It is strange how some people cannot connect but others can. I have not had any issues connecting my phone. I plug my phone in and after a few seconds I get the Windows dialog box asking how I want to perform this action. I then select files/folders to view the phone's contents.
Exactly the same thing. I plug my S3 to my Win8 and it simply show the S3 in my drive list, where I can explore the card and storage. While little phone icon appear on my desktop's right hand bottom corner. If I were to click that, it instantly go into MediaEspesso mode, allowing me to work with media files, like video, photo and music. I didn't even bother to check whether it's a windows or Kies feature. I hard copy paste my content between phone and computers.
I have only installed Kies, no extra drivers of any kind, updated it number of times as it prompted the update message, and it works every single time. Same thing for my Mac Pro, Macbook pro and Alienware laptop.
I know this isn't of much help to you, me gloating over how happy I am with my connections. But I had the same case with My XP and Win 7 using Galaxy S2 and Note, for over a year.
And that apply now to my S3 and the Note 2
My only suspicion is, that there is a program or a driver on your end, that collides with your Phone. And that, might be tough to trouble shoot.
Perhaps get the Samsung USB drivers from XDA? See if it works for you?
I installed it 10min ago, just because I was setting up phone back up, using the new app for Win and Android, call CARBON, and for certain functionality, it said I might need it, but it worked just fine before and after I installed it, so I assume I didn't really need it.
Give it a go, maybe it will help you up.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1564104
best regards
Seba
