Question

Consider a Windows 7 x64 installation with 2 printers installed. The system has 8GB installed RAM. One printer is a Brother laser MFC-8220 Printer via TCP/IP, and the other is a CutePDF printer.

Problem: the spoolsv.exe regularly eats obscene amount of memory and CPU when the machine is idle. Usually the device is powered off. Turning it on has no effect on the RAM or CPU usage.

The first consideration was that perhaps a print job has previously been sent to the Brother, but the queues are empty, and no jobs are waiting.

These screenshots do not show, but regularly the spoolsv service will consume all 8GB and climb to use 95-100% of the CPU.

The two printers - a Brother and the CutePDF printer both have 0 documents in their respective queues.

Question: what measures can I take to ensure the spoolsv.exe doesn't consume inappropriate amounts of CPU and RAM?

Answer 1

It may be the common "corrupted print file" problem. Check under C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS for any files that may be lingering. Delete them all and restart the print spooler service.

Answer 2

I have the same problem. It happens when using the brother MFC-8440 as a network printer. We use a USB printer, and its useable on the network. the drivers install locally, and it prints normally. but CPU usage is high, and RAM constantly grows.

This was an issue both in XP and in windows7

I was able to stop it in XP by choosing to send documents to the printer directly. It doesnt spool them. Its an option in printer preferences. In windows 7, when you choose send documents to printer directly, it crashes the printer.

Answer 3

same problem here, Brother MFC-8500 on a Windows 7 64-bit machine printing over network.