Windows 7 - USB Connection - Windows & iTunes can't see ipod Touch

Question

Hello there,
I've gone through the 5 Rs, and tried associated articles there to see what's going on, but basically...
My iPod touch has stopped wanting to sync with my Windows PC. Over the past two months, I've found iTunes hangs when connecting the ipod touch (just freezes, can't move the window, and then 'frees up' after about 60 seconds.)
The iPod is connected okay - it's charging - it's just neither iTunes nor Windows spot it's connected.
I've tried a variety of ports, cables, etc. I've even reinstalled windows on my PC (drastic, I know, but I was going round in circles, and that's the only thing I didn't have left to do!)
One interesting thing; I can see in the Device Manager that when I plug it in, the Apple Mobile Device driver DOES show in the USB Devices area; so on some level, Windows is spotting it is there - it's almost like it's doing an internal dialogue.
"Right then - Apple Mobile Device Driver, done. USB is receiving power, so I'm charging. And now... talk to the disk system in Windows and iTunes itself.... Nah, I'd rather do nothing."
Any other suggestions and behaviours? I've looked into my security software (but this would only effect iTunes, not the Windows level, plus remember, the driver is spotted and starting - it just isn't going any further...)

Answer 1

I haven't installed that hotfix yet, since it hasn't failed again just yet - no doubt it'll do so tomorrow though grins
Without a word of lie, one of the things that used to get me wondering about the nVidia thing was intermittency of the various symptoms. The way that you're not getting trouble all the time is what is keeping me wondering about it for you.
When I was doing a lot more troubleshooting of them, the other things I'd be seeing a lot (that I can recall off the top of my head) would be device timeout messages, "disk could not be read or written to" messages, and occasional blue screens. But that was back in the early version iTunes 9.x days, so the messages might have changed up a bit.
(Most brand name PC models with nVidia chipsets started shipping with the hotfix preinstalled after a while, and manufacturers like HP shoved links to it on their drivers and downloads pages to catch shipped units without the preinstalled hotfix. So it's a lot rarer nowadays. Tends nowadays to only catch folks with custom systems, or folks who've done Windows reinstalls and haven't caught up again on the hotfixes they've lost.)