| All comments about spoolsv.exe: |
 | Printer Spooler Service Alex |
 | It keeps taking up my entire CPU, clogging the system. I have Windows2000, and I don't know how a printer spooler can use 90+ percent of my CPU for 10+ minutes! Johnny B |
| I had this problem on one of our computers. As it turns out, there were print jobs waiting - not on our installed printer - but on Microsoft Image Writer. These print jobs were terminated and all is back to normal. See also: Link Dystaxia |
 | unaware of the true reason why my laptop has been slowed to 10 minutes per operation, "spoolsv.exe" persists through my anti-virus scans and stops normal operation in order to re-boot--also with windows 2000. ben |
| Careful...This one is a worm...quite typicaly found in your computer...if it is delete immediatly... JFSU |
| it's a windows file, it's not a freakin' virus people. strebor |
| I'm experiencing the same as Johnny. Spooler is using over 50+ percent of CPU time and there are no print jobs waiting to be spooled. Annoyed |
| It's a spooler. When i deleted this file, I don't know why i couldn't boot i had to reinstall windows. Manu |
| It's just a windows file. It running in my processes right now and I KNOW it isn't a virus Bryant |
| I had the CPU takeover problem, but like Ben said, it was because of print jobs on the Microsoft Office writer, not the actual printer. Go to control panel/printers and faxes and check all printers for waiting jobs. Tommy |
 | It *could* be a backdoor for hackers. But it is also a valid Windows file. Be careful. This file opened a backdoor and was not detected as the backdoor.ciadoor.b trojan. See also: Link Neomonk |
 | Printer spooler - harmless, but it takes surprisingly a lot of memory. Van |
| If the spoolsv.exe seems to be causing problems on your computer, you simply have a slow computer. It is NOT a virus, it is installed with Windows and is required for printing. Try defragmenting your hardrives before accusing Windows system process of being viruses. It only uses about 3 MB of RAM on my computer. |
| It's a print spooling application, but is easily targeted for spyware and/or worms. I recently removed it from a friends comp. Along with it came several adware bundlers and a king-kong sized headache. joe |
| I agree with strebor. It's the Windows print spooler. If it's taking up CPU resources, you probably have a bad printer driver. Delete all the printers from your printers folder, then reboot. Troy |
| This file causes no damage as a windows file, However, the filename has been used before by some virii. No threat unless you download a virus. Gemquist |
| I had the same problem that Spoolsv was using most of my CPU all the time... but as Dystaxia said there were printjobs waiting on the Microsoft Image Writer, I deleted the print jobs on the Image Writer and now it works fine again Rieky |
| It is a necessary file so leave it for gods sake. Variations of the name can be a worm but this actual file is essential for windows to operate. Paul |
 | It will use some of your ram, but if you run your computer right it will not slow it down really any bit. Mine averages 5,000 K. If you do have a problem do like Tommy said and it should work well. Nick |
| Its cloging my system and i dotn even have a printer! joey |
| spoolsv.exe is sometimes just a alias and a trojan/backdoor ect ect would be under the covers doing its job. My recommendations is to scan that file for anything Andy |
| i don't have any print jobs... i guess it's another windows security flaw being exploited rick |
| If located in system32, it's the Windows Print Spooler - which is _safe_ and _not_ a virus! If it's located somewhere else, it's most likely a trojan, trying to fake you with a bogus name. |
| Spoolsv.exe is taking 99% of my resources. Ker |
| Same problem -100%cpu usage |
| Right now, my firewall (Zone Alarm) is warning me that spoolsv.exe is requesting access to the internet!? Tom Smith |
| It just take 131MB of my memory.....really annoying |
| IT IS a worm or trojan. It is a Windows printer spooler, yeah, but about 5 different types of backdoors name themselves "SPOOLSV.EXE" also. If your task manager shows the normal processes, except they dont have a user name next to them, this could be the problem... Scott |
| it took all my cpu, and it was my fault. This file is coordinating your printing/faxing actions. If you are in a network, one printer could have been installed not properly. Also, most of the times it's only the Microsoft Office Image Writer that as a list of prints to do. Ben |
| If it's so innocent, why would a print spooler need to acces the internet, for crying out loud?! Downstrike |
| I had the same problem with spoolsv.exe taking 100% CPU. A Virus Scan showed me it was infected with Worm.Agobot.30.AP... AVG Antivirus healed the file and now it's all back to normal. By the way, AGOBOT often also infects csrss.exe... See also: Link Albux |
| This program keeps running and using up all my CPU, even after i close it from the task manager. I have not printed anything in the recent past so I believe there is no reason for it to be running and especially to start back up after close it! For now i have put it in Quarantine Lindsay |
| The only thing I wold like to know is why a "spooler" has to access the internet? As far as I know, a spooler puts into memory printing jobs so that the printer can print without locking up the computer that is printing. There should be no reason For a " spooler" to need access to the internet. hacker |
| My wife activated the MS Office60 day trial version on a brand New HP Athlon 3200+ (hardly a slow computer as suggested) and it loaded MS Office Image Writer (as I found out). Instantly the computer seemed to come to a near stand still. I checked Task Manager and found spoolsv.exe using over 90% cpu usage. I deleted MS Office Image Writer print job... problem solved. Johnny |
| It was taking up 98% of my CPU, so after reading these comments I checked the printer waiting list. Sure enough there was something sitting there from yesterday. I tried to remove it but it wouldn't go, until I switched the printer back on. Behold, document no longer in queue, computer back up to speed Kim |
| My system was running very slowly, I could not get on Google or any other site. My Windows Task Manager showed that this file was running at 98% of my processes. I ran my virus software, my firewall kept saying this file was trying to access the internet. Once I had cleared the viruses out of my system(MSN introduced) my system ran normally. Claire Draper |
| My spool was also running at 100%cpu did research and two reason i found for this was that it could be a virus and it could be a print job in microsoft image writer que. My solution was that there was a print job in the que. I just cancel the job and it was fixed "no more spoolvs.exe running at 100% cpu" thien |
| asking zonelabs it says that spoolsv is required so that outlook can access the internet, I have just tested it and it is not true. Well, loads of programs also word.exe tries to access the internet without reason. Just block it. umm |
| It occurred due to a failure in a print/fax job, to fix the problem go to: control panel - admin. tools - services ; click on print spooler click stop , give a break (2 mins) then click start and all is ok again :) Z |
| This was bugging me for 2 days and then I checked the printer que per suggestion, sure enough there was a test page waiting to be printed... DON'T DELETE THE FILE W/OUT CHECKING PRINT JOBS FIRST! td |
| Same problem..it used 97% of my processor, I solved it by getting rid of the print job on microsoft image writer...and now my problems are gone...thanks who ever put that on first. |
| Some spoolsv's check the internet for updates - Hewlett Packards especially. You can get a patch from the HP site if you are using an HP printer. Camelmeister |
| Found something !!! : Spooler Failure Causes High CPU Usage in the Winlogon.exe and Spoolsv.exe Processes on a Windows 2000 Terminal Server See also: Link ND |
| As mentioned by many others, delete any jobs from the print queues and this will stop the processor from going bezerk. Hap |
| Rieky is correct. The MS Image Writer had jobs waiting and I cleared those and now the CPU usage is normal jobrien |
| it can be infected with some trojans... Use your antivirus software, update it, and remove this suck HeyBaby |
| If it tries to access the 'net/network but you don't have a network printer, it's a bit suspicious. Anon. |
| In my case it was a worm with such name that caused a DoS attacks from my computer... Vic |
| Solution for XP users with High CPU Usage in Spoolsv.exe See also: Link ND |
| spoolsv.exe hogging 99% of cpu - the fix. Here's the fix. First, get some breathing room - go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and stop the Print Spooler. Turn off the printer. Now go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and delete the files there. I found '00020.SHD' and '00020.SPL'. Now turn your printer back on and restart the service. Check task manager, spoolsv.exe should be at 00%. Whew! rmann |
| 99% CPU resources were being occupied, we deleted the Office Image Writer print jobs and went back down to 1-2%, problem solved. Doug |
| look and the jobs on ur printer bob |
| I have an athlon 3400 64 bit 1 gig of ram i DO NOT have a fax or printer or anything of that kind and the spoolsv process is draining alot of my cpu and ive found out it is a virus just trying to find a way of sorting it now... Ross |
| I was using windows normally, not sending a print job anywere when my firewall poped up saying "spoolsv.exe is trying to send data to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx do you wish to allow?". Funny that my printer spooler wants to randomly send information over the internet :D. Nothing was in my printer queue. R3P1N5 |
| The file "Spoolsv" isn't a virus, go to your printers folder, open de Microsoft office printer, delete the jobs, remove the printer then its done, BUT "Spoolvs" is a trojan, notice that the s and v are turned thats the trojan you ppl talk about Jeffro |
| Spooler listens on a given oprt for incoming jobs if you have file and print sharing enabled. RealityChecker |
| It can be both. Yes it is a print job spooler, yes its easy to make a trojan with the same name. Figure it out for yourself, run a software firewall at least, and watch the activity. If your print spooler is trying to reach remote IP's at suspicious times (like mine was), I'm willing to guess it's not a print queue.... now you know, and knowing is half the battle. Go joe. Sgt. Slaughter |
| We had errors after trying to pring a mail merge that was over 1gb! and the ram was overloaded. Jdrumstik |
| please, check if the spoolsv.exe is in the system32 folder (win2k, xp etc) or system fodler (win9x) if a spoolsv.exe is found which is not in those directories then you can start worrying. the spoolsv.exe can hog up the cpu to 100% when invalid printer tasks are waiting somewhere on your pc or network, doesnt have to be in the printer's tasklist itself, but can be as pointed out here already in the Microsoft Office tools (print/scan utilities) Unz |
| We've picked one called spoolsvs.exe off two computers, both launching DOS attacks against websites. Dave |
| spoolsv took 100% of resources. Found unprinted files trickyt |
| It seems to me that if its giving you probs, then just dont let it access the internet and just end process, i know its a pain but in these times its needed paulos |
| This problem is easy to fix. Hold Cntrl,Alt and Del till Task manager pops up. Hit the process tab. Highlight Sopoolsv.exe line. Hit end process. Close task manager. Open start, printers and fax. Right click each printer, fax or writer with pending jobs and hit delete all jobs. Once they clear the cpu will be freed. Problem is caused by trying to write to a output device that is not or not properly installed. Don't do that. |
| I had a friend who's computer kept freezing and when I checked the processes I found that spoolsv.exe was hogging the proccessor. I stopped the service through Control Panel and that did not help. But canceling all of the Documents out of the Printers did. All is Well now. Lorin |
| Its easy to fix the problem of using the CPU for 100%; just delete the print jobs you have in the printer list and you will see that the CPU use is going down to +/- 25% or 10% You don't have to reboot Your PC!!! Ken |
| I restarted the print spooler service and CPU dropped back dow to normal. rmann II |
| Its easy to fix the problem of using the CPU for 100% |
| rmann Thank You Very Much!!! You were right in 100%!!! I've had the same problem with file "spoolsv.exe" blocking all my CPU. I've bought good spyware software to get rid of this problem but it didn't solve the problem. Then I entered this website and risked to do what You've said, because I was in need to restore my laptop CPU power. And it worked perfectly!!!! Thanks once more!!!! Good luck!!!! Lukasz Tronina |
| This file causes my Internet Explorer to be blocked. The connections all work and my computer can ping / be pinged, yet my internet doesn't work. After some experimentation, I ended this process tree and now the internet works flawlessly. I searched my hard drive for instances of this. I found 4. 2 of them were windows files (SYSTEM 32 and a SERVICE PACK), but the other two were a bit out of the ordinary. I promptly deleted the other two, and now my system has no problems. =) HY |
| The CPU is consumed because your printer is shared on the internet and there is a "virus" outthere that sends print jobs to your computer!!! Solution: disable print sharing! Michel Turcotte, author of Win-Hand at "MT Impossible" |
| was having the same cpu until problem as others, constant 50%. went to printers, open ms image writer printer, sure enough 2 files waiting to print i didnt know about. cancelled them, cpu util for spoolsv.exe went to zero. try it. z |
| Here is a BAT file 1st line (net stop spooler) 2nd line (del /q %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.*) 3rd line (net start spooler ) JOE |
| Definitely a virus, use http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp to scan it if you're having this problem. T |
| The "W32.Spybot.Worm" virus takes a similiar name "Spoolscv.exe" in system32 folder. Compare with the normal processes of Windows when power up will see the problem. Check out Symantec web site Ben |
| See the note. Search the file and look at its properties. MS Spooler server is ok, anything else is not. If it is the Spoolerserver, a propable cause is the driver for a disconnected printer (notably HP) still polling said printer. Uninstall the driver and you'll be fine. Victor |
| What's the deal with it trying to access the internet... I've been a bit cautious for the past few weeks because I had a few trojans on my CPU... If somebody could tell me why this is happening cos' I don't believe that it's due to my printer (Lexmark 1100 series) Tumppi |
| Control Panel/Printers and Faxes/Right Click on the Microsoft Image Writer/Cancel all jobs, and you're done mehmet |
| it's annoying me. my kaspersky av program finds worm.win31.soriw in the spooler directory. and spooler.exe dominates my cpu usage. i can't get rid of this file or whatever it is! another windows silly pack problem i thing !!! Ersin |
| I had the same problem and I found out that the Microsoft Image Writer was trying to print a doc. Delete that doc and everything is back to normal. Dumi |
| I have fixed this problem a few times myself. I basically went and deleted all printers within the print spool folder and then I change the registry. I had to modify the spooler in the registry I just change the 2 to a 0 and rebooted then went back in a modified it back to 2 to start the service again and everything was fine again and the problem hasn't come back. trobinson |
| my computer is clogging 99% recurses, too eagle |
| It makes a PC slower than Timex2048. It is indeed a threat.Still. I don't know what is the extent of the damages besides CPU overusage. Velut Umbra |
| Spyware - It just keeps the cpu usage under 100%. If u kill the process, it will restart after a couple minutes. im still trying to find a way of destroying it, since all antivirus i tried dont detect it as a virus |
| Dunno what it is but all my prog working on it, my blackice detected it. And it keeps to try sending emails. I think its a worm... yannickvdb |
| I had the same problem , high cpu (98-99%) all used by spoolsv.exe I removed the printer tasks and it seems fixed now. Sylvester |
| Windows system file for printing Lorenc |
| Solution for XP users with High CPU Usage in Spoolsv.exe kenny |
| It is a windows file. I get the CPU hogging problem only when using one program (Print Shop) to send labels to the printer. I can get the machine working again by going to the winnt/sys32/spools/printer folder and deleting the files there. It doesn't explain however why the problem is occuring. I am doing more research to see why this can happen. jbdiver |
| It is a windows file. jbdiver |
| increases cpu space to 99% if not terminated. id like to thank RMANN for his comment. it worked! now my cpu isnt running at 100 percent now, and my printer now works. thanks alot martin mika |
| A client's Task Manager showed spoolsv.exe using 95-98% cpu usage. I deleted a MS Office Image Writer print job and problem solved! Ken |
| I want to thank everyone for the info. My new (2 days) machine suddenly start behaving like a 60 meg W31 machine. Found this site and checked and lo and behold I had 3 print jobs in the que. Don't even know how they got there, since I hadn't installed a printer yet. But it was using 98-99% of my 2.5g cpu. Again THANKS EdC |
| it's only a sytem file ! don't worry it's very easy to resolve salah amleh |
| what i know is that it says windows system 660 kb usage 00% cpu use Alex Raptor |
| Double clik on windows Image printer and remove the docs for printing Fraist |
| if using all your cpu , mail me for instructions to sort it out. Geoff |
| A realy microsoft fioe and problem, a program accidentally sent a job to the Microsoft image printer (or fax), spoolsv.exe took 50%-100% cpu, even after reboots. Cancelled all print jobs for all printers (one at a time) fixed the problem Jack Feder |
| Those having computers running Spoolsv.exe between 90% to 99% CPU usage: I have been told it may be a virus or malware. I checked and rechecked and my system was clean. I found an artical that advised there may be something "jamming" up the printer spooler. The article advised to 1. Turn off the Print Spooler in Services 2. Turn off the printer 3. delete all files in folder C:\WINDOWS\System32\Spool\Printers such as '000x0.SHD or 000x0.SPL'. 4. Restart the Printer Spooler in Services. This resolved my issue. Nathan W. |
| this process can be securely turned off and on again if u will use ur printer. by control panel, administrator settings, services, select printer spooling and make that stop or disabled. ccresanto |
| MAKE SURE it is "spoolsv.exe" and NOT "spoolv.exe" - that's causing the slowdown because "spoolv.exe" is a virus See also: Link Paul V. |
| if the file is located in c:\windows\System32 then its safe and required for print jobs, if its located anywhere else its a trojan, virus, keylogger etc. Bruiser |
| It's not harmful, although I suffered the CPU takeover problem - I deleted a print job in the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer and everytihng returned to normal. Tomas |
| Using XP Pro. I had 100% utilisation Only after printing. By looking at each printer i found a corrupt print driver. Was unable to remove it as it caused 100% utilisation every time it was clicked on, so had to manually remove. Unable to follow Microsoft example of removal, as drivers were 'in use'. So disabled the spoolsrv service, restarted and manually removed the registry entries as per Microsoft instructions (see Link). After restart, made spoolsrv an auto start service and had no problems since. My PC has a new lease of life ! See also: Link snowy |
| the Microsoft Image Writer was causing my problem where this process was taking 25% of my CPU's resources (dual pentium 4 HT 2.4 ghz) Benny |
| i tried to delete it, and it just re-appears. i have had no problems cept, zonealarm allows it to access the internet. spud |
| happened to me. FRUSTRATING I had print jobs waiting in the MICROSOT IMAGE WRITER queue Noel |
| their is a virus variation of the spooler that sits in the system32 folder called spoolvsc.exe. Trendmicro's on line scan picked it up. tom |
| I deleted all Image writer print jobs and still had this problem. I used your fix and my PC is back to normal.! Sau |
| it is part of the OS in normal circumstances, if there are outsatnding print jobs on any device it uses up loads of cpu Rob |
| Had the same issue, Due to M S Image printer, Deleted awaiting print job, solved the issue, Cheers Guys! Ben |
| if u dont want it just disable the printer spooler service, but it would be easier to cancel any jobs waiting to be printed SZ |
| First use a system search and type in spoolsv.exe. If it shows up anywhere besides systems 32 or whatever then delete it. k |
| can I just delete all instances of this process. I don't print or fax anything off this box and I keep seeing instances of it running. |
| screw it. i odnt have any printers installed |
| net stop spooler jonas |
| This is a windows file xpert |
| it is taking up all my cpu and i have a good comp Bob |
| This consume sometimes more than b 90% /b of CPU usage and slow down your system. End task this process if no printing job is in que. Amit |
| It's a print spooler. If it's clogging up your CPU, check all your printer connections for waiting jobs, especially networked printers. Strebor Ekim |
| This program only takes up about 600 K of memory on my system and uses almost no CPU power. It shouldn't be hogging up all the resources! Core Master |
| It was not a virus in my case, print jobs waiting. When I cleared print jobs in Microsoft Office Image Document Writer, CPU util% went to 0 Sung |
| i found it in my Microsoft Image Writer from one of the guest computers on my network - no dramas - just delete the print job & the problem goes away - all fixed :) Rick Spitzbart |
| This file took up all my CPU space I don't even own a printer! Once I deleted it, it freed all the space again. Persisted for a while, but then disappeared totally. Maximus |
| To avoid the large cpu usage of the spoolv file.. simply go to the properties of the printer and turn off spooling and have the documents sent directly to the printer. James |
| Very Suspicious: always trying to connect to the Internet (zone alarm detected), changing itself and worse: - It comes back after I have deleted from both system32 and ServicePackFiles/i386. LEK |
| when is using 100%+- of your processor is because the print processor is halted. Just go to services and stop/start the print spool service. Then you will be able to delete the stucked jobs. bandolex. |
| As mentioned by every one it is a Windows file. Pretty much a valid file. I looked for pending print/fax jobs and cancelled the job. Everything was back to normal. Greg |
| I had a document running in microsoft image writer and was taking up loads of cpu. Deleted document in queue and all is calm. In fact, I deleted ms image writer as a printer! Styler |
| trojan, virus- do a search on your system for spoolsv.exe. There should only be one account of this file in the system32 folder. If there is another that is your trojan- DELETE the sucker!! Emma |
| trojon, virus Emma |
| Can be dangerous. It is used for spooling prints but there is also a trojan ciadoor backdoor viruse that uses the same name. But if it is going really slow that doesn't mean delete it because the normal spoolsv.exe can slow things down substancially if something that was waiting to be printed was canceled. So get something to scan it with and if it says its a problem get rid of it. Chris |
| if you are on a windows 2000 server and its going to slow open your printer folder you can go to services and stop and restart the printer spooler seb |
| this is taking 50+ of my cpu time. even if i end the process after 5 minutes again it is starting and taking over cpu time Nanda Kishore Pamidi |
| Solution: Get a Mac See also: Link The Cleaner |
| i have this on my computer it's take 87-92 ! bud i just stopped the processus and for the moment he d'ont comining back!!!! |
| I found that the cpu usage was 99 % . I removed all my printers and reinstalled them. The Image Writer had a print job waiting to print. Once I removed the print job the spoolsv.eve cpu usage went to 0% Jim Fratto |
| some printers access "the internet" to print or connect to the printer, they are not really accessing the internet but my HP 3030 gives itself a port on localhost (eg: localhost:1234) zonealarm and firewalls like that think "oh crap and warn you" i have plentl of other things like a pocket PC that also bringsup a warning in zonealarm. tim |
| 90 % of the time its unprinted documents in the print que and you can fix it by just cancelling all documents for all printers installed. Youll have to put up with slow computer and start the spooler again (start, run, net start spooler) go to printers folder, r click on each printer and cancel all docs. If that doesnt work, then yes you have the trojan. A good spyware program will remove it. ShadowShot |
| Attempts to access internet at random times - usualy your DNS server or ISP's DNS server Anthony Stump |
| I found this file to be taking up alot of resources. It was down to 8 print jobs being stuck in a print queue. I removed these jobs and now everything is back to normal. Check this before worrying about Virus/Spyware. BendITmorE |
| Search for the file and find where it is located on your system. If the file is in the Windows\System32 directory (XP) and is about 56.5KB ins size it's OK. Check your print jobs.It also appears in the Windows\$NtServicePackUninstall$ directory and Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 directory on my system. These are all identical file sizes. Anywhere else is probably a virus. Jay |
| probably just a Windows file but it slows the system better have the .bat "BAT file 1st line (net stop spooler) 2nd line (del /q %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.*) 3rd line (net start spooler ) " on your desktop to click it and speed up your system when spoolsv goes 100% suaritos |
| it keeps on taking my 100% of CPU unless i cancel it. but it still comes back chandan |
| spooler.exe and spoolsv.exe are not the same. The spooler.exe is a virus, even symantec finds it as a virus. MrGrey |
| definitely, absolutely a virus which blocks internet explorer,freezes the machine,and prevents to restart or shutdown.U cant easily delete it,or just prevent it by disabeling printer share from the services..I am gonna try Ramnan's advise.. xazal21 |
| I had the same problem on Win2KServer, as suggested by rmann, go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and delete the files there. It works fine now KS |
| it can be a virus. However in my case, it is not. like some people said check all of ur printer physical and virtual, mostly virtual ones like microsoft office documents there will be job waiting to print. and to make sure scan your computer. fake |
| spoolsv.exe is growing in size each time I print a job. During the day it grows upto 500 Mb Ram before i delete it and reboot. We are currently deleting the file and rebooting at least once a day. edd2edd |
| "spoolsv.exe" is a windows built-in service for managing the printing jobs and operations. If you don't use a printer, it's better to remove/stop this service. Xoy |
| If you end up with 99% CPU usage delete the contents of C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS See also: Link Joel |
| it is very easy to fix i found the solution from the following link copy and paste this link See also: Link Prabagar B |
| it is very easy to fix i found the solution from the following link See also: Link Prabagar B |
| go to the following link and you can find the solution See also: Link Prabagar B |
| 95% of CPU ? that is terrible. Ahmet |
| It continues to build, 2 days ago had 3 *.spl files at about 3GB each, had 1 today at 8gb. |
| Follwed the advice of those who said there were pending print jobs. Click on EVERY printer you have listed and delete the pending jobs. Worked instantly for me. Thanks. Ray P |
| I deleted the print jobs from the factory and now everything is running great. Vicki |
| I had 100% cpu usage by spoolsv.exe lasting 5+ mins for each print job.. As suggested above, I went into Control Panel, Admin Services, services, and stopped spoolsv.exe, then restarted it. Problem seems to have disappeared for now. Tom |
| spoolsv.exe is a valid Windows file, however, there are virus out there that will spoof themselfs as the service. First check ALL your installed printers for print jobs... I have seen the "Mirosoft Image Writer" issue stated above (where the print jobs are waiting in the Microsoft Image Write queue). Next, make sure the file is in the C:\%windir%\system32\spoolsv.exe, otherwise it may be a virus. Working on it |
| It causes alot of problem for something that's quick to dort out when you know what to do Malcolm Gilks |
| running with no problems so far. i need my printer so i let it be as it is and rely on my antivirus and firewall systems Bill Toerttoe |
| This is the Print Spooler Service, do not delete. you need it to print stuff zawetzel13 |
| Either the Windows' print spooler, or a virus disguised. There are several viruses that call themselves SPOOLSV.EXE in order to confuse the infectee. Please do not dismiss odd activity from this process, BUT be sure that you are infected before deleting essential Windows files! White Hawk |
| I have 2 1 in the C/windows/system32, the other in c/windows/servicepackfiles/i386, I think the second one is also valid... weedmonkey |
| Deleted several extra printers I had installed, and removed all pending print jobs... Spoolv.exe no longer takes 100% cpu time. Darkwing |
| Spoolsv.exe is a system executable for the printer, but having multiple or if the executable(s) are eating 90% to all your resources than you better scan your comp for viruses and check the registry to make sure nothing funky is there. 1337Nerd |
| If spoolsv.exe is taking too much memory, its simply because there are printing jobs waiting. Just go to the printers/faxes area and delete all the files waiting to be printed. Joed-Up |
| It manages the printer and fax spools. I have WIN XP and it took more than 90% of my CPU. Do not delete file, first review the root cause. As Distaxia and Tommy finally concluded : Go to the control panel for printer and faxes and cancel the pending jobs. In my case it was for MS Image Writer pending "Print" file. Miguel |
| Using 98% CPU. Went back to normal after turning the printer on. larryw |
| Bottom line this could be a harmless Windows file or it could be a worm/trojan. Check the file and the spooler settings before making judgement! Harry |
| On my comp it is not a Virus or a file waiting to be printed. Nobody has ever given an answer on how to fix this if it is neither. qwad |
| Mine was using 100% CPU!! Checked the printer and there was one print job waiting, cancelled it, and cpu went down to 4%!! V |
| Its a print spooler, really this file is creating problem eating up all the CPU almost to 90% , though there is no document pending for printing... I believe it is trojan horse or virus needs to be checked with updated antivirus Mohammed. Siddiq |
| Everybody READ, look at your processes, there may be two of the spoolsv. One of the ones on mine was spooIsv (the I is an i). I got rid of it and everything seems to be running good. angus |
| This spyware over write spoolsv.exe with the same number of KB. The only way that you will know that it is on your computer is with a good spyware program like Xsoftspy. Windows will not let you delete it so you will have to over write it from your Reinstallation CD or copy from another computer service pack 2 will not work on service pack 1 (FYI) Larry Powell |
| It wont let me change my background it is just balck at the moment.when i try to delete it,it comes back in about 10 seconds. david |
| Windows Print Spooler, consumes all CPU %. This nasty little bugger has burned out hardware (CPU/MB) that was running well within spec. bluescreen |
| If spoolsv.exe is in the windows/syste32 folder all is well but if it is somewhere else (as in my case) it caused problems. I renamed it to spoolsv0.exe and the problem went away. Steve |
| Print Spooler - A Service When I open up Word, it takes up to 15mins to open a simple document with no pictures or header, when I disable the spoolsv the actual document just opens up fine but won't be able to print coz the spoolsv is disable. so I enable the service again, same thing the document just takes forever. but I can see the printer and print from. Its so frustrating and help! Jenny |
| Xoftspy (anti-spyware program) detected it as a trojan and i simply booted in safe mode and deleted this file. when i booted to normal the file didn't appear anymore. at this point I don't have spoolsv.exe on my system and my pc still works great. (i don't have a printer so i don't care). GanniKill |
| window file sure behaves like a virus M |
| I had the problem (on XP Pro) of this process using 50% CPU. I had earlier tried to print from another computer on my network to a printer attached to my main XP machine. I printed from Word. The print seemed to go through (the print queue icon in the system tray appeared then disappeared on the remote machine), but nothing printed. Following the advice of others, I checked my Printers settings, found the MSO Image Writer, right-clicked and cancelled all print jobs. Solved the problem. garyzim |
| I had this file taking up 98% CPU and after running a virus scan i deleted the microsoft image writer and rebooted and now all is completely fine with PC. Jo |
| It was not a virus in my case, print jobs waiting. When I cleared print jobs in Microsoft Office Image Document Writer, CPU util% went to 0 Chris Yeowell |
| I once thought that this is one of the file from Norton Antivirus, because it's taking up my CPU and slowing down my PC. I delete 4 unused printers driver and now it's not giving my any probleem at all. Joe |
| In my case this also was using 95% of CPU, just because there was a waiting job for a phantom Image Writer! Deleted the job and all was well. Liisa |
| it is a windows file, not a virus or spyware... the only thing is that, when I close the process (I close all unuseful processes on startup, because I have many), I can't restart it... so when I want to print something I have to restart my pc LordCorkscrew |
| This problem happen when you have some virtual printer or fax viewer and you or somebody printed a file with those printers and some pages are in queue of those virtual printers See also: Link Omid Kosari |
| It is causing popups on my computer. ej |
| I get that it's just a windows process to do with print jobs if it's in the right folder - but why does it need to access the internet? Sasja |
| My laptop was in a holt, as "spoolsv.exe" was taking 98% of CPU. It was due to few pending print jobs in a printer. I tried to delete them. All but one got deleted. As suggested elsewhere here, to delete this last print job, I had to go to Start Control Panel Administrative Tools Serrvices and then selected "Print Spooler" to STOP it. Waited for 2/3 mins and STARTed it. Now saw, the left out print file was deleted. Everything is fine now. If this is the case with you, then fine (and lucky). Otherwise, do as others who considered it as virus/trojan, suggested here. Syamal |
| Could be one of 4 Trojans/viruses/worms - Backdoor.Ciadoor.B or VBS.Masscal.Worm or Hacktool.Privshell or Graybird.A. Symantec tells you how to remove all but Graybird (that one at Sophos). It is also the printer spooler. For me it took 99-100% of my resources all of a sudden. Turns out THE ANSWER WAS IN THIS THREAD. Delete the document in the print queue of Microsoft Office Document Image Writer, and the problem will be solved. Thank you Sung. Should have read your comment days ago. |
| this file causes as many as headache i can take... At first everithing was normal and then after I installed a Antivirus-programm it began to slow my computer all the time i use it... So i had to close it each time i starting my PC with Win XP (I have a AMD Athlon XP 1800+, 256 MB-DDR) this procedure takes 3 times, because this data starts new after i close it... And I havent any Internet-Connection on my PC!! So theres no Virus etc. MFG, CeeJay D-Magic CeeJay D-Magic |
| Spooling is ok as far as os spooler function is concerned but what i got is that any program that were taking merely 2 to 3 seconds now takes more time plus the machine seems to be not responding.What i did is searched the spoolsv.exe fine and delete all it's related components and did a complete pc restart.it's now working fine Hazarika |
| The file is from microsoft Windows, anyway I used Xsoftspy (detector for spyware) and it gave me the following: Vendor: Proxy-Agent.g / Type: File / Category: Trojan / Object: C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe / Danger: Threat / Object Details: Unexpected connections to the ip range of 204.209.184, attempts to disable AV software. Burns |
| The file is from microsoft Windows, anyway I used Xsoftspy (detector for spyware) and it gave me the following: Vendor: Proxy-Agent.g / Type: File / Category: Trojan / Object: C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe / Danger: Threat / Object Details: Unexpected connections to the ip range of 204.209.184, attempts to disable AV software. Burns |
| spoolsv.exe using 100% on re-boot and when trying to print. Every time I cleared the print spool and closed the process it returned. After running about 7 virus scans (Norton, Mcafee, trend..etc) no virus found. Turned out to be HP5500 printer installed incorrecty, uninstalled printer, after re-install all working fine. Tom |
| spoolsv.exe is a Windows operation bundled with a trojan/spyware. I kill the process each time I start. It is programmed to restart 3 times. After that no need to worry (until next start-up). Then...hence the 3 time rule again and again and well, you get the hint. B.R.A.S.H. |
| I can't shut it down from taskmanager! Since my computer was on, Pop-ups never end! That's ridiculous! I can't get it out from Microsoft Anti-Spyware + ad-aware + PC-cillin + Symantic Anti-Virus. Even I've updated some of 'em. samson |
| I just wanted to thank everyone for the coments. My computer was running so slow. I looked and I had a print job waiting to be printed. I deleted the job and now everything is going fast again.. thanks for everyones help. Dondie |
| my pc takes around 10 minutes to start and would sometimes reboot itself. thanks to rmann's tip, i followed his advice and the cpu usage went down to 1-3% ana |
| Check all your printers... I'm sure you have a print job stuck somewhere... Drove me crazy... 3 stuck on Imagewriter.. deleted them and it cleared up Robbie |
| The suggestion above to go to Admin/Services/Print Spooler and start/stop it was exactly what I needed. It was taking up 120meg but now only 11. Mikey |
| Takes 90+ CPU usage. Slow Processing , Impossible to play games or even acces the internet while it's running . How can it be shutdown forever ? Vega |
| Spoolsv.exe isn't causing me a roblem, but spoolsov.exe and spoolshv.exe are. They appear to be performing mail relaying business. Not good. Mags |
| If you disconnect your printer and print something, it will take up about 90% of your CPU usage! |
| i cannot delet this file at all. even i do it , it will recover immiediately. |
| 99% CPU useage Fixed when canceled MS ofice image print jobs RobertW |
| it spools any q-jobs either to printer or fax etc. utpal |
| it just takes all of my CPU up to 100% ?? |
| spoolsv.exe and Tcpsvcs.exe B |
| Even when I kept clicking Block Always, my Norton Internet Security would keep popping up a warning that Microsoft Printer Spooler Service was trying to access the Internet. I wasn't trying to do File Transfers or Print Sharing, so I didn't need for it to access the Internet. In order to block its internet access, I followed these steps: Open Norton Internet Security, click Personal Firewall, click Configure, click Programs, scroll to Microsoft Printer Spooler Service, make sure that Internet Access is set to Block All and that the Category is set to File Transfer. Click OK. Jean |
| I am a computer programmer and I am positive I know what i'm talking about....Spoolsv is not a dangerous file it commonly used for printing, it can also slow down your computers performance and terminating this will not cause any slowing or trouble. the best way to terminate is to press Ctrl + Alt + Delete then click the Processes button and click on "Spoolsv .exe" click "end process" will make you computer run more efficiently. If you have any questions feel free to email me at "gtarskater@yahoo.com" Ben White |
| there are two immages with that name: one is safe and should be kept if you have it, because it works with your printer: the other kind is a known back door that allows hackers to steal information and put information on your computer, the reason you see strange activity comming from this immage is that a virus or a hacker is using that to do its dirty work. thus it is not a virus, but a open door that hackers and viruses use to access your computer See also: Link Dustin |
| I don't know anything about this file. From all the comments i have read it seems i have had a virus type. I would leave the computer for a couple of hours as i realised that it was working (fast) but it was doing everything so slow because of it. By the tmie i came back from doing nothing, it used 50mb of sending and recieving. Deleted the file, and it's good to see the 'connected to the internet' icon not continuously lit up. (yeah, go dialup!!) Collins |
| Doesn't work well with lexmark printers and adobe version 7.0 reader if the reader isn't the actual full adobe suite. The downloaded adobe reader turns the spoolsv.exe file off so you don't have a printer any more. you have to turn the windows spooler back on - evrytimee after you use the adobe reader. Ralph Kelley |
| i have 5 computers. 2 of them wont print unless spoolsv.exe is enabled and can freely access the internet. if i block it with zone alarm, the document wont print. evertime i print it appears to go online uploading and downloading somth. this has pissed me (a-lilbit) off for 2 years now. sookme |
| Like Tommy I had the CPU takeover problem, it was because of print jobs on the MICROSOFT OFFICE WRITER, not the standard printer. To solve this problem go to CONTROL PANEL/PRINTERS AND FAXES and check all printers for waiting jobs. If any job waiting, cancel it.So it´s solved!! Alfred |
| my pc crashed twice then after a microsoft update my pc said that spoolsv.exe had changed and wanted to get on the internet.. so i said no, checked it out- came here and relised my cpu was at 80 so i went on my firewall and blocked a few projrams and its between 10-49 now... |
| i dont even have any printers or fax connected to my CPU!! this shit using up to 99% my cpu usage!! i just noticed it.. because i was trying everything to find wat was casung my pc to slow down .. so dam slow! i cant even serv my files on the irc!!~ hellboy |
| Spoolsv.exe is just a file that keeps windows to print stuff, if you have a wireless network or so or cancelled a print job but didnt do it properly and then turned off your printer this is the problem. just turn back on your printer timbo |
| tried multiple spy/virus checkers, everything else recommended by HP; found file in image writer, deleted it and now I'm fine. don't know what it is or who created it, but it sure caused a lot of worry til I saw this site!! thanks flyan |
| In my tasklist is spooler.exe and spoolsv.exe. Spooler.exe is taking about 50 untill 60% CPU. I havent got MS image writer. And no printer installed. And i cant find any print jobs undone. And where can i turn off the spooler? AvolA |
| This is defenitly not a virus when you start windows, but there are viruses that attach, keep a close eye on it, and keep it clean, other than that, you should be ok, mine is really virused up, it starts when IE does... BAH! Paul |
| Not a virus. Just check printers and faxes in the control panel and see if your system is detecting your printer. I have two printers and one was not showing after a botched print job. Quick reinstall and everything fine. Tim |
| I get a spoolsv.exe error occasionally and it deletes all my printers I've found spoolsv.exe in for locations on the computer including system32 and Ntservicepack folders should it be installe din four places? |
| MAY be something corrupted after cleaning against of viruses I get Task Manager kill the process and in the %system% renamed this file after xp installation ask me for insert disk and write new spoolsv.exe Dmitryu |
| When terminated it fixed a bug that froze my macine for half a second every 7 seconds (word and freehand only). When I then changed a printer setting (spool directly to printer) the problem was fixed. Shaun Lee |
| Well my norton internet security keeps asking if i want to let it access the internet, i said always allow, then never allow, and it just keeps popping up over and over again? What does this mean? |
| Its safe aslong as its in the right folder. and the acses to the internet is windows looking for lan printers.... And if it consumes alot off cpu then you are doing something wrong with your pc ghezus |
| I had this taking up 98% of CPU and it turned out that there were 13 jobs queued to the Microsoft Document Image Writer. Cancelled all these and deleted the "printer" and no more worries. Scott |
| if you have a good firewall keep spoolsv.exe from accesing the internet.you have now blocked a possible backdoor hack.I recomend Kaspersky or Zone Alarm 5...pro Christian Pierce |
| As others said above, the cpu load issue was related to my printing of a (!!!) 1.36 GB job!!!! (just a 26 page pdf file... why it was so big who knows...) apoc |
| I had a job with status of printing in que for Microsoft Image Writer that caused this. Canceled the job and cpu usage instantly dropped. Thanks, Omid. WSS |
| it's true!!it isn't dangerous.check yours printers and find the problem: Microsoft Office Image Document Writer; no spyware no virus massi |
| I have 4 spoolsv.exe on my machine. One in Windows\ststem32 and three in Windows\Software ditribution\Download\ - Alert? ? kenmat |
| It needs access to the internet to print internet pages etc. Don't give it access if your not trying to print a page. Bumbaclaat |
| I think it is of no help to show statistics that who thinks what? I think the correct answer should also be mentioned Akber Ali |
| Must check the print queue MS image writer. My problem was same and solved by clearing the print queue MertMan |
| After windows update, this thing took over. Looks like someone got their patches messed up. RAW |
| spoolsv.exe is causing periodically errors and is closed by windows. What solution ???? catherine dumas |
| try this site for help cleaning out the print spooler See also: Link corey |
| It will reduces speed of the system. |
| trojaner |
| Same opinion as Downstrike: it wants to acces the internet, but why? Just don't trust it! mikes |
| it clogs my CPU... jkj |
| It does not put too much load on CPU but I noticed that it spoolsv.exe is trying to access internet on address 217.6.176.24. A/V software did not detect any trojan attached to the file. gooza |
| I just had SPOOLSV.EXE taking up most of my cpu. I cancelled that job and now have spoolsv.exe running but taking up virtually no cpu - looks like the one in capitals is the one to watch out for, the lower case version is probably the windows spooler. Running an AVG virus scan right now to see if any damage was done zeb |
| A user on my network is having this issue with one of her printers. HPLJ4100N..if this is set to default the cou spikes over 90%. When not default it is fine. No virus or spyware found, updated the printer driver from hp.com, cleared cache, and extra drivers..Still no luck. laytonjp |
| Increases CPU usage by 90 +%. To fix, first delete all pending print jobs in the print queue. Next, go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services, and restart the service. Problem fixed. Rich |
| spoolsv was using 100% of CPU. Turned printer on and off and usage goes down to 0%. Don't know why but it worked Harry |
| It's a print spooler. It shouldn't need to access the Internet, but it tries. Does anyone know why? MuyGordo |
| A valid Win file, which can always be a duped. However, print spooling is not needed. You can turn off printer spooling in printer properties. Christian K. |
| Yeah it uses a considerable memory, the norton antivirus detects it as a hacktool Falo |
| It might be poorly made, but it's not dangerous. Only the trojan process is dangerous. Jumblock |
| Just delete the pending job in Microsoft Office Document image writer, PROBLEM GONE after a year of dealing with this MarkT |
| spoolsv.exe was taking up 99% of CPU until I followed rmann's fix. I had about 8 open files in there to clean out. Once they were gone, spoolsv.exe was back down to 0%. Worked great! Thanks rmann gman |
| I uninstalled my pdf printer...cutepdf. Now my 99% spoolsv.exe just went to 3%. rimmer59 |
| Look, my system was very slow and I did not set up anything to print. However, I checked my printers and someone in my home had 5 items in cue. I cancelled them all and now spoolsv is just fine. System runnin' like ConRail...no wait, that's not a good example... Dez |
| Its just a print spooler, Those having computers running Spoolsv.exe between 90% to 99% CPU usage: I have been told it may be a virus or malware. I checked and rechecked and my system was clean. I found an artical that advised there may be something "jamming" up the printer spooler. The article advised to 1. Turn off the Print Spooler in Services 2. Turn off the printer 3. delete all files in folder C:\WINDOWS\System32\Spool\Printers such as '000x0.SHD or 000x0.SPL'. 4. Restart the Printer Spooler in Services. This resolved my issue. M. Atif Farid |
| Previously I had lpt1 and lpt2; I removed lpt2 but one DBASE application still printed to it--Result the spooler clogged up. I fixed the source of the problem which was the old DBASE program printing to a good printer at a now non-existent printer port wolfi |
| remowe windows imige writer from printers |
| just the print spooler...a safe Windows file...I had the 99% CPU usage until I cleared all the print jobs waiting in the printers Eric |
| spoolsv.exe is a Microsoft Windows system executable which handles the printing process to your local printers. Alex,sun Taiwan |
| This is a Windows File - In my case it was when I installed a Anti-Virus (Panda). After removing it the cpu was normal. Tryed to reinstall Panda again, and I got the same result. Being so there is s aconflit with spoolsv and my antivirus. Jorge |
| Its and System File, Delete all the Printers Installed and reboot M/C N Sidheshwar |
| uses a lot of cpu when printing to an image file, especially when the job can't be completed and stays in the que... just restart spool service Nelis |
| A file named spoolsv.exe can be used by a hacker to access your personal information on a pc and create a cmdshell with elevated privileges, allowing a user that does not have Administrative rights to obtain them.,,at first hacker will try many tools to enter your PC, ZoneAlarm Pro may help you to protect but be aware it may not help some times,a hacker may target users who are working with CPU.exe or FTP server, telnet, and ... ,onfigure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files. Amir |
| Warning: I just found an Executable called spoollv. This is NOT the Printer spooler, it's a Virus Tyron |
| It slow done all of my pocesses. If i try to delete it, it simply returns. When I close it the system works fine, however sometimes it cannot be closed. Jeff |
| This file is commonly for windows print jobs, but it CAN be a trojan infected file that opens back door so kill it in task manager and if u need to print reboot use it then kill it just to be safe Joe |
| So, why if this is an innocous file is it always trying to access the internet from my PC? Especially as I don't have a printer installed. NRM |
| thanks Dystaxia seems by deleting a print job in the images printer as you suggested problem solved greg |
| Es el archivo que controla las impresiones y los fax de la computadora, solamente elimine los trabajo de impresion del spooler y reinicie y todo volvio a la normalidad, just try it. Juan Manuel |
| Priter spooler, update sp, if not printer or fax attached to you PC set the printr spooler sewrvice to disable and rename the spoolsv.exe, make sure the xp protection is turn off "You bunch of morons" El Chingon |
| Its both, definetly a windows service + could be a virus. If it is taking up a LOT of your CPU usage when you are doing NOTHING, then delete it right now!!! If its not taking up so much cpu usage, then leave it alone. |
| My Mcafee VirusScan just notified me that it had changed since I accessed the internet thru dial up. It asked if I wanted to grant it further access to the internet. The file was in the right folders, and worded correctly, but I blocked access. Steven |
| Funny thing is I don't have any printers and I can't get rid of this thing. X13 |
| This "spoolsv.exe" program does nothing to my computer. marisa |
| Printer Spooler Service: After checking the printer queue I found unprocessed print jobs. Deleted the print jobs and CPU usages returned to normal.. Johnny |
| This file is the Printer Spooler Service - It should run zero-cpu-time - It can be hang on computer by printing, because this process converts the data in printable sigs - 99 % CPU in priting mode - this process is maybe requesting to the internet, because it also handles network-printer cyrus |
| Unsure of the legitimacy of the file? Do a search and note it's location. If your spoolsv.exe file is NOT located in your Winnt or System32 folder, it's probably a nasty file. However, even if it is the legit Windows file, there is NO harm in ending the process, provided you don't plan on printing anything. I have no printers installed on my PC and there is never anything in my print queue. Despite this, spoolsv.exe uses up a lot of my so I don't ever need to have that process running. MS Loather |
| really annoying...it's annoy everytime i use Yahoo Messenger... here where you can get this thing : http://www.music-flash.net/flash.exe : click here...n you'll get infect.. Dee |
| Microsoft image writer on my computer was shared and there were two files to be printed on it, possibly from someone on my network. After unsharing image writer and canceling thet printing jobs, spoolsv.exe went to 0% resources from 90-100% Chris |
| My PC was so unbelievably slow but when I checked for print jobs, I had one I didn't know about worth 1.85GB! Woodsy |
| This proccess increases my CPU's temperature with 20celcius... --==Zeus==-- |
| Well it could be a Virus because it keeps trying to access the internet but it may just be used for windows TriggerHappy |
| It's fine in the system32 file. Otherwise clear it's path(s). If your computer is running slow, just check the print que. Casey |
| Simple shut off the automatic shared printer and file detection, than the CPU-usage will be reduced to nearly 0% Baldur |
| It clogs your system up bigtime. It takes my PC like 5 minutes just to load up windows explorer DELETE IT IF YOU CAN!!! Ross |
| try to open Control Panel Printer and Scanner and try to open Microsoft Image Writer and delete all tasks. binich |
| Using WinXPSP2, it should be in the winnt/system32 folder. I allowed it to run. BluHog |
| This file was running 90-99% CPU, and found it was because I had jobs waiting in an PDF print queue zippy |
| It was in fact a job in the queue for Microsoft Image write. As soon as I cleared, everything returned to normal. Patty |
| In my case there were files waiting in the MS image writer in the print queue. I was unable to delete them, however, so followed advice and link from ND, above. After turning off the print spooler as directed (control panel, administrative tools, services, stop print spooler); turning off the printer; going to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\printers and deleting the files I found there; turning the printer back on; restarting the service; I found spoolsv.exe to be running at 0% on task manager!! Groove |
| Printer spooler NORIK |
| This has no effect on you pc it you are running a good pc. end of |
| Spoolsv.exe used 100% och my CPU amd 3700+ 1gb RAM it was caused by the fact that microsoft office created an printer which I could not empty when I had shut down Spoolsv.exe so i had to wait while the darn used the entire system until it finaly loaded the printer menu and i could empty the printe file - a rather easy task took me about two days .... ;-) Thanks for your support Pontus |
| Some people need to learn the difference between a kilobyte and a megabyte |
| This file is your printer's current processing. If your printer is currently pending something and your printer is not connected, it will take up approx. 97-100% of ur CPU. If your printer is currently doing something, then this will take up a lot of space. Aslee |
| Doesnt do anythin.. Just eat your memory |
| This is a windows system file. If it is getting all cpu resources, probably you have a printers/fax configuration problem. Osvaldo |
| Cancel pending print jobs in print spool and you'll get your cpu usage back. John W. Carlsen |
| manage the printers on local pc/network nut if i dont't use a printer.. should i turn it off ? edy |
| i have found two applications quite samly named!!! spoolsv.exe and spoolsv32.exe! which one is dangerours morpheus |
| Seems to be a lot of trouble for Windows 2000 users. *Get XP* I have tons of shizz like this on my computer and it's harmless, most of it, but it is annoying. Xavier |
| Go to Control Panel Printer and Faxes Delete every printer other than ur default one an ur OK! G-Unit Solider |
| Can either be Windows printer spool service or a backdoor trojan, depending on the location of the file. If it is running from C:\Windows\system 32 it's not a problem. If it runs from anywhere else, delete it. PowerPlay |
| I always solve the CPU usage problem by deleting the process in the Task Manager. Often I"ll be playing a game or something and the computer slows down to 10%. I don't think the file is a virus in itself, but it isn't written properly or it is bugged somehow w/ a leak so that it can take up too much CPU. As I said, terminating the process in Task manager when it acts up works fine. Artanis |
| In my case, it eats almost all of my cpu. If I end the process within Windows Task Manager, all problems go away. But, from what I hear, it is also a print file. I would only delet it if your system returns to normal after ending the process (search your system). Fiska (Feb 9 2006) |
| Some Hackers use this prosess as a keeping for Worms. Like me for instance i got hacked earlyer. And my anti vir detected a Worm in it. Hate_Hackers |
| Doesnt seem to have a major inpact on my system |
| Spoolsv.exe is windows system file. But some how it started consuming 100% cpu utiliastion. It seems that it was infectd with some virus or spyware but my anitiviurs & spyware didn't tell me that it was infected. Hence un install my printer driver & run system restore in XP & problem resolved Anand Tanna |
| Always freezes up Adobe file and any other print previews. My solution: Task Mgr end-task it, run spoolsv.exe again and wait 30 seconds to resume Adobe/other file preview/print. AnnoyingSpoolsv |
| I was unable to delete / cancel print jobs for CutePDF printer (not a physical printer - prints documents to a file). Unable to delete printer itself and rebooting made no difference. rmann's workaround to stop service and manually delete files in spool folder fixed the issue. Simone W |
| Had same 98% usage of CPU and like others it was a document stuck in the documents image writer. Deleted job and all well again. Didn't even know something was stuck in there. Shelly |
| Takes control of every laser printer in my school.Connects to the internet.... uses remaining CPU space. Mark R. Ringwald |
| don't know much except the CPU instead of 100% is now 2% after deleting a print queue on my scanner !!!! Norton Anti-Virus did not detect a virus so by default I suspected a file running out of control. Andy murray |
| it is a printer storing doc's to be printed Sonia |
| It's a spooler file. I followed Jobrien's advice and deleted the jobs in the imae writer queue. My CPU usage went down temendously. It is now normal. Drel |
| This SHOULD NOT use your CPU if you are not printing, but a worm can "Hijack" this name and it depends on what it is doing, if it only works while you are printing you are fine, if it is running when you arn't using the printer you should end process, it is always safe to end process, cause if anything goes wrong, you can reboot your computer and it will be back there (this is for any program) Printer/Worm |
| Its a Windows Printer/Fax File, and you don't have to have a printer or fax machine installed on your sytem for it to take your CPU usage up! Your Windows PC's have the Microsoft Office Document and Image Writer on them in the Printer and Fax folder in the settings folder. Go into that and delete all of your printing jobs you have in their, because they'll never print, cause you don't have a printer, even if you do have a printer, they still won't print! Just delete the Image writer itself, you don't really need it at all, Microsoft just loves to waste space. See also: Link Mr. Wise |
| spoolsy.exe is standard system print spooler for windows. Watch for hung print jobs. Keep in mind that if the spoolsv.exe file is showing up in %systemroot%\$NTUNINSTALL type locations, that if a trojan or virus has infected you, it could have imbedded itself in the uninstaller folders for your service packs and your system restore folders in WIN XP. |
| This file is used for windows print jobs. I was looking for a solution to fix this problem thinking this to be Trojan. After reading through the suggestions made on this site, I checked the Microsoft Image writer & sure there were three large files waiting to be printed. Once I deleted those, problem was solved. Thanks for the people who put their experience on this site first. Kiran |
| It spools print jobs for a printer or image writer. If it is taking up too much memory it is becasue there is a print job that is not properly being processed. Open your Printers on the control panel and cancel outstadning jobs. Your memory usage should return to normal CJH |
| Can have errors, remove from task list if it is slowing your computer down. Kent |
| My spooler was taking up resourses also. Up to 80%. I didn't have any print jobs waiting that I knew of. But there it was. I would delete it and it would come back in a few mins doing the same thing. I then checked one of my other printers that I had installed but not currently using. Bam! there was a print job waiting on one of the other printers. I deleted it and no more spooler hogging my resourses...... Bigjeep |
| this process is a normal windows process, but other viruses and malware have the same name, and if you look in windows task manager, it will show that it doesn't use a lot of memory (mine is less than 2k) but if it does (i saw another process with the same name, taking up 20k), it could possibly be a virus. #1 |
| irritating hopfully not in windows vista wva |
| It seemed respossible for massive CUP usage, then I checked and my printer was unplugged. I plugged it back in and the cpu use instantly went back to normal. Check the basics first I guess Kinb Boy B |
| I was also spooked by this file for almost a month. Thought it was a virus or something. Was planning to format my PC. But then I read a few of these threaded articles and then went to my printer status window and found that indeed 1 had 4 print job in queue for the Microsoft Image Writer. Simply deleted them and WOW - its alive...... My computer came back to life..... Pretty harmless but a sure shot frustration generator.... Wonder why Microsoft hasnt patched the loop hole yet.... Rohit Chawla (India). |
| *If its using a high amount of your CPU* Start - Control Panel - Classic View (on the top left) - Administrative Tools - Services - Find "Print Spooler" - Click Stop - PROBLEM SOLVED! Jon |
| I did as said and deleted all outstanding print jobs. CPU Utilization went to 0 and all is now working great. Justin |
| When my PC run very slow I look at Task Manage and I saw it. Lovethe |
| Recently Installed CA, AV& ETrust Firewall Apps Whenever I attempt to go online the software asks for permission (Allow/Deny) The Destination IP is 24.29.103.10:DNS If I don't allow no Internet access is allowed! It is a MS Application so you wise guys should have some idea of whats happening here. Blackstar ISS |
| It is a Windows file to control printers and faxes. If you get high CPU rate for this executable it is an operating system problem, then try to stop and restart spooler service. Edgar |
| I'm running Windows XP and during routine stuff like running Excel or something, it will tie up like 75% of my processor...that shouldn't happen. I have even deleted it from the System32 folder, and it keeps coming back. kmax |
| according to Symantic Security Response spoolsv.exe is a legitimat Windows file that the "Backdoor.Ciadoor.B" Trojan uses to invade your system. When that happens the good spoolsv.exe changes to the evil spoolsv.exe. So it looks like all of the comments so far have been right. cbruce |
| I had this problem, but when i turned my printer on, and it started printing the jobs in queue, the pc ran normally again. Danboy06 |
| If it's just a matter of the file bogging down your computer, go to your printers in the control panel and make sure none of them (even the Microsoft Image Writer that ALL Windows machines have!) have any documents waiting to be printed. This simple task cleared my computer up by about 88%. (It was constantly stuck at 100.) Carl |
| Only when I print it uses the CPU and more than 4k mem. Al |
| Going to the printers and deleting all the outstanding jobs did it for me. The culprit was hiding in Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. I am so glad I found this page before I trashed my pc having had it running at 100% for the past 2 months. Nicholas |
| This handles printing and print spooling (queuing). Print Spooler uses it to load files to memory for later printing. Maur |
| Cheers everyone that mentioned about the print jobs still outstanding. Really appreciated!!......well worked for me anyway Chris |
| spoolsv.exe is a windows system file for printing purposes and it will definitely cause problem if you have printing pending otherwise it's a virus. iconoclasticrisx |
| Printer/Fax spooler: To view or disable process, use Task Manager, (Ctrl-Alt-Del in WinXP), You can test this way for mem activity Diomedes |
| I just had the problem of csrss and spool using most of my CPU. I found out that there was a quesed print job under Adobe PDF writer that was doing it. Canceled job no more CPU usage. Hope that help. Matt B |
| This spoolsv.exe suddenly eat up my CPU at 99% and my computer become as slow as a snail. But this trick does work. Try cancel all print job in the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. After the print jobs were terminated, all is back to normal. ArcNemesis |
| It is a known Windows system file and a known virus. It can be either. There shouldn't be any arguing over it. If you are having problems, and it is taking too much memory, that is probably because it is a hoggish system file (cause it is). But if it is REALLY causing problems, make sure you do a quick scan for problems. KasMage |
| I don't even have a printer hooked up to my computer and it is running this! Mark |
| no problem in itself. can be infected, yes. if one cancel an already started print job, there can remain a bad print file, and the program will turn wild. check all printers and kill all jobs Philippe |
| Was taking 100% of CPU. That was becasue 2 ghostscript files got stuck in the Microsoft Image Writer. Deleted these 2 files from the control panel, and we also deleted a printer that could not be located anymore. Problem was fixed. Harish |
| This file is a windows file BUT viruses have been known to use the name so be careful only delete if your sure it is a virus http://cianjg.bebo.com |
| this was because there was a print job waiting in Microsoft Document Image writer. vergis thomas |
| If it exists anywhere outside the system32 folder it is very likely a virus. Jaime |
| spoolsv.exe is a Windows system file. I could also be a trojan. If the print spooler is attempting to access te internet (use ZoneAlarm) then it's likely a trojan. Now I have to figure out how to get rid of it. Ken Blakely |
| Spoolsv.exe misbehaves if you have a bad driver on your network trying to print. Use Start- Administrative Controls- Services to disable your Print Spooler, then go to C:\Windows\System32\spools\printer and delete everything. When you restart the service, everything should be back to normal. |
| its a problem that comes many times when i want to print.it shows error n deletes all printers installed but when i restart computer it prints then displays the spool error again. Am fed up charles |
| The legitimate version of spoolsv.exe is simply your print job spooler. It is a Windows component. That having been said, malicious programs / code can be named anything. As a rule of thumb, always keep your security software updated and running. LocalHost |
| Go to the printers and remove all print jobs that did the trick as mentioned above Dustin Thai |
| It's just Windows. You solve this prob by deleting all waiting print jobs or just install Linux :P Julian |
| Not dangerous if inside the windows folder nephisto2 |
| Its to do with the printer spooling but my firewall (Zone Alarm Pro) pops up now and then saying its requesting access to the internet. A print spooler wanting net access? I'm blocking it every single time with no ill effects - next time will be a permanent block. Zeb |
| followed advice of others and cleared my print queue. CPU time on spoolsv.exe went from 50+ down to 0. in most cases, this is probably not a virus...i think jon |
| Today i've found a spoolsvc.exe file located on my windows/system32 folder. Well, that's a Trojan, just delete it. Do not confuse it with spoolsv.exe (a windows legitimate program) Ad Astra |
| Yep print job waiting on image writer,, fixed it ! |
| When a document gets 'hung up' between the computer and the printer, it will nearly completely take over your CPU causing great slowness. Go to Control Panel, Printers, and clear waiting documents. bob |
| It's on my pc as well, and it was taking up 99% of my processes, finally I took Ben's advice, and found a pending print job on my document writer (which I don't use), so I cancelled the job and my cpu usage was back down instantly! So NOT A VIRUS, JUST CLEAR YOUR PRINT JOBS ON UNUSED PRINTERS, OR ERASE ANY PRINTERS YOU DON'T USE!!! Angelique |
| Windows Spooler Service ken may |
| really annoying process, don't quite see the point in it. most printer programs have a spooler now anyway. WHAT IS THE POINT TO THIS PROCESS? just another one of those annoying windows freak processes with no useful purpose. thanks you all helped me lots with this process. does anyone know how to delete it? James |
| Can be corrupt, But the reason why it has to connect to the net, is because sometimes you print pages from the net. So it has to access them. Go to control panel/admin./services and set print spooler to manual. after you stop the process. FRED INSTEAD |
| Don't delete it! It's a part of windows that will handle the printer. It might use loads of memory if you have unprinted documents. Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and delete all the documents if you are having problems with it. Problems with Spoolsv.exe, might be connected with the virus called Backdoor.Ciadoor.B Trojan, so have an updated anit-virus program. Peter B |
| Okay, This is ridiculous. This is a place to post user opinions. The problem is, you can't say that it isn't a virus/trojan, and you can't say that it is. This is a valid windows process, but it isnt hard to build a virus with its process name as SPOOLSV.EXE . One way to Identify if its genuine, look at the Process Identifier (PID). If it matches the PID of the genuine Spoolsv.exe, then you are safe. With the downloading part, you can download it without you knowing it easily as an active x control, or just by visiting a site. But it doesnt matter if you Download it, only if you execute it. |
| This is completly safe, when I first formated my hard drive and installed windows xp os on my computer, and a couple of drivers it was on the process list (and this was before I was connected to the internet so I am completly sure it's safe) Brian |
| If Spoolsv.exe takes a lot of CPU usage. Go to Printers and Faxes and cancel any pending documents that may be at the MS Office Image Writer spool. That fixed the problem in my computer. Bernardo |
| Here's another way to fix. Visit here http://torque.oncloud8.com/archives/000384.html This problem should fix immediately or if you keep it for long time, it gonna spoil your CPU Anonymous |
| With my computer, anything Adobe seems to get the spooler off and running - Photoshop and Reader both cause me problems. Killing and restarting the print spooler service stops the problem until the next time I run an Adobe product. Brian |
| If you have high CPU on spoolsv.exe that won't go away even after reboot, go to "Pinters and Faxes", click once "Microsoft Image Writer" just to highlight the icon. Left of the window under "Printer Task", select "See what's printing". If you see pending printing jobs, cancel all of them. spoolsv.exe will let go of your CPU. If you don't have a need for Microsoft Image Writer, just delete it. Pinoy |
| Unhandeled print queue causes huge performance usage to the cpu. Note that, also cases when you have removed ur printer from your computer and the queue has been unprocessed, it will take take perfomance as long as there is that printter installed -Z- |
| It automatically starts up as a windows process even though I have never installed a printer on my computer, and it appeared right after I accidentally opened a suspicious file from Limewire |
| Mine was at 100% usage for about a week. I went to printer and faxes and right click on my networked printer and chancelled all the print jobs. My computer is back to normal. Trunk |
| there were jobs waiting to print, 6 of them even though I did not know about them. then it wanted to print a picture that I scaned for a file only. it devoured my cpu to the tune of 98% so I deleted 5 of the six jobs. the 6th will not cancel. then I ended the process with windows task manager. and cpu was mine again. |
| It keeps coming back after I delete it. I told Kapersky to quarantine it finally. That keeps it from coming back, but Kapersky MUST be running which is a pain since it's such a memory hog. :) /)avid |
| MS exe part of OS. Check your print queues to all printers. Delete and you should be good to go. Timothy M |
| This is not a Virus or a Trojan, just go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and stop the Print Spooler. Turn off the printer. Now go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and delete the files there. Once you have done this retstart the Printer spool service RudyB |
| Lagged my computer out at first when I got a virus, and once it stopped, it constantly tried to access the Internet, which doesn't seem neccesary for a printer spooler. Greg |
| It was hogging 50% cpu, I found 3 test pages waiting to be printed. they were there for a long time until I found the cpu hogging issue. Just delete the print jobs! Taylor |
| When ever u start your windows it starts automatically and entire your CPU timing is grabbed. so to over come this problem u first stop this service from service manager and just delete this file that is "spoolsv.exe" from ur C:\windows\system32 directory and restart ur machine.... See also: Link Vishal Tambolkar |
| I caused my spoolsv problem by trying to print an OpenOfficeWriter document on a printer attached to a different computer in my home network. The document never did print, but later I realized that the computer hosting the printer was _extremely_ slow and almost non-responsive. I finally fixed it this way. I did ctrl-alt-del to bring up Task Manager. (It took a long time, but eventually came up.) In Processes tab, I saw that 99% of CPU time was in spoolsv.exe. I ended spoolsv task and opened ControlPanel Printers&Faxes. I cancelled the document in MS Office Doc Image Writer. Solved! Stanley Sokolow stanley |
| When you delete this file, all the printers you have installed desappear. Do u try ? Leandro |
| This process is the windows spooler. I have noticed that a process prints a large amount of print jobs to a tcpip printer then spoolsv.exe uses excessive np memory. (Non-Paged) When this happens on a server it can take down the whole server and error ID 2019 "The server was unable to allocate from the system nonpaged pool because the pool was empty." appears in event viewer several times. Server may grind to a halt and disconnect any or all tcpip connections. Link below re this. See also: Link Andrew R |
| SpoolsV.exe is a target for worms. If it takes too much CPU, close it. If you don't use your computer for printing or fax, it's totally pointless anyway. Smartass |
| If it takes cpu space, check if there are still printing jobs to be done! Delete them! The tool itself is harmless. Seb |
| Printing. Check yer printers for any pending documents. Pyromaniac |
| If it is causing you problems with cpu usage, and you are not planning to print anything during your current session, just "End Process" on it through Task Manager. Problem solved. Knyte |
| It controlls the printing queues on your computer Makitel |
| having read all of the above I decided to check my installed printers first - strange microsoft image write had appeared (not installed or in list prior?) deleted the printer and will keep an eye on my task list to see if becomes a problem oscar516 |
| its not dangerous at all, its the document image writer FRANKY THE PIG |
| If spoolsv.exe is hogging your CPU, go to C/ Windows:system 32: Spool : Printer. Delete any files in this folder and your problem is fixed! rodo |
| its take only 5-17% of my com. usesage. is it will increase next time and is it normal at that rate? none |
| It is the printer network server necessary for working accross a network totally harmless if genuine kev |
| spoolsv.exe is in fact part of the windows operating system. However, there has been a trojan known to disguise itself as the spoolsv.exe service. watch out. run a virus scan and if nothing has come up then chances are you have some old print jobs in que that needs to be deleted. hackernofxdude |
| I don't have any printer installed but still got it so I searched for the file and found two one in C:\WINDOWS\system32 and one the C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch folder, I deleted that one and the problem seems to have been fixed. Filip |
| This is a print spooler. Do not delete it unless you want a bigger headache. It was clogging up the CPU on my computer. I simply went to the Control Panel, and clicked on the Printer and Faxes icon, and found that there were 10 large documents waiting to be printed on the Microsoft Image Writer. Just right-click and select Cancel Printing, and it will clear them.Turns out that someone had shared this resource on the network, and someone else, not knowing what printer they were supposed to print to, selected the Image Writer as their default, where their documents were left sitting ever since. Brian |
| Tried to stop in Task Manager: access denied! Often detected by ZA asking access to Internet. No printer tasks. Radi |
| spoolsv.exe this exe started to hog up my cpu to about 30%; the fix: My default printer was out of wack. For some reason my default printer was pointing to the wrong printer. You may want to check your default printer settings for the fix. Uncle Vito |
| Just delete any pending files in the printer spool. found some unknown file initiated by 'guest'...anyhow now that its out...its OK! Abdullah Tayyab |
| As everyone here has already said, spoolsv.exe is a windows process and can be infected by a trojan. The easiest method of temporarily stopping the CPU spikes should be to just say "Pause Printing" on your installed printers. If you don't have a printer and still have problems with spoolsv.exe, then it's worth a scan with your antivirus. dhimiter |
| Print Spooler AimlessRolling |
| Its a PRINT SPOOLER. It went amuck when I tried to send a large printout to CutePDF. Open the "Printers and Faxes" window and you will likely see that there are documents that are wanting to be printed. Figure a way to get them out of the Queue and things go back to normal. Problem was NOT CutePDF, but rather the application that crashed while spewing garbage to the printer. AimlessRolling |
| system file in SYSTEM32 folder K R Shedge |
| Print job waiting in Microsoft Document Image writer K R Shedge |
| In fact that actualy was a document in a queue, and I wanted to throw my computer through the window. Clearing the queue helped, now everything works just perfectly!! |
| its a problem that comes many times when i want to print. it shows error n deletes all printers installed but when i restart computer it prints then displays the spool error again... i think this error as normal and adebent... the only solution is to updated norton and windows Manjunath.M.R |
| Windows Print Spooler Services - This can be disabled in services under administrative tools. Tweak it and save some RAM if your not printing people ;-) effortless |
| If this file hogs system resource, delete all files in the system32/spool/printers directory. This should unjam spoolsv and speed up your system Reader |
| Its fine. Just reinstalled windows and its there. Havent installed really anything yet. If its at more than 20% than you are just plain doing something wrong and you should learn how to install software and operate computers and computer hardware anakin |
| my system resources were maxed out so I deleted the MS image writer (since it has no purpose) and the systems resources are at my disposal once again. (smile) aztecsrule |
| I followed the directions from Z@her and this solved the problem. sparagi |
| Ok so the prob began for me after trying to convert some .doc to .pdf, the hang up began and I always manually "end process" spoolsv.exe. I checked and its only in system32 and i386 folders. I have nothing as I can see in the printer log, and actually can not find the image writer ... when I go to control panel - printers all i have is the option to add printer, nothing about microsoft document image writer.. any help?? |
| This is a crucial part of printing in windows. It is the print spooler service. If you are experiencing high CPU load, stop the windows service and restart it, if you don't need to print - disable it altogether Carrier |
| print jobs were stuck in microsoft document image writer queue, deleted jobs, resolved the problem nhc |
| it is a windows file to help us regulate our printing. not a virus jay |
| During start-up the systme stops, I can open taks manager and it's busy with this operation, what's happening? Rik |
| its for printers. it is easily infected by backdoors Elmo |
| This is not a virus, as far as i know i had the same problem with it taking up 90% of CPU. All you have to do, is....Go to Control Panel Printers and Other Hardware Printers and Faxes...in that menu click on each printer then click "See what's Printing"...cancel any prints that may be there...do this for all printers and this task will stop taking up all your CPU...DONE! Mukhraj |
| but i am not able to see this .exe in my windows/system32 folder MR.Ab Astra tann |
| this issue seems to be causing due to a printer driver not recognised by Windows Delete all the printer setup on ur comp Vijin |
| Tries to get connection to the internet, e.g. to www.ad2flash.de. I cannot see any necessity for doing this, so I'll block it... Interesting: I didn't see this behaviour within an admin account but at a standard user account. Klaus |
| Windows Print Spooler - To stop the problem for the moment: Net stop spooler then Net start spooler from the command prompt. Many possible issues, as others have said. Ski |
| Windows System File for print spooling. Eats up CPU if there are jobs pending for the printer (especially Document Image Writer). Could potentially be corrupted by virus/worm etc and cause serious CPU activity. But in my case it was just documents queued for the Image Writer. Dave Sugrue |
| part of printer spooler Solve Your System, Inc. |
| it's not a virus! The problem is a fault between windows and office. Simply go to printers and clear "office image printer" or the task on it (even if you hadn't given it a task).I had the same problem and it works I promise. nic |
| I had a malicious version of spoolsv.exe in my Driver Cache/i386 directory (found after searching for spoolsv.exe) which was causing 100% processor times. After I deleting it the processor resumed normal operating times ( 5%). Scott. |
| Spot on bob. A failed print job sent over the network last night has been slowing down my computer today. Just found it and deleted it. All back to normal. Ray |
| Taking 50 + CPU power. No printers installed, hooked up, and no prints waiting to be processed. In this case, I feel safe to say in my condition its a bad thing. james |
| Actually this prog play a role in finding virus, worm or whatever you would classified. However it is critical for the system so I keep it but I'd rather my window again and check out with spool printing (Thank you for this). You know it consumes 66% of my cpu and every time I start the windows I have to stop 'spoolvs.exe". Wittya |
| it dont do anything but take up 1% of my CPU and i dont have a printer i only have 760mb of ram so i try to keep a lot of stuff like that closed as much as possible _ko0LaiD_ |
| Wow, I don't know why so many people fight. Obviously it is a windows file used to spool print jobs, but obviously it can also be manipulated by Malicious code, That is why some people are having stranger problems with it. I am sure the majority of people are able to fix it by removing whatever was queued to the printer/fax/Office Image Writer, but the chances of this many people not knowing what they are talking about when they say it is probably something Malicious, are very unlikely. Falconman |
| It was a job in the queue for Microsoft Image. dont know why - I dont use it . As soon as I cleared, everything returned to normal. Thanks for the info I found here on this site Franz |
| used ~20% of processing power constantly while printer was out of paper. Once printer was filled with paper and print job completed, this service stopped using my processing power and everything went back to normal. Mike |
| The spoolsv.exe is simply a printer spoolers process it is used to stored data going to the printer. It is completly harmless. The only reason this process would try to access the internet is if you were printing a webpage. Do not delete it if you do you'll find your printer takes a lot longer to print. The below explain what the spooler does. See also: Link Steve |
| Its a breed of Himalayan Mountain Goat, if it gets into your PC it could do serious damage due to (a) its physical weight (b) the sharpness of its hooves as a result of trotting around the mountains in Nepal. Arthur |
| ain't critical for the system, but slows it down imensly by taking up more than 50% of cpu. quitting it using the task manager will allow you to get back to normal speed, but important system processes are still getting blocked. ( prevents dhc client, getting network adress ) bhead |
| basically this file only ever used any of my CPU when my printer was actually working on my computer. ok so this thing did actually cause my computer to slow down but only because my printer decided it didnt want to print. turns out there was a programme error within the software for my printer. as soon as i uninstalled my printer, 'spools' stopped using any CPU. so if you no longer need or use a printer, uninstall the software fully. steph |
| I did as a couple of you suggested and checked old printer ques, whose printer is no longer present and there was one full of old files. Dallas |
| Print spooler service. If it is using CPU cycles frequently, check the status of all installed printers to see if a document is trying to print, possibly on a printer that is disconnected. Delete all print jobs and CPU usage should drop back to 0 boxmonkey |
| Check your Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. There is likely a print job in the queue for this printer. This is the cause for the SPOOLSV.EXE to hog system resources. Delete the print job and you will be amazed. ChuckDeisel |
| This may be dangerous sometimes, it was stopped by my processor's DEP(Data Execution Prevention) function yesterday for the first time but i found it in system32 so it is not dangerous. If u do not know enough, Don't mislead people. geek_1 |
| it is just a windows application. From time to time it like many other programs "hangs" and uses lots of memory. like what was posted up before, restart the spooler program and refresh the job/Document query window and that should clear up the problem. You don't have to scan it for a virus but it never hurts to be that cautious. As with any program it can be infected with a virus but more than likely it has "hung". It and several other progams periodically access the internet to check for updates. Most firewalls and internet security software pop up alerts when programs access the internet. Kevin |
| Might hang if there's a faulty print driver. Just reset Print Spooler service (or disable it if you don't print) |
| Spoolsv.exe doesn't turn up on Security task manager (purchased from this site), when it tries to connect to the internet Arkane |
| Ran S&D and AVG. No threats found. Had 3 items in print queue on image writer. Canceled all and problem went away. this was for spoolsv.exe JC |
| Norton07 picked it up attempting to load unusual DLLs. It uses up my CPU time and a big chunk of memory. I don't have ANY faxes or printers installed, either hardware, nor software. It is feasible that a hacker would overwrite the genuine file when it's not in use, with a genuine spooler service plus a backdoor. stabb |
| spooLsv.exe is for printers, as many people have said. spooIsv.exe (notice it's a capital i), however is spyware, as far as I know |
| Uses internet access for network printing/shared printers A-Mor |
| A pdf file didn't print and was still in the HP printer spool. From Start, Printers, open the printer and cancel the document. It won't end until you reboot, then the problem goes away. bjp |
| File is completely safe Chris |
| Usually I use my computer for work related business. Some of those files cannot be save it. I realized a tricky way to save them through Microsoft Office Document Image Writer, the document become open with this program and later you can save it. When I read some of the comments I found one exposing conflicts with Microsoft Office Document Image Writer immediately I went to the Printer & Faxes folder and there it was several jobs pending in this folder. They were removed and the computer start working just fine, Seems for my perspective a conflict in the operative system and not a virus/worm. |
| From what i have heard and read as can see that this is either a worm using the same name or its being exploited as i have had pop ups ever since this pop up one day and this isn't even hooked up to a priter....also just had two DoS attacks :S J |
| Yes it is a microsoft file from your printer like most of you have said. Except there are trojans or spywares that can creat multiple copies or fake "spoolsv.exe" which continuely access your Internet for no apparent reason. Instead of deleting the program if your unsure if it is a virus or printing file from microsoft, simply rename the programs one at a time to see which is the virus and which is a regular microsoft file. You will see that one of the "spoolsv" copies is the correct file. I had 6 copies of the same file and my printer wasn't even plugged in or installed anymore. geeks |
| spoolsv.exe is the spooling aplication that intercepts and takes over print tasks sent by other applications such as Microsoft Word. This is so the application that sent the print command is not occupied with the printing task and can contine with normal use. OlieSmurf |
| This is the print spooler service. Even if you don't have any printers installed it will still show up as it is a system process. Jay |
| this can either be a trojan or legitimate printer error that is eating up CPU. I just wen to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services - Pinter - Spool - Stop. Then go to Windows/system32/Spool/Printer and delete all the files. Now restart the service and the CPU should be fine again. If this did not work you either did something wrong or it really is a virus... Tony Lam |
| Spoolsv.exe is a harmless Windows file, but spoolSRV.exe - uppercased to let you know it's NOT the same file - is a VIRUS or TROJAN. If yuo see a spoolsrv.exe, DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY. Blackwing |
| listen people.. yes sometimes its a virus/worm BUT if spoolsv.exe takin up most of your CPU then you either have a crappy printer driver, or it is a virus.. but dont jump to conclusions, scan first jonny m |
| we can delete this virus from task manage-processor end prosses tree then delete the virus icon from sys.32 after that enter to regedit.exe and find the name of that virus in a reg. so ur pc will be clean without anti virus HAYDER |
| If you go to your printer and faxes in the control panel it is more than likely you have some qued jobs you didnt realise, as soon as they are deleted it will cease usage of ur cpu Joe |
| Buggy, but part of the os. A document stuck in queue can peg the cpu. See also: Link Widescreen |
| There was no jobs in print queue, but had a job in distiller & when I removed a job which was on acrobat distiller, CPU utilization was back to normal Ayna |
| Not a virus, worm, trojan, ect its a simple process just like the rest. if it uses to much CPU time then maybe you have file waiting to be used in the back ground, it might be worth using ccleaner and selecting all of the options on and run this software it's free mind and see what happens after hitting reset if no joy still try hijack this and look 4 anonymous processes i had 1 with dodgy name somink like ACSHthr.exe never found a soloution on goolge or anywhere so tryed hijackthis and it worked good luck people so much 4 hackers and virus compilers world wide...LOOSERS..they need a life.l8rz See also: Link TekToniX |
| This application was necessary to run my HP printer and even get it recognised by my computer (i.e. without it, my printer did not appear in the printers list on control panel). Sure enough once I had the application running again Image writer showed up with a large file in it waiting to be printed (a remote download document). Now, this is my home computer. Why is there a remote download on it? Well, I went back through my network settings and beefed up my firewall settings and made double sure ALL print and file sharing tabs were off and there were no exceptions in my firewall settings. EV |
| If spoolsv.exe is taking too much power on your processors, just take a look for pending job in your printer list. Normally it's because some documents are still hanging there. Check the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer and delete the pending job. Everything would be fine. Jayadi Lukito |
| Yeah. This was happening since i shut my printer off and the file was stuck in there trying to print. I went into Task Mngr and i found that 100% of my CPU! so i canceled the .exe file and restarted the computer. I printed the document and worked fine completely! Unknown |
| Makie PC slow if has pending docs to print! Abrenas |
| i have two files in C:\WINDOWS\system32....one's called "spoolsv.eve" and the other is "spoolsv.eve.eve"...which one should i delete? O.O Confused |
| Printer Spooler Service - Just go to - Printers and Faxes - Check the status of any Print Jobs in the Que. mIkE |
| It spools files that you asked to print making printing faster Ben |
| For Windows Server 2003 with CPU hog problem: If you don't have print jobs in the printers, just delete the two default printers that Windows Server 2003 installs. Solved the issue here. Uncle Sam |
| spoolsv.exe is not a virus or worm, if u have a printer and u delete this process u will not be able to print and thats a fact i'm trained with microsoft and if ya'l think its harmfull then you are a idiot basicly the reason it maybe using 50% or more of your cpu is that u have printing tasks waiting maybe your pc has bin used for a network printer thers software out ther that will scan or do a reg scan that should help badboy |
| Loads files to memory for later printing. Zoe |
| I had a user's laptop that was running extremely slow. Ran ctrl alt del to launch the "tsk mgr" - "processes" - press on the CPU tab until you see a large number (95 - 99) to the left of that number is Image and user name, if that name is "System Idle Process" this is OK, but if it is "spoolsv.exe" delete it. Truth |
| i have print service(spoolsv.exe)disabled and it seems there is another file with a same name ,probably a virus pc.exe |
| Dystaxia was 100% correct. I deleted a print job that was pending and the cpu usage want from 50% to 2%. unspecified |
| It is in fact the spool service for printing jobs. It was using 99% of my processor, and everything seemed to come to a halt, even after restarting my PC. Checked jobs waiting in print qeues, and there it was, 1 job waiting to be printed with the MS Image Printer. Deleted the print job, no more hassles. Martin Blaauw |
| It just takes a lot of memory if there's something waiting to be printed. Otherwise, just go to the Task manager, Processes tab, and find it, end process. Look very closely though. Viruses may be renamed slightly differently. Ex : Spooisv Liteprotoss |
| Just make sure you click on proper printer before hitting Enter or pressing continue, otherwise, yes it will slow down your computer and use up much cpu because it is trying to find the printer that is not installed or connected to your computer, doh` duhh... wow, some peeps are so jumpy over Proper Normal executive functions See also: Link shylev33 |
| It tells you how much print spooling you have open at the time kurt |
| Like a couple of people mentioned I also had files pending in the image writer. As soon as I deleted them th cpu usgae came back down to Normal. Thanks guys Gary Mair |
| Like so many I have read here, my problem was an overloaded print command. I just deleted the print jobs in waiting and poof...all is fine. Thanks so much for this great site!! Phil M in Little Rock |
| I have faced some problem,but is it due to it or not i dont know.but its taking a lt of the cpu usuage.i think due to this the system gets hanged and we cant work at all. jack |
| Microsoft Spooler Marco |
| I don't have a printer, but tstill that flippin' thing takes up all my CPU time. Easy fix, just go to task manager and end process. |
| actually when I open windows task manager, it only shows one application spoolsv.exe which always shows not responding... plz help me out to solve this.. this is happening for last few weeks... Sometimes it gives problem.. When I shut down my computer, I need to end spoolsv.exe by clicking end task or it will automatically get ended just before shutting down. I hope u understand my problem.. I am aware of computers bt not to that extend.. Plz help... thank u.. raman |
| Read carefully... spoolVS is malware, spoolSV is the windows spooler. If the Windows spooler is taking a lot of CPU, remove the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer printer. Also delete any files in C:\windows\system32\spool\printers (you may need to stop the print spooler service to do this) Quasi |
| It belongs to MS. After reviewing this section, I went to my printers and learned that one of my old printers had 2 jobs waiting. After they were cancelled Spoolsv.exe was no longer using 50 percent of my resources. My thanks to the original person who offered the suggestion. Joe |
| If you have Zone or Earlier Version so Norton, Spools can someimtes be overloaded for no apparent reason by them. Other times its random documents initiated by 'guest', and other time viruses. It was running 99& on both My PC's till i jsut used task manager to delete it. The first Tie i had to unistall Zone and install a differnt antivirus that didn't bloat up and take up a lot of space. Justin |
| I had 100% cpu usage I thought it was a virus but it turned out I had printing jobs, soon as I deleted them cpu was back to normal Shmoove |
| Tis file ysung CPU power 100% you can disable this spoolsv.exe for good and you can print much faster also. Go to control panel Administrative tools services... look for "print Spooler" right click the service and stop it or disable it Michael |
| Yep, printer spooler. I opened the paper tray and lo and behold there's a sheet jammed. YAY fixed! Electrodyne |
| spoolsv.exe is used for printing. i had this problem for a long time, it used 100% of my 256mb memory, my pc wasn't barely moving. I read this forum and deleted and reinstalled my badly installed printer drivers and now my system is running smooth again. pinoy_ako |
| Sometimes spoolsv.exe colud be a virus if left unnoticed, the variant of that ceratian virus has the ability to hide its registry so be careful!! Spectre |
| High CPU utilization problem solved after deleting all documents queued in Microsoft Image Writer as suggested. Not dangerous in my case, but I wonder if any virus out there piggy backs on it. Wei-Chiang Lim |
| spoolsv.exe is the Microsoft print server. It was in the processes and I did have a print job waiting. I closed the process and it kept coming back until I deleted the print job. Then it stayed away. When I went to try and print again I was told I had to selct a printer and that then I was told the print spooler service is not running. Look to the other versions of this file such as spoolersrv.exe and similar ones. Investigation told me they were trojans etc. although I have no proof. Gordon |
| spoolsv.exe is not a virus it self, but can be problematic because it is easily accesible to viruses trojans and worms. DUH |
| If you have a network printer installed, but the protocol it uses is not enabled on any of your network interfaces, this also causes spoolsv.exe to run at 100%. enable the necessary protocols, restart and it should return to near-0% cpu usage. Andy |
| I noticed one day it started to say end program spoolsvs.exe and then i wasnt able to multi task and its taking up 99% Cpu Usage Nick |
| it is not a virus and will not harm your computer this website is a load of crap _______ |
| Windows print spooler - see link for description of how to fix (http://torque.oncloud8.com/archives/000384.html) See also: Link John |
| found I had a file waiting for printing. deleted file now all OK David Crowfoot |
| Just as the previous user. after I deleted the pending jobs the computer worked fine. Falcon07 |
| This is NOT a Virus, if it is taking over your RAM, i.e. using too much of it, check that there are no print jobs waiting and restart print spooler from the services.msc list DBA - Matt |
| This popped up on my computer and tried to access the internet several times and I don't even have a printer! John |
| Other than the Windows system process spoolsv.exe which is used to handle printing process and is important for the secure running of the computer any other spoolsv.exe process can be malicious and act as a backdoor. Robin |
| Yes, it can be a virus. One way to tell is to right click on it and hit properties. There should be a VERSION tab on the real version. In my case, I had one copy in C:\WINDOWS and a second copy in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32. The one NOT in the System32 directory was a worm. Codo |
| I as aboove deleted all my work from the printer and up it comes wanting to contact a DNS best advice is let it and your comp and printer will work. but check where its from C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 is fine NOWHERE ELSE THOUGH my comp ;s now fine |
| I had spoolsv taking up 90% of my CPU and firewall access fault - I deleted and no errors Sempi |
| FIXED IT IN 60 SECONDS- THANKS TO THE GREAT ADVICE ON THIS SITE! I had 100% CPU usage (97% was being used by this process. I took the advice I found here and went to Control Panel/Printers and checked all my printers for waiting jobs. There were 3 documents waiting to print on Microsoft Image Writer. I cancelled all print jobs and CPU usage immediately went back to normal. Very Grateful |
| Codo is right i also had 2 copies of the file and the deleted the one not in system32, problem solved!! To all you saying it is not a problem, just because YOU didnt have the virus version doesnt make it harmless!!! Virus |
| This file can be dangerous just like any file can be. In my case right now I've just been infected with a varient of an autorun viruz. I just traced it to spoolsv.exe putting an autorun.inf and a boot.com in a recycle folder on my D drive. Btw I have the Kaspersky antivirus engine on my computer and it will only pick up the files the worm drops not the worm itself. So I'm off now to debug and install some software. Maybe upload it to virus total to see if it's a new varient. Later coz |
| my anti-virus (ESET NOD32) gives me messages saying that there is a threat in C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe -something about "INF/Autorun virus". I have no idea what it may do to the computer, since i delete it right away. nothing related to printers (in my case). Julia |
| first time this problem occurs - spoolsv.exe run 99%CPU for 20 mins then it cleanups to 0% -It may be windows 2000 glit- just let it runs it course I guess Langong |
| It is a virus that causes the deletion of file-headers. That means you will loose a lot of files, although they still will occupy space on HDD. After that you can't access them or delete them so you will have to format your HDD. Only thing to do is to delete spoolsrv. Ecaterina Andronescu |
| My printer was very slow and spoolsv.exe was running wild it took up 99 % of cpu so i disinstaled the printer and reinstaled it spoolsv.exe reapeared but wasn't runningbesides that I don't know much more about it bigred |
| I've got 4 spoolsv.exe files. One in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32, one in C:\WINDOWS\$hf_mig$\KB896423\SP2QFE\ (since 2005), one in C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\, and one in C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$\. They all have 'version' tabs, but I'll try deleting 3 of them. 27/1/2009 Sam |
| I had a connection to a printer that kept "opening". It slowed down my laptop a lot. Specifically it made MAPINFO not work at all. +++++++++++ |
| It can eat up server resources. Write a Try this command - net stop spooler && del C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS\ /q && net start spooler See also: Link Rich Pezzullo |
| It was taking most of my CPU and true enought all I had to do is clear my print jobs including the microsoft image writer and my label printer Alex Veber |
| Printer spooler, which is harmless, but sometimes it can take a lot of memory. Those who think that it is a virus or something like that, probably got infected with something that is named exactly the same in the Task Manager. Corn |
| Windows Spooler Service. NOT a Virus, Check your Printer for an Print Jobs in Queue or Status. Could be out of paper! |
| My internet explorer freezes when spoolsv.exe is running |
| Such error are remove all connected printer Pravin |
| placed itself in the recycler.. was not visible in win explorer. only ACDSee browser could locate it. After deleting it, it recreated itself in seconds. It is a virus. Mert |
| When spoolsv.exe takes 90% of cpu load on your system, 1) Stop the printer spooler service 2) Switch off the printer 3) Delete *.shd and *.spl 4) start the printer 5) start the printer spooler service sandeep pawar |
| This is a spooler, followed the advice of about the third post and it was just a PDF program the user had a few prints going to. Got rid of those and boom her problems with a "virus" vanished. Check this first I think it'll sort 90% from what I've read above. IT Support for ever |
| I had same problem -- spoolsv.exe was consuming 98% of CPU time. It took a long time because only a small % of CPU time was available for real work, but I finally brought up Printers & Scanners on Control Panel, saw that the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer had 4 print jobs waiting. I cancelled them. System reponse went back to normal and spoolsv.exe wasn't taking any CPU time now. It's fixed. The MS Office Doc Images were caused by an attempt to print on the LAN from another computer to a printer on the "damaged" computer, but the printing failed. Stanley Sokolow |
| If you log in as the Admin of the PC, delete any jobs in the Document image writer and Delete the image writer, it should drop the CPU usage to about 5% Tolu |
| Print spooler. Takes 40MB of my memory but 0% of my CPU. Codo hit the nail right on the head, check the version to see if it's Microsoft. Ryan |
| it takes up over 90% of my CPU and memory- nothing that windows designed does that! evan |
| my computer was running very slow and so I ended spoolsv.exe but it kept reappearing. After ending the process a few times it went away, but now it is back and I am having serious network issues on all computers at home. I don't even have a printer installed on this computer so I assume it's a worm? Cambria |
| Many have corruption problems... See simple fix See also: Link Rick |
| take 50% of cpu, without any programs open Franky |
| Its related to Printer sharing See also: Link SteeL |
| If you have only one instance of it, it's usally not a problem. However, if you have 20 or so in the Task Manager, it's a virus. Kate |
| Fine if it's in c:\windows\system32 7rx |
| If it is anywhere besides the system32 windows folder it is a dangerous file. other then that leave it alone. Woody |
| Spoolsv.exe = not a virus, Spoolsrv.exe = a virus luke |
| When I know I won't be needing my HP Printer for any print jobs, I generally disable Print Spooler in Services so that it doesn't show up on TaskMngr--lately I'm backlogged with a lot of docs to print so I've decided to leave it on, but I've not experienced any high CPU or RAM usage with this file running in the background as others have--thankfully. In the event I forget to turn on the Spooler from Services, my Printer DOES NOT RUN! GinnaBL |
| In my case, when detected by AVG, the mesage about the threath removal mentioned a trojan horse SHeur2.AWJE Richi |
| Spoolsv.exe is for printer system however encase you have more then 1 of these services running at same time and is using cpu or ram, It is highly advised that you scan the files for viruses and make sure there in the Windows/System 32 folder you should only need 1 but viruses seem to use this name as well obviously. :) HAN |
| IF you don't have printer, then it's definitely a VIRUS |
| If it is messing up your resources, simply disable it. but if you have a printer installed, you won't be able to print more than 1 document at the same time Mustafa Sazak |
| it doesn't appear to be a problem until some minutes after you turn off the printer. Maybe there's an intermediate step to breaking the comp-printer connection? i'm testing right now with exiting the printer program in my tray. log off if you must, otherwise it comes back immediately blahblah |
| not dangerous as far as my experience goes..... HOWEVER, i am having to end the process every time i want to run itunes....... its getting annoying and im not sure why spoolsv wont let itunes work.... robo167 |
| There is a virus that masquerades as this process with a sightly different spelling I believe. I got it off my brothers computer using free avg. mooseye |
| it was running at 98% cpu. CHECK PRINTERS AND FAXES FOR JOBS AS OTHERS HAVE STATED BEFORE TERMINATING PROGRAM. I Use a laptop, and i plug in and unplug the printer USB pretty often, so it left a job still "needing" to be printed. Dusseldoffe |
| |
| it is a vald windows file, used for printing jobs. disable or kill it, and it could do harm to your printer. it does eat up a lot of CPU, however. bob |
| I had the Same problem and Dystaxia's advice worked for me. It was a document stuck in Microsoft One Note Printer spooler. I cancel the printing and all went back to normal. PeteA |
| If you are runnhing OneNote or any other program that does a "print to", check the queues for those devices as well. I found a print job stuck in my OneNote queue, deleted it and am now back to normal. Mark |
| My default printer was not working. So, every time I opened up MS Power Point, spoolsv.exe took about 40% CPU causing all my ppts to load very slowy. Removing the faulty default printer fixed it. Anand Muthaiyan |
| Check for spooled print jobs in all printers and faxes, including Microsoft XPS Document Writer and OneNote. delete all print jobs before thinking you have a virus. READ before you do something stupid! See also: Link TechSupport |
| High absortion of CPU time. No Viruses detected. I'd like to know what the heck it is doing. There are no jobs pending in any print queue. And this compendium of complaints is not really all that helpful. Reg |
| Spools is a virus free program for your system. If you have 60% + memory usage from it, you probably have printing qued OR you have the virus version of Spool. Many trojans disguise themselves as spool, but the real one doesnt take up that much memory space and it doesnt access the internet. Make sure to check your printer file and see if there are any qued prints before deciding that its a virus!! Andy |
| Mine was stopping and restarting 10x per second. Causing the email inbox and other items to flash or refresh. I opened each printer and 2 refused to open. I reassigned the default printer away from one and to the other and the process was stopped. I was working on the idea that there was a print process corrupted and stuck in the logic circuits and looping. it was persistent across rebooting, but this fixed it. If you see this flashing, look at the task manager. The service will be appearing and disappearing over and over. MrEdxoxo |
| It eats my CPU (up to 95%) IF the printer runs from startup and the icon sits in the system tray. Close that, problem solved. (My printer's a Konika Minolta, but worth a try with any printer, I guess!) Penguin |
| I ran into an issue where one processor was pegged out. I read a lot of the comments here and nothing helped. I did not have any documents waiting to print. I did notice that it was adding a printer from the PC I was remoting in from. So if you have an issue and you are using remote desktop you need to check you options and not have it use the printers from your main PC you are remoting in from. This cleared up my issue with the processor and also with the speed of logging off. Todd |
| This process takes 100% of my CPU !!!! |
| This is bogus, I cant do much on my computer because its using 90% of my CPU and I have a 3.66 GHz processor! |
| Not a Virus, try kill the process tree. Nothing happens. search system 32 there it is, Kaspersky dont say nathing, so. Not a virus. JSeventh |
| PML Driver |
| just printer spoiler service. dont be panic dude.. Joko |
| If it's in system 32, Do not mess with. other wise, kill it. Derek |
| this one is dangerous it blocks my windows task manager and keeps on deleting files but we have a printer but it is not connected from our computer may be its a virus aiypwzqp |
| in my laptop, it's taking up the whole memory of my pc.. it's like 788K... i think soo. Gerard |
| yea so i dont have a printer attached to my computer and spoolsv has never shown up in task manager processes tab before so i tried to delete it but it wont let me so im gonna go into safe mode and delete it will butler |
| deleting print jobs in image wrtiter fixed it for me karl eriksen |
| Clearing XPS Document Writer queue did the trick, thanks! Luke |
| this is a normal windows service. just go into coputer management/service and stop and start the print spooler service to clear it out. billybob |
| After a succesfully finished printing job it keeps for himself too much RAM (23 MB), and my system slowed down (not because of the RAM - I've got 1 GB). Using Minimem I could get back the RAM (RAM for spoolsv.exe dropped to 22 KB), and the performance became normal again. Lajos |
| its a virus... avg detects it!! Yuke |
| i have the same problem with print server we have in the company. the spoolsv.exe take mose of CPU usage. i try to do all the above solution but it is still the sme. |
| Been having spoolsv.exe issues for a long time now, i used to just stop it in task manager but it would often restart itself. It was using 100% cpu and the computer was running very slow. A few people mentioned above that microsoft image writer may have a documnet qued so i checked this in the control panel- printers but image writer had no pending jobs nor did my epson printer, but there was a printer called "send to one" that had a job pending, i dont remember setting this up but it had something to do with an archiCAD file i was trying to print at one time. Cancelled it and runs perfect now yeehaa |
| controls printers Glenn C, lubina |
| Go to task manager. End the process. Solve the problem. This is probably the problem, it should be an error with the process, it even prevents the user name in task manager to appear. Note : this maybe a critical process, do not delete unless it's a bogus and not found in system32. Solution |
| Usually its a windows file...Check your printers for printjobs and cancel them...if that doesnt work use ProcessExplorer to see where its image path is...sometimes even where it is supposed to be windows/system32 iirc, it could STILL be a virus but prolly isnt Tekno |
| go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and stop the Print Spooler. Turn off the printer. Now go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS and delete the files there. Now turn your printer spooler back on and restart the service. JRock2012 |
| my computer was running very slow and the task manager shown 100% CPU utility because of the spoolsv.exe process, The window image writer had one job to be printed. The process was stopped and now it is ok zulfiqar |
| My laptop was incredibly slow and using all my cpu. I went into the printers folder and there were 10 outstanding tasks for ms image writer. When these were deleted everything returned to normal and cpu usage dropped to 5%. divingscubaboy |
| As many have said spoolsv.exe is used to manage print jobs. If in doubt check the properties of the file click on details and check the product and copy write name. These should all reference microsoft if not then its probably suspicious rude boy mcdst mcitp |
| if it's the actual print spooler, it may have crashed. r-click on "my computer," choose manage, go to "services," select the print spooler and restart the service. if you're able to do that and it quits hogging your processor, then it was just a crashed spooler. if you're not able to do that, or it doesn't change the process-hogging nature of the beast, then it's likely the work mentioned above. arjuna |
| To conserve memory resources turn off background printing in MS Word. See also: Link Mainerd |
| This is a legitimate windows file if it is in this location. The spoolsv.exe file is located in the folder C:\Windows\System32. In other cases, spoolsv.exe is a virus, spyware, trojan or worm! |
| it is not a virus but it will consume our cpu memory, this can be soled by deleting the printer waiting jobs or the image writer waiting jobs. once the waiting jobs are deleted then our cpu memory will not be used by spoolsv.exe KuttiRajendiran |
| Based on responses on this thread, I cleared all documents that were waiting to be printed, and deleted all printers (because I wasn't using them), and the pc sped up. MoreSnow |
| I run Windows Vista and kept on getting a box 'interactive services'. At the same time the computer would freeze. I found that yes there were print jobs still waiting in the queue. I went to control panel--administrative tools--print spooler and stopped the tasks. It's a niggly thing. Happens maybe when your printer runs out of ink or paper. You fix the printer but forget about the jobs still in the queue. Sure plugs up the CPU and slows the computer to a crawl. This worked for me and thanks to the many that suggested. Geoff |
| This process can use up to 99% of cpu but you can fix that. here is a guide on how to fix it: http://torque.oncloud8.com/archives/000384.html See also: Link Vincent |
| Apparentely, I was able to end this process and it slowed down my computer by quarter speed. I had to end so many applications before shutdown. Recommedation: Don't end this process!!! Robot 777 |
| Should Be In C:\Windows\System32 Else, Trojan Dr. Saumil |
| As stated at the top, if this is found in c:\windows\system32\, then it's not a virus even if it can cause your computer to run slowly. However, if you find it *anywhere* else (such as c:\windows\), it's a virus. Remove it. Riamus |
| The spoolsv.exe file is the Spooler SubSystem App or Windows Print Spooler Service. It is the main component of the printing interfaces. Spooling allows you to print in the background without your computer becoming tied up. Spoolsv.exe is responsible for how Windows handles print and fax tasks on your computer. The spoolsv.exe file is initialized on computer startup and it runs in the background. See also: Link Valentine Rash |
| It's windows process but can be injected with trojan ahmedtech |
| spoolsv.exe is the main component of the printing interfaces. Spooling allows you to print in the background without your computer becoming tied up. Spoolsv.exe is responsible for how Windows handles print and fax tasks on your computer. The spoolsv.exe file is initialized on computer startup and it runs in the background. See also: Link Alexander Hawk |
| Block or Allow? I decided to allow access to the net after much research, becasue it wants to check for updates, therefore it needs to periodically access the net Liz |
| Its spoolsv.exe and its pecking my cpu. Can use flash and slows computer down. I have no printers installed, and virus ck didnt find it. I can always end prosses tree and all better, but it comes back. Is there not an easy way? Thinkmore |
| 1. Go to Start, Settings and click Control Panel 2. In the Control Panel window, first double-click on Administrative Tools and then on Services. 3. In the right pane of the Services window locate and right-click on Print Spooler and then select Stop. 4. After you have stopped this process, leave the Service window open. Now open My Computer and navigate to the following folder. c:\windows\system32\spool\PRINTERS - in Windows Vista, XP, 98/95/ME or c:\winnt\system32\spool\PRINTERS - in Windows NT\2000 5. Delete all the files in the Printers folder. A See also: Link Thinkmorefloyd |
| It is a legitimate windows file because it is installed with windows thats true, but all the windows applications ask for access to internet when they are doing it and this one isnt so it looks like it is not so legit because it does send alot of informations about many things on your PC to some other partyes opening backdoors and its more like a spy than a legit process despite the fact that it is usefull for some rare things that u almoust never use. The positive things are the reason why this process is auto in the exceptions list in most of the AV programs. I would suggest block it or del. Ilija |
| Printer spooler go to run put net stop spooler than delete printer items than go to run and put net start spooler Matt |
| spoolsv.exe (Originally) was created by microsoft for printing and fax jobs but if its hogging power then its been replaced with a Backdoor Ciadoor.B Trojan or a something similar and can steal passwords/personal info/screenshots etc. use my link or download comodo internet security premium and Iobit 360 or avast pro or norton 360 or even mamatu just google them or I have a link to portable apps n Iobit 360 u can make it too n put it on a flash w the toolbox n other portables I have in the links very handy appz :)enjoy See also: Link Link Link Names Michael email me if u like :) |
| Not a virus other then if the syntax dos'nt look correct, can be a drag on the CPU if you only have one Ram on board ....if memory leak then can be a problem...if CPU use is running high toy may have to patch it. mike |
| This is only a windows process. If it is running all the time and consuming CPU resources, then open printers and faxes folder and delete any document that has been queued - especially on Microsoft Image Writer Mathumaran |
| Like a lot of people on this page have said, if your computer is running slow, check your Printers and see if Image Writer is causing the issue! My computer was running ridiculously slowly, and spoolsv was using 100% of the cpu. Deleted the print jobs pending for Image Writer and it fixed it. Thanks guys! Chris |
| Just turn your printer off when ever you are not using it too keep hackers out. Im not certain if a hacker can use a remote call procedure to turn the printer on or not but keep itturned off just in case. Dryson |
| for some reason i keep getting the pop-up sreen that says send or dont send and its about sppolsv.exe and i tried to print 1 thing and now everytime i put paper in my printer it keeps printing that same thing over and over again so have to keep paper out of my printer. |
| (my english is bad) my spoolsv was infected, he was opening a winrar archive that have ben deleted! and i used Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware , fixed the problem in no-time ;) hope it helpes (the link is for the payed and free version too but you can always download from the pirate's-best-frend: the torrent ;) See also: Link Vlad Lazanu |
| Takes whole CPU .. I hope If I can Fix this problem ,, Ahmed Ghalab.. |
| It's the Windows Print Spooler. People who don't use printers very often can turn it off by typing 'services.msc' in the Run box and looking for "print spooler", then press 'stop service'. You could of course quit the program in Task Manager but it may re-run itself seconds later. Not really bad to have on your computer unless out of curiousity, a file search is ran and turns up a different place than the system folder (sorry for the mac jargon, i mean C:\Windows and its subfolders) in case you will need to kill that file and recycle it. Shin |
| after anew install of windows xp and SP2 it shows up in task manager, harmless and can be ignored. Nekro |
| it does connect to inet it continues to listen on a port 49854, which means it can be conected to by the net, you could go to printer properties advanced and check print directly to printer, see if that helps. You may also want to block this port in firewall, i use comodo free it shows info on this service, keeps sending out udp packets and an ip address shows up now and then as well... meaning its reporting to someone. billy the skid |
| It is infected by Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT on my computer VIPRE antivirus detected it. Trojan also infected sfc_os.dll and SBAMSvc.exe that belongs to Vipre... After cleaning Vipre wont start even after reinstall. Vertumnus |
| DONT delete this file. It may act like a virus, but if u delete it then windows wont boot, just go to task manager - Performance - click the "Resource Monitor" tab at the bottom and a window will pop up where youll see spoolsv.exe, right click and end the process. It will start again next time you switch on Atrax |
| Not a virus unless it is infected. This file is a service to print spooler for you enable to add printer on your computer. Char |
| You may "Terminate" this process, but doing this may harm your PC. Unknown |
| It is a legitimate windows file but it can be replaced with a extremely malicious application that ruin explorer, network managing and System Recovery. i got rid of it by formatting. Henrique |
| this program some times effect the other programs mark |
| It Clogs up my computer and destroys the memory Bobby |
| I ended in Start Task Manager & then restarted spooler in component services.Thank You!!!!!!!!!!! stubmenu |
| Delete contents of %WINDIR%/System32/spool/Printers and restart Printer Spooler service in Services.msc lxk |
| I've never had a virus/malware that abused the spoolsv.exe file but from my experience with it, it's always been a file stuck in the queue of one of the printers. For a great tutorial on how to fix it, follow the link, it will really help you. See also: Link Time Traveler |
| In services.msc you need to go in properties and then change start-up time to disabled or manual, no automatic, and it will no start again. Rekords |
| i think i got it with snagit... Maxwell James Kelley |
| this is a virus the windows file is spoolsv.exe its situated at windows\system32 folder dedan |
| It's a valid windows file (if not replaced by viruses). It works good most of the time, but sometimes it gets max of CPU percentage, seems to be a bug. I've just killed it using taskmanager and started it again, and it has started work properly. Semplar |
| O23 - Service: @%systemroot%\system32\spoolsv.exe,-1 (Spooler) - Unknown owner - C:\Windows\System32\spoolsv.exe Kind |
| size of my spoolsv.exe is 546kb or 559104 byte and it is in folder C:/windows/system32 See also: Link plzUpdateYourInfo |
| I cleared all the print jobs from all my installed printers and it cleared it up justin |
| not only does it have to do with printing it also works along google chrome, i downloaded the software from this site and it locates it in the google chrome folder and also when i went to delete it, it tried deleting google chrome but first came up with a message saying google chrome is verisighned its also rated low on the security task manager list, it was the third from the bottom, doesn't seem to kill my cpu so i do not think it is a virus, if it seems to take your cpu you need to clear your printing jobs in administrative tools and also cant hurt to clear google chrome history and cache hold cntrl shift and delete at the same time, select the ones you want to clear (everything but the bottom two should be cleared every so often to keep google chrome running quick) and make sure its set to from the beginning of time at the top of that box... update, actually security task manager has it at the bottom but the risk meter is zero. im also currently checking all the files in the chrome location that the spoolsv is located on my computer through virus total, after about thirty minutes of scanning all the files in google chrome nothing is found to be a virus on virus total, also running a full scan with deep scan on avg found nothing.. now im not sure why mine isn't in the system location but i don't think this is a virus. if you would like find the file location on your computer, go to the website i included in the link box below and upload that file, this website will check 42 of the biggest antivirus software including avg, mcafee, pando, anti vir, comando, kaspersky, microsoft, super anti spyware and others.. the only one i see that i like that this doesn't have is malwarebyes but ive also scanned it with this and it doesn't detect anything. See also: Link colby green |
| I believe this is common with HP printers, but I am not entirely sure. This should be a safe file, however. Tappy |
| In my case it was a legit file. The CPU was being consumed because my profile had 30+ network printers on it and each time I logged onto the server it was trying to connect and even install drivers for new printers on the profile. In Remote Desktop under Local Services uncheck Printers and make sure you only have the printers you need on your profile. Rodador |
| My system boots slowly (takes nearly 5 minutes to boot). When I tried to check System activities through task manager, I found that Spoolsv.exe is continuously eating around 50% of CPU time. I am not sure if it is the reason for slow booting. I have not yet tried solutions given by lxk and Semplar SN |
| I have this file in two different locations: Windows\winsxs\amd64_microsoft-windows-print and Windows\System 32. Properties show all other details mirror one another except location. When I originally searched for it, neither showed in results until I searched spool* and found them both. KyFriedChick |
| Same as Dystaxia's situation, it turned out to be a print job stucked in the MS Image Writer. I went to printer control and deleted the job and the spoolsv.exe file stop running. Hab |
| Spoolsv.exe is the printer service. HP Printers love to talk over SNMP, that's the reason for the big SNMP traffic load. I created a connection port on my computer for a printer using a static IP address. After the IP address had changed my computer started spamming my router with SNMP traffic. I deleted the connection port and the traffic was gone. I hope this can help you! David |
| This is a standard windows process used to parse print/fax jobs. It is NOT dangerous unless the system is compromised by malware. IcemanGJ |
| spoolsv.exe file is running without printing. As well as it takes 50% memory |
| It is the printer spooler service, but there is a deadly rootkit virus that takes its place once run, and since the system re-starts this process automatically, it's a pain to get rid of the virus. But the original file is legit. |
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