Windows Image Acquisition High CPU & Disk usage

The reason behind the issue could either be a problem with the hardware or the drivers. If you face issues with the WIA process, here is what you can do to resolve the issue on your Windows computer:

1] Restart Windows Image Acquisition Service

Open the Service Manager and locate the Windows Image Acquisition Service. If the service Status is blank, right-click on it and select Start. If the service Status is Running, right-click on it and select Restart. Check if this makes the problem go away.

2] Run SFC Scan

Running the System File Checker would be helpful in replacing missing and corrupt system files which could have caused the issue. Running SFC at boot time is better still!

3] Disconnect & reconnect imaging hardware, update or reinstall its drivers

It might be probable that the hardware calling upon the Windows Image Acquisition service is problematic. In such a case, we could try to disconnect and reconnect your imaging hardware like printers, scanners, cameras. You could also update or reinstall its drivers. Boot in Clean Boot State, and you could find the problematic hardware by hit and trial method, and it could be tested with another system. If the hardware works fine with other computers, try updating its drivers by downloading them from the manufacturer’s website. You should also ensure that all your device drivers are updated to their latest versions.

4] Update the Graphics drivers

If updating the drivers of the potentially problematic hardware didn’t work, you could consider updating the Graphics Drivers of the system. Type devmgmt.msc in search box and press Enter to open the Device Manager. Expand the list for Display Adapters. Right-click on each driver one by one and select Update driver. Restart the system.

Let us know if anything here helped you fix the high Disk & CPU usage issue.

Can I disable Windows Image Acquisition Service?

Windows Image Acquisition Service is the still image acquisition platform in the Windows family of operating systems. If you don’t use a camera or scanner with your computer, you can Disable this service – but the better option would be to set it to Manual.