HP Support Assistant Hangs then crashes...reinstall doesn't fix

[JimG1s]

Hoping someone can help me get the support assistant back, v7.0.39.15 is currently installed.

I have a HP ENVY dv6t-7200 Select Edition running Windows 8 64 bit; purchased 1/2013

The support assistant icon in the system tray is indicating there are updates but if I run the support assistant :

• It gathers information
• Analyze your system
• then hangs forever(> 1hr) on preparing the action list eventually Windows pops up saying the application has stopped responding...and shuts it down.

I have tried:

1. uninstalling from the control panel, downloading the latest version and reinstalling(v7.0.39.15)...same result.
2. Uninstalling via Windows MrFixit for 64 bit systems, reinstalling...same result.
3. Contacting HP Chat...they repeated #1..,same result then tried turning off all unnecessary services...same result.
4. Ultimately the folks on chat wanted me to do a system recovery...at which point I refused since all the other software on my machine is running fine...I don't want to nuke my entire machine to fix the support assistant.

I'm guessing that there are others in a similar situation...ironic that the software that is supposed to help me seems unfixable:smileysurprised:

Anybody else out there having similar issues?

[Dragon-Fur]

Hi Jim,

You are not alone.  I bet there are still a number of issues out there..  HPSA is huge code and it trips up sometimes.

You have done most of what you can do. There is the chance that there is a different version (older?) of the HPSA in your Recovery Manager.  You might take a look and see if that is the case.  Sometimes just pulling something out of the Recovery Manager works when other methods fail.  With the HPSA, there is less likely to be magic, but it only takes a minute to try it.

There was, a couple of months back, an issue that is presumably unrelated, with the Windows Updates hanging at 12-13%.  The fix is to uninstall the Audio driver,  install the Windows updates, and then Reboot the notebook.  When the updates install and the notebook restarts, the Audio driver reinstalls itself - Poof!  Fixed.  Well, there is a bit more to it than that, but that is the ghist.  I have wondered if there might be a relationship in the HPSA code and its updates.  OK... everyone stop laughing - I cannot get to the code so I admit I am reaching here.  Smiling.  You could try it with the HPSA updates if you were curious: Uninstall the Audio driver, initiate the HPSA updates... then Reboot (Restart the computer regardless of the updates so the driver reinstalls itself).  It would be cool if it worked.

If the HP rep did not think to mention it, you can just go to your HP website for your computer and get your Updates.  It takes a few minutes to download and install them.  Get a list, go to your website and get the installation files.

Software & Driver Downloads - HP ENVY dv6t-7200 CTO Quad Edition Notebook PC

Good Luck!

[JimG1s]

Thanks Dragon-Fur:

Yah...been through this before but HP is dropping in S/W skills. I actually really like the H/W on my new Envy except for the space bar on the keyboard. Beautiful 1080p display, fast boot with WIN8 (no SSD and not needed) and 7200rpm HD, lighted keyboard a +. Really my only complaint is HPSA and how HP manages the support through the 3rd party folks. They have no mechanism for escalation when the call centers run out of script to follow...they just leave these folks to rot. To bad...only tarnishes their reputation...the best and worst advertisements come from you customers.

Anyway, I am pretty savy with computers, I manage 100+ computers in an engineering lab at work, and I have been to a call center in Kalkutta, India so I am pretty familiar with the process. Just sad how it tarnishes HP, needlessly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and undeservedly casing a shadow over the H/W guys good work(short only of the spacebar :-).

So for now, when the systray icon(which works!) tells me that important updates exist, I go with my excel database of drivers, and version numbers to the hard to find HP site that actually has my drivers and I manually go down this list, this time a BIOS update, and strangely a number of updates are to load older versions of drivers! So be it. My systray icon now shows no more important updates...but unfortunately these updates and downdates did not fix HPSA.

[JimG1s · Accepted solution]

Hey anyone following this thread I have found a fix that has my Support Assistant back working!

Sadly, no help from HP, but fixed none the less.

To fix it I changed the launch properties to Windows 7 compatibility mode and checked the run with administrator permissions. Not sure which did it, don't really care...my HP support assistant is back working

Here is a screen shot of the properties that worked for me

Hope this helps someone else...as I have received way more than I have given.

[mikec041]

HPSA worked when I first installed it but I guess after one of the 200 Windows 7 updates it stopped responding. Went into HPSA Properties I found "run in compatibility mode Windows XP. SP3" checked. Changed it as JimG1 suggested and now it works fine.

[dynamicstand]

I have the same problem THANK YOU for your help, I rarely come in here but was forced to because of this issue. I am looking to buy a new p.c I have had this for two years and I had serious intermetint problems and the Tech guys lied about helping me, I still have the emails. I NEVER find a solution in here I always go outside but this seemed like a no brainer and yet again it wasn't the tech guys who helped. I see this problem has dated back FIVE years for many users You'd think they'd fix it by now. My new p.c will not be a HP, my first p.c was a Compaq and that was the worst p.c I ever owned. HP/Compaq is the perfect corporate storm for let downs and total garbage.