For automatically predicting machine failure a transducer sensor, such as piezoelectric crystal, is applied to a machine for sensing machine motion and structure-borne sound, including vibration friction, and shock waves. The structure-borne sound and motion sensed is converted to electrical signals which are filtered to leave only the friction and shock waves, which waves are processed, as by detecting the envelope and integrating beneath the envelope, resulting in a measure of friction and shock wave energy, i.e., stress wave energy. This measure is computed and processed for producing fault progression displays for periodic and aperiodic damage. This is accomplished in a personal computer, menu-driven environment.