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Question
Saturday, April 29, 2017 3:54 PM
I recently installed the Windows 10 Creators update and found that my PC was slowly increasing its Commit Charge until maxed out at its limit. The PC then starts closing processes and eventually restarts. Once the PC restarts the commit charge drops back to a more normal level.
It takes about 2 days to max out on the Commit charge limit.
I googled everything I could on the issue and worked my way through various fixes none of which worked.
Through use of "Process Hacker", Poolmon.exe etc I have narrowed the issue down to "splwow64.exe"
When I start the PC I have two instances of this file running one under Local Account and one not attributed to an Account that needs administrator privileges to alter.
The instance with Admin Priv needed does not seem to be the one causing the problem. I can close this without it having any effect on my commit charge.
If however I terminate the instance under my local account the commit charge instantly drops down to normal levels again.
The problem is that with no instance of splwow64.exe running I seem unable to Print anything. I cannot permanently terminate it running anyway as within 10 seconds or so it restarts itself and begins to accumulate commit charge voraciously again.
My Commit Charge limit is basically 32 GB but it just slowly eats through this over 2 days,
I have got as far as I can on my own and am out of ideas...... Help ?
All replies (27)
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 7:50 PM ✅Answered
So.....
Came up with my own solution. Probably not the best way but its a workaround that works for me.
Wrote a little Batch File - "splkill.bat"
start "runas /user:administrator" cmd /c "taskkill /f /im splwow64.exe"
Uses TASKKILL to terminate the process.
Then simply used "Task Scheduler" to Run the Batch file once every hour indefinitely.
No more Commit Charge problem.
Simples
Saturday, April 29, 2017 7:08 PM
Just a wild guess..remove all existing printer drivers that are not related to Windows itself and watch what's going to happend.
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help.
Sunday, April 30, 2017 6:15 AM
**I have the same problem since Windows 10 Creator Update ...
**I didn't had the problem before the update
I openned a thread (in french) with some screenshots on answers.microsoft : https://answers.microsoft.com/fr-fr/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/windows-10-depuis-la-maj-1703-jai-mon-syst%c3%a8me/a00975aa-75be-49d6-8e79-74a74da52513
Bur for the moment, no way, I have to restart my Windows 10 every day, sometimes several times a day !
I also tried 4-5 times to kill by hand each process to find who is responsible of ... but failed to identify it
(to be honest I found one and uninstall it, Gainward expertool, but problem stays. The other I found once was Teamviewer, but now no more releasing the memory if I kill it)
To try to find which program is leaking I tried ProcessXP but I am puzzled with ProcessXP and what is shown with "Virtual Size"
and the Windows 10 dialog box propose often to kill a "Runtime broker".
I'll ckeck later (as I just restarted my Windows 10) the splwow64.exe process.
"On peut user de tout mais sans en abuser" Bisounours, Arfy
Sunday, April 30, 2017 9:02 AM
Sven
I tried uninstalling Printer Drivers and reinstalling. Made no difference. Problem still there.
Sunday, April 30, 2017 12:38 PM
Sven
I tried uninstalling Printer Drivers and reinstalling. Made no difference. Problem still there.
But what about if You disable Printer Spooler service completely - for a while just let it disabled. Just for testing purposes to see if that makes any difference?
You said that You have narrowed problem down to "splwow64.exe". Splwow64.exe allows 32-bit applications to connect with the 64-bit printer spooler service on x64 Windows builds - according to google :)
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help, and unmark the answers if they provide no help.
Sunday, April 30, 2017 1:56 PM
Sven
Will give that a go now.
Get back in an hour or so. Will know relatively quickly if the commit charge keeps building.
Sunday, April 30, 2017 2:19 PM
Just came up another idea.."allows 32-bit applications to connect with the 64-bit printer spooler service.." - any 32bit application that may interact wiht printers??...some kind of incompatibility issues..
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Sunday, April 30, 2017 2:42 PM
Hi,
I did a test, after killing the splwow64.exe (the one with my user) some memory/System commit was freed but not much...
(by killing the splwow64.exe from the system, nothing changed)
"On peut user de tout mais sans en abuser" Bisounours, Arfy
Sunday, April 30, 2017 7:21 PM
So.....
Terminated splwow64.exe (both instances) and immediately Suspended spoolsv.exe
Left for about 5 hours.
splwow64.exe has not restarted so Im guessing it must be spoolsv.exe that is constantly restarting it. Without splwow64.exe running there is no problem with commit charge over the 5 hours.
Problem. Cannot Print.
As soon as I resumed spoolsv.exe low and behold splwow64.exe restarted and the commit charge started to accuimulate.
Interesting but not sure where this gets me.
Sunday, April 30, 2017 10:55 PM
Also....
Left splwow64.exe running but suspended spoolsv.exe.
No Commit Charge issues. Still cannot Print though.
So it is spoolsv.exe making splwow64.exe consume Commit.
Again... interesting but still do not know a solution.
Monday, May 1, 2017 5:50 AM
I did a test yesterday: stopping the spool service and killing all splwow64.exe
GOOD news, my system commit did not grow during the night.
By the way, my printer (which was off for days) is an EPSON Stylus Office BX630FW.
I'll test also all day by using apps/browsers/... and come back after.
"On peut user de tout mais sans en abuser" Bisounours, Arfy
Monday, May 1, 2017 6:55 AM
Hi Jozzy65,
What is the printer model you are using?
Since the issue is related to the spoolsv.exe service, it could be caused by the printer. Try to test without any printer to verify this. Please ensure you have got the latest printer driver for your printer from the device manufacturer website.
Check the symptom in a clean boot environment, too.
How to perform a clean boot in Windows
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows
Best regards
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
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Monday, May 1, 2017 7:52 AM
Arfy
Interesting because my Printer is an EPSON Expression XP-640
Im going to uninstall the Printer and see what happens to the Commit Charge then.
Monday, May 1, 2017 7:56 AM
Meipo
Interestingly Arfy who is also posting here has an EPSON Printer as do I !! Maybe that is the problem.
I had already installed the latest Printer driver from EPSON.
I will first try uninstalling the Printer and see what that does.
Then I will download the latest Driver reinstall and try that.
Finally I will try the Clean Boot.
Report back later.
Monday, May 1, 2017 9:51 AM
Meipo
So. Uninstalled the printer. Deleted the driver. Restarted the PC.
Ran for 1 Hr+ . Commit Charge sits immobile and unchanging. This is a Good thing.
spoolsv.exe shows as running.
No sign of splwow64.exe
Default Printer now set to "Microsoft Print to PDF"
Print this page to PDF as a test. splwow64.exe restarts and continues to Run.
Will now leave system running in this state for a few hours and see what happens to the Commit Charge.
Next steps will be :
1. Reinstall latest EPSON driver see what happens
2. Do Clean Boot and see what happens.
Will report back later
Monday, May 1, 2017 1:51 PM
So left running for approx 4 hours with no stress on Commit Charge at all.
spoolsv.exe & splwow64.exe both running happily. Can print to PDF no stress.
I am now going to reinstall the EPSON drivers and see what happens, then try the Clean Boot.
Back Later
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 6:03 PM | 1 vote
Meipo
So I accept that we have identified that it is probably the EPSON Driver causing the ultimate memory leak by splwow64.exe but this is not an answer. This is the identification of a cause.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 7:53 PM
Arfy
I have put my Answer to this issue above. Should work for you too.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017 4:57 AM
Cool but i am also asking Espon for help because it says on their site to use a version I can't find for the Creator update (french site https://www.epson.fr/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/faq/7830)
Imprimante logiciel: Merci d'utiliser v1.34 or later
Epson Scan logiciel: Merci d'utiliser v3.782 or later
but I can only download 1.33 ...
"On peut user de tout mais sans en abuser" Bisounours, Arfy
Tuesday, May 9, 2017 1:37 PM
After some tests, Epson told me my printer isn't compatible with W10 Creator ...
I asked them for a new driver release date and I'll edit this post after reply
Update: reply in french
Cher M. BORSCHNECK, Merci d’avoir contacté le service e-mail d’EPSON.On n'a pas encore de date de sortie des nouveaux pilotes.Vérifiez sur le site régulièrement afin de vérifier l'ajout de nouveaux pilotes-
Translation: no release date for the moment for new drivers, please check (by yourself) if they are released ...
"On peut user de tout mais sans en abuser" Bisounours, Arfy
Thursday, May 11, 2017 10:00 AM
I have an Epson Workforce WF-3620 and since installing the Windows 10 Creators Update experienced the same issue of a continuously growing commit charge, which turned out to be released when killing splwow64.exe. So I can confirm the diagnosis.
Kind regards,
Gerke.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017 7:24 AM
For info: another Epson printer has also the problem: Workforce WF-7620DTWF
From the case I openned (in French) in answers.microsoft.com: https://answers.microsoft.com/fr-fr/windows/forum/windows_10-performance/windows-10-depuis-la-maj-1703-jai-mon-syst%C3%A8me/a00975aa-75be-49d6-8e79-74a74da52513
I updated my support's ticket on Epson (by mail) with these printers.
"On peut user de tout mais sans en abuser" Bisounours, Arfy
Wednesday, May 17, 2017 6:32 PM
Gerke
My Workaround as listed above as the answer should work for you too.
Jozz
Wednesday, June 14, 2017 10:02 PM
Or just uninstall all the Epson bloatware drivers and software and add the printer via the "Printers and Devices" settings
OK you dont get all the options related to Epson, but you can print/scan/copy until Epson sort out their software
Matt
Thursday, June 22, 2017 2:05 PM | 1 vote
It's not just Epson.
I can confirm the same issue with HP Office-jet 4632.
Killing spoolsv.exe that starts up splwow64.exe and then killing splwow64.exe solved (temporary, until i need to print something) the problem.
Thursday, July 27, 2017 6:50 AM
Since my return from holidays it seems the problem was solved for me ...
I suppose my W10 got some updates.
For you ?
"On peut user de tout mais sans en abuser" Bisounours, Arfy
Saturday, July 29, 2017 7:40 AM
At my case problems was architect manager from adobe. Same there that process exlorer did not give any idication that it eats some how more memory than other but when I killed it Committed dropped from 82GB to 20GB