Found this post on another site...work great so I thought I'd pass it on:
--------------------------
tim's journal
Figuring out the world... one day at a time.
« The Library of Alexandria | Main | The IPIX patent »
July 13, 2004
spoolsv.exe hogging 99% of cpu - the fix
I came into lab to find the printer printing strange ASCII characters, one line per
page, and a basically inoperably slow PC. Checking Task Manager, I found the culprit
- one spoolsv.exe at 99% cpu which I killed. About 30 seconds later, the cpu was
once again clogged by a revived app. 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!
Semi-update
I'm glad that this post has been of use to you. It drove me crazy too. In my particular
case the problems started occuring again after a couple days. This happend because
the 'bad' spooler files were coming from another computer on the network. Once that
person gave up printing that file, the madness stopped. If you are on your own, chances
are it is just a corrupt print file that needs to be cleared out.
BTW, if you would like to contribute, one way to do it is to make a link to this
page using the keyword 'spoolsv.exe'. Spread the love!
spoolsv.exeAlso, if
you need inkjet cartridges and toners, checkout Inkblvd. They are having a free shipping
promotion on orders
