When a computer is having trouble with it's hardware it may have an overall effect by causing a slow computer or even causing freeze-ups
. Your PC's CPU has to direct any attached hardware what to do, when run, etc. This will include monitors, printers, mouse, keyboards etc.
For a printer and PC to work in conjunction, print software and drivers must be loaded onto the computer. If the printer's software gives a problem it may cause problems for the other aspects of the computer.
Recently I ran up on a good example of this situation. The computer giving trouble was attached to a combination printer, scanner, copier and fax unit. Because of this there was a "suite" of drivers loaded onto the computer to make all these different features functional. And here lies a problem... at least sometimes. It gets complicated.
The printer's program was not working correctly and had a pop-up asking for an update to be downloaded. The update would download but when it went to install it would kick-out and say it was unable to. There was in addition a Windows update that would not install properly that was actually part of a repair for the print driver from Windows.
Early on the problem could be fixed by turning off and on the computer or rebooting the printer and it would go back to working. But it got more and more difficult to get it to work as it should. The scanner part had totally stopped working with the pc saying it was not able to locate the unit for a scan even though it would still print OK.
We attempted to use updates from Windows and from the printer company but neither one of them could install so we moved on to the final choice. We completely un-installed (utilizing the Windows utility in Tools) and then re-installed the printer program software from the CD that originally came with it when it was new. But don't forget to remove all areas of the printer suite to begin with.