Gotcha of the Day: Galaxy SIII + USB - Not Recognized by Windows 7

Here's the deal. I connected my Galaxy SIII to my Windows 7 box by way of a USB cord. The laptop beeped and chirped, and then came up with the message:

(That's: USB Device Not Device Not Recognized)

This is especially strange, because I'd been connecting up the device and various laptops for the last few days without incident.

A few days earlier I had installed the Samsung Drivers which originally allowed me to connect the device and computer. My first thought: perhaps Windows "lost" these drivers and I needed to reinstall them? Crazy, but then again, so is Windows.

I installed the drivers again. That didn't fix anything.

I rebooted the phone. Again, didn't fix anything.

I rebooted the laptop. Again, didn't fix anything.

Out of desperation, I installed Samsung Kies, thinking maybe that would nudge the setup back to working. Alas, it didn't fix anything.

Then I got to thinking: what was I doing differently today that I hadn't been doing for the last few days. I know, I was using a different USB cable.

Surely, the USB cable isn't to blame? After all, it fits into both the computer and the phone. I know that Samsung would tell me to use the original cable that came with the phone. But that's just them being pedantic, right?

Apparently not. I retrieved the cable I had been using, and sure enough, the device was immediately recognized.

So there you have it. If you can't get your Galaxy S3 (or any random device) to be detected by Windows 7, step one should be to find a new (modern?) cable.