USB 7-port hub (powered) crashing G5 isight 10.4.11 and g4 soccer ball 10.3.9 iMacs--why, how fix?

Question

It's definitely the usb 2.0 7-port hub--Staples brand, which they think is Belkin--hub several years old and fine until just recently, and happens with a brand new hub, too (also Staples, also believed to be Belkin).  The crash is a total freeze, usually during startup, restart, and shutdown but occasionally during app usage (esp. Safari).  Happens more when a jump drive is being accessed, but also happens when simply empty hub is on the system.  Get the slightly grey screen with small black box with message in 4 languages saying that I must restart my mac.  Have to hold down the power button for several seconds, or pull the power cord out, to get the mac to shut down, and then (if the hub is disconnected from the mac--direct usb hub connect, by the way, not from keyboard, and yes it has its own power supply--) it freezes during startup and needs the forced shutdown, followed by restart with forced shutdown a total of 3 times before all is good with the mac (with the hub no longer able to be used, though).  If the hub is left on the system, three-fourths of the restarts freeze and application freezes are more common.
I did Apple Hardware Test and I used TechTool Pro and Disk Utility (using a startup OS DVD) and there were no hardware problems found, and I zapped the PRAM, I reloaded the OS and updated to 10.4.11 three times, I wiped the hard disk and reloaded the OS and updated to 10.4.11 two times, and nothing fixes it if I keep using the hub.  I had a local person check out my G5 and clean the insides out and he found no hard disk, fans, dust, connections, etc. problems and could not reproduce my problem (he didn't attach anything but a mouse, keyboard, and ethernet cable for internet), but I reproduced it immediately with both the old and brand new hubs.
And I get the same problem with my G3 soccer ball iMac with OS 10.3.9 (or whatever the "newest" 10.3 version is), and that machine also had been just fine until recently.  But I don't know what's new that made this happen--was fine for several years until just recently.  My only changes recently have been the following, and while things got much worse in the last 4 weeks, there were some earlier problems with occasional freezes and jump drives not showing up on the hub prior to these updates:  update firmware for Apple Extreme base station, update MS Office 2004 with April 2011 updater (the former done via the G5, the latter done on both machines).
Oh, and my dock icon for widgets on the G5 has disappeared.
I haven't tried anything with my intel machine--it has a 4-port usb hub on it and has no problems--wife uses it.
I need at least 3 powered usb slots (printer, 16 Gb jump drive, wireless mouse) in addition to the keyboard slot, and sometimes I have 2 jump drives on the system at the same time and a usb headset.
Does anyone have any info on why this is happening, and more importantly, how to fix it?  Are there any USB hub makers that I should use instead of Belkin?  Is there some USB port firmware update I should get?  Will an intel Machine with 10.5 or 10.6 etc. fix this?  I'd like to avoid the expense of upgrading machines and OS for a few more months, at least.
Thanks.
[email protected] for any direct answers not wanted to be left here.

Answer 1

The gray screen with the box is a kernel panic.  When you restart, doesn't it tell you there was a problem and gives you the option of sending a report to Apple?  Near the top of that long report might be some clues as to what in particular caused the panic.