Virus or just a glitch?

I ran my HP Assistant program that feeds me updates on HP software to my laptop. The thing is barely a few months old and runs like a charm so far.

However, when it had to update the ATI Driver, the screen basically enlarged as if I was in some sort of safe mode, and couldn't really access anything. Then, a message popped up saying that there is no ATI Graphics Driver installed. After a few moments, I was prompted to restart the computer in order for changes to take effect, so I did so, and now things seem up and running and back to normal.

Ran antivirus, came up with nothing, so I assume it had to be some sort of glitch as it was updating...is this possible? I have the event logs to when I BELIEVE this happened since they are the only event logs I can think of that are Error:

A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the AMD External Events Utility service to connect.

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="{555908d1-a6d7-4695-8e1e-26931d2012f4}" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49152">7009</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-09-29T20:46:05.266528600Z" />
<EventRecordID>160804</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="564" ThreadID="1076" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>MattPC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="param1">30000</Data>
<Data Name="param2">AMD External Events Utility</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

The AMD External Events Utility service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="{555908d1-a6d7-4695-8e1e-26931d2012f4}" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49152">7000</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-09-29T20:46:05.266528600Z" />
<EventRecordID>160805</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="564" ThreadID="1076" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>MattPC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data Name="param1">AMD External Events Utility</Data>
<Data Name="param2">%%1053</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

if there's anything else I can do to pull more info for analyzation, please let me know.

HP support assistant program is considered spyware and a drag on your Startup, CPU/RAM and LAN:

madtownidiot said:

I make a good portion of my income reconfiguring and reselling tweaked laptops that are less than a year old, mainly from HP, Dell and Lenovo. is factory installed spyware.. constantly phones home with all kinds of data about usage whenever you're on the internet

Your laptop will work fine without any of the HP apps and you don't need the support assistant to get updated drivers.. just type go to support.hp.com to get anything that isn't included with windows update (although if you have a fingerprint reader that you want to use, you should install the software for it before going to windows update. You'll need to know the exact model number from the sticker on the bottom of your laptop (there are dozens of version of a Pavilion DV-5 for example) I usually get the drivers and ignore the applications that come with them, unless you have to download the application to get the driver, in which case, I look elsewhere

I would uninstall it and keep an eye on optional Windows Updates which will keep your drivers current. There are no HP factory utilities that do not have better built-in versions in Win7.