It is a driver issue I believe. You can try installing the naked drivers or go to the device manager in your control panel the nexus should have a yellow exclamation point right click and manually update the driver. If you did install the naked drivers I think it will be listed as such otherwise I think they are dated 11/25/2011 choose those and you should be good to go.

 

If you can't seen an exclamation point look for the nexus or unknown android device and see if you can manually update. I don't think starting over will change anything unless you change something with the CPU.

 

I don't know if there will be an easier method in the future.

Did you install the naked drivers? If you chose the naked drivers or the 11/25/2011 drivers it should work. Are you using a USB 3.0 port? SA had some issues using a USB 3.0 port so you may have better luck with a USB 2.0 port.

 

I don't like messing with adb and drivers, etc. either. There is a much easier way to unlock the bootloader and root the GNex on Android Central using Superboot.

 

Here's a link:

Link

 

That method still requires the use of fastboot to unlock the bootloader

 

Ah, so it does, but you don't have to mess with downloading and installing the SDK and adb.

 

Yeah getting the drivers set up is the worst part glad it is working for you