Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Friday I needlessly returned this product as defective because when I plugged it into the power adapter the individual port indicator LED's only lit for ports 2,3, and 4 when the corresponding button was depressed. I incorrectly assumed that the device was faulty and asked for an exchange which was thoughtfully overnighted to me. Imagine my dismay when exactly the same thing occurred with the replacement. I had not even bothered to connect the first unit to a USB port because the indicator LED for port 1 didn't light. This time I was curious to see if port 1 would even be recognized when the device was plugged into a USB port and a flash drive installed. I plugged the device into a USB port, depressed the button for port 1 and it's LED lit up. Apparently when connected to the power adapter alone the port 1 LED does not light up and unlike ports 2,3, and 4, only lights up when the device is connected to an active USB port on a powered up machine. It would be nice if that little tidbit of information was contained in a small explanatory note. It would have saved a great deal of time and frustration for both myself and the Amazon rep. I spoke to. Absent information to the contrary one would naturally expect all 4 ports to behave the same at all times. The manufacturers are making things needlessly difficult for themselves, their distributors and end users by omitting any helpful hints in their packaging. Further experimentation has revealed that port 1 does nor receive any power from the power adapter, only from the USB port it's connected to. One of the reasons I purchased a USB hub with a power adapter was so I could charge USB devices without having to have my computer powered up; examples being my Bluetooth headset for Dragon and a flash drive audio recorder. It's nice to be able to charge these devices without the computer running, just don't try and do it on port 1, it won't work.