MacBook bus problem with USB port expander

Ever since I bought a Belkin 4 port USB expander (from an Apple Store
a couple weeks ago), added 3 USB devices to it: 2 disks (1 Seagate,
1 Western Digital), and 1 HP C5280 printer (I have my Time Machine
backup disk (Seagate) on the other main port) I have had intermittent
problems (but getting worse) shutting my MacBook down and booting
where it hangs (either way).

I looked in /var/log/system.log, and the apparent smoking gun is:

system3.log:Apr 29 11:48:21 macintosh kernel[0]: USBF: 1293.331
AppleUSBEHCI[0x2a07000]::Found a transaction past the completion
deadline on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 5, EP: 4)

Seeing a bus error is when I realized it was probably the USB port
expander causing the problem.

When it hangs booting, I have found that pushing the on/off button and
holding it a short amount of time, not long enough to shut it off, it
sometimes will then continue to boot. When it hangs shutting down, I
don't think that works (but might), and I just hold the on/off button
until it shuts down.

Booting and shutdown behaves when I eject the two external disks before
shutdown, and unplug the port expander from the bus, and plug it in
again after booting, but I think this should be unnecessary.

Has anyone seen this? Is there any way to stop it? (e.g. is the Belkin
device Apple is selling somehow incompatible with the MacBook bus?

Thanks!
.

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