Comment 2 for bug 154787

That's interesting, I didn't know they were replacing the 802.11 stack... but I don't see why they'd rewrite any of the parts of code that deal with the USB end of things really - that being the point of modularity.
That said, I don't know much at all about USB and how it's handled in-kernel... I see from lsmod that the "usbcore" module is used by (among many others) zd1211rw, and although ehci_hcd is used by nothing, it clearly performs some vital functionality since removing it stops my USB keyboard from working.

I get the feeling that the problems I mentioned are related to usbcore and/or ehci_hcd, from the syslog messages. For example, the problem reappears after suspend and resume, with the following messages (I have to remove and reinsert the wireless stick):
[ 10.117198] hub 4-1:1.0: Cannot enable port 3. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
[ 13.470407] hub 4-1:1.0: Cannot enable port 3. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
[ 16.868962] hub 4-1:1.0: Cannot enable port 3. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
[ 19.822716] hub 4-1:1.0: Cannot enable port 3. Maybe the USB cable is bad?
[ 19.823960] usb 4-1.3: USB disconnect, address 5
[ 19.957738] usb 4-1.3: USB control request for firmware upload failed. Error number -19
[ 19.957811] usb 4-1.3: Could not upload firmware code uph. Error number -19
[ 19.957882] zd1211rw 4-1.3:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -19

regards,
Oisín