Memory Leak in Spoolss.exe Causes Performance Degradation

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This article was previously published under Q183419

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SYMPTOMS

Over time, the Windows NT system responsiveness appears sluggish, and clients may report a gradual decrease in system performance.

By tracking the amount of Private Bytes for Spoolss.exe, it can be observed that, over time, it increases without decreasing. This is viewable using Windows NT Performance Monitor by choosing the following counter to monitor:

   Object: Process
   Instance: Spoolss.exe
   Counter: Private Bytes

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CAUSE

The spooler leaks memory from the heap until all system memory is exhausted.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

152734 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/152734/EN-US/ ) How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.

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