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device not recognized by xp

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by coleylawson

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I am trying to resolve this problem. Hopefully somone can help or direct me to another source. I recently purchased 2 ipod shuffles and began the installation process(windows xp pro.)with the first ipod i have no problems syncing or downloading material; however, windows nor itunes will recognize the second ipod wen i mount it on the dock. I uninstalled and reinstalled itunes and quicktime on another screen name with the same result. I then went to my device manager and checked usb contollers and it is showing up as an unknown device stating no driver is installed for the device. So i tried to update the driver with no result. Also, I uninstalled the unknown device, which i know is the ipod, then scanned for hardware changes, followed by another update try,in which it once again is recognized as an unknown device. went to disk management as last resort to try to change drive letter but does not show up to even be able to change. It does not even come up as a mass storage device. i plugged it into a friends computer and it was immediately recognized and syncing began.I am stuck. I called apple tech with no results their either. I took the ipod back to dealer and it was restored to factory . when they plugged into their pc it was immeadiately recognized as before so the ipod is not the problem. it has to be my pc but like i said, the first ipod i plugged in was recognized and has no problems. please respond with any info. thankyou for your time. It is much appreciated.

11 replies

by sgt_shultz

sounds like it got detected 'wrong' and you are not getting it to uninstall for you.
try deleting the usb ports in Device manager then pick the 'rescan for devices' and let it reinstall the usb ports.

by coleylawson

i have previously tried uninstalling the usb port and it is then removed from the list. when i rescan it is once again recognized as an unknown device. any other ideas?

by coleylawson

i have previously tried uninstalling the usb port and it is then removed from the list. when i rescan it is once again recognized as an unknown device. any other ideas? i have also contacted apple and was on the phone with their tech for abouit 45 min with no result.

by bhatnagar_nitin9

Uninstall all USB storage-related drivers, then go into the registry and delete all of the subkeys under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR
Then reboot the system, install only one removable device driver(iPod) which you think is not getting detected and try connecting/disconnecting only that one device first. If all works well for this single device, then try plugging in the second one and see if it works too.

by doreenamato

unless you know what you are doing i wouldn't mess with the registry ..you could skrew up a lot of stuff...i am waiting for apple to fix this..literally thousands are having this very same problem...including myself...and they have to do something about it or they will no longer have people buying from itunes or ipod products...a huge cash cow!

by sarahh01

I am adding this to the discussion board, due to the issue I had with my Ipod.
My ipod was not recognized by my computer, I would plug in my ipod and receive an message unknown device. The ipod would charge but was not recognized in windows and itunes. I have tried 4 computers(with Windows XP) and received the same message with all 4 computers. I have searched the web all week to find an answer with no luck. Which I was really surprized, since this seemes to be a common problem with no real answer. My issue was the cord. Which I did not se posted anywhere... So if you take your ipod to the apple store for support, bring your cable and have them test this before they do a restore and wipe your ipod of all your music. Since this will be there first approach. I sure hope this helps all those that are stumped by this problem as I was.

by sarahh01

I am adding this to the discussion board, due to the issue I had with my Ipod.
My ipod was not recognized by my computer, I would plug in my ipod and receive an message unknown device. The ipod would charge but was not recognized in windows and itunes. I have tried 4 computers(with Windows XP) and received the same message with all 4 computers. I have searched the web all week to find an answer with no luck. Which I was really surprized, since this seemes to be a common problem with no real answer. My issue was the cord. Which I did not se posted anywhere... So if you take your ipod to the apple store for support, bring your cable and have them test this before they do a restore and wipe your ipod of all your music. Since this will be there first approach. I sure hope this helps all those that are stumped by this problem as I was.

by eplamondon

I don't have an Ipod, but I have a nice little chinese player that works great, with plenty of functionalities, and my home PC would recognize it but...not my PC at work: it gave me the message "unknown device".

Both PCs are running under WinXP, and the only difference between them is: the USB cable extension. I keep such an extension permanently plugged on each of my PCs, and I plug my player through these extensions. After reading Sarahh01's post, I plugged another extension to my office's PC...and WinXP recognized my player immediately.

So, the problem was related to the USB extension I use. But I've been lucky: like I said, I use a different extension on each PC, and one of them was defective.

But what if the problem had been related to the adapter cable that is necessary to plug my player to the PC?

Indeed, some MP3 players have a standard USB plug (which makes them act immediately like a Flash Drive) but with most MP4 players, like my chinese device, you need an adapter cable with standard USB plug at an end, and mini USB or something like that at the other end. Since this cable is necessary, we bring it with us everywhere, and we use it to plug our player to PCs.

In other words, we always use the same cable to plug our player on any PC. If this cable is defective, then we carry the problem with us, no matter the PC on which the player is connected. Since we seem to think that a cable cannot be defective, we immediately think that the problem is related to the player.

But, at least for Sarahh01 and me, cable was the problem.

by dskolnik

I spent hours and hours trying to figure out why my iPod wasn't being recognized by my computer any more. It took a visit from my brother-in-law (also equipped with iPod) and a simple test of his cable vs. mine to determine that a faulty cable was the issue. If there is a next time, I'll try replacing the cable first!

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