When Windows Vista starts two messages appear which interrupt the startup process. The first message informs that “Metadata monitor has stopped working. Problem event name APPCRASH. Application name: MtdAcq.exe. Application version: 5.0.8.0”. The second message which appears warns that “Spooler Subsystem App. stopped working and was closed. Problem event name: BEX. Application name: spoolsv.exe. Application version: 6.0.6002.18005”. I understand that the spooler is generally related to printing issues. Previously I had a Lexmark printer which was not compatible with Windows Vista and I needed to manually restart the print spooler every time I wanted to print a document. This printer has now been replaced with a new HP Deskjet 2560 which is Vista compatible, but I am wondering whether any files could remain which relate to the Lexmark and are causing this problem?

We will start by dealing with the crash relating to MtdAcq.exe. Before investigating this problem for a resolution we need to determine the purpose of this process, as often that will provide further information to assist in fixing the problem. It seems that the MtdAcq.exe process is called Metadata Monitor (as described in the full error report which appears when this process crashes). The purpose of this process is to monitor various folders on the computer for media files (such as MP3 files, etc.) which automatically adds these files into a media library on your computer. Presumably this is designed to make playing such media files more convenient, and the process can consolidate media files located in different folders on your computer into one central database allowing easy access and playing of such files. However, this is not a Windows process but is instead a third-party process which installs on the computer when you install a third-party media package. It seems that this can be bundled with various different software packages, but the most popular is Creative Mediasource (a program that appears to install as part of the installation of a Creative soundcard or device, such as an MP3 player). Users have commented that this is not an essential process, and therefore since it is not working we can undertake some corrective procedures to either fix the problem or remove the process from running at all.

In the first instance we will attempt to fix the problem through reinstalling the software which uses MtdAcq.exe. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and click “Uninstall a program” (or “Programs and Features” if you are viewing the Control Panel in Classic view). Look through the list of programs and check whether anything related to Creative Mediasource (or other related multimedia applications) are installed. If so, then we need to consider reinstalling those programs. Before going any further, make sure that you have the original installation media (e.g. CD) handy for the program so that they can be reinstalled. In fact, it may even be worthwhile to visit the Creative website and download the latest version of the software in case the problem being experienced is a known bug and an updated copy of the software resolves the problem. Once you have the latest version of the software to be reinstalled, then start by uninstalling the software through the Windows Vista Control Panel. Once that has completed, restart the computer to ensure that any components have been fully removed. Finally, once Windows has restarted you should reinstall the software. After the software is reinstalled, restart the computer and check whether the problem continues.

Should the reinstallation of the software not resolve the issue, then it is possible the software which you reinstalled is not responsible for the MtdAcq.exe process and thus the reinstallation did not remove and reinstall that particular component. In this case it will be a difficult process to determine the owner of that process without being in the front of the computer, so we will now consider ways to simply disable that process. It is likely that the process is not providing any functionality or features you require, since at the moment it is crashing on startup and not working anyway and your question did not mention anything about lost features of functionality. Therefore, I am assuming that we can simply disable this process from loading on startup without the risk of turning off something that you need. Go to the “Start” menu and in the Search box type “msconfig” (without the quotes) and click OK. The System Configuration Utility window will appear which allows us to disable processes from loading on Windows startup. In the window click the “Startup” tab. This will list all programs and processes which are loading on Windows startup. Look through the list and find the item which relates to the MtdAcq.exe process. Once found, disable (untick) that item which will prevent that process from loading on startup. Click OK to save and close. Restart the computer and the error message should no longer appear on startup. However, you may find that a message appears informing you that the computer is running in Selective Startup mode. This simply means that not all processes are loading on startup, as you have disabled one (or more) processes. In this case it is expected, because you have disabled the MtdAcq.exe process from loading on startup. You can safely dismiss this message and tick the box to not show that message again in the future.

We will now move onto your second question about the Spooler Subsystem error message that appears on startup. It is possible that the old Lexmark printer could have caused some kind of problem with the print spooler in Windows Vista , causing this message, although there could be many other reasons as it seems quite a few other users have experienced this same problem in Windows Vista. First, we need to check the print spooler settings in Windows. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “System and Maintenance” category, then open “Administrative Tools”. Open the “Services” control panel. This will show all services which load in Windows, which are background processes that perform system-level functions that do not require direct user interaction. In the list of services find the entry for “Print Spooler”. As you have been doing, we will first restart the print spooler to ensure that it is now running correctly. Right-click on the “Print Spooler” entry and select “Restart” (or alternatively, you may need to click “Start” if the print spooler is not currently running). A progress bar should appear indicating that the service is in the process of restarting. Once this has finished the print spooler should now be running, so you should be able to successfully print. However, we want to try and discover a more long-term solution to this problem which will stop the print spooler from crashing on Windows startup. Right-click on the “Print Spooler” service and select “Properties”. In the Properties window that appears, select the “General” tab. Make sure that the “Startup type” has been set to “Automatic”. Click the “Log On” tab and check that “Log on as” has been set as the “Local system account”. Finally, click the “Recovery” tab. Make sure that the “First failure” and “Second failure” options are both set to “Restart the Service”. You can leave “Subsequent failures” as “Take no action” because should the service fail to start twice, then it is likely that it will not be starting. Make sure that “Reset fail count after” is set to 1 day and “Restart service after” is set to 1 minute. Once you have verified all these settings, close the Print Spooler Properties then restart the computer and check whether the problem continues.

The next most likely cause of the problem are the printer ports which have been enabled for the printer. There are three types of printer protocols which are generally installed for a printer in Windows Vista: LPD, LPR, and Internet Printing Client. These are generally related to network printers and how print jobs can be submitted to network printers, but depending on the combination of protocols which are installed on your computer they can cause the exact issue which you are experiencing. We want LPD and LPR to be enabled, but want Internet Printing Client to be disabled. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open “Programs and Features”. On the left-hand side of the window click “Turn Windows features on or off”. Click the + (plus) sign next to Print Services and select (enable) LPD and LPR and deselect (disable) “Internet Printing Client”. Once this has been done, restart the computer and check whether the error has been cleared.

Be aware, some users have reported that these settings changes do not stick on the first attempt. Therefore, after the reboot it would be worthwhile going back into the Print Services settings and double-checking that the settings did correctly save. If you find that they did not, you may need to do the settings change in two steps. First, go into the Print Services and enable LPD and LPR (you will probably find that Internet Printing Client is already enabled – this is fine for the moment, so leave that enabled). Save the settings and restart the computer. Once the computer has restarted return to the Print Services and check that the settings are correctly saved. Assuming all is well, at this point disable Internet Printing Client and save the changes. This will require a reboot. When the computer is rebooting you should be able to tell whether the problem has been fixed, as hopefully the error will no longer appear on startup.

As a final test, it may be worthwhile completely uninstalling the printer and then reinstalling using the latest drivers. For a HP printer you should be able to find the latest drivers on the HP website at www.hp.com.au. Even though the error appearing is a Windows-related error, it is still possible that some conflict with the printer drivers could be causing the problem. Therefore, downloading and installing the latest printer drivers will hopefully go towards fixing this issue.

Contact me again if the above procedures do not fix the problems as we will need to complete some additional troubleshooting to find the root cause of the issue.