I turn my computer and all the peripherals on/off with a master switch on my surge protector. Flip the switch, the computer boots up, the printer starts, the empeg lights up, so does the scanner, my wireless headphone transmitter, my cell phone charger, the Karma dock, the Panasonic camera battery charger, the charger for my electric razor, my speakers, and a 7-port externally powered USB hub. That surge protector power strip powers 12 different things, although not all of them are actively taking power at any given time (my electric razor, for instance, gets charged every couple of weeks, the cell phone every five or six days, the camera stuff just once in a while, etc.)

The latest addition was the USB hub, and it has caused a strange behavior.

If I flip the master switch with the USB input cable connected to the hub, everything powers up except the computer itself. It just sits there dead, fiddling with the power button on the front of the computer does nothing, nor the main switch on the back.

"Oh, no," I thought. "I've lost a power supply." But... simply unplugging the input cable to the new USB hub instantly starts the computer running, and after it boots up I can plug the cable back into the USB hub and everything works just fine.

This is peculiar behavior, is it not? The only outputs from the hub are a USB cable for an Olympus camera (not connected to the camera; and USB connections to my printer and to the empeg.

I haven't done any systematic trouble-shooting yet (first thing will be to unplug all the output cables from the hub and see what happens) but I am curious to know if anyone has any ideas right off the top that might account for this.

tanstaafl.