iPod problems.
 

To all you technical peoples out there, I have a problem. My new mini-iPod arrived yesterday and after finally getting over the sheer excitement (it has my name on the back for Gods sake!) I loaded the disk and got the program and thought everything would be happyhappy from there on.

I was wrong.

For some reason, my iPod works fine, but every time I go to load the program, nothing happens. Nothing at all. This prompted my friend to run a spyware and virus check, which I was thankful for considering my computer is so corrupt we should burn it at the stake. After all that finished, he said the program was more likely to work now. It hasn't.

Any help or advice would be appreciated, as I am completely technology illiterate and I have no idea where to start looking for the cause of the problem.

As a side note: I've already uninstalled and reinstalled the program from the disk.

Before I begin: congrats on the iPod, Rai! Those things are awesome!

Now, would you happen to have Apple iTunes installed? iTunes is the only music-type program an iPod is compatible with, so MusicMatch and Windows Media Player won't cut it.

RealPlayer is also compatible, but Real sucks. Link to iTunes for Windows: http://www.download.com/iTunes-for-W...-10295458.html

Did you follow the install instructions exactly? Sometimes plugging it in when you aren't supposed to screws up the process.

Its possible that to move music onto the iPod, you just need to open it up in My Computer as though its a normal removable HD. This is what I have to do with my iHP-120. I'm not familar with iPods, though.

Ack, what version of Windows are you running? If its old, it might not have plug-and-play functionality for removable HDs.

When you say "the program", do you mean iTunes, or what?

If that is the case, and you cannot get iTunes to run, there are a few options for you. First, you can download Winamp (www.winamp.com) and then find the plugin for it that allows you to write to the iPod using Winamp. I didn't like it quite as much as iTunes, but it does work.

Option 2 is to find a program called ephpod. I haven't used this, and I don't know where to find it. However, I have been told several times that it is very good.

One other little thing: You should enable your iPod for disk use. That way, Windows can use it as though it were a removeable hard drive. Its something you may never use, but it does come in handy.

I think that perhaps by 'load the program' she means run the program. Failure for the program to run could be a corrupt installation. To fix this, uninstall and then resintall (Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs). If that still doesn't work, download iTunes from one of the links above, its possible that the disk/file you're installing from is fubared. If that doesn't work, the problem isn't the program.

Do you have a software firewall running? If so, and if iTunes attempts to connect to the internet automatically, your firewall may be preventing it from running. (If this is the case, you'll have to add iTunes to your firewall's list of safe programs. This varies from program to program, but tends to be fairly intuitive).

Running the Mac version of iTunes on a Windows machine would cause a problem similar to the one you are having. I'm not even sure that it would install. Just in case, check and make sure you have the Windows version installed. Also, make sure you're installing for the correct version of Windows. I'm thinking, but I'm not entirely sure, that iTunes is compatable only with XP. If it is compatable with the other ones, make sure you're not installing the XP version onto an older version of Windows.

Ah, Chaos is right. iTunes(Win version) only works on Win 2000/XP machines.

Yes. iTunes is the program that comes with the iPod, what would be the use if it didn't? And I have XP.

Do you have a software firewall running? - No.

Did you follow the install instructions exactly? - They're not exactly hard to mess up. The program is ON my computer, it just doesn't work.

Also, when you plug the iPod in, does that dialog window come up asking you to update/restore the player (or has it already before and stopped doing so since)? - hasn't done that.

Lastly, can you open iTunes independently ever, and the problem only arises when you plug in the player and it fails to launch iTunes automatically? - I only loaded the disk yesterday. The program does not work. At all. Nadda.

(I'm sure you/other customers have reasons for not wanting the larger iPod). - I got it because it was cute. And pink. And my friend bought it for me so I didn't need to pay a penny.

Have you attempted to install iTunes from another source besides your disk?

Have you tried browsing around the disk's file contents to see if you can find the answer to your problems?

It's all done now. Thanks for the help.