Comment 491 for bug 88746

I had the same problem. I searched many forums and bug-reports, tried many advices like this
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1. Type the following in a terminal window:
         sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/usb-core-options
2. Add the following line to the usb-core-options file:
        options usbcore autosuspend=-1
3. Save your changes, and then type the following in a terminal window:
      sudo update-initramfs -u
4. Shutdown and power on your computer. (Don't use the restart option)
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and this
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Drop the following into /etc/udev/rules.d/81-usb_max_sectors.rules and make sure that the SUBSYSTEM line is in fact on one line and not broken into two.

# Set max_sectors to 128 for USB HDDs as the default 240 causes problems
#
SUBSYSTEM=="block", BUS=="usb", KERNEL=="sd*", RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo 128 > /sys/block/%k/device/max_sectors'"
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But nothing helped me, my external hard drive and mp3-player not worked properly (though flash drives and other USB-devices worked fine).
Few day ago I bought PCI 5-port USB 2.0 Host Controller based on VIA VT6212 (it is only 7-9 euro in Ukraine) and now all my devices work perfectly when I connect its to this controller.