A stroke of luck this afternoon allowed me to capture a picture of
the CPU-hogging in printsv.exe by using System Info in Process
Explorer. I also have a picture of normal printsv.exe operation
under exactly the same conditions, in terms of the programs open at
the time, for comparison purposes.
I'd like to post these pictures here to help with your
troubleshooting, but don't seem to be able to include jpegs, which
these are. Is there some way to do this?
:
Mark
What is the CPU and how much RAM does your computer have? Right
click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties
to get this information.
The CPU capacity is not expressed in term of RAM. RAM =Random
Access Memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU
Graphics will take longer to print than text.
Open programmes are relevant as the queueing problem can go away on
my computer if I close programmes like my accounting package,
Excel, Word etc. I have observed the phenomenon many times. The
problem can be exacerbated by multi-tasking i.e. other programmes
running in the background. Some are visible in Task Manager but
others are not. Scheduled Tasks, like an anti-virus scan, can take
resources and you may not be conscious of this being in progress.
Malware can also conceal it's activities so that CPU usuge is not
revealed in Task Manager and Process Explorer.
Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the
Performance Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit
and the Peak?
Is the computer left on 24/7?
I am conscious that I have not responded to your references to
Internet Explorer and iTines but try to tackle over many issues at
the same time takes away the focus from a particular problem. I
have been endeavouring the resolve the printer problem before
moving on to other issues.
Here's an explanation of spooling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spooling
From Task Manager Help -search criteria "priority"
To change the priority of a running program
On the Processes tab, right-click the program you want to change,
point to Set Priority, and then click the command you want.
Notes
To view the priority of running programs, on the Processes tab, on
the View menu, click Select Columns. In the Select Columns dialog
box, select the Base Priority check box, and then click OK.
Changing the priority of a process can make it run faster or slower
(depending on whether you raise or lower the priority), but it can
also adversely affect the performance of other processes.
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Markkk wrote:
I have apparently two Intel (R) Pentium (R) 4 3.0 GHz CPUs, my
computer being an ACPI Multiprocessor PC, according to the entries
in Device Manager. As far as actual CPU capacity, in terms of RAM
or whatever, I couldn't find that out. Though it seems like two
fast processors like that could do better than one page of text
in draft mode every two minutes.
I checked on Epson printer updates, and the only new one since I
got the printer is for scanning. There have been no new ones for
printing, which is where I have the slowing-down problem.
Let me note that the slowing down happens with either text or
graphics, and in the supposedly fastest mode, black-and-white
draft. Also it seems independent of the number of programs I have
open, happening even when I'm just printing something from the
word processor, with nothing else open.
I'd like to reiterate, though, that the slowing down does not
happen only while I'm printing. As I've said, it also happens
when I'm in Explorer and playing iTunes. In Explorer, everything
slows to an agonizing crawl; and in iTunes, the music breaks up
into unintelligible static. Concomitantly with these slowdowns,
my CPU usage goes to about 50% for these programs and the fan
starts working in overdrive. It's an intermittent problem,
sometimes interfering with these applications, and lasting a
short while or perhaps as much as 10 minutes, or until I force
the overexerting application to shut down.
Do you think somehow the computer is scanning for viruses when the
slowdown happens? You said spooling is not a priority service. Are
iexplore.exe and iTunes.exe priority services? Maybe I need to
make these three programs priority services, somehow, if that's
possible.
:
Mark
What is your CPU capacity. What is your computer make and model?
It could be your CPU capacity is a system bottleneck.
Check you have the latest drivers for your Epson Stylus CX4800
http://snipurl.com/b1ra5 [www_epson_com]
Transferring data through a USB connections is slow. You do have
a USB
2.00 connection?
Printer spooling is not a priority service. When you see problems
are you printing text or graphics? It can help if you avoid
having too many programmes open when printing from certain
programmes.
Choosing to print in black and white may help (page 5/05)
http://files.support.epson.com/pdf/cx48__/cx48__pg.pdf
Something I do not understand is the role of printer memory in
proceedings. You can increase printer memory for HP products. I
find no mention of it for an Epson. For my HP products additional
memory was an expensive addition I chose not to buy.
You might get more pointed advice on this issue in a printer
newsgroup.
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Markkk wrote:
My printer is an Epson Stylus CX4800.
The StartUp Type is Automatic.
There are no yellow question marks in Device Manager.
In Event Viewer, there are no Application Errors or Warnings
since last year, but there are System Errors and Warnings from
as recently as Jan. 26, 2009. However, spoolsv.exe hogged CPU
usage at 50% twice this evening, but no Error or Warning
messages were displayed afterward in any Event Viewer category
-- System, Administrative, etc. So I don't think Event Viewer
logs whatever is causing the print slowdown. The last System
and Application Event Viewer entries are from this morning and
show everything fine.
As far as clearing the print queue goes, as I say, the whole
print operation slows to a crawl, drafts printing about 1 page
every 2 minutes, so I believe the queue's clearing must slow
proportionally, though I haven't actually watched the queue
during the slowdowns, which occur only sporadically and
unpredictably.
:
Mark
What is your printer make and model?
Select Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.
Locate the Print Spooler Service, right click, select
Properties. What is the StartUp Type? It should be Automatic.
Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right
click on the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select
Properties, Hardware, Device Manager. If yes what is the Device
Error code?
Are there any errors in Event Viewer?
Have a look in the System and Application logs in Event Viewer
for Errors and Warnings and post copies here. Don't post any
more than 48 hours ago.
You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the
meaning of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source
and Description are important.
HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427/en-us
A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and
double click on the error you want to copy. In the window,
which appears is a button resembling two pages. Click the
button and close Event Viewer.Now start your message (email)
and do a paste into the body of the message. Make sure this is
the first paste after exiting from Event Viewer.
Does it take overlong to clear the print queue?
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Markkk wrote:
Earlier this month, I conversed through this newsgroup with
Gerry about excessive CPU usage occurring occasionally when
running certain programs, including iexplore.exe, spoolsv.exe
and iTunes.exe. Jerry advised my downloading and running
Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, which I did, finding and removing
8 Trojans and other malware.
The heavy breathing, as I call the excessive CPU usage, seemed
less for awhile, though it may simply have slowed down because
it's an intermittent problem. Whatever, it's back again as
much as before. I've rerun Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware since
noticing the return of the heavy breathing, but found no
trace of malware.
During our earlier exchanges, Jerry recommended I download and
install Process Explorer to help troubleshoot any unwanted CPU
usage and that I post the command lines of the offending
programs. This I have done and include the command lines
below:
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\spoolsv.exe
I have two questions relating to all this:
1. Most importantly, how do I get rid of this excessive CPU
usage and keep
my computer from randomly slowing to crawl? When it hits
iTunes, the music just becomes static, and with spoolsv.exe
it slows
