Rebellious iPhone (Error 0xE8000001)

Question

I've been searching through a few threads discussing this issue, and there doesn't seem to be a definite answer yet. Here's this issue:
Issue:
My iPhone does not want to stay connected to my computer for more than 20-30 minutes at a time. Which is a problem, because sometimes I wake to find that my battery was not charging overnight like it should have. I get one of two error messages:
http://www.liberateart.com/error1.png
http://www.liberateart.com/error2.png (Unknown Error 0xE8000001)
*What I Know*
Searching for answers, I've heard this error is causes by USB ports. I have a brand new 20" iMac 2.4, with three USB 2.0 ports. I've tried every port (even the ones on my keyboard, which I know you're not supposed to do, but no luck), and I still get it disconnecting.
*What I've Tried*
Plugging it into every USB port and seeing if it does the same thing. Yep, every single one.
Restoring the iPhone (twice actually).
Reinstalled iTunes.
Updated all my software.
*What I Have*
iMac (Late 2007) 20" 2.4 Intel Core Duo
OSX 10.5.2
iPhone 1.1.4
iTunes 7.6.1
No USB Hubs
Anyone have any thoughts was might be causing this, or any possible solutions? My last resort is to do a clean erase and install, but I'm dreading to do it. If it's hardware, I don't want to end up with the same error message after doing a clean erase and install.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Answer 1

This has happened to me as well with both my iPhone and iPod Touch, let me show you a few things that may help resolve this problem, if one of these doesn't work try the next one, at least one should work!
1: In November last year I had iTunes (Version 7.5), what I did for my iPhone to work is I downgraded my iTunes version to Version 7.4 and it worked just fine. This is a link to download iTunes 7.4 if you like: http://itunes.brothersoft.com/itunes7.4, please note that it says for Windows Vista, XP, 2003, XP64, ignore that because I run Mac and it downloaded.
2: Go into "Activity Monitor" and force quit iTunes helper then replug the iphone in another USB drive and reopen iTunes.
3: Turn off your iPhone and restart your Mac, then once restarted go into iTunes and turn on your iPhone.
4: You don't have a hub, but if your friends do you could borrow it and that may work.
5: Delete then re-install iTunes Delete the following files:
The iTunes application (located in /Applications)
com.apple.iTunes.plist (from ~/Library/Preferences)
iTunes.pkg (from /Library/Receipts)
iTunesX.pkg (from /Library/Receipts)
After that re-install the LATEST version of iTunes which is found on the apple website.
I hoped this information helped!