The iPod itself seems to run fine and function as its supposed to, but when I connect to my windows xp pro computer it isn't recognized until a couple of minutes have gone by. itunes then says its not formatted for windows and to restore. this is and endless cycle and luckily nothing important was on there that wasn't in itunes to begin with... Its a 5th gen ipod video black 30 GB. I've had it since about 2006, so its been good but I don't have money for a new one. Battery isn't what it used to be but I can still watch about one movie or around 8 hours of audio, and thats it... I have restored 2 times already. 1st time was before I updated itunes and switched usb ports and cables. 2nd time was after I had tried most all of the troubleshooting that applied to me on apple's website. Thanks for help in advance!
New - Did you cannect to a different computer than the one 'you are supposed to use'? Apparently there is a new security feature that prevents you from conecting to any computer after you connect to a 'forgine' computer. It is unclear if you actually have to access it or if even a charge up will activate the security routine. No need to change the battery! Hopefully it is a bad version of itunes that had just been installed. Otherwise it it the hardware. I would not try to fix it unless you change the battery. That might do it. There have been others with the same complaint in the last few months. It also might be the connector. Apple has been making the ipods to wear out in about 2 years. One of their tricks is to make the metal on the female part of the connections paper thin so they wear out. They shave off metal on the female end so you can't see the problem and it is on the ipod end. Buying a new cable will not fix these problems. I bought my wife a refurbished 16g Sansa View for 65 USD. It will take a 16g memory card if 16g is not enough for you. It is a VERY nice unit. If it still charges I wouldn't do anything.
I haven't been on here for a while sorry but thanks for your replies. I have gotten it to sync a few times since I posted and it seems intermittent... I agree about it not being a battery and it may be the connector on the ipod itself. But I'm inclined to think that it is the software. I upgraded it and it didn't fix it though... So now I'm at a loss for what to do. I guess I'll just have to wait until the 64gb touch comes out, which I plan on getting as soon as it hits shelves. lol I'll try and get a magnifying glass and see if the connector looks worn to where it would cause a problem. I do use it in my truck a lot and there is an adapter for my stereo that charges and plays with the pioneer cd deck. I use it on this setup almost daily... We have 2 other ipods in the family that work fine and mine is the oldest one... I hate to say it but I think its on its last leg... I doubt there's an easy way to replace this connector and who knows where I'd get one. If you know of any way let me know. Thanks again everyone.
ebay. The fix might be easier than you would think. The problem with ipods is the 4-5 yr old ones last about 4-5 years of heavy use. The new ones aare built to fail 6 month after the warentee expires +/- 6 months. If it is over a year old it could go anytime. In my house the 4 and 5 year old ipods still work but the wheels are 'funky', they don't always do what they should do. The 4 yr old nano has had extreme use. I have work hardened 2 very nice ear buds till the wires were stiff on top of wearing out the factory issued ear buds. I use it daily. Then I bought a Zune. That is OK. Nice hardware but the software was created in hell. Then I bought 2 Sansas. Up to now I would only buy Sansas. They are cheap and better, more robust product than the ipods or Zune. They have no security routines so you are free to move music on and off the player as you see fit. You can use file explored to move the music around. What is real nice is they play most music formats. They will not play a shn file but they will play oggs, flacs and ape files.
