I have had mixed luck with USB hubs. When they work at all, they work great, and I think that the extra boost of power is very helpful (I only use powered ones). Especially since I use mammoth old buckling spring boards that need a lot of juice.
However, I have had very bad luck with powered USB hubs, and probably half of the ones that I have bought have not worked. It seems to be more of a software issue than hardware, the indicator lights up and the device manager says "this device is working properly" but it just isn't.
Since they are cheap, I just ditch them and buy something new. I am not enough of a techie to try to figure it out.