My HP Spectre x360 13 inch from late 2017 has an annoying problem where it shows a popup message when connected to a non-HP power adapter. The message says “HP recommends using an original power adapter from HP”. After searching around the web, it seems I’m not alone. I read the thread about disabling USB-C popups completely here, however I wanted to continue to get the popup box for the other messages such as “For full performance, connect a higher power adapter” and “The AC adapter is not compatible with this system”.
I did some digging with procmon and found that HPMSGSVC.exe looks at a registry key to see what application it should run for each event. It appears that the annoying message is caused by the “2304” event. As a quick fix, you can simply tell it to use a program that doesn’t exist for the “2304” event. See the instructions below for a simple way to do just that.
- Run regedit
- Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HP\HP System Event\WMIEvent20001\2304\
- Modify ApplicationPath key
- Add .disable to end of path (mine now looks like %PROGRAMFILES%\HP\HP System Event\USBCMSG.exe.disable)
- Enjoy not seeing the annoying popup all the time
I’ve experimented with changing the ApplicationKey path to another program of my choice and it seems to work. I even wrote some applications to popup my own message for each event, and I’ve been experimenting with displaying the messages through Windows 10 native notifications. If there’s interest, I’ll post the source code on Github.
Hi, Just wanted to convey my thanks for this registry fix the annoying pop up window from HP about using non original HP chargers. I ran into this issue with my son’s HP Spectre x360 when using an original HP charger connected to a USB-C hub that has Pd power passthrough. The hub works and the laptop charges fine via the USB-C port pass through but I guess by going through the hub, it masks the presence or ID of the original HP charger. Oh well, but your registry fix did the trick. Thanks again! This is the hub that I bought : https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MPB9FTB
Thanks – that works perfectly with my Spectre x360 13″. I purchased this because I wanted to be able to pair it with an eGPU when I’m not on the go (which in my case is a Razer Core X), but I got the pop-up every time I connected to it.
Most eGPU boxes charge the laptop via the same cable (up to 100W with the Core X – able to supply even more power than the official HP charger), so it’s pointless to also connect the original HP power cable when using it. Your tip was successful in helping me to disable that annoying message.
If it didn’t pop up every single time, I probably would have just lived with it. Or even if it was just a little “toast” message like most notifications are on Windows 10, it would have been ok. But the popup that just sits there until you click ok is just… unthoughtful, almost like the person who wrote it never had to use it.
Thank you! Worked perfectly for me! You are the best!
Thank you!!!!
fixed very easily. great 🙂
Nice – Works fine on a recent Spectre x360. Thank you!!!
Such and easy fixed. Worked great. Thanks!
God bless
Great fix. Thanks!
Fantastic solution. Thanks!
thanks, much appreciated
Yay! I only wish I’d looked for a solution sooner. You made it so easy! Thanks.
Thanks, that worked for me. I was a software tech lead at HP for 3 years, super embarrassing that they allow this nonsense to be developed at all. Annoyed that they don’t understand how bad this is for the end user to experience. The little things add up.
I’ve tried some more recent HP laptops with USB-PD and they seem to handle it much more graciously. Some still warn about non-HP chargers, but it’s a toast notification that goes away after a few seconds so it’s not nearly as obnoxious. I think HP learned the lesson, it just took them a few years to figure it out.
From this useful tip, I disabled the message… but had a couple of instances where my laptop was not being charged or powered, even when connected to the dock. So, I re-enabled the message just to see confirmation that my laptop is being charged by my dock.
My #1 wish is that I could create a scheduled task that triggered on the presence of my dock or some peripheral connected to it, and this task would check that battery charging has commenced, and if not, it would alert me “Notice! Battery is not being charged for some reason and you better check this out or a shocking Low Battery alarm will show up when you expected your battery to be full and ready!”
If that isn’t easy… than it would be fun to just replace this crude pop-up with a self extinguishing message, perhaps “Against the desires of HP Product Managers, your dock is properly charging your battery.” or “We were forced to support USB-C charging that insist on using. Will this stupid message compel you to just use that official power adaptor to charge your laptop?” or “Our software engineer hated this assignment so much that he made it ugly and liked how unpolished it made HP look” or “Lawyers want you to know that we are watching your illicit use of some non-HP adaptor and hope to deny a future warranty claim” …
Even better is if we could crowd source the text of these messages!