IPOD install- Cannot install drivers for USB. HELP!!

[totalpakage]

The issue right now is that my laptop (gateway) is NOT recognizing my iPod and itz driving me mad!! I think I have found the root cause. When I plug my iPod in and go to device manager....it comes up as "unknown device". I right click and device status says that there are no drivers for this device. So I try and install the drivers (usbstor.sys and usbstor.inf)...i've done this several different ways....directing it to the CD that came with the iPod....pointing it to C:\program files\windows\inf...etc.

The message that keeps popping up is "Cannot complete hardware update....no suitable drivers were located that better fits the software already installed..." or something along those lines. I'm at work right now so I can't remember the exact wording...I will post some screen shots when i get home.

Here's all the things i have done so far:
- exchanged iPod
- uninstalled/reinstalled itunes, ipod setup
- removed all itunes, ipod and quicktime
- cleaned out my temp files
- i have reset my system settings to a date prior to when i started having issues with my iPod

i have no idea what the issue could be. When I check the USB port for drivers when my iPod is unplugged...it shows two drivers....usbhub...and something else.

I read somewhere that I should check the INF file to make sure that my device is on there. I did this right before leaving for work and did not see "Apple" or "iPod" or anything of that sort on there. Could this be the issue? I did not have time to check my device name and see if it was listed but I will when I get home.

Any suggestions?? anyone with the same issue and solution??...any help would be greatly appreciated. Right now i have a wonderful $300 machine that is useless right now. Also, i am running on windows XP home....and when I first got my iPod...everything was working ok until one night i left it connected to my comp overnight....and the next morning my comp was not recognizing it.....

[tumhari]

can some one plz anser i am having the same problem

[tumhari]

come one can some one plzz help plzzzzzzz i really need some help

[egin]

I am having the same problem with my daughter's iPod (video, 30 Gb). When originally purchased, she had an old (5+ years old?) hand-me-down HP computer with XP Home Edition on it. Everything installed & worked fine. Then about 5 months ago, I bought a new Dell & gave her my 2 yr old Dell (that's how it works at our house! ;-), and that's when the problems started. The Dell PC will not recognize her iPod! I have tried everything I could find, including:

• the 5 R's (Reset, Retry, Restart, Reinstall, Restore)
• using the 'Add New Hardware Wizard' & pointing the Wizard to the drivers on the iTunes installation disk
• putting the iPod in disk mode
• rebooting after putting the iPod in disk mode
• re-installing iTunes (many, many times!)
• using different USB plugs on the PC
• using a different iPod USB wire

There are probably others that I have tried that I'm forgetting, but I'm out of ideas :-( . It's not the iPod--I can still connect it to the old HP computer & it launches iTunes & recognizes her iPod just fine. It's the stupid computer! And the USB ports work fine--I can plug other things into them & they work without problems. It can't be a USB 1.1 vs. 2.0 issue--the old HP has USB 1.1 and the iPod works fine (slower, but it works). If anyone has the holy grail answer to this problem, PLEASE HELP US! Like totalpakage says, we've got a useless $300 machine.

[Caleeboy]

I have 2 I-pods and on PC. My PC won't detect either of them. I don't think buying a new one will do me any good. Please help! How do I install a driver?

[simon7755]

Ok... I fixed mine ... heres how I did it

When it comes up looking asking to find a driver (in total about 6) do the auto search, when it gives you the option to direct it to a folder to search point it toward C:\Windows\System32

Simple as that...

All the diver messages send it to C:\Windows\System32

It will load the driver and eventually recognise the ipod.

Mine now shows up in itunes...

Good luck everyone.. I spent weeks working this out

[egin]

Simon 7755's fix isn't how I eventually solved the problem, but I would try his suggestion before trying mine because it's a lot less painful. I think what he's suggesting is to use the 'Add Hardware Wizard' and when it asks for the location of the Ipod driver, tell the wizard to search in the C:\Windows\System32 folder.

I hope that works, because I eventually took my PC & Ipod to the Geek squad. They plugged everything in & got the same response I did (i.e., the PC didn't recognize the Ipod). So the Geek started asking me if I tried this (yes), tried that (yes), yada, yada, yada. He went down the whole list of things I had already tried (which made me feel like a truly qualified Geek! ). Then he suggested the dreaded ultimate fix : "the only thing I can suggest is to re-install the operating system. It sounds like you OS has gotten corrupted". As painful as it was to do (the OS disk that came with the PC was a pre-SP2 version of XP, so I had to go thru hours of Windows security updates), once I had re-installed the OS (and all the software), the PC recognized my daughters Ipod, and I am a hero in her eyes! Thank God it worked because it was a last resort... Good luck to all...obviously this has happened to a lot of people, and Apple should be ashamed of itself for making people fend for themselves

[ssjam]

We recently lost our hard drive. Now that we have reinstalled Itunes, we are afraid to sync for fear our music will be deleted. After reading several posts, it seems the best idea is to copy the music from the Ipod to a folder on the C drive. I can see my ipod under drive F...the problem is that the music does not show up! The only folder items listed are calendar, contacts, notes and photos. Then there are also three items listed but when chosen an error message states "audio source plugin error:File Invalid". Where is the music??? All suggestions appreciated.

[briwood4]

Hey, I'm dealing with the exact same scenario that just started this weekend. I was well, now the USB doesn't recognize my device. I hope someone can help.

[hdorval]

I tried what worked for Simon7755, but it did not work for me. What did work was that I tried a different USB port and it loaded right up.

[C-Town]

First I uninstall the unknown driver. Then I plugged in my portable zip drive and it loaded the necessary driver. Plugged my IPOD back in and it worked. However, I did wait in tell the battery in the IPOD drained completely. I don't think that had anything to do with it but, you never know. A reboot for the IPOD hard drive couldn't of hurt either. The name of the zip drive I used is SANDISK CRUZER MICRO 1.0 GB FLASH DRIVE Also, I am running Windows XP.

I hope I was some help to you all.

Peace

[cropperuk]

1. Attempt the 5 R's from Apple...

Reset the device and try again.. worked for me once before.

2. Try to attach an external USB HDD - if that fails with the same thing you can try reinstalling the USB drivers manually.... as above ^^ (you know driver problem them).

3. But if that fails you have a corrupted O/S and this is only fixable by a reinstall of Windows.

Just been through a nightmare, and wish i'd jumped to step 3 ^^

[wats007]

Hey kids, i'll tell you what i did on a whim and it worked . All i did was restart my comp without unpluging the Ipod!!! Unbelievable.

[freedom_girl311]

I am having the same problem with my own iPod nano (4GB, 3rd generation)... it was working properly two days a ago but now it says "USB Device Not Recognized" when I plug it in....I have tried many things to get it back to working order, such as:
-The 5 R's
-Restarting my computer with the iPod plugged in still
-Directing the driver update Wizard to multiple places
-Using different wires
-Using different USB Ports
-Putting the iPod into Disk Mode
-and many, many others
I have tried so many things, but I don't particularly want to go through the process of resetting Windows. If I reset Windows will I loose all my documents, music, and pictures?
Please someone help me out I am going crazy here!!

[jarvis911]

I went through everything listed above when my computer wouldnt recognize my ipod or charge it, (apart from re-installing OS, dont recommend that) then i saw someone say that they tried another USB port, which i tried and bingo! so i recommend trying that before anything else. I took it from the front USB port on my case(USB3) then tried one at the back(USB1)