An iphone has been detected but could not be identified

I downloaded the latest iTunes to my laptop. I had to install the mobile device portion manually in order for it to see my devices. Now it sees both my new iPhone 6+ with ios 8.1 and my iPhone5 ios6 (I can't upgrade this phone to 8.2 because I get a generic Unable to Install Update. An error occurred installing iOS 8.2.))

After identifying my iPhone (the icon appears) it will hang for about 5 minutes and then I get the message "An iPhone has been detected but could not be identified" So I have rebooted my laptop, both iphones, tried different usb ports, different sync cords, turned off the wireless. Nothing has worked.

I have spent about 5 hours trying to 1) get iTunes to recognize my iphones, 2) trying to upgrade my iPhone 5.

I want to:

1) backup my iPhone 5 on iTunes so I can restore it on my iPhone 6+.

but I will settle for

2) restoring a one month old icloud backup on my iPhone 6+ but again, I can't get iTunes to attach to my iPhone 6+

I'm thinking it's something to do with iTunes but I have uninstalled and installed it 5 times already today.

This is my 10th iPhone. Even though I have only owned this iPhone 6+ for 5 hours I'm thinking of returning it. I am so frustrated..

Thank you for any help you can provide.