iPod woes

So, I go to B&H Photo in NY today and buy my lovely little 20Gb iPod. A lovely little price aswell ($390 - considerably cheaper than in the UK). Unfortunately they don't have the PC USB2.0/Firewire cable...and neither does any other shop in New York :inferno:

OK, I'm desperate so I pop into J&R Computers and get myself a PC-Card FireWire adapter for $45 (Keyspan FireWire card). It installs OK...looking good.

So, lets rip a CD then. The hotel I'm staying in (SoHo Grand - very nice) has a set of 10-20 CDs in each room. All nice downtempo stuff that I like (Koop, Thievery Corporation etc) so away I go. I already had iTunes 4.2 on my machine before I got the iPod.

Now, connect up the iPod....nothing About 30 seconds later it comes up with the "Do not disconnect" warning on the screen but nothing is happening and my laptop seems to have slowed to a crawl. No iPod icon in iTunes either.

Oh well, maybe I should use the CD that came with the iPod rather than my (newer) version of iTunes which I thought had all the iPod drivers with it. Uninstall iTunes 4.2, install iTunes 4.1 from the CD but, hello, what's this? "iPod requires Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows XP - update your system and try again" (btw, I'm in NY with a work laptop which is on Windows 2000). iTunes 4.2 never said anything about Service Pack 4 . No worries, install SP4 (30 minutes go by) and lets try again.

Same problem. If I click my "Unplug or Eject Hardware" icon in the system tray the iPod shows up but nothing doing. Just the "Don't disconnect" warning and nothing more.

Maybe installing iTunes 4.2 again will do it. Try that. Same problem.

At this point I'm getting very frustrated and very hungry so I leave things connected as they are and go off and have dinner. I come back to my hotel room to be greeted with a Windows 2000 "blue screen" crash

I reboot, reset my iPod and then try connecting again. Now nothing at all happens. It doesn't even show up in the "Unplug or Eject hardware" list.

So, at the moment I have a lovely shiny new iPod which I can do just about sweet fanny adams with :inferno: I'm guessing that my FireWire card is somehow "the wrong kind" (rather like Railtrack's wrong kind of snow ). My only hope is to find somewhere that has an iPod USB 2.0 cable (which I'm hoping will work, my laptop has USB2.0 ports) or I'll have to wait until I get back home to Portugal and try it there.

So, Apple stuff is all plug and play and works like a charm eh? Don't you believe it :inferno:

Michael.

 

michael,

I know this won't help, but I didn't have a problem with mine, I'd try and locate an Apple dealer, they should have the USB2/Firewire cable in stock.

Here's a list of cards that Apple have tested.

You'll love it when it works.

 

It works fine if you use a mac and not a pc

 

Well, I'm going to check out this Apple store today. I hope they have the USB 2.0 cable.

The FireWire card I bought isn't on the list (it's not exactly a big list!) but it does use the Texas Instruments chipset so it should be fine.

I'm going to take the FireWire card back to the store and see if I can get a refund.

Michael.

 

IT works even better if you buy something that doesn't say Apple on it then connect it to a PC.

I hate Apple - all style and no content...

Sorry - very negative. Stick to MP3 CDs or minidisc - I reckon that's the best option....

 

Pfffft ...........

I guess you've never used an Apple running Mac OS X or an iPod

 

From the Keyspan (manufacturer of my FireWire card) support pages:

Surely that kind of jumping through hoops shouldn't be required??

Michael.

 

I had mine lock up once, it's just basically a <CTRL> <ALT> <DEL>

Check what version of firmware the iPod is running 2.1 is the latest.

 

My iPod has 2.1 firmware. Until I get back to my hotel room I can't try the "hard disk" mode trick but if I can I'd prefer to have a USB2.0 cable. I notice that Keyspan don't require the iPod to be in "hard disk" mode for their PCI FireWire card so it must be something about the CardBus interface

Michael.

 

Any update ?

BTW here's a hint for any XP users who want to create calendar entries on their iPod, download firebird and install the calendar extension

 

I've used Macs running everything from OS8 onwards and they're quite frankly just as much as a pain as PCs, and worse as I'm not as familiar with them. The two positive things I do have to say about them is auto mounting of removable devices (why PCs use such crappy floppy drives is beyond me) and the "dog chew" sound effect, which makes a wicked hourly time signal.

Other than that, they're a PITA.

The ipod - well, no, I have no intention of owning ANY type of that product - ie, portable HDD music device - due to their fragility. At least if the drive in my CD or MD personal dies I don't lose all my music... I wouldn't want to clog up my HDD on my PC with backups....

 

Dom,

Hard disks are cheap and getting cheaper and bigger as each day passes, god I'm starting to sound like LaMbOy

I would always keep backups of my MP3's, do you know how long it takes to rip 500+ CD's.

Go into an Apple shop and have a play with an iPod, see if you change your mind.

 

Ahhh...portable audio bliss at last

Went to the Apple store in SoHo last night (an amazing place btw, see below) and picked up an iPod USB2.0 cable ($20). Plugged it into my laptop and everything is working as expected. Didn't realise the iPod had to be reformatted for use on Windows Nothing about that in the manual, tut, tut - ipodlounge.com helped me out there allthough once you have the connection right it all works pretty smoothly anyway.

Took the FireWire card I bought yesterday back to the store and they gave me a full refund no questions asked - whatever else you might want to say about the US they certainly have quality customer service nailed down

So, I'm listeing to my iPod as I write this (offline as the hotel broadband is on the blink again). Enjoying it a lot and can't wait to have a few more CDs loaded onto it for the flight back home. I'm using 192Kbps VBR, normal stereo MP3 as I reckoned that would be the best compromise of quality vs. space. TBH in the portable environment I doubt I'd be able to hear the improvement of 320Kbps.

I brought my trusty Sony EX70 "earbud" headphones with me and am using them instead of the iPod offerings. The quality is significantly improved (I think in fact that Apple now offer white rebadged Sony EX70s as an upgrade).

So, this Apple store then. Wow! what a place! Two floors of prime SoHo retail space devoted to all things Apple with virtually every Apple product available for playing around with. All the computers are hooked up to the internet so you can even surf on them for free! Upstairs is a little auditorium where they show presentations/courses on various bits of Apple kit and you can see NY Appleites sitting on the chairs and on the floor editing their latest movie or just writing an e-mail. Oh, and I almost forgot, the assistant who showed me where the iPod USB2.0 cables were was a total babe A babe who's also a techie nerd - a rare species indeed! It was almost enough to convince me to buy an Apple computer there and then :shame:

So, initial gremlins overcome I'm now a very happy bunny

Michael.

 

Glad to hear it Michael, you're gonna love it !

Well, I have a 15gb pod and with around 1,400 songs; all at 320kbps. The differences between 128kbps and 192kbps are pretty obvious but I found that with 320kbps it adds just that little bit more in the highs and lows (especially the lows) with a touch more realism in the mid-range. I have 3 times as many songs on my Mac and it only takes a few seconds to chop and change tunes (but will you even become bored of around 1,600 songs THAT quickly ?).

If I remember rightly, you went for a 20gb , so stick 'em on at 320 and forget that your listening to compressed files and enjoy the :music:.

 

Yea, glad to hear all your issues are over

I have the EX71's that replaced the EX70's, top headphones.

 

Thats what i use on mine - they block out the Northern Line a treat. Wish they had a slightly longer cable tho.

 

Steve - I'll give 320Kbps a try for a few discs and see if it's really worth it...

Tenson, my EX70s have a really long cable, almost too long! On the headphone issue I'm mulling over whether to go for a pair of the ulitmate "earbud" headphones: Etymotic ER-6s. $140 though , can they be worth it? Of course the truly ultimate ones are the ER-4s but at $330 a pair they'd cost almost as much as the iPod

Michael.

 

Yes way too long with the extension and just a little too short when taking your iPod out your top pocket to change the music with out the extension.

 

Dom you are displaying the typical reaction of someone who wishes they had bought apple!

I have had OSX since its inception, OK the first release was slow but I have not had one system crash since 2001.

I know that you cannot say the same thing.

They are easy to use (Even my mum was up on the weekend and got the basic gist in a few minutes) they are fast and the look great.

Laters.