: “Ask HN: Diagnosing high load? Why isn't there a tool?”
  6. May 2019Wants an htop-like tool showing how close the CPU is to real capacity. Read it: a comment in “MDS: Microarchitectural Data Sampling side-channel vulnerabilities in Intel CPUs”
  7. Nov 2018Wants a tool that monitors I/O calls from one specific process to explain freezes. Read it: a comment in “Slow Software”
  8. Jun 2018Asks for a Linux tool that summarises what a program did. Read it: a post: “Is there a tool that summarises 'what a program did' in linux?”
  9. Jun 2018Asks for a Linux tool that summarises what a program did. Read it: a post: “Is there a tool that summarises 'what a program did' in linux?”
  10. Mar 2017Asks for a task-manager-style monitor for GPUs to diagnose stutter. Read it: a comment in “Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti”
  11. Feb 2017Wants a program that watches CPU and battery drain, names the culprit tab, and can auto-close offending tabs. Read it: a comment in “New Macbook Pro power efficiency and time remaining”
  12. Nov 2010Wants an app that explains why a computer slows over time by tracking newly installed software. Read it: a comment in “The future of notebooks: Ars reviews the 11" MacBook Air”

Building this?

Read ten of the asks above first, because they say what the existing launches miss. If you ship it, post it as a Show HN so the next run of this list finds it.

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