Hi. I have he same HP zd7050ea and had the same problem of heating. It seems that the problem is not from using directly your USB ports. The thing is that when you use it, the computer consume more energy than when it's not. So, I open my laptop and voilá: there were a lot of dirt at the lateral parts of the ventilation machine. I took it out and the machine doesn`t heat anymore.
-- Computer gets hotter if no USB port is used. https://launchpad.net/bugs/18691 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs