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climacs · Sep 7, 2007, 12:43 PM

I bought my mother a refurb'd 2nd gen iPod nano for her birthday. She's still on XP

so she couldn't get it to work. So I came over and spent two hours trying to suss out the issue and never succeeded. Basically what happens is you attach it to the USB port, it briefly mounts and is visible in My Computer and in iTunes, then after a few seconds it disappears. However when you unattach it, you hear the little two-tone sound which XP makes when you mount or dismount a drive. So, XP sees it, it just doesn't play nice with it.

I went to the Genius Bar at the local Apple Store and the guy was able to successfully mount the iPod on XP. He told me the problem was probably the registry, which he said cannot be fixed other than completely re-installing XP.

Could someone here tell me:
1) is it possible to fix a registry on a PC? I know MS sucks but is it really true that a 'bad' registry cannot be repaired?

2) can anyone suggest any other fixes? I am going to return the thing soon but I'd like to make one last attempt to get it to work...

ghporter · Sep 7, 2007, 02:34 PM

Did you or your mom actually install the PC iPod software first? You MUST do that for the iPod to be recognized as an iPod and not just some USB storage device.

stuffedmonkey · Sep 7, 2007, 02:43 PM

Be very wary of someone who tells you to reformat a system they haven't seen. They probably don't know what they are talking about.

Some things that it *could* be -

Make sure she has the latest version of iTunes... If she had been using an older one that could be the deal. Upgrading to 7.4 (that came out tuesday) will also reinstall the various iPod services that need to be there.

If the system is an older machine the ports could be USB 1.1 - which can be really flaky with iPods. If that is the case - a USB 2 card is really cheap.

climacs · Sep 7, 2007, 02:49 PM

gh - yes we installed iTunes first (I assume that's what you mean by, 'PC iPod software'). In any case it was indeed seen (briefly) as an iPod. I also uninstalled and re-installed iTunes. I also went through several of the troubleshooting suggestions at apple.com (I did not do the ones which required drastic or time-consuming steps)

stuffed - don't worry, no one is going to go to the trouble of re-formatting just so we can get the iPod to work!

the computer did have the latest iTunes loaded, and it has USB 2.0. We even succeeded (at first) in loading music onto it. I am not a Winblows expert so I can only go so far with diagnosing the issues.

her machine can be rather sluggish, I am suspecting it's the registry. Is it really true you can't fix a 'bad' registry? Because it was a tower, it would have been impractical to take it to the Genius Bar and I doubt they really want to diagnose PC problems anyway.

Anyone else want to take a shot at this? I am a huge Apple evangelist and it would really suck if I have to return the iPod because it didn't play nice with the PC!

ghporter · Sep 7, 2007, 08:42 PM

Windows needs a driver to properly "see" the iPod. It should be installed when iTunes for Windows installs-it used to be a separate piece of software, which was what I was thinking of. Sorry for the confusion.

Is the iPod formatted for Windows or Mac? iTunes should tell you it's not compatible if it's formatted for Mac and you plug it into a Windows machine (but Windows formatting is compatible with both Mac and Windows). It could also be that the USB port is screwy or the cable is not so great. Try every port on the computer to make sure it's not just a port issue, and if you have access to another cable, try that. Since it worked on the XP machine the Genius used, it's NOT the iPod-it has to be something with the computer.

climacs · Sep 8, 2007, 10:47 AM

Windows did install some software ("autoplay"?) when we first hooked up the iPod.

yes, the iPod was Win-formatted and it did show as such.

At the Genius Bar, we used the USB cable which shipped with the iPod.

I'm pretty convinced it's her computer that is the issue. I think it's the registry, as the Genius suggested - is there truly no way to fix a corrupted registry, short of re-installing the OS?

stuffedmonkey · Sep 8, 2007, 11:55 AM

There are ways to fix the registry - but I would honestly doubt that is your problem. If you want to see what is in the registry - go to the Run prompt under the start menu - and type regedit. That will let you see what's there. It's essentially a giant preferences file. I would strongly warn you not to change anything there unless you know what you are doing, as it's really easy to hose the system. The Apple stuff is in HKey Local Machine/Software/Apple Computer inc (and Apple Inc in the same area)

Try right clicking on My Computer and choose manage. Go to the Services section. Is the iPod Service there?

If you haven't tried it yet - I would do the following:

Uninstall iTunes and quicktime, reboot, download itunes 7.4.1 (released today actually) install that - reboot again, and try the ipod.