HP Protect Tools Security Manager won't uninstall prior to upgrade

I have an HP Compaq nx7400 laptop running Vista Business. I have run the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor. My system passes all tests except that I have to uninstall the HP ProtectTools Security Manager 2.00E4 security programme.
When I try I get an error message: Error (-5004: 0x8007007e)
I have already successfully uninstalled HP Credential Manager for ProtectTools.
Any help gratefully appreciated.

I found this:

go to task manager and end the process hpqwmiex
then go to C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\Shared and delete hpqwmiex.exe

Click to expand...

Is this what you're doing when you get the error code?

Unable to uninstall HP ProtectTools

Many thanks for trying, Jacee, but I have done as you suggested and get the same error message

Perhaps this Microsoft Technet forum thread may help. Specifically, the 4th post by Vivian Xing on how to manually remove HP ProtectTools Security Manager Suite.

HP ProtectTools prevents upgrade to windwows 7 - Even after unnistalling HP Protecttools

Unsuccesful unistall of HP ProtectTools

Many thanks for this. It all looked good and I edited the registry exactly as detailed, deleting the relevant keys.
However, on restarting my system, the ProtectTools programme started up, clearly showing that it had not been uninstalled.
I opened up Control Panel/Programs & Features and looked for the ProtectTools program, which was no longer showing.
Given this and thinking the the program interface may just have been an orphan, I started the Windows 7 upgrade process. Sure enough, having checked my system, it stopped the installation telling me that I must uninstall ProtectTools.
Very frustrating!
I have logged this with HP and only hope that they have a removal tool. There must be thousands of HP laptop users out there who want to upgrade to W7 and can't easily do so.
Many thanks, at least, for trying to help.
Best regards
Falcodriver

Laptop: HP 6515b with Fingerprint Reader and embedded TPM IC (TPM: Trusted Platform Manager). I had this problem when trying to do an in-place "upgrade" of an existing Win7 Ultimate x64 installation so that I would not have to reinstall all my software and go through resetting various system settings (akin to doing an XP "repair" install). Was having problems updating the Avast! engine . . . machine would not start up properly.

The in-place "upgrade" install fixed that issue, but had to figure out how to get the HP ProtectTools completely uninstalled first as, like others, the "upgrade" would not proceed without completely uninstalling all the ProtectTools. I could get all the separate components uninstalled, but the "HP ProtectTools Security Manager Suite" remained even if it appeared to have been uninstalled.

Solution:
Finally gave some thought to the fact the machine has a hardware TPM IC and a Fingerprint Reader. Went into the BIOS settings and disabled the Fingerprint Reader. To disable and "hide" the TPM chip, I had to set up a BIOS password, then the BIOS allowed me to not only disable the TPM hardware IC, it allowed me to hide it. Exited and saved the BIOS, and rebooted the laptop. Had to reinstall the ProtectTools Security Manager Suite to make the uninstaller reappear in the Software Removal section of the Control Panel. Then was able to fully uninstall it. My conclusion is that one must disable the TPM and the Fingerprint Reader hardware (and reboot) so that their protected hardware drivers are not loaded and their protected associated services can be shut down, allowing drivers to be disabled/deleted and services unregistered properly.

I've not seen anyone mention shutting down the Fingerprint Reader and TPM IC in the BIOS anywhere (here, other forums, including HP's Support Forums). I hope this helps make uninstalling the HP ProtectTools Suite easier for Windows 7 upgrade installations!

John

Jalind, you're a life saver. Couldn't get Protect Tools to uninstall, even using Microsoft's Mr. Fixit utility to remove programs that won't uninstall. Set up the BIOS the way you said, hid TPM, and reinstalled a version of Protect Tools. Uninstalled, and now life is good.

Saved me a huge amount of hassle. Thank you.