i have an ipod mini and a sony vaio laptop running windows xp, with two usb sockets. for the first few months the computer and the ipod interacted happily; then one day i plugged in the ipod and i got a "this usb device is malfunctioning" error. i eventually figured out that a network drive was mapped to the same letter as the ipod; once i disconnected the network drive, all was fine. it then happened another time, when i'd had a digital camera hooked up to usb, and failed to dismount it properly.
then it started to happen more and more often, without any other drives being involved. for a while, a fix was to mount a network drive as H:, then disconnect, then connect the ipod. then that stopped working, but i figured out that connecting then disconnecting a usb flash drive worked as well. then neither of those worked, but if i plugged in colette's ipod shuffle first, then my mini, that worked ok too. then the shuffle started coming up with the same errors, too, and i've managed to connect it about 1 time in 5 for the last couple of weeks, and have been completely unable to the ipod mini at all, no matter what other usb devices/network drives i assign where.
so, what can i do? i've done a lot of searching of the ipodlounge forums etc, and all the suggestions seem to be along the lines of the stuff i was doing with external drives etc, or suggest reinstalling windows xp. oh, and i've also repeatedly reset the ipod, put it in disc mode etc with no luck.
any ideas?? do i need to buy a firewire card? or a different mp3 player? (don't suggest buying a mac, i don't have the cash!).
― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)
Have you tried a differen iPod USB cable, my colleague had huge problems with his iPod until he reaplced the cable.
― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)
from now on i'm gonna start saying "get a pc" on every "please help me with my mac issue" thread.
― badass porcelain knives (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)
i actually haven't tried replacing the cable; i guess it's got to be worth a go. no doubt they will charge me a bomb for it though.
― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:09 (twenty years ago)
is your ipod still under warranty? you may get a free replacement.
― badass porcelain knives (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:10 (twenty years ago)
you don't need to get an apple one, there are fiver and less ones on eBay. You could always verify that it's not the iPod using my firewire cable.
― Ed (dali), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:11 (twenty years ago)
Getting firewire might work although I've no evidence to support this
― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)
jody - yes, it is, but unfortunately i bought it in the US and i live in the UK, which i imagine will be a problem.
ed - i don't have a firewire card? or rather, colette does, but the ipod doesn't like that much either (it connects, but won't write). but then i read somewhere that ipods don't like a lot of pc firewire cards anyway. i think my firewire cable is definitely fine because i can charge my ipod with it and the power adapter.
good point re ebay, the apple store want £15! will look into it.
― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 26 July 2005 13:15 (twenty years ago)