Spoolsv.exe is acting up and I can't print

August 13, 2007

My mother is running WinXP SP2 on her computer with a local printer

attached. Everything worked great until a few days ago, when the

printer stopped working. (According to her, she didn't do anything

new, didn't install anything, etc). After some poking around, I found

that spoolsv.exe was using all of the local resources. I stopped the

service, cleaned out the files in the C:\Windows\System32\Spool

\Printers folder and restarted the service. The process came up with

no problems, using almost none of the CPU. But as soon as I tried to

print something, we got the same problem. The document doesn't print,

and it sits in that folder, with the service chewing up the

processor. I've tried printing from MS Word, Notepad and from a 3rd

party app (for printing forms, etc). None of them work, all result in

the same behavior. I also tried to set the properties to print

directly to the printer and bypass the spooling, but that didn't help.

Any idea what's going on? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thank you!

-Murali

August 13, 2007

Re: Spoolsv.exe is acting up and I can't print

<msk_30339@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:1187016384.378078.211360@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

> My mother is running WinXP SP2 on her computer with a local printer

> attached. Everything worked great until a few days ago, when the

> printer stopped working. (According to her, she didn't do anything

> new, didn't install anything, etc). After some poking around, I found

> that spoolsv.exe was using all of the local resources. I stopped the

> service, cleaned out the files in the C:\Windows\System32\Spool

> \Printers folder and restarted the service. The process came up with

> no problems, using almost none of the CPU. But as soon as I tried to

> print something, we got the same problem. The document doesn't print,

> and it sits in that folder, with the service chewing up the

> processor. I've tried printing from MS Word, Notepad and from a 3rd

> party app (for printing forms, etc). None of them work, all result in

> the same behavior. I also tried to set the properties to print

> directly to the printer and bypass the spooling, but that didn't help.

>

> Any idea what's going on? Any and all suggestions are welcome.

>

> Thank you!

>

> -Murali

>

Click Start > Run, type in: services.msc and press Enter or click Ok.

Maximize the Services window.

Scroll down to Print Spooler, if it isn't started:

Right click on it > click Start in the popup menu or click on it once and click Start

at the top of the left pane.

Close put of Services.

If no joy:

Click Start > Run, type in: eventvwr.msc and press Enter or click Ok.

In the Left pane click on either System or Applications.

Check for any errors in the Right pane and if found double click on an error to open

a details window.

See if the details description gives any clue to the issue and follow the link if

included for a "possible" resolution.

Also see if this helps:

You experience problems printing, viewing printer icons, and adding printers, the

Print Spooler service does not function correctly, and you receive print-related

error messages on a Windows XP-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919750/en-us

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }

Conflicts start where information lacks.

http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

August 13, 2007

Re: Spoolsv.exe is acting up and I can't print

Brian-

Thanks for the response. I can start and stop the Print Spooler

service with no trouble. When I start it, if there are files in the C:

\Windows\System32\Spool\Printers directory, the spoolsv.exe app starts

using 80%+ of the CPU. If there are no files there, then it sits at

0%-1%. If I try to print something, nothing comes out of the printer,

nothing of value is reported in the Event Viewer, and spoolsv.exe

starts tearing up the processor (until I stop the service and clear

the directory). Basically, I have no errors, no alerts, no nothing.

Just no documents coming out of the printer, and the service is

spiking the processor.

-M

August 13, 2007