iPOD Frustration

[Gord]

My daughter finally informs me last night that her iPOD Shuffle is no longer recognized by iTunes when she plugs it into her laptop. Nor is it recognized when it is plugged into our desktop. I am thinking hardware failure. After only a year of ownership (my youngest is complaining that she can no longer "scroll back" with her Shuffle). I am not thinking too much of the iPOD robustness. But the problem solver in me says not to jump to conclusions.

First stop. User's Guide. Followed its directions. No luck. iPOD still not recognized. So I have now spent two nights working through the various restore instructions on Apple's website. Still no luck with anything. I am down to "conflicts with running applications" option. But that makes no sense to me. I check for software updates and sure enough, some innocuous little change two weeks ago. About the time the problems started. So I am currently restoring to a Windows XP synch point prior to that date and will retry.

But I fear that this will not make a difference. I am beginning to think this is a hardware issue....

[socalrob]

Have you added any computers to your ITunes account? You can only have 5 computers attached to an ITune account. Just a thought.

[TorqueMonsterMT-01]

Gord;
Because you have tried the laptop and the desktop, the problem is most likely with the iPod itself.

Here is a littel test you can try.

Plug the iPod into the usb port.

Go to "My Computer" and see if the device is recognized as a drive by the PC. If it is, you should see an additional drive in your list.

If the drive is not recognized, there is a hardware problem with your iPod. Which means it probably needs replacing.

If you can see the temporary drive, the iPod is recognized by the PC. In this case, you may need to update or reinstall drivers into the iPod itself.

To do this go to the apple site and select the iTunes + iPod tab. (or just click below)

http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Scroll down and look on the bottom left just below the stack of small pictures.
Select "Download iPod Software"

Follow the instructions to download and install the software to your PC.

Open the software on your PC and follow the instructions to update or re-install the iPod software.

You will have to reload the music to the iPod if you reinstall, but this might be the best option.

[fganger]

Everyone of the Shuffle's I bought for Christmas presents did the same. You just need to do the reset thing a couple of times and then install the latest download. Warning, all of the tunes on it will be erased.

Now I did mine on a Mac, doing it on a Windows machine is a bit more - but not much.

Frank

[supermotoC]

what they said - make sure you DL the latest versions of iTunes, AND the latest firmware updates for the ipod. Apple is upgrade crazy, and Microsoft is plain crazy. Wait until the new ones come out that are nearly all viewscreen, and touchscreen at that!

[Gord]

Torque - thanks for the very clear advice and directions. And thanks to all the others for your problem solving tips. Tried all advice. And did everything on Apple's support site (they are pretty well written problem solving instructions). They all pretty much eliminated the software as the cause of the problem.

But the clincher was: plug in my other daughter's iPOD and see if it is recognized by any of the iTunes on any of our computers! She wouldn't let me do it as I would have wiped out her tunes she claims (I am iPOD illiterate - I buy them for my kids, not for myself. XM Radio on the other hand....). So after she disappeared to watch TV, I grabbed it and plugged it in! Result? Recognized by all iTunes software on all our machines. So the problem was clearly hardware by this time.

Another thing I found interesting. On one of my computers running Windows XP Personal Edition, I managed to get a "USB Hardware Defect" error message. On computers running Windows XP Professional, I did not. I did a quick scan of the maintenance levels on each and they both are up to date for their respective versions. I scratch my head why error handling routines and messages would be different.

So today I went to Future Shop (where I bought both iPODs on March 2, 2005 - just over 1 year ago), and exchanged the Shuffle for an iPOD Nano. May not be the latest and greatest of iPOD technology, but it will do.

[socalrob]

Gord,

Please don't say you wiped out your daughter's tunes??? Hell has no fury like a 15 yo daughter.

My daughter swears that would happen to hers if I plug it into a different computer, but seems to me she would get them all back as soon as it was synched to her laptop.

[Gord]

Gord,

Please don't say you wiped out your daughter's tunes???

Of course I denied doing anything to her iPOD. Must be an operator error I said.

:icon_twisted: