iPhone problems with iTunes on Vista - does not come up as a device

I'm having a lot of difficulty syncing my iPhone with Vista on my laptop. It's never worked on this laptop. WHen I first got the phone and connected it it didn't work. I've had to use another pc which is really inconvenient. I've tried everything; reinstallations, drivers, temp files etc. I went to a genius bar at an Apple Store, even they didn't know what to do.

Maybe someone knows here. It comes up in My Computer but will never appear on iTunes for syncing.

I've tried everything from Apple Support.

Are there any other ideas I can try to get it to work?

Many thanks

Jon