diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8e06dff3..e45bcfc7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed
 
--
+- Fixed device name retrieval without hlsmi  ([#240](https://github.com/Lightning-AI/lightning-Habana/pull/240))
 
 ### Removed
 
diff --git a/src/lightning_habana/__about__.py b/src/lightning_habana/__about__.py
index e91ce2f7..813519e0 100644
--- a/src/lightning_habana/__about__.py
+++ b/src/lightning_habana/__about__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-__version__ = "1.7.0"
+__version__ = "1.7.0.rc0"
 __author__ = "Lightning-AI et al."
 __author_email__ = "name@lightning.ai"
 __license__ = "Apache-2.0"
diff --git a/src/lightning_habana/utils/resources.py b/src/lightning_habana/utils/resources.py
index 1e079fbe..94d78158 100644
--- a/src/lightning_habana/utils/resources.py
+++ b/src/lightning_habana/utils/resources.py
@@ -94,6 +94,17 @@ def get_hpu_synapse_version() -> str:
     return hl or "0.0.0"
 
 
+@lru_cache
+def get_device_name_from_backend() -> str:
+    """Return the name of the HPU device."""
+    try:
+        # this opens up a device to retrieve the name
+        return torch_hpu.get_device_name()
+    except (AttributeError, NameError):
+        # return GAUDI as default name
+        return "GAUDI"
+
+
 def _parse_for_device_name(line: str) -> str:
     """Parse the CMD output with version capture.
 
@@ -123,9 +134,9 @@ def get_device_name_from_hlsmi() -> str:
     """Get hpu device name from hl-smi."""
     try:
         proc = subprocess.Popen(["hl-smi", "-L"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-    # TODO: FileNotFoundError: No such file or directory: 'hl-smi'
     except (FileNotFoundError, NotADirectoryError):
-        return "GAUDI"
+        # if hl-smi is not present, we open a device to get the name
+        return get_device_name_from_backend()
     out = proc.communicate()[0]
     return _parse_for_device_name(out.decode("utf-8"))