HP Support Assistant updates kill IP protocol stack binding

[ramja]

I have Win10 (HP 25L Omen) with ethernet connection to Win7 and WiFi to internet. Win7 machine booted normally. Win10 booted unusually slow - took about 45 sec to get to login screen instead of 5, but it came up. I could see the drives on the Win7 machine and established an ethernet RDP session to it. Opened a photo app that needed files on the Win7 machine - couldn't find them and the RDP screen went gray. Quickly found that both ethernet and WiFi weren't working. Device manager said both adapters were working. Spent a couple of hours trying to figure things out. Finally Googled the "...couldn't bind the IP protocol stack..." and got to a suggestion to check updates and restore points.  I found a restore point had been set at the time I started the machine. Two drivers had been updated by HPSF - an Intel (SoftwareComponent) and a Realtek(NetService) - see first attached pic for details. Completed the restore, those 2 files were rolled back and system connected normally through ethernet and WiFi. During troubleshooting I found that the actual network adapter drivers were not changed, only the driver(s) handling the "IP stack binding protocol".

Five days later HPSF did another update - this time several NVIDIA drivers were updated along with the Intel (SoftwareComponent) and Realtek(NetService) drivers (2nd pic). Again ethernet and WiFi was killed and restore fixed the problem.

Intel (SoftwareComponent) 5/5/2021 7.4.0.26 and Realtek(NetService) 3/12/2019 3.6.313.2019 seem to be the culprits and HPSF is going to continue to try to update them every time it runs. And every time I roll back I will be undoing some desirable or necessary updates.

QUESTIONS:

How can I keep HPSF from updating those two components?

Can I turn off HPSF and manually update NVIDIA drivers? 

Is there any way to update individual drivers (like it was done during my 30 year IT career supporting HP desktops and servers)? 

Best way to fix this problem?

Here's one other factor - I bought 2 identical HP Omens 11/2019. The other HP also has ethernet/RDP connections to Win7 desktops, NAS and WiFi. The Windows drivers updates are the same for both machines. But the other one does not seem to have HP Support Assistant running (no HPSF updates) and has not had this problem.

[Prométhée · Accepted solution]

Hello
so sorry if i don't answer all the questions i didn't understand everything i think
but if you have problem with Hp support assistant every time then yes open program settings
click on more settings, if the option is hidden
then disable updates

The software is capricious, and it will reactivate, or ask to do it, there are some workarounds, but it does not work every time, I do not know if I would find the discussions about it
If the program is not of great use to you, do as I did, delete it.
you can optionally check for updates manually on HP product support

check for hp driver updates

[edit]

Re: Window of update Software & Drivers pops up every hour - HP Support Community - 8021845

Solved: I have just started getting a pop up on both our logins sayi... - HP Support Community - 810...

[ramja]

Thanks for the insight - much appreciated!  👍