The Compaq Dfw service, CpqDfw.sys missing and EventID 7000 errors

[rbtylee]

On my girl friends laptop, HP Pavilion dv6700, Windows Vista Home Premium, I ran  HP support Assistant and clicked Troubleshoot -> Storage dives -> HP disk check because she had a hard drive related warning show up in Event Viewer. The test revealed nothing wrong with my hard drive but after the test i had a bunch (88 or so) of EventID 7000 errors in the Event viewer. Description: The Compaq Dfw service failed to start due to the following error:  The system cannot find the file specified. I cleared the log and rebooted and ran HP support Assistant again repeated the above steps to verify the it was HP Support Assistant causing the errors.

Using Autoruns I determined the file was system32\drivers\CpqDfw.sys.  A search of my windows directory failed to find the file CpqDfw.sys. Google did not reveal much about this error so I ran sfc /scannow but it turned up nothing. So I disable the service in autoruns rebooted and ran HP Support Assistant again and this time HP Support Assistant seemingly ran fine with no errors in the event log.

I am posting here for three reasons. One to see if any other users have had this issue or have any insights into this "bug" and two to inform HP of this issue with HP Support Assistant and lastly so anyone else who googles this can find this solution.

[HPSAwizard]

Thanks for posting this error.   HP is checking into the issue and will provide an updated verison of Hard Drive Check. 

Note that you can also use the System Diagnostics avaiable by pressing ESC right after you power up the Notebook.  Select F2 from the menu and you will find a complete set of hardware diagnostics you can use.  

Hope this helps.  

[DavidMarshall]

I am getting this error on an EliteBook 8440p with HP Support Assistant 6.1.12.1.

[HPSAwizard]

Hi David,   When do you see the errors?  

[DavidMarshall]

Thanks for replying.

I have the same situation as the original poster. The errors occur when using the disk check feature in HP Support Assistant. The CpqDfw service is in the Registry but the driver is missing. Is there another HP component that needs to be installed to avoid this?
The disk check appears to be carried out without any problems.

[HPSAwizard]

Thanks David. 

Another question.   What operating system are you using?  Win7 or Vista?

[DavidMarshall]

It's Windows 7.

[HPSAwizard]

Thanks David.   We have some engineers investigating the error.   They had a few more questions:

1. What version of HP Hard Drive check are you using.   You can find the verison under the HELP button after you launch Hard Drive check.  The version should be something like 1.0.1.8.

2. Does the error occur as soon as you start the test?   If not, can you describe when it occurs?  

3. Would it be possible to attach a screen shot of the error?  

Thanks again for your assistance.  

[DavidMarshall]

The version of Hard Drive Check is 1.0.1.8.

When Hard Drive Check is selected from Support Assistant, two EventID 7000 errors are logged. When the disk scan is started, an additional 59 events are logged. By the time the scan ends a further 28 events are logged.

I got this computer from someone else who had reinstalled Windows 7 32bit on it. When I checked through the BIOS settings I noticed it was set to IDE rather than AHCI. Is this normal for this model?  

[HPSAwizard]

Thanks David. 

What HP model computer are you running this on?