FireWire Connections are not supported.

Try this

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61705

on the right hand side select the "it wasn't helpful button"

Tell Apple your problem and SEND THEM THE LINK TO THIS FORUM/THREAD.

.... and just for the record - my nano stopped working with this error while using Apple's over the neck hanging headphones.

I'm seeing the same thing. I needed a new cable (lost the old one, somehow) and the only thing the store had was a combination cable for Firewire and USB. I have a Firewire connection, so I thought using that might speed things up a bit. Of course I got the Not Supported message, but now it keeps coming up for no reason when the iPod isn't connected to anything. Sometimes clicking the Center button gets rid of it, sometimes not and I have to reset.

Firewire connections are not supported. To transfer songs, connect the USB cable provided.

That is the same message I'm receiving on my iPod as of yesterday. We've been on vacation for a week and the iPod has worked flawlessly, just like it has since the day I got it. That is, until yesterday.

We were driving down the freeway when it started pausing, skipping, and generally giving me grief. I listen to it in the van via a connection through the cassette tape player. I've been using this set up since the day I got my 80gb video iPod.

For whatever reason, that message simply started popping up. I can't seem to get the center button trick to work most of the time, but occasionally it will. No matter what I do, I can't turn off my iPod any longer. It has to simply go to sleep.

So, I got home and the first order of business was using the option in iTunes to wipe the iPod clean, reset it to factory defaults, then reload all 60gbs worth of data onto it. I did that. I play around with it a bit this morning, but with nothing connected to it. It seemed to work fine and would turn off as normal.

I connected it to the cassette adapter a short while ago, got about 2 miles down the road, now its doing the same thing again. Its giving the same error message, skipping/pausing, and won't allow me to turn it off.

Help?

I started getting this yesterday as well after removing my iPod from my Memorex iListen Speaker System. I have tried resetting it a half-dozen time or so and did a iTunes restore as well. Half the time when I press and hold the Play/Pause button nothing happens. The rest of the time, I get the firewire error message. Mine is a little worse off and that mine will not turn off or go to sleep. The backlight will time out, but other than that, it is still on. I have not experienced any problems with syncing or playback, I just cannot turn the darn thing off.

I started getting this yesterday as well after removing my iPod from my Memorex iListen Speaker System. I have tried resetting it a half-dozen time or so and did a iTunes restore as well. Half the time when I press and hold the Play/Pause button nothing happens. The rest of the time, I get the firewire error message. Mine is a little worse off and that mine will not turn off or go to sleep. The backlight will time out, but other than that, it is still on. I have not experienced any problems with syncing or playback, I just cannot turn the darn thing off.

I got the Firewire warning again last night after I updated podcasts and disconnected. I cleared the message (centre button) but I suspect it came up again and held the 'pod powered up because this morning the battery was dead, dead, dead.

I backed up all my content (using MediaWidget, since iTunes doesn't care about my important data files) and restored. Hopefully that'll fix it, although I see other people have restored and it hasn't made a difference.

Has Apple said anything about this? Hello, Apple? Is anybody there? I paid $300 for my iPod and I love it - can we get some help here?

I've been trying to get more information about this problem since Apple are too sorry to actually support their products. The news is not good - there are posts on other forums and blogs mentioning this exact problem going back as far as *May 2006*, but nobody mentions a solution. I guess that means Apple isn't going to bother fixing it.

*I backed up all my content (using MediaWidget, since iTunes doesn't care about my important data files)*

Certainly you keep your important data on your computer's hard drive. You do, don't you? You certainly wouldn't trust a device that can get lost or stolen for important data. Or do you? You probably go further and back up the computer's hard drive, don't you?

In my case this started after plugging the iPod into the Firewire connector instead of USB, unaware that this iPod doesn't support Firewire (as mentioned in an earlier post, I'd lost the original cable and a dual Firewire/USB cable was all I could find). I've never done it again but the iPod seems to keep thinking it's on the fw connection even when it's not connected to anything. It often does this when disconnecting from USB after syncing.

Now it seems that in addition to the Firewire message problem (or possibly part of the same problem, since I see other threads on this forum mentioning the same symptoms), my iPod will not switch off. It's been sitting at the top-level menu for the last couple of hours; the battery was fully charged, now it's down to around 60%.

Here's weird: when I just picked it up off the desk - literally, no more than just lifting it up and looking at it - the Firewire message came up again.

"Sure does. If you had kept the data on your computer, the repair of your iPod would have been a snap."

I fail to see how keeping the data on my computer (which I did) has anything whatsoever to do with the Firewire warning message, or the 'pod not switching off, or how this makes any repair a snap. I think you're misunderstanding the problem here.

Mine just started doing this today. My fiance is using it and called to tell me of the message. When I get home I'll try all the basic troubleshooting steps, but this Ipod has never been plugged into anything but the Ipod cable that it comes with and the Ipod headphones it comes with. He was using it for 7 hours before the message came up. I'm curious to take a look tonight when we get home.

hey so has everyone just kept there non chargable and non uplodbale ipods like me or has anyone sold there ipod and went and bought a zune?? cause i still have found no fix for this problem and cant charge or upload anything so its kinda just sittin here