itunes + iPod classic freezes

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itunes + iPod classic freezes

When I connect my 80Gig iPod classic to my windows XP machine and play music through the PC's speakers using itunes, every time a song reaches 9 seconds iTunes freezes for 26 seconds - the music still plays but the iTunes window is frozen with no responses to mouse clicks. After the 26 seconds all the mouse clicks happen quickly as if they were queued up and the ellapsed song time skips to 35seconds and then continues on normally. During this 26 second freeze iTunes takes up 50% of the CPU in the Windows task manager Process screen. (The 50% is actually 100% of one of the 2 cores of the dual core CPU)

The freeze also happens sometimes randomly later in songs.

Plugging in the iPod takes about 1min for itunes to start up and it takes about 2 minutes to eject the iPod which seems long, my nano is significantly quicker at this, and exibits no iTunes freezes. This freezing happens on 2 different PC's that I've tried. Anyone seen similar behavior?

I'm using itunes 7.4.1.2

hp, Windows XP

Posted on Sep 11, 2007 7:09 PM

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Answer 1

gordio Author

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Sep 12, 2007 6:12 AM in response to gordio

The 26 second freeze described above happens on my Intel Core2duo 2.66Mhz PC running XP professional. The other PC I tried this on is an AMD X2 4600+ PC running XP media center - it freezes iTunes at the same 9 sec point into every song then returns control to the mouse/keyboard 45 seconds later - this difference in delay is roughly equivalent to the performance difference of the 2 PC's. Both PC's are HP's and have iTunes 7.4.1.2 installed

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Answer 2

gordio Author

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Sep 12, 2007 11:54 AM in response to gordio

So here's another tidbit that I just discovered: if the Visualizer is on in the iTunes window, then this 9th second freeze does not happen. In fact, if you hit ctl-T during the 7th second, view a couple of seconds of the visualizer then ctl-T again at the 10th second, the freeze does not happen at all.

..So there's probably some "track listings" iTunes<->iPod usb communication initiated 9 seconds into a track, the iPod doesn't give back the correct response which puts iTunes into an "infinate loop" that overwhelms the PC's CPU until a certain # of these loops have occured and then iTunes gives up and returns to normal operation

..apple? are you there? is there a fix in the works? is it just my iPod that does this? should I return it and try another unit?

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Answer 3

Sep 13, 2007 3:03 PM in response to gordio

It's not just you. After getting my 80 gig ipod classic and updating Itunes to the 7.4 version, I experienced the same CPU lockup you experience. This also happened to my brother both at home and on his work computer. This is not an isolated issue, and my only hope is Apple is currently working on a fix. It is unbearable to even attempt to connect my ipod to my computer and add songs to it.

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Answer 4

Sep 13, 2007 6:24 PM in response to Avengingswill

I'll have to add my two cents. The same problem happens with me. It is literally a 5-7 minute turnaround to connect the iPod, perform simple tasks like update the playcounts and played dates for a few (2-20) songs, then eject. During this time, iTunes is totally unresponsive for 45-60 seconds several times during the process. Totally unacceptable. I can connect my Nano and do the same thing in 7 or 8 seconds without iTunes freezing.

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Answer 5

Sep 13, 2007 7:36 PM in response to gordio

I have a new 160GB Ipod Classic as well as an 80Gb Video Ipod. I am using the Windows XP pro operating system. I also have 7.4.1 of Itunes. I sync my Ipods manually through Itunes. When I sync my older 80GB everything works fine. When I try and sync my new 160GB Classic it will get about 10 tracks in and then freeze for about 30 seconds. All of itunes is frozen and the Ipod Classic display will go from the sync screen to the connect screen and after the 30 seconds will kick back to the sync screen and Itunes will no longer be frozen. It does the same thing when it gets to the end of syncing all of the tracks that I am loading. Makes loading tracks into the Classic a real chore!!

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Answer 6

Buscrash

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Sep 14, 2007 6:24 AM in response to gordio

Same problem here with 160GB ipod classic.

I called Apple Care last night, and was on hold for almost an hour. The tech agent told me he had never heard of such a thing, put me on hold for another 15 minutes, and then hung up on me while I was rebooting as he requested. I called back and got a recording that told me to call during their hours of operation. Gotta love Apple.

By the way, right before the re-boot, he told me to re-assign the drive letter associated with the iPod....that doesn't help.

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Answer 7

aight

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Sep 14, 2007 7:42 AM in response to gordio

I've got the same problem with Ipod Classic (160 GB). I think it's a problem with the new Ipod Software.
The problem are on the new iMac, too. I've test it a few minutes ago.

It doesn't run on:

* the brandnew high performance iMac with 4GB Ram, 2,8 Ghz Dual Core
* 2 high performance PC's with 3GB Ram, 2,0 Ghz Dual Core with Windows Vista
* a lower performance PC with 1GB Ram with Windows XP

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Answer 8

UteroiD

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Sep 14, 2007 8:18 AM in response to gordio

Same here...

I posted about this a few days ago.

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5320822#5320822

So i got my Ipod classic a few days ago. I noticed that when I plug it in to my pc every now and then Itunes freezes up and stops responding, the itunes process uses up about 80meg and CPU usage shoots up to 100% stays in this state for about ten seconds. Then it work normall for a minute or 2 and freezes up again in the same fashion. This doesnt happen with an older Ipod 4g, only when ipod classic is plugged in. Also, i noticed if I move an album to my ipod it would freeze up like that on the very last song

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Answer 9

Sep 14, 2007 7:52 PM in response to gordio

Has anyone received any written or verbal acknowledgment from apple regarding this matter?

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Answer 10

aight

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Sep 15, 2007 3:04 AM in response to Avengingswill

Yes, i talk to Apple Germany. They said to me that they can't be able to relate the problem. They regard the CPU-efficiency for normal consequence. I want to go to an apple-support partner to demonstrate them the problem, today. I keep you up-to-date, if there a some new informations.

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Answer 11

aight

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Sep 15, 2007 6:28 AM in response to aight

I'm back from Apple Support-Partner. After they connected the Ipod on there iMac, the iMac chrashed. They said to me, i should send the ipod back to change the ipod to a new. That's the thing i approve to you, too.

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Answer 12

Sep 15, 2007 7:45 AM in response to gordio

new firmware update does not fix this problem (at least not for me).

Yes. This is exactly the problem I'm having. Everyone keeps talking about crashes and sluggishness. As a standalone iPod my 160GB classic works great. But iTunes totally freezes up for about a minute everytime I try to do anything. The task manager says 100% CPU Usage and lists iTunes as "not responding." Then after a minute or so, it comes back and does everything I had asked it to do (like someone else said, as though it was all being queued up).

Very annoying. And again, the new FirmWare update doesn't seem to help. Does it help anyone else?

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Answer 13

KDXCrow

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Sep 15, 2007 9:41 AM in response to Drewbacca

I am having the EXACT same problem as Drewbacca. Very frustrating! Tech support has no idea what's up either

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Answer 14

Buscrash

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Sep 15, 2007 1:09 PM in response to gordio

Okay...after spending literally two hours on the phone with Apple Care, the guy told me I had to format the iPod....it was a full 160GB that took ten hours to fill...I did as he said and it worked fine....notice I said WORKED fine...as soon as it got to about the 60GB mark as I was refilling it, the problem started again.

So it seems the problem is related to how much you have on the ipod.

I'm preparing to spend another hour on the phone on Monday...I tried going to the local Apple Store...but the next availible appointment for the "Genius Bar" was six hours from when I was there....and the iMacs you had to book your appointment (for tech support) on were all down.

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Answer 15

jc619er

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Sep 15, 2007 2:11 PM in response to Buscrash

I was able to get all my songs on my 160GB Classic but now trying to manage anything while it's hooked to iTunes is nearly impossible. It let's me do things for about 30 to 40 seconds and then it locks up for 2 minutes or so and then let's me work on it again for about another 30 seconds. I was hoping the update today would fix this problem and it hasn't. Apple you need to fix this bug soon before you have a whole lot of returns because I have never had this problem with any of my 5 other iPods. And I can't believe it's because of using too much space because I am barely using half of the hard drive space on it. So please Apple figure this out because the iPod is too big of a name in music these days to ruin this way. I will give it a few more weeks before I return this and get an old 80GB video iPod. At least I know that one works with iTunes.

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