iPad 2 won't sync with windows XP computer

Could not get my new iPad 2 to sync with my Older Dell windows XP desktop. Haven't had problems with my itouch 3G. Let me take this opportunity to say apple helpline was very helpful and responsive - yes I spoke to a real person. Anyhow I downloaded latest iTunes and that didn't seem to help at first, in fact once downloaded, I couldn't open iTunes any longer. I was, instructed to delete all previous iTunes files - in a certain order, prior to loading the new iTunes. I also tried plugging the USB connector into different ports in the back of the computer. That didn't work either. After closing the computer down a couple of times, iTunes was finally able to be opened - don't know why, but iPad 2 was not being recognized on iTunes. Finally I found that when I went into the device manager on my computer, where the various USB ports are displayed, one was designated as iPad and it had a yellow tag on it. A right click and driver update at this location fixed the problem and my iPad was now recognized. I'm sync'd and up and running with my iPad 2. By the way, I have XP service pack 2. Apple was instructing me to update to SP3, but my computer just would not allow me to do so.