irritating pop ups

[jimcee]

I have this problem - My HP printer was acting up, so I reinstalled the driver - this cured the problem and it is working fine.
However, thenceforth every two or three minutes I would get a popup hourglass (continuous for about 20 seconds) followed by the message "Fatal error during installation". This I could click away but it was repeated within about a minute, and then I would have peace for 3-4 minutes before the whole thing repeated itself.
I tried uninstalling all my HP programmes and reinstalling the printer, but I am still plagued with this message repeating itself every time I use my computer.
Any suggestions on how I could rid myself of this affliction would be gratefully received.

[NickB]

Hi Jim,

How did you uninstall the printer driver? Did you do it via Device Manager? If not, try uninstalling the driver via DM then rebooting and reinstalling.

Otherwise - I came across this on Google from someone who seems to have had a similar problem:

1. Search for hpzsetup.exe file in all files and folders
2. Delete all instances of it.
3. Search for hpzsetup.exe in the registry
4. Delete only values containing hpzsetup.exe
5. Empty Recycle Bin
6. Restart Computer

(Don't edit the registry unless you are sure you know what you are doing though).

Final solution - try using System Restore to go back to a restore point before all this happened.

Alternative solution - just put up with it

[jimcee]

Thanks for that bit of advice - so far it has proved ineffective -
(1) I uninstalled with Add/Remove programmes. How do I get to Device Manager?
(2) on the search facility I get a picture of a cute looking dog with a blank space coming out of it's mouth, and an injunction to follow it's instructions - but it doesn't issue any and typing in the hpzsetup business in the top pane gets a firefox message that it can't locate the server (whatever that means)
(3) My System restore will only let me go back to one previous restore point (which contains the same irritating messages popping up) - all other points, it refuses to act upon.
I would hate to spend the rest of my life deleting this rubbish every few minutes, so could you give me any further advice - apart from dumping the computer on the skip and buying another.

[NickB]

A few questions:

~ Can you use the printer?

~ Does the message still come up if you remove the printer?

~ Have you tried downloading the latest driver from the HP website and installing it?

If you Google this problem you will see that it is a very common one that has driven a lot of HP users nuts.

[jimcee]

Thanks for those further suggestions.
Decided to take the bull by the horns and uninstalled everything that had any HP association - about 5 different programmes.
This seems to have done the trick because I have had 24 hours without interruption.
So for anyone with a similar problem - don't fiddle about with fillings, crowns, or root canal (whatever that is) - get the thing extracted.