HP Hotkey UWP Service uses too much CPU

[Atomic21]

Same issue here, 20-30% CPU constantly for weeks.  Several updates ran and nothing fixed it.  Only thing that seems to work is to shut down the service and turn off automatic startup in the services. 

Wake up HP.

[glenh2]

I updated windows 11 to latest release,  and that seems to have solved the problem 

[DerMaddin]

Same here on a HP ZBook Studio 16 G10.

The service is consuming 4 to 12% of CPU causing the fans to make some constant lower noise.

The reason why Windows updates seem to "fix" it, might be the true reboot of the system which is almost always done, causing all services to freshly start. This assumption is based on the fact that you can also restart the service manually and then the CPU consumption will be within a normal range.

Due to some productivity features the system does not really shut down when I select "Shut down" from the Windows Start menu, but instead goes into some kind of hibernate mode (but without keeping my running programs opened). You can see this if you go in Task Manager to the Performance tab, select the CPU and see the Up time value which is showing several days, even though I "shut down" my system every day.

So this might be the reason for the bug. I also noticed this with other services before (e.g. Source Tree which causes high CPU consumption of SSH Agent service when the PC is was in hibernate etc before).

[VEngelmann]

I am on a company laptop, on which I don't have the rights to disable services.

"Don't use XYZ" isn't what I would call a "solution" to a problem with XYZ in the first place.

[VEngelmann]

Chris1287, T-B-P, Ma0815 and Nicoserup mentioned Jabra Devices. I also have Jabra Headphones.

Uxorious said it seems to happen when he suspends/resumes his machine - this is also my impression (and it explains why people think the problem was gone after installing updates: the updates cause a reboot and then the problem is gone until the machine is suspended/resumed again)

[JimSchuuz]

@VEngelmann If you don't have admin rights to stop the service and/or disable it, then you don't have rights to install the updated software and service either.  Since you don't have rights to do these things, why are you on a self-service forum instead of having your corporate IT handle the problem?

Whether you like it or not, the workaround is to stop and disable the service until an updated program version is released that fixes the problem with the audio telemetry program that is affecting *some* computers.  If you can make the change, then great.  If you can't, then get someone to do it who can.

[JimSchuuz]

@DerMaddin That is a great observation - it's entirely possible that the process does not resume correctly after an S3-S5 standby.

The issue you're describing regarding the reboot/shutdown process is called "Fast Startup," and it is a hybrid hibernation mode.  You can disable it so that you can get a true shutdown and restart experience that corrects many additional problems on a system by going into the Control Panel, going to Power Options, then "Choose what the power buttons do" and deselecting "Fast Startup" there.

I hope this helps.

[VEngelmann]

@JimSchuuz Yes, I have asked my companys' IT department to disable the service and - at least for a while the problem seemed to be gone, but it recently came back. I don't know if I was just wrong in between or if some system update re-enabled the service.

Either way, I would rather have a service that works, than having to ask the IT department to disable it every few weeks.

Everyone can drop the ball, but HP hasn't picked it up again in 6 months. And seeing that this problem is falsely categorized as "solved", it doesn't look like this will ever happen.

[JimSchuuz]

@VEngelmann  I agree with you that this should not be marked as "solved" if HP has not fixed the program and made the updated version available to everyone affected.  I also agree that having to ask your IT department to disable the service every few weeks is unnecessarily tedious, and I sympathize with your frustration.

That being said, if the service is disabled, it should not become enabled again unless either the program was updated, or your IT department enabled it again themselves.  Windows updates will not re-enable a service that is disabled unless the update requires/updates that service specifically.  However, this program (that runs as a service) is a 3rd party application, not a Microsoft application.  As such, any updates from Microsoft will not re-enable 3rd-party services like this.  On my own deployment (roughly 250 machines that are potentially affected) it is now, and has remained, disabled for several months because it just isn't necessary.

Things for your IT department to consider:
1) Verify that they disabled the correct service - although it shows up in Task Manager as the Hotkey UWP application, this is an erroneous name and the service that has the problem is the "HP Audio Analytics Service" (HPAudioAnalytics). 

2) They can change the service startup type in the system registry to be disabled, and then modify the security on that registry key which prohibits it from being changed except by an explicit admin account.

3) The binary can be located in the respective %DriverStore%\FileRepository location and renamed to prevent it from starting.

4) A GPO can be created to disable that service at the domain (or container) level.

5) A startup script can be run on your computer that disables it via command line.  If the startup script is created properly, it runs with admin permissions.

6) The IT department can modify the service to run using a different, local credential, and then the password for that credential changed.

All of the above methods will prevent it from running, and several of them can be done on a broader scale if there are other machines in your enterprise that are affected.

[JimSchuuz]

I just want to state again that this service is completely unnecessary.  It is simply a telemetry application that monitors how the user of the computer uses audio.  It monitors things like volume levels in certain applications, whether or not they use built-in speakers or external speakers, when they have their audio muted, and if they install other hardware that might use the sound drivers.  The last reason is why Jabra users are affected - the telemetry application watches how Jabra uses the sound card.  (But it isn't limited to Jabra users.)  When data is collected, it is then sent back to HP so that they can decide if or what changes should be made on future computers regarding the sound system.  This might be changing vendors, upgrading the hardware, or even something as simple as who to market specific models toward.  As far as services go, this one has absolutely no effect on the user, and provides no benefits except to HP as a corporation.  That's it.