wanted to ask the experts about this problem I am having with my new hub.
It's a Cicero 7-port Hub, no drivers, just supposed to be pnp... right...

First off, I'm on a Dell laptop running Windows XP SP1.
The problem is two-fold:
About 80% of the time when I plug the hub in, it will be recognized as an Unknown USB device only. And of course it won't function that way. I've fooled around in Device Manager, troubleshooter (useless), but no luck.
The other 20% it will actually be recognized as a General Purpose Hub (yay!) and when I plug in a device, it will work. For about 5 minutes or less... Then I get the lovely Windows "Gong" sound and the device is no longer working. To be precise, the hub is no longer working. It still shows up as connected in Device Manager and there are no signs of problems. But no devices plugged into it are recognized, whether it be adding a new device or unplugging one. If at that point I unplug the hub, windows won't take any notice of it and still show it as being connected. Plugging it back in doesn't change anything. The only way to make windows understand that it's "gone" is by "Uninstall"ing it in Device Manager.

Is my Hub busted?

I read a post on here regarding this about and a gentleman had a problem getting it to recognize in Win2000 and someone suggested changing from ACPI to Standard PC. Done that, no change.

Any ideas from anyone?
I'd hate to have to return it...