iPod vs. Vista....Help!

[shwankie]

So, I got a new Sony Vaio, which I love. Along with it came a new OS, Vista, which I (and apparently the rest of the world) detest. Unfortunately, I was unaware that Vista could do some Really Bad Things to your iPod, and now mine is "corrupted," and completely unresponsive.

This happened a few days ago, and Thaur was able to get it to reset (it won't for me, I have no idea why). I then downloaded all the patches, fixes, deleted temp files, etc. It was working fine again until this morning. I have done, I think, pretty much everything short of 1) reload iTunes and/or 2) see exactly how backwards-compatible this computer is and load Windows XP. I've heard some horror stories with that, even though this laptop is supposed to be compatible for it, but honestly it's tempting. I've found exactly nothing good about Vista, and a lot of bad.

So, my question is (assuming I can return my iPod once again to any kind of usable state), has anyone else solved this problem? If so, can you maybe walk me through it? I just spent enough on a new 4G iPod that I am going to be pretty (&!(&U! annoyed if I can't use it for anything, and I will have a meltdown without my podcasts.

Thanks!

[stePH]

Go back to XP.  I was still running Windows 98SE as late as 2004 or 2005 because I wasn't compelled to use XP until I had some program or another that wouldn't run under 98.  Considering that there was no adverse publicity then about XP like there currently is about Vista, I don't see moving to Vista any time soon.

Didn't know that Vista would trash iPods though.  Hope you can get it back up and running soon.

[eytanz]

I've been using my iPod on Vista-based systems for over a year now, with nary a problem. So I'm not sure what the issue is and I can't help.

But one thing you might want to do is to go to an Apple store and replace the iPod as long as you are under warranty. I don't know about the flash drive-based iPods, but my experience with the older HD based iPods is that about 25% of people I know (including myself) have their iPod die within a month of purchase and get it replaced. The guy at the Apple store told me quite explicitly that this is normal, and that replacing newish iPods is a very common thing for them.

As for Vista vs. XP - I listen to a lot of tech podcasts where this is a major topic of discussion, and the consensus seems to be that A - Vista isn't as bad as its reputation makes it out to be, and B - it's not particularly good either (by the way, stePH, you're absolutely wrong about there being no adverse publicity about XP in the early days. There was plenty of it, it had just failed to reach the mainstream media in the same way. XP only hit its stride whenl SP2 came out). My advice is that if you prefer XP, have installation disks available, and can afford to wipe your computer clean and reinstall it (*don't* try to downgrade without a clean install. Seriously. That way lies utter madness), do so. Otherwise, just go on with Vista.

[JoeFitz]

(*don't* try to downgrade without a clean install. Seriously. That way lies utter madness), do so. Otherwise, just go on with Vista.

Emphatic agreement. Do not even dare to try a MS install without low-level formatting and F-disk'ing the hard drive(s) into nothingness. G-disk if you've got it. Good luck.

[CGFxColONeill]

we had alot of trouble with my moms ipod on XP she connected it before she had itunes installed and my dad and I spend about 4 hrs trying to fix it from there ( did not help that she had a couple bad usb ports on her computer)

basically these are the things you can try
note each is a separate set of things so dont do all at once lol

1) hold the center button and play down till you get a reset ( you said this did not work?)
2) uninstall Itunes, reformat your IPod thought windows ( my computer-> removable disk insert letter here ( usually g, f etc)-> right click reformat), then unplug the Ipod, then reinstall Itunes. After that reconnect the IPod and format it to work in windows through Itunes.
you may also want to tell it to automatically run Itunes when you connect your IPod

that might work
also before you do that back up your Itunes library as that should allow you to just re import it once you get all that done but I am not 100% sure as I have not tried that yet
hope you are able to get it working
ONeill

[shwankie]

Initially, the reboot of the iPod didn't work. After I left it sit for a while (recommended on a website I came up wit), it finally did. I've had it set to automatically run iTunes whenever I connect my iPod, but I did end up reinstalling iTunes (what a pain, btw).

We'll see how it goes. Installing XP is probably something I won't do. One of the selling points of the Vaio is that it will run  XP (many other new laptops will not, apparently), but it's not recommended except as a last resort. Because this is still under warranty and I'd like to keep it that way, I'd rather not mess with the OS unless the computer itself becomes unusable.

For the moment, if this keeps happening, I'll likely end up using Thaur's computer for the iPod.

Some days, I hate technology. Thanks for all the help, guys, and I'll let you know how it goes.

[CGFxColONeill]

Some days, I hate technology.

Tech is great until it breaks

[Windup]

My experience suggests that in addition to being drastic, a "downgrade" to XP probably won't help.

I'm not sure I have an equivalent situation -- my Nano is Gen 3, I believe -- but I've used it across a workstation upgrade, which included a move from XP to Vista.  It's always been a little twitchy -- the iPod sometimes re-boots in the middle of a synch for no reason, and sometimes "hangs" when starting a podcast and has to be reset -- but it had those same problems with both OS's on both workstations.  This despite re-formatting the iPod several times, and going through multiple iTunes upgrades.

One thing that DID improve stability for me was organizing the podcasts into smart playlists in the iTunes library, then synching those playlists, rather than storing the playlists on the iPod and synching the podcasts.  I don't know why that made things run more smoothy, but it did. Though not completely trouble-free...

Good luck.

[wakela]

I'm guessing you don't live near an Apple store.  I took my wife's busted iPod in, and it was very easily and cheerfully replaced.  They even reset the 1 year warranty from the date of the replacement, so I had a whole year on the new one. 

You've tried the forums on the Apple site?

[jrderego]

My iPod corrupted on me too, (OS X user here), and this is how I restored it -

Put iPod in Disk Mode (steps at link), this wiped the contents of the iPod. Then i resynched it and it's worked fine every since.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1363

[wintermute]

If anyone has an old (as in, one that Apple aren't selling any more) iPod that doesn't work any more (sad iPod on boot up, broken screen, something like that), I've got an urge to play with the hardware, but really don't want to pay for a working one. Especially as it probably won't be working by the time I'm finished.

So, if anyone wants a few Earth Dollars for some dead hardware, let me know what you've got and what's wrong with it. Feel free to email me at wintermute115@gmail.com

[Tango Alpha Delta]

If anyone has an old (as in, one that Apple aren't selling any more) iPod that doesn't work any more (sad iPod on boot up, broken screen, something like that), I've got an urge to play with the hardware, but really don't want to pay for a working one. Especially as it probably won't be working by the time I'm finished.

So, if anyone wants a few Earth Dollars for some dead hardware, let me know what you've got and what's wrong with it. Feel free to email me at wintermute115@gmail.com

I was going to make a comment about you uploading pictures of your iPod carnage... and then realized that ought to be a Pseudopod flash piece!  Heh...

[Planish]

1) hold the center button and play down till you get a reset ( you said this did not work?)

That should be Center and MENU button at the same time, for about ten seconds. On my 2nd Gen Nano it reboots after showing a grey Apple logo.

[wintermute]

If anyone has an old (as in, one that Apple aren't selling any more) iPod that doesn't work any more (sad iPod on boot up, broken screen, something like that), I've got an urge to play with the hardware, but really don't want to pay for a working one. Especially as it probably won't be working by the time I'm finished.

So, if anyone wants a few Earth Dollars for some dead hardware, let me know what you've got and what's wrong with it. Feel free to email me at wintermute115@gmail.com

I was going to make a comment about you uploading pictures of your iPod carnage... and then realized that ought to be a Pseudopod flash piece!  Heh...

There will probably be photos. I joked with friends about turning one into a milk frother, but as they don't listen to Escape Pod, they didn't get the joke

[Russell Nash]

If anyone has an old (as in, one that Apple aren't selling any more) iPod that doesn't work any more (sad iPod on boot up, broken screen, something like that), I've got an urge to play with the hardware, but really don't want to pay for a working one. Especially as it probably won't be working by the time I'm finished.

So, if anyone wants a few Earth Dollars for some dead hardware, let me know what you've got and what's wrong with it. Feel free to email me at wintermute115@gmail.com

I was going to make a comment about you uploading pictures of your iPod carnage... and then realized that ought to be a Pseudopod flash piece!  Heh...

There will probably be photos. I joked with friends about turning one into a milk frother, but as they don't listen to Escape Pod, they didn't get the joke

Defective iPods are on ebay all of the time.

[wintermute]

Yeah, but I'd rather deal with people I have some small basis for trusting. Most of the broken iPods on eBay could easily just be the casing with no mainboard or controllers.

[eytanz]

Ack. The day after I posted on this thread my iPod started acting up on me. So far I've been able to solve the problems by restarting it, but I've needed to do that twice this week as opposed to once every 2-3 months previously.

So, wintermute, you might end up with another donation if things continue down their current path...

[Russell Nash]

Ack. The day after I posted on this thread my iPod started acting up on me. So far I've been able to solve the problems by restarting it, but I've needed to do that twice this week as opposed to once every 2-3 months previously.

So, wintermute, you might end up with another donation if things continue down their current path...

You sound like you'll just probably need to do a restore through iTunes.  I did it once and haven't had a problem in about a year.

[eytanz]

Ack. The day after I posted on this thread my iPod started acting up on me. So far I've been able to solve the problems by restarting it, but I've needed to do that twice this week as opposed to once every 2-3 months previously.

So, wintermute, you might end up with another donation if things continue down their current path...

You sound like you'll just probably need to do a restore through iTunes.  I did it once and haven't had a problem in about a year.

Yeah, I've done those before. Plus I'm going to be in New York in a few weeks and I can just replace it in the apple store once I'm there. But I'm really tempted to replace it by a competitor product and get the amount of apple products I own back down to the ideal zero.

[wintermute]

If you decide you don't want it, or you can't get it to work again, email me. Especially, let me know which model you have. That kind of information always comes in handy