I bought a 30 Gig Ipod Photo 2 months ago and had been happy with it until last night. My PC won't recognize it (the error says "USB Equipment has malfunctioned" when I plug it into a known good USB port). A soft reset doesn't work. I tried to do a restore (wipes the Ipod clean, just like from the factory), however when I try to do that, I get an error that says "PC Can't mount Ipod". So I can't restore it to try to get it to communicate. It plays just fine.
Searching on the web, I have found a few folks with issues like this. Wonder if anyone here has seen this "feature"?
Plan on taking it back to Circuit City today for a replacement.

~Rob

 

nope, never hurd of that. I have a 3rd gen 15gig that i got used on ebay. I have had no problems with it(knock on wood). I have hurd of the 3rd gens not booting up, but never hurd of a problem with the new ones. Good luck

Coop

 

First thing to check is the USB cable.

MikeyB

 

sounds like you have other issues. just what is your PC trying to do???

i haven't had any trouble with either of mine so far but i'm with mikey. i would try another usb cable.

britt

 

I had the exact same problem with mine. I found a thread on the issue on an IPOD forum when it happened to me, http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showthr...5&pagenumber=1

To save you nearly 15 pages of reading, it seems ipods have a problem using the USB adapter on computers running windows XP with the "Service Pack 2" . Easiest fix seems to be to go get a cheap firewire card (usually like 20-30 bucks) and connect that way.

Good luck, apple seems to have alot of problems with these things........not really what youd expect from a 300+ dollar piece of electronics

Jeff

 

Thanks Jeff,
I feel the same way. Not what I expect from a 2 month old expensive gadget.
I took it back to Circuit City today and they said they would only deal with it if it was bought within the last 30 days. They gave me a number at Apple to call. Called that number, explained the situation/ sypmtoms and they said it was the hard drive in the IPOD. They are going to send me a box to send it back to them and then they will ship me a new one.
I am running Windows XP SP2 and connect via USB2.0
I have a firewire port and might just have to invest in the firewire cable

Britt, your mind is in the gutter (right next to mine, I got a little chuckle out of the "can't mount" error )

Thanks ya'll
~Rob

 

D'oh,
Fixed my own problem. Had problems today with my digital camera, got the same error that my Ipod had. I figured now it was the computer.
Turns out, I had my scanner plugged into 1 of the 6 USB ports on my PC, but the scanner was not plugged into the wall power!!!! I just moved my PC and do not have enough outlets, so I just left it unpowered. Apparently, the USB hub in the PC doesn't like that. I unplugged the scanner's USB cable from the PC and everything works properly now (Ipod and camera).
Go figure. I guess if you are going to have a device's USB cable plugged into your machine, best to make sure the device has wall power (if required).

~Rob