My iPhone 3G is no longer being "found" by iTunes - please help

Question

I am an advanced user, so this makes it even more baffling.
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) and I have the iPhone 3G (OS 4.1)running with iTunes 10.0.1 (x64). I have also now updated to the latest iTunes 10.1 but I am still having the same problem.
The issue bellow suddenly started about a week: For some reason, when I plug-in my iPhone, it is no longer recognized by iTunes. I have "removed" and "re-installed" iTunes (re-downloaded too) but to no avail.
I have tried plugging in my wife's iPod Touch into the same exact machine (my computer) and the same USB cable was used and her iPod Touch was found with no problems. I then go and plug in my iPhone (using the same USB cable) into her old Windows XP laptop and it is found without any problems. I have tried using her cable on my machine, but same problem persists. When I plug-in my iPhone, iTunes just locks-up. As soon as I remove the phone, iTunes unlocks itself.
One other thing that might be of help to someone to diagnose my problem: When I plug in my iPhone, I get the USB "found sound" via Windows 7 and then it is repeated about 10 seconds later.
Also I have noticed is that my iPhone is found by Windows 7 without any problems because I am able to see it and access it (the photos) via Windows Explorer. Also, as soon as my iPhone is plugged in, it recharges just fine.
What could be wrong? I only need to access iTunes so I can sync/backup/update the phone.
Please help with any and all suggestions.

Answer 1

Yesterday evening, I was finally in contact with Apple, and to make the long story short, they seem to have "fixed" the problem. It's complicated to write it all here, but I will try. The problem was that the somehow my updated Apple Device USB driver was not correctly installed!
So try this:
REMOVE exactly as it tells you here (in that particular order):
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923?viewlocale=en_US
Reboot and then make sure all is gone as the way it tells you on the previous link I wrote above.
Create a new Windows 7 USER ACCOUNT with Administrative power. Call it anything you want, but for now, I will call it MIKE
Reboot machine.
Login as the newly created user account (MIKE).
Re-install the X64 iTunes version. You don't need to reboot or start up iTunes.
PLUG IN the iPhone.
Then go to Control Panel / System / Device manager. Look under Porttable devices and you should find Apply iPhone. Click on the driver version. It should say 6.1.7600.16385 (Date 6/21/2006). Close that top window. Now con to the Universal Serial Bus controllers under System. When you open that, you should see the first one listed as: Apple Mobile Device USB driver. Select it. Then go to driver. If it does not say that it is: 6.0.9999.52 (dated 9/16/2010), you have the same issue that I had.
You must then select UPDATE driver / Browse my computer and then you need to point to a directory called:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers
or it may be inside:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers
What you will need to have is the file called: usbaapl64.sys
That is the file that was never used by my computer, and therefore, caused this non-finding of iPhone in iTunes.
I won't go into the full details, but it seems that somehow during one of the iTunes installations or updates, the file did not get placed in the right directory and somehow some bad data got written into the registry and therefore it never was installed during the future iTunes installations / updates. Although it seems like Apple guys helped me with my problem, I still have not heard a logical explanation of why it happened in the first place. My computer is 4 weeks old and was built and clean-installed from scratch. Everything worked for 3 days and then suddenly it just stopped.
After you are done with this, try starting iTunes with your phone plugged in (doesn't matter if you plug it in later). Hopefully you will see your iPhone!
If all is okay, exit iTunes and LOGOFF the the user (MIKE) that you just created.
Switch back to your real user. Then go and DELETE completely (all files, settings options on) the temporary user (MIKE) you created.
Restart the computer and hopefully, when you start-up your iTunes and plug in your iPhone, you will again see your iPhone.
I hope this helps you! Please let me know.