diff --git a/csaxs_bec/bec_widgets/widgets/console_buttons/console_buttons.py b/csaxs_bec/bec_widgets/widgets/console_buttons/console_buttons.py
index cc16f2e..acc101d 100644
--- a/csaxs_bec/bec_widgets/widgets/console_buttons/console_buttons.py
+++ b/csaxs_bec/bec_widgets/widgets/console_buttons/console_buttons.py
@@ -46,10 +46,13 @@ class ConsoleButtonsWidget(BECWidget, QWidget):
       effectively immediate.
 
     ``hard_stop_device_name`` names the device whose ``.controller`` the
-    hard stop is called on (e.g. ``"ftransy"`` for flomni). Without a
-    device configured, or if that device isn't present/enabled in the
-    current session, the button is disabled rather than silently doing
-    nothing.
+    hard stop is called on (e.g. ``"ftransy"`` for flomni). Without a device
+    *name* configured, the button is disabled rather than silently doing
+    nothing. A configured name that doesn't actually resolve to a device
+    (e.g. missing from the current session's config) is not checked ahead
+    of time -- it's re-resolved at click time in ``_on_abort()``, which
+    already logs and no-ops on failure -- so the button being enabled is
+    not a guarantee the device exists, only that a target was configured.
     """
 
     USER_ACCESS = ["message", "message.setter", "response", "clear_response"]
@@ -69,23 +72,21 @@ class ConsoleButtonsWidget(BECWidget, QWidget):
         self._init_ui()
 
     def _hard_stop_available(self) -> bool:
-        """True if hard_stop_device_name names a device that's actually
-        present and enabled in this session -- checked once at construction
-        time (the config doesn't change mid-session).
+        """True if a hard_stop_device_name was configured for this widget.
 
-        Device access is wrapped in try/except: DeviceManagerBase.__getattr__
-        raises DeviceConfigError (not AttributeError) for an unknown device
-        name, so a plain getattr(self.dev, name, None) would NOT fall back
-        to the default and would propagate instead (same guard as
-        SampleStorageWidget._check_flomni_available()).
+        Deliberately does not check whether the name actually resolves to a
+        live, enabled device: that live check (a getattr(self.dev, name)
+        device-manager lookup) proved unreliable in practice -- a
+        confirmed-present, confirmed-enabled device could still evaluate as
+        unavailable here, permanently disabling the button for the widget's
+        lifetime with no way to recover short of recreating the dock. Since
+        whatever device is named is re-resolved with its own try/except in
+        _on_abort() anyway, a stale or wrong name still fails safely
+        (logged, no-op) instead of silently doing nothing -- so skipping the
+        redundant, unreliable pre-check here only removes a false-negative
+        failure mode, not real safety.
         """
-        if not self._hard_stop_device_name:
-            return False
-        try:
-            device = getattr(self.dev, self._hard_stop_device_name, None)
-        except Exception:
-            return False
-        return device is not None and getattr(device, "enabled", True)
+        return bool(self._hard_stop_device_name)
 
     def _init_ui(self):
         layout = QVBoxLayout(self)