virtualbox.org

Having a hub, hey? It still doesn't make toooo much sense, unless there is something really problematic with the chipset (highly doubt it). But at least I'm glad that testing more USB devices and failing, has led you to some digging. Would you mind posting that article/post/thread if you still have it?

Thank you for your offer. Been to LA already, years ago. Just think of it as you've already bought me a virtual one

I apologize. I shut everything down shortly after I posted that message, as I thought everything was working. The post I referred to was several years old and (as I recall) a bit off topic.

At any rate, my usbs via hubs turned out to be flaky, at best. Some of the time, they would work and sometimes they would not.

The following two issues together made me push myself to get a multi-boot system working on this box:
(which comes with a whole different set of problems)

1. usb did not work consistently.
2. lack of video support (video played over the top of EVERYTHING - even the context menu of the video player). Searching indicated that these are known problems with no resolution in the works.

I may still keep a VB instance of Ubuntu around, but it will not be for primary usage and I will avoid needing to connect usbs and watching video on it, if I do.