My apologies to my regular readers of this blog today. I need to head off into the realm of computer geek to help out fellow iPhone users who’ve upgraded either their phone or their computer in the last couple of weeks who ran a very annoying and troublesome syncing error.

The problem occurred for me more than a month ago, the morning we left for vacation, when I upgraded iTunes only to be greeted with an error after the upgrade that said:

“iTunes could not connect to this iPhone because an unknown error occurred (0xE8000065).”

So my search began for a fix.

It’s not that I haven’t run into syncing problems before – and a fix is usually a quick Google search away for the error code and a related solution found on the first page of results. I wasn’t so lucky this time – with a solution found in an area that very few were looking into.

The “blame game” began with the obvious (or most likely) players in the mix. That being iTunes or Windows 7. After getting a little more in depth the problem appeared to be narrowed down to 64 bit processors and more importantly the new P55 Intel chips that they run on. Patches and fixes were suggested but nothing appeared to work properly, and some solutions ended up causing even bigger problems or would actually slow systems down instead.

After researching the search results and the dates they were posted, the error has been extremely problematic for everyone involved dating back to late 2009. With so many having the same problem and posting their frustrations out on the world wide web for so long, any type of solution would be difficult to uncover at this point.

I even gave up for a time during the month due to some of the needless banter I was reading. I understand people get frustrated, but after the years of needless bashing I’ve seen the last couple of years from the travel industry and clueless anti-mlm folk, my tolerance levels are pretty much nonexistent these days. None of it contributes to a real solution people actually want or need.

But alas, iPhone’s are arguably the most popular smartphones on the market today. With so many phones out there a solution to this strange error would be found and resolved eventually.

Oddly enough, the problem was found in the P55 Express chipset’s USB controller. Newer PC’s with P55-equipped Core i5 / i7 chips and BIOS configuration couldn’t “talk” to the phone. Part of the solution came from those who bypassed the built in USB controller found on the chip for a more generic USB version. Other users were successful in solving the issue by deleting the iPodDevices.xml file from their iTunes folder, by disabling Bonjour or by turning on C-state capability in their BIOS.

While it worked for some, it wouldn’t for others. (Including myself.)

After pinpointing the culprit of the error (that being the Core i5 / i7 chips) I found an update from Dell that was released in the middle of the month. (July 13, 2010) Other motherboard manufactures who now install the Core i5 and i7 chips have also released BIOS updates to fix the problem. These manufactures include (and I have a link to for each download) Gigabyte, MSI and Asustek)

If you’re running a Dell machine like I am, I’d recommend downloading directly from Dell here.

Please note, there were two files associated with this chipset update from Dell, and I have no idea if both are required to fix the USB issue or not. I’m pleased however that the patch was extremely easy to install directly from the desktop, and there’s a noticeable difference in speed and processing time on the plus side.

Oh, and yes, it resolved my sync error with my iPhone once and for all. ;-P

With any luck, this post will find its way to the top of the search engines for other folks who have the same sync problem so they can resolve it in a matter of minutes instead of days like myself.

I’ve always joked about “Ain’t technology grand?” when things go awry. This problem was no joke however and far more problematic than any would have ever imagined.

Hope you find it quick and that it helps.

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Doug & Ronda Bauknight AKA: TravelPro Travel Agent / Networker Phone: 678.458.5812

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Tags: 0xE8000065, Intel, iPhone, iTunes, sync error

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under iPhone, iTunes, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.