Why does my HP laptop hang or freeze?

HP Printer Help. Please?

• I have an HP Officejet J3680 All-in-One. I have it connected to my Dell Studio using 10-15 foot long USB cable. It is plugged into a 4-way USB hub, which is plugged into my computer. I have been having trouble today with printing things. It will print part of the page (about 1/3 or less) then it will just freeze, and an HP window will come up, saying that the printer is "offline" and there is a button that says "fix it". I have tried fixing it this way several times. It still will not work. After this happens, I notice that CPU is being used by a process called "spoolsv.exe" in my task manager. This process uses anywhere from 20% of my CPU to 80% of my CPU. And the thing is that it doesn't go away even after an hour, unless I kill the process manually or shut down my computer. I have tried completely uninstalling every piece of HP software from my computer, restarting my PC, then re downloading the software, and reinstalling it. After I tried this, I still have the problem. I have managed to get 2 whole pages to print since all this began to happen, and I imagine that it is just coincidence that those pages printed. I have used this printer many times before on this same exact computer. No new cables, hardware, or anything. I have always had the USB hub inbetween the printer and my laptop also. Also, my girlfriend uses this same printer (we literally share the same printer) on her laptop, and it prints just fine. No problems at all. She uses the same exact cable and everything. My OS is Windows 7. Her OS is Windows Vista. But as I have said, this printer has worked is the very recent past, on BOTH of our computer with no problems, and no significant changes since then. I also wanted to know, Could my USB hub be bad? Before you say anything, I have tried plugging the printer directly into my laptop, with the same end result. However, I have my wireless mouse plugged into the HUB and my printer as well. And whenever I go to turn on the printer or to print something, the wireless mouse no longer will move the cursor on the screen. But my PC isn't frozen because I can use the touchpad at the same time to move the cursor just fine. I have only had this problem since the printing problem started. The mouse didn't always do this. Does this mean my HUB is bad, or could the printer just be consuming all the USB port's bandwidth because of whatever "error" is going on. Also, when my printer is plugged into the HUB and turned on, I hear a lot of the "da do" sound that sounds usually when you plug in, or unplug, a USB device. But I will hear this sound about 20 times within 2 minutes, after the printer is turned on and plugged in, and I am not touching the plug or anything, or turned it on and off or anything. Please help me. I am at a loss of what to do. ANY suggestions would be helpful. PLEASE. THANK YOU.

• Answer:

  If this USB hub doesn't have a power adapter attached to it, you're most likely drawing too much electricity (or resources) from all of the devices attached to it. You'll need to either buy a USB hub that can provide it's own electricity (one that has a power cable that plugs into the wall, or one that is more substantial) or you'll need to plug the printer directly into the back of the computer and make room for it. It's certainly possible that your USB hub is going bad as well, and if it worked in the past, and suddenly doesn't work now that's probably the cause of your issue. The quickest way to find out would be to simply plug the printer into the back of your computer (directly) and see how that works. I personally don't suggest plugging printers into USB hubs because of the symptoms you've listed. Hope this helps!