possibly broken USB hub
 

I think the USB hub I installed in my PC last year may have gone bad, because there are at least two ports that nothing works in. Is there any way I can tell for sure if the hub is bad, some diagnostic program or piece of equipment I can get, or would I have to take the computer somewhere ($$$)?

When you plug a device into those ports, run 'dmesg' and see if there are any messages near the bottom explaining USB issues. Feel free to post them in this thread and I'd be happy to help you with it.