[Misc] Perverse Ricoh app spooler.exe

[Guest]

Subject system is a WinXP (SP3) computer that is the server for a Savin 2408 MFP with PostScript ROM. WinXP computer has PostScript driver and ScanRouter Lite v2 to manage scan functions.

In the relevant programs file there is an app named spooler.exe which also is somehow configured (presumably in the registry) to load in the prefetch file. Periodically this .exe will load--often on boot-up--and consume between 70% and 98% of the CPU cycles.

As you might imagine, this doesn't help anything else that tries to get done on the WinXP computer.

I thought I'd fixed this by toggling off and on a Ridoc service, but the dang thing has come back. I can kill it in the Task Manager, but that is not the experience I want for the end users of this system.

For the most part, Savin/Ricoh phone support people simply say ScanRouter Lite v2 isn't supported for XP SP3, and let it go at that. I hope there's a better answer than this.

Any ideas, colleagues?

[Eric1968]

spooler.exe is the Print Spooler Service. Without this (Windows) service running printing is not possible. If spooler.exe is consuming too much CPU cycles, it may be corrupted or somehow not functioning well. Maybe you can replace it by copying it from the Windows install CD. The Ricoh service is used by Scan Router.

[KenB]

There should be no relationship between spooler.exe and Scan Router.

Thee are a number of things that can cause spooler issues- a simple Google search will show you that.

The Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit is a free download from Micro$soft, and works with XP. It contains a few tools to help clean out and repair your spooler. (A word of caution, though, some of the tools in the resource kit are QUITE powerful, and assume that you really know what you're doing!)

[JLamp]

Spooler.exe may not be exactly what it appears to be . . .

spooler.exe is the Print Spooler Service. Without this (Windows) service running printing is not possible. If spooler.exe is consuming too much CPU cycles, it may be corrupted or somehow not functioning well. Maybe you can replace it by copying it from the Windows install CD. The Ricoh service is used by Scan Router.

I had the impression that spoolersv.exe is the Windows print spooler service. I could be wrong.

When I printed out what I presume is the "code" for spooler.exe, I got a dump of parameter settings for something which appeared to be a Ricoh document management system.

I'd like to thlnk the spooler.exe is not corrupted since I'd done a large-scale O/S repair using the Reimage Windows repair utility, which should have taken care of any corrupted O/S code. I've also scanned the hard disk with at least two anti-virus programs and it comes up clean, so my working assumption is that spooler.exe is _not_ malware, even tho spooler.exe sometimes is an alias for a documented virus.

Any other hunches?

[cobiray]

You're correct on the spoolersvc.exe being the print spooler. If you go into Services and stop the print spooler this should drop out from the processes tab on the task manager.

Have you tried uninstalling Scan Router? Seems if you take that out of the equation you'll see if the spooler.exe is still running in task manager.

If you really wanted to solve your problem, you would just push that POS machine out of a 4th floor window. Now that is a perverse machine.

[D_L_P]

Good call on the uninstall/reinstall for ScanRouter.

What version of ScanRouter v2 Lite are you using? Supposedly, ScanRouter v2 Lite v2.x is supported for XP.
Are all the ScanRouter services running? DDS Scheduler Daemon, ScanRouterDriverV2, Ridoc Information Service, SOption, and POption. Maybe its hanging up looking for one of these services.

[JLamp]

Good Tip! Thanks!

Good call on the uninstall/reinstall for ScanRouter.

What version of ScanRouter v2 Lite are you using? Supposedly, ScanRouter v2 Lite v2.x is supported for XP.
Are all the ScanRouter services running? DDS Scheduler Daemon, ScanRouterDriverV2, Ridoc Information Service, SOption, and POption. Maybe its hanging up looking for one of these services.

Thanks! I'll check for these services. Toggling the Ridoc Info Service seemed to clear the runaway problem, at least temporarily. I don't recall seeing the whole list present. An uninstall/reinstall probably is the best way to get them all on board.

[TonerMunkeh]

I had a problem a year or so ago with an MP161 giving garbled prints, only from one PC. It turned out to be a problem with the spooler service itself and there was a hotfix for it.

Try this link:

You cannot add a printer and you receive printer spooler error messages in Windows XP