splwow64.exe casuing lockups?

[dc9mm3]

System is Windows 7 home premium 64 bit. Pentium Q6600 4 gig ram C drive is SSD intel 80 gig.

Having temporary "notresponding" hangs when i try to print from either Word or Photoshop or Qimage programs. I ran resource monitor and it shows the program "not responding" for a while. It locks program up for about 30 to 60 seconds then it starts working again. I took 2 differant screen grabs when this happend with resource monitor running. In all cases it shows the splwow64.exe is causing the hang up BUT what to do about it?? Link to screen shots below
It seems the programs are waiting for this splwow64.exe file to do something which is really slowing my systme to a hault until it gets by this.


"http://mysite.verizon.net/vze11qgwp/error.jpg"

"http://mysite.verizon.net/vze11qgwp/error2.jpg"

 

[ViRGE]

splwow64 is part of Windows 32-bit On Windows 64-bi, the translation layer used to run 32bit applications on 64bit versions of Windows. In this case that's the print driver for letting 32bit applications print.

Have you installed any printers lately? I would start with removing any printers and seeing if that resolves the issue.

 

[dc9mm3]

No i have been using the same Epson R1800 printer since i installed windows 7. I did try removing the print driver and downloading latest driver from epson which was the same one i allready had and installed new print driver but same exact problem. I have been trying to print from Photoshop 32 bit, I will try to print from photoshop 64 bit which is also installed on computer. I generally use the 32 bit version of photoshop because my plugin programs dont run on the 64 but version of photoshop. But i would like to figure out why its hanging in the first place. Can i use the win 7 OS disk and install a new splwow64.exe file? If so iam not sure how to do this though.

 

[ViRGE]

It's possible that a WoW64 file is corrupt, but I sincerely doubt it.

The problem with unpacking anything from the original disc is that it runs the risk of being an old file that was replaced in a Windows Update. So if you have to go that far, I would start from scratch.

 

[dc9mm3]

When you say start from scatch do you mean reload windows? How about reloading windows over itself? or do a repair install? Or do you mean a full reinstall Format and start from scratch. Thats alot of work if i can avoid it i sure would like too!!

 

[ViRGE]

I always do a format & reinstall. I haven't looked in to the options of overwriting a Win7 install.

 

[dc9mm3]

Yes me too. I usually doa format and reinstall. If i end up doing that i will make a copy of the c drive after all programs installed so if it happens again it will be easy to start over.

Oh i did find this exact problem on Microsofts web page and a hot fix for it BUT^ its for Vista 64 bit. I tried to do it anyways but it said hotfix is for another OS and wouldnt run. So this isnt new for microsoft but no fix for win 7, at least yet.

Here it is at microsoft
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941962/en-us

 

[ViRGE]

That's an old hotfix. Anything from it would have been rolled in to Vista SP1 and all further Windows versions.

 

[dc9mm3]

Yea i realized this after i looked it over more closley. But it descibes my problem to a tee. Looks like iam stuck . Iam going to try a restore but if that doesnt work i will reformatt and start over. This time i will make a drive image of the drive after i get it all up and running in case this happens again. Then it will be alot less work to start over. A friend of mine said i should try in a command box with adminstrator privilage to run sfc /scannow which i did but it found no problems.