by Hub I mean the two USB ports on the side of the Macbook, I don't have any thing else attached to the computer. I think you're second response is more relevant...I have a problem
Can I divert more power to the USB, or do anything to fix this?
First off you need to get the USB ports on the MacBook checked out to make sure they are actually outputting the specified power for a USB powered port which is 0.5A@5VDC- but if you can't or don't care to, two other solutions are below.
There is no way to add more power to them directly, but using a quality 4 or 7 port
powered hub (in other words with a power adapter that plugs in the wall) will often allow devices to work that may be drawing just over the current that the built in USB port can provide. Belkin hubs seem to have a little more available power at each port. Since your iPod works sometimes, that would seem to be the case- that it just needs very near the maximum that the onboard port can provide.
Now on the other hand if you just want to plug in the iPod and avoid the underpower problem and don't mind using
both USB ports, you can successfully use a USB "Y" cable which draws power from both USB ports which, assuming the USB ports are working ok, will eliminate the problem. An example of such a cable is
this one at Amazon.
