LexMark Monitor Hangs Spoolss and Creates 100 Percent CPU Usage

ID: Q175893

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0

SYMPTOM

When you use LexMark TCP/IP print monitor with a computer running Windows NT 4.0, you may experience very slow printing and Spoolss.exe seems to stop responding (hang).

CAUSE

The problem has been experienced using 80 LexMark computers to connect printers to a Token Ring network.

A user-mode dump of Spoolss shows 85 spooler threads, of which 28 run in a tight loop in LexMark print monitor. The threads looping in LexMark monitor wait for 20 minutes on an incoming printer message and compete for CPU cycles during this time. This slows down the Spoolss process. The problem increases when adding LexMark computers to the network.

RESOLUTION

There is a new LexMark print monitor (version 3.03) available on LexMark's Web site. If you need help on setup of the new print monitor, call LexMark's Technical Support Center.

The LexMark products discussed here are manufactured by LexMark Corporation, a vendor independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

Keywords : NTSrvWkst
Version : WinNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type :