SanDisk Cruzer Prevents iTunes from Syncing with iPhone 4

I am using a SanDisk Cruzer 32 GB thumbdrive on a HP Multimedia PC with Windows 8 Pro and plenty of memory and disk space.  I was able to backup my iPhone 4 with iOS 6.1 easily to iTunes 10.7.  My phone was hooked up to the PC via my USB hub and was charging.  When I placed the Cruzer in the USB hub, the Cruzer light began to flash as the drive communicated with the PC.  At the same time, my iPhone 4 gave a “chirp,” and the initial screen with the battery level appeared.  Then it went back to sleep.  After this, i was unable to backup my iPhone 4 to iTunes 10.7.  I get the following messages: (1) the PC cannot recognize the device that was connected, and (2) the iPhone 4 cannot cannot start a session with iTunes 10.7.  Whenever the phone is plugged into the PC and I plug the Cruzer into the USB hub, the same thing happens.  I tried deleting the driver for both devices, rebooting, and reinstalling the drivers.  However, nothing has worked.  Your help would be appreciated.

Does your system use something similar to this?

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-SanDisk-USB-Flash-Drives/Windows-7-Explorer-not-showing-drive-while-it-shows-in-computer/m-p/288370#M3912