My T5500 T60 Win7 32bit usually cant see USB-connected phone

[Muse]

Most annoying because this is my most used computer on my network. I have a Nokia Lumia 520 Windows Phone 8.1 smartphone and most of the time when I plug it into this laptop it doesn't show up in Windows Explorer. I've tried different cords, different USB ports, hitting F5, Windows Help is no help at all (as always), it just says it will see all USB connected devices.

I want to get a connection so I can do things like copy JPGs from the phone to my computer or network or copy MP3's from the network to the phone.

Many times it shows up. I don't know the whys and wherefores.

What can I try short of reverting to a really old version of Windows?

[RealBlackStuff]

Only this morning I tried the Registry solution from here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/arc ... title.aspx
I have an external HD with eSATA that I wanted to connect to my PC's USB3.0 port, using a proper eSATA-to-USB3 cable.
The drive was not detected in Windows 7 (32-bit) Explorer, but showed up as a USB Mass Storage Device in Device Manager.
It stated it had 0 space...
After applying above Registry-trick I unplugged/replugged the drive, and everything has been hunky-dory since.
Worth trying I'd say...

[Muse]

I'd been using ~6 foot cables that I bought cheap in a bunch. They were working, well, a lot of the time. This morning I tried a ~1 foot cable I had and the machine saw the phone. Don't know if that will continue. If not, I'll try that registry thing. Thanks.