There's several reasons why even a powered USB hub won't work. In Frodo's case it might just be a lemon. For older ones like the 15 year old Xanax mentioned the power supply is the main suspect. Electronic components start to degrade after a decade and in case of a tiny power supply/charger the capacitors may not be of the highest quality to start with. Poor ventilation around them shortens their life quite dramatically - and isn't it convenient to hide them into a cable management box that will keep all excess heat inside?!?
The blue USB connectors are a sign of USB 3 which can deliver almost twice the power compared to the more traditional USB 2. Some motherboard manufacturers also have red ones which are basically the same as the blue ones but may provide charging power even when the computer is shut down. Bear in mind, though, that adjacent slots in reality are just one USB split into two. For data transfer they act as two but they share the very same limited power resources.
Regarding powered USB hubs, there may be ones that don't add much power - a single ampere split into four is actually the same as that of a split USB 2 port!
