HP Device monitor takes up a lot of CPU on mac running Catalina

[Kato109]

Hi, I have read a lot of old posts about HP Device monitor constantly taking up CPU on Macs. My mac is running hot and I am trying to find out what is causing it, and HP Device Monitor seems to always be taking up space. I used HP Easy Start to uninstall all previous HP software and have installed the new easystart and easy scan, but the HP Device Monitor still shows up and still uses a lot of CPU. My printer is connected via USB as I do not want to use wifi and want to be able to print via cable. 

Is the Device Monitor a part of the EasyStart or is that something old that should not be running as some other posts suggest? If so how do I find and get rid of it.? I did the uninstall and that did not get rid of it. I don't see it listed in HP when I look in my applications - that seems to have an HP utility but nothing named Device monitor. if I do a spotlight search I find something called HP Device Manager Monitor but I can't figure out where that is and if it is necessary. Any help would be very much appreciated!

thanks,

Katarina

[IronBadger]

I'm not sure why HP device Monitor would be using so much CPU.  There must be a conflict between it and another process.  HP Device Monitor periodically checks for activity on your printer.  Mainly looking for button presses attempting to initiate a scan or fax.

The HP Easy Start Uninstaller should have grabbed the device manager along with all other software.  It is odd that it did not.

You can try running the Uninstaller again by accessing it through the HP Easy Start menu.  

 

You may also want to make sure you are using the latest version of HP Easy Start before running the uninstaller.  You can download the latest here.

You can manually ensure HP Device Monitor does not load in your environment by doing the following.

1. Delete ~/Library/Printers/hp/Frameworks/HPDeviceMonitoring.framework

2. Reboot

3. Delete ~/Users/username/Library/LaunchAgents/com.hp.devicemonitor.plist

I did this as a test on my system and it works w/o generating any errors.  However you will not be able to use Scan to Computer from the front panel of the printer AND you will not be able to enable Scan to Computer in the HP Utility.

Your device is also supported by HP Smart.  HP Smart is the future of HP Printing in macOS.  You can download HP Smart from the Mac App Store.   Installing HP Smart will not remove previous software.  You would still need to run the uninstaller as mentioned above and then set up your device using HP Smart.

[Kato109]

Yeah, I did download the latest version of EasyStart before using it to uninstall, and it should have grabbed the device manager. But I see some other posts on the internet about how impossible it can be to uninstall the HP Device Monitor and how uninstaller didn't do it.

However, it sounds like you are saying that the Device monitor is necessary if you want to be able to scan from your computer? I don't mind not being able to use the front panel of the computer, but will EasyScan still work? When you say I won't be able to scan from HP Utility, does that mean that the easy scan also wont work?

Does HPSmart require using wifi to print and scan? I want to be able to do it through usb cable. 

I am not super computer savvy, when you say to ""

1. Delete ~/Library/Printers/hp/Frameworks/HPDeviceMonitoring.framework

2. Reboot

3. Delete ~/Users/username/Library/LaunchAgents/com.hp.devicemonitor.plist" -- how do I do that? Can I just go in to the library and look for that and delete it?

thanks so much for these answers! Once I hear back from you I may try removing the Device monitor, and possibly uploading HP Smart. Is there any drawback to using that? As long as I don't have to connect via wifi.

thanks!

Katarina