John,
Apologies that I can't offer a simple fix here but USB tends to be a bit of a black art mainly due to the software drivers used. I had a recent USB problem which was due to the order the devices powered up in for example.
If the laptop is using Windows, I'd tend to try the add hardware wizard (from the control panel) to see if Windows spots anything missing & asks you to reinstall the drivers.
I'd also suggest trying the hub & mouse on another PC if that is at all possible, just to rule out the laptop USB driver software
BTW - is the wireless mouse one of the Microsoft branded devices? It would be useful to know what devices you're trying to configure