iPhone 5 won't connect to PC

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help me with this or if anyone has had the same problem. I've had my iPhone 5 for a few months now and it has been fine when connecting to my HP (windows 8) laptop for downloading photos and syncing to iTunes. However, only recently it has stopped connecting. The phone charges and "connects" yes but when I click on the device or go on import photos, it tells me there are none. Not only that but when I go onto iTunes it doesn't pick up my phone at all and won't sync. My iPhone is on ios 6 by the way; purely because I prefer it 🙂 My iPad mini that I got yesterday won't work either; it has the exact same problems and it has ios 7. Has anyone had this problem or know a way of fixing it?

Thanks x