Weird PC Performance Problems with Officejet J4680 10.4 XP Drivers [ Edited ]

[NetWeaver]

I thought I would post this since some of the friendly hints in this forum helped me find my issues.   After roughly a day wasted on this I hope someone else can use this.

I have two Windows XP machines fully patched with Avast anti-virus.   I purchased a HP Officejet J4680 All-in-one printer with a wireless option about three days ago and installed the software and everything seemed to work fine.   Two days ago I rebooted the machines for Microsoft Patch purposes and afterwards both started acting sluggish.  (Uh oh - Hardware failure?)

This wasn't the typical 100% CPU issue I am familiar with and are easier to troubleshoot, but traditional Windows items (Explorer, Control Panel) would open and be blank.  Anything that did respond would take 4-5 seconds longer, but again there was not the usual spike in CPU utilization.  My network taskbar Icon disappeared, I could open Windows Explorer and nothing would show up, from the control panel I could click on "Services" and it wouldn't open,  Add/Remove programs wouldn't display any programs to remove.   

I first assumed that it was a Microsoft Update problem and attempted a rollback, when it didn't fix the problem I reinstalled SP3 from safe mode.  When that didn't fix it I removed my antivirus assuming that it was a bad update.  Only when I attempted to remove the HP Officejet software did I have any luck...  It looked like some "services" were unable to be shut down and be removed.   Even after an uninstallation the HP services still remained so I went into safe mode and disabled them.   After rebooting for the 17th time with the services disabled did everything start working at the proper speed again.

The Problem services:

"HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service"

"HP Network Device Support"

After repatching my machine, installing my antivirus everything worked great.   I reinstalled the HP Officejet 10.4 XP Drivers and everything worked great again untill I rebooted.   After I rebooted everything starting acting slow again.  Once again, from Safe-mode I disabled the aforementioned services and performance went back up.

Apparently these services are used to detect network changes if your printer is network attached with a DHCP assigned IP address.  I have hard-coded my printer IP address so hopefully I don't have to worry about it.

I have no earthly idea why a printer driver would prevent me from getting into my "Network Connections" "Services" and cause "Internet Explorer" to go slow even without a CPU spike, but I hope HP fixes these problems and hope someone else doesn't waste as much time as I did troubleshooting it.

Message Edited by NetWeaver on 12-02-2008 09:44 AM

Message Edited by NetWeaver on 12-02-2008 09:44 AM

[Onstar1]

I have been having the same problem with my PCs and this unfortunate software from HP. Do a Google search on HPSLPSV High CPU and you'll get lots of hits with people having this problem. I have tried uninstalling the full-featured software and installing the basic software as suggested on several posts without any success, I have also tried setting the HP Network Devices Support service to manual startup instead of automatic without any success. I have found no definitive answers to this problem anywhere other than those where the people returned the printer to the store where they bought it.

[NetWeaver]

I have to reiterate that this is not your typical 100% CPU utilization problem - my CPU never went over 20% but still the performance on my computer suffered horribly.  The troubleshooting steps are the same, but I couldn't simply load up process explorer and find my issue.

I don’t like answering my own post but since the problem has reared it's ugly head again, I thought I would update with the latest issues.  Each time I have to suffer for an HP driver, I figured I would update the issue and maybe someone would fix the problem.  

I am an avid Quicken user and about every 10 seconds the program would loose focus and regain it almost immediately.   For those of who enter information into Quicken you know whenever you click back to Quicken it returns you to the first entry field.   Needless to say when you are attempting to enter data and it keeps returning you to the "Date" field it gets sort of frustrating.

Sure enough it was the  "HP Network Device Support" on my workstation.  Once I disabled the service everything started working fine again.

There seems to be a fundamental problem with the way the driver grabs the UI focus and ungracefully returns it to the operating system.  I am uncertain why it needs the UI focus in the first place.

Hope this helps someone else with troubleshooting…

[Ancient]

I have been having these exact same symptoms post install of a Deskjet F4235

I only have the one service listed on my machine (possibly because its not an office device) "HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service"

For HP support: I found in my event log that the above does indead hang:

Interesting to note, that it took ~90 seconds for this to stop hanging so the computer could continue to boot.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7022
Date:  1/6/2009
Time:  9:39:10 PM
User:  N/A
Computer: *****
Description:
The HP CUE DeviceDiscovery Service service hung on starting.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

[Cooldad]

I know this won't help solve the problem but I thought it was worth mentioning. Ever since I purchased the J4680 and installed software everything slowed down. I recently had to reformat my PC and reloaded all my programs. Everything worked fine and PC was fast to boot, until I reinstalled the J4680 software. Now it boots like a turtle and hangs up on wallpaper for a good two minutes before icons appear. I uninstalled & reinstalled again, same results. I called HP, they were of no help. It's a good thing Staples had an on line deal and I paid only $75, when warranty is up I'll look at a Brother or Lexmark since the cost to replace the ink in the J4680 is about the same as purchase price. You can buy a good all-in-one for $120. Check Consumer Reprts for reviews on Brother.

[dnabarlow]

Is anyone still having these issues????

I did read consumer reports & ended up buying this printer....but haven't installed software yet....any tips?  return it?? lol!

[DexterM]

Just install the software acc. to the document below. If you face any issues during or after the installation, then post here, and we'll help.

Click Here 

[BillfromEriad]

Dear DM,

When I click your link, I get a blank page (except for the nav bar).   What's the software acc.?

Please reply, I have this problem too.

Thanks,

Bill 

[DexterM]

The link must have been moved. Try THIS.

And 'acc.' is short for 'according', so I meant 'install the software according to the document below'.

[nov96]

Link is no longer available. Where can I find it?

I am having the same issue. Installed the j4680 software and computer locks up for 90 seconds when opening links or documents out of outlook.