HP Service PML Driver HPZ12 is killing my CPU

[adam613]

I will be greatly indebted to anyone that can solve this:

I noticed recently my CPU slow to a crawl so I pulled out Process Explorer and found that roughly every five seconds an SVCHOST process is taking up 50-60% of my cpu (when the computer is doing noting you can see CPU usage spike ever 5 seconds in task manager).  This particular SVCHOST happens to be running the PML Driver HPZ12 service.  

If I look at CPU usage  for the threads of the process I can see it is one thread that seems to be causing this behavior and the start address is for the stack of said thread seems to be:

ADVAPI32.dll!CryptVerifySignatureW+0x29

 
or

kernel32.dll!GetModuleFileNameA+0x1ba
 

Could this thread just be stuck on something?  How do I fix this?  I am certain this cannot be the intended behavior of this program, I makes the PC barely usable....

As a work around I can kill the service, and I have to kill HPQTRA08.exe as well otherwise it will just restart the service. but I would prefer to be able to use my HP software as intended ...:-)

any help would be much appreciated....

thanks

-Adam

[Andrew_S]

I'm experiencing an identical issue.  Started upon installation of the HP Officejet Pro 8900 A909 wireless All In One printer software.

Ironcially, my machine is a four year old HP Pavilion a1040n with no modifications from standard, except for the addition of memory sticks.  One would think that HP software would work with an HP factory machine.

I'm posting on this thread so that I'm aware of any solutions as anyone responds to your post.  I will also tackle HP support myself to see if they are of any use in solving the problem.  Stay tuned - will post anything I find as soon as I go shopping for a Mac....  (other than the same solution you've proposed - killing the process - which seems to work)

[MrPeabody]

I have the same problem. For me it only happens if Comodo is running. Uninstall Comodo, all is well. Reinstall Comodo, CPU pops right back up with the culprit being HPZ12/svchost. I have no idea what to do at this moment, as I kind of need a firewall.

Todd

[Andrew_S]

HP Service Call Solution Attempt #1 Steps:  Delete all temporary files; Increase paging file size from 1.5 to 2 MB; Reboot

Results:  HPZ12 still starts up and still kills CPU - only uses 30% full time, as opposed to 40-50% previously.  Marginally better, problem not solved.

Follow-up Solution by Andrew_S:  Removal of the HPsrv from my registry settings.  I don't know what HP process this actually stops, but it fixes the problem and doesn't appear to affect my All In One Printer functions.

There appear to be three processes that are interlinked - svchost.exe -k HPService; and (2) svchost.exe -k HPZ12 processes.  If you kill the HPZ12 processes, they will restart.  However, if you kill the HPService process in the registry, HPZ12 will run normally (with minimal resource allocation) and you will not need to kill the process.

Prior to killing the HP Service process in my registry files, HPZ12 processes killed my CPU.  The HP Service process can be removed in the registry by finding the "HPSrv" reference and deleting it.  After I performed this removal, my CPU runs normally and the largest usage factor is the Process Explorer that I'm running to find out what's going on.

Hope this helps folks.  Please note - I am an accountant, not an IT guru.  I know just enough to be dangerous and know that messing with your registry may not be a good choice for a novice.  However, I was at the point where I didn't care if my machine was trashed and was willing to take a risk in playing with the registry based upon rangom google searches on how to remove HPSrv.

[MrPeabody]

Thanks for the suggestion Andrew, but I don't want to shut down the process, as I believe it supplies the PC with the two way data for the printer status and the HP Imaging Monitor. I mean, it'll work in a pinch, but I didn't pay $400 for a multi-function just to have to cripple the software because of (possibly) poorly written drivers.

A little more info: According to the event log in Comodo, the svchost/HPZ12 service is sending and receiving UDP packets on about 400 different ports ranging from port # 50000 to 50400. The CPU spikes when it decides to add about 100 ports to the maelstrom, then stops using them just as fast.

Update, just noticed it's not sticking to the same port range; it seems to be scrolling upward through the port numbers. Now the process is using #51600 to 52000. This is getting interesting.

[Navbond007]

Hi Adam,

I recommend not to disable any of the HP services that are running in the background as this might lead to lost functionality of some features of the product software like scan, transfer images etc. I recommend to run the patch below which hopefully should fix the problem:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=mp-65961-4&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&... 

Thanks

Naveen

Although employed by HP, I'm trying to address the issues with my sole willingness and my employer does not bear any liability for my responses.

[adam613]

The issue actually seems to have "magically disappeared" in the past week or so...so I dont want to disrupt anything with any patches but if the issue resumes I will install...thanks for the help!!!

-Adam

[djtonyp]

LAUNCH CONTROL PANEL,

GO TO ADMINISTATIVE TOOLS 

GO TO SERVICES AND FIND ANYTHING WITH HPZ12 AND DISABLE IT!!!!

THIS WILL CLEAR UP YOU PROBLEM

[jdaven12]

This process/ service was using 50% of my CPU consistently.  I discovered (through PeerBlock) that it was trying to communicate with HP servers via UDP.  I opened up HP Solution Center, went to Settings --> Updates and Usage Settings and disable all automatic updates and information sharing with HP.  I did all this with Windows 7 Resource Monitor open and what do you know?  The very second I click 'Apply' CPU usage for the process goes to a big fat zero.

[djtonyp]

so what r u saying ???  what i told u to do worked???