In regards to the 4 ports failing, I noticed the same issue with 2 of my 13 port hubs. I have found that it's actually a surface mount fuse that is the problem.

As a temporary solution see this image for the mod I did to both of mine to get them to work:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/54696378/Keepers/USBPCBMod.jpg

After a continuity test I found that one fuse did not reset, after bridging the connection the ports came back to life.

As you can see by the traces on the PCB that one fuse links up to 4 ports where as the other 3 fuses are linked to 3 ports each.

We are in the process of getting the issue resolved though for the time being this mod has allowed my BEs to run for days without any further issues.