Intel Chipset + Windows 7 Blocking iPhone Sync?

It's yet another Windows 7 problem, but at least the new Microsoft OS is not the only common factor in this issue. Some iPhone users are having troubling syncing with iTunes, but besides Windows 7, another common factor is they they are all using computers with an Intel P55 Express Chipset.

The affected users are ironically discussing the problem on the Apple support forums. One thing that seems to have worked for some is disabling Power Management for the USB root hub on the system that an iPhone is connected to.

The exact steps seemed to be:

Start / Control Panel / System / Device Manager
View -> Devices By Connection
Click arrow next to ACPI x64-based PC
Click arrow next to Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
Click the arrow next to PCI bus
Click the arrows to expand "USB" related HW
Right click on USB Root Hub / Properties / Power Management
Uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power"

On the other hand, this didn't work for all. Some tried getting a PCI-based USB card. Some tried a downgrade to an earlier version of iTunes. Nothing has worked consistently.

One thing has been fairly consistent: quite a few people throwing up their hands and saying they might re-consider the Mac.