Coming late to this, but echo what the others have said.
I've found that "cheap" powered hubs don't work with some peripherals, whereas a decent quality one is fine. My laptop drops onto two docking stations, one in each house, and there is a powered hub on each with keyboard, mouse, backup hard drive, camera connector, iPhone connector, and a couple of spare slots.
I started out with 7-port flashing-lights Hong Kong cheapo hubs, and had all sorts of problems. I ditched those for PlusCom 7-port and all works well.
The only device that objects to the hubs is the Vodafone dongle: that connects direct to the laptop via a USB extension lead.