R40 - USB Problem

[Blood]

I'm having trouble with 2 IBM R40 2681-F7G laptops with Windows 2000 SP4 not properly picking up a Philips USB dictation device. Both laptops used to be able to pick these devices up without a problem for over six months but now I only get a USB Composite Device appear in device manager that says it doesn't work properly.

If I attach a powered USB hub to the laptops and attach the Philips device via the hub both laptops pick up the USB dictation device properly.

I have quite few other IBM Thinkpads of various models that use the same type of Philips dictation devices without any trouble, just seems odd that all of a sudden 2 IBM laptops of the same model from the same batch start playing up, and there both out of warranty.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestion?

Many thanks in advance.