ios5 update failed and restore failed

Has anyone found a solution to this?

I work for a small school in Japan. We were donated ipad2s for our students, but all of them are running ios4 which does not allow us to download any of the apps we need to use for teaching. So, I attempted to update the ipad, but itunes said it required a restore. So, I attempted to restore it. Now it is stuck in the restore mode, and apple will not recognize the ipad.

Our school does not have the funds to buy new ipads nor to get them fixed at the store.

Does anyone have a solution to this problem?

Yes- it is connected directly to itunes.

Yes- itunes is recently downloaded with all recent updates

We have tried it on multiple computer with multi ipads and the same thing occurs. (all PC computers by thinkpad)

I even created a new apple account specifically for the school and connected that to itunes.

Any help would be much appreciated, by the staff and the students.

Thank you!