"USB Device Not Recognized" - iPhone can't sync, restore, or charge!

Come on, somebody has to know something! It's been a day or so since I last synced my phone to my mac and then tonight I get home and try and it won't work. When I put it on the charger next to my bed it charges fine but it will not sync to my computer. I hard reset the phone, I repaired disk permissions, I repaired the disk, I reset the USB ports AND reinstalled iTunes. ***?

For Christs FU##$$ing sake, this is ridiculous. Since I have bought this bloody iPhone I have had nothing but bloody problems...I wish I bought a BlackBerry. In fact, anyone reading this....don't buy this piece of ****. First it was the droped calls or failed calls when ever I dialed a number, or a call came in it would get cut off. the it was the frozen screen...I couldn't get it to work all day. Now I get this USB device not recognized crap! Who the **** is running Apple now...Microsoft!!!??? I can't believe this ****.

And support closes at 9am....BS. I can't connect and there is no way I am going to uninstall iTunes v8 and try re oading different versions all day and night. This is ******** and makes me never want to buy another complex Apple product...stick with iPods... jujst the basic ones...not even the itouch that sounds liker ti is screwed up too. This is very frustrating...I have no clear simple way to fix this tonight, it is unacceptable and I have had enough with this ******* this. What's next?? How many more issues am I going to have with this thing...reliable? Reliabe, my ***.

I too was having this problem when trying to sync my iPhone 3G with my Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit.

This was quite frustrating, until I figured out a "work around". It's not pretty, but seems to work fairly reliably.

1) Vista on and ready.
2) Plug in cord to iPhone first
3) Turn on iPhone to home screen.
4) Plug in USB cord to Vista machine.
This is where I usually get the "USB Device Not Recognized" message.
5) unplug USB cord from Vista machine.
6) Open up control panel, go to System, Device Manager.
7) Click the + next to Universal Serial Bus controllers.
8) Right click the bottom most USB Root Hub (we'll try them all, but start from bottom).
9) Select Properties, Driver Tab, Uninstall.
At this point, Windows freaks out a bit, as it sees it's missing a USB Root Hub, and tries to reinstall it. After it pops up the message in your task bar that it's Found the USB Root Hub, give it a few seconds, and then goto step 3 above.

If this doesn't work with the bottom most USB Root Hub, try the next one, and keep trying plugging in and unplugging the iPhone after uninstalling different USB root hubs. It should work eventually.

I've never tried just uninstalling them all at once, and then plugging in the iPhone. This might work as well, and could be faster.

I also wonder if I see this error more, because I'm trying to plug my iPhone into a USB 1.1 port on my computer. Not sure, haven't tried USB 2.0 yet.

Xykon ... THANK YOU!

haha I've been searching google for hours trying to find a solution to my iPhone not being recognized by Vista ... going through all this advanced stuff and changing file names .. then i tried what you just said and perfect ... thank god i didn't go and restore my entire phone =]

Are you using a different USP cord?

If you are using an older USP cord from an iPod the connection might not work. Use only the USP cord that came with your iPhone.

I had the same problem and this fixed it.

This is happening to me. I'm on an Apple iBook too, so it's not an issue with Windows based machines. Yeah, I've dropped it twice in the life of the phone. From hip pocket height. (both times it was in its little holster and didn't seem to manifest any difficulties - i.e. it kept operating or playing music)
I plug the phone into my computer last week and it didn't recognize. Only after plugging and unplugging like 20 times did it finally synch. Now, a couple days later, nothing at all. Won't charge, won't load into iTunes. Nada. Nichts. I guess I need to dump iTunes 8 and put on an earlier version?

Naturally these things always happen on a sunday morning in the middle of a snowstorm. Heading to the Genius Bar is not an option.

Have you tried a hard reset? Or try to let the battery run out then try to plug it in (then again it might never turn on)

To reboot your phone press and hold the Home button and the Sleep button at the same time. Keep them held until you see the slider disappear and the the Apple logo show up. Then release both buttons.

Try the "genious" bar. Hope fully you still have warranty.

I am too having this issue today, iPhone will not recognize being charged or plugged into the pc.