HP support assistant has started crashing every time it runs

[niksargent]

I have a pavilion DV7 

Win7 64bit / 8Gb RAM

HP support assitant has started crashing every time it runs (either scheduled) or from the taskbar and windows troubleshooter launches "HP Support assistant has stopped working. Windows troubleshooting looking for a solution to the problem" without ever finding one.

The HP menu bar system will launch and some options (such as coming to this support forum) work, but others also fail with the same error as above. 

the only thing I can possibly relate this too is a week ago my PC got some problem with its "trust provider" (corrupt wintrust.dll or something), which I finally managed to fix. That was blocking authentication of some websites at the time, but as I say, that's now fixed and nothing else is reporting a problem...

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Try the following

First of all, uninstall your current version of HP Support Assistant by opening windows Control Panel, open Programs and Features, right click the entry for HP Support Assistant and select Uninstall.  When this process has completed, restart the notebook.

Next download and install the latest version of HP Support Assistant from the page on the link below - the download links are towards the bottom of the page.

http://h18021.www1.hp.com/helpandsupport/hp-support-assistant.html

After the installation, restart the notebook again.

Regards,

DP-K

[niksargent]

hi,

I've taken the above steps. 

Sadly there is no change: I can run support assistant from the icon on the desktop, but when I attempt to run it from the taskbar icon, it still crashes immediately.

I guess it's not a big deal, but it does bother me that something is not right.

thanks

nik

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Right click the Taskbar icon and select 'Unpin this program from taskbar'.  Now launch HP Support Assistant from the Desktop shortcut, right click the icon of this application now showing in the Taskbar and select 'Pin this program to taskbar'.

Close HP Support Assistant and then see if the newly created Taskbar shortcut works correctly.

Regards,

DP-K

[niksargent]

ok, so there are two things on the taskbar:

one is the "pinned" "HP Advisor" icon, towards the left with "HP" logo on it. This launches a floating toolbar at the top of the screen. this works, and continues to work, and didn't fail.

The thing that is broken is the second icon. it's on the right, with a Question mark in it. It is actually a whole tool bar in its own right - it is enabled/disabled by right clicking on the taskbar and choosing Toolbars -> HP Support Assistant Quick Access. 

This is broken, and has not been fixed by re-installing. Launching this causes "HP Support Assistant has stopped working" error. Moreover, every so often, I guess some background check occurs, because I also get "HP Warrant Checker has stopped working" about once a day, just popping up.

re-installing has fixed none of this. 

[DavidPK]

Hi,

Ok, try the following.

Right click the Taskbar, select Toolbars and un-check HPSA Quick Access.

Restart the notebook.

Now run the Microsoft 'Fixit' on the link below, then uninstall and reinstall HPSA once again - has this made any difference?

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

Regards,

DP-K

[niksargent]

HI, 

I don't really understand the logic of what i'm being asked to do here.. 

When i run the ms fixit program it asks if I am having trouble with installing or uninstalling..  well, it's neither really...  if i choose, say, "problem uninstalling", it basically offers to uninstall and clean up.. Is that what you're asking me to do??  in which case, why would there be an extra step in the instructions that says "then uninstall and reinstall HPSA once again"...

what steps should I take?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

I should have said to proceed with the uninstallation and then reinstall HPSA again.

Regards,

DP-K

[niksargent]

HI,

ok I've done that all again now according to your instructions.

sadly the same problem.. Just as additional info, when installing HP support assistant, about 95% of the way thorugh the message "HP Support Assistant" has stopped working pops up. It doesn't appear to interrupt the installation. 

I'm baffled.. when I run from the HP quick bar at the top of the screen it works. But not from the toolbar shortcut - but the side effect of this seems to be that the processes in the background also crash - both HP Support Assistant and warranty checker... something obviously fires these off every once in a while and they crash when that happens...  so, although I could "live with it" - it actually means these background support processes are not running correctly and, for example, keeping my HP s/w up to date  :-(  

thanks

nik

[DavidPK]

Hi,

I can certainly understand why this is annoying and HPSA does seem to be particulary difficult to fix when this sort of issue occurs.

Try the following alternative method for Uninstalling and the reinstalling HPSA.

Unless you still have the installer, download the latest version of HP Support Assistant from the page on the link below - the download links are towards the bottom of the page - and save the installer to your Downloads folder.

http://h18021.www1.hp.com/helpandsupport/hp-support-assistant.html

Next, if you don't have an extraction utility installed, download and install the .msi 64-bit x64 installer for 7-Zip on the link below.  This will allow you to ‘Unpack’ the installer.

http://www.7-zip.org/

Next, right click the HPSA installer you download earlier, select 7-Zip, select extract files and then click Ok.  Open the newly extracted folder, right click on UninstallHPSA and select 'Run as Administrator' - you may see no progress of this uninstallation, so if you don't, leave the notebook to idle for a good 10 minutes before restarting it.

Next, from the Start Menu, open All Programs, open Accessories, right click the Command Prompt and select 'Run as Administrator'.  In to the prompt type the following command and hit enter.

sfc /scannow                 ( note that there is a space between sfc and the / )

Let the process complete, then type exit and hit enter.  Restart the notebook again.

When Windows has fully reloaded, open the extracted HPSA folder again, right click on Setup ( Application - 229Kb ) and select 'Run as Administrator' to start the installation.

Has this made any difference or do you still get the error?

Regards,

DP-K