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Windows won't recognize my iPod - USB device not recognized

This is really frustrating. So I got a 4gb iPod nano on Saturday, took it home, set it up and everything was going just fine, no worry's. About 4 hours later I went to adjust my songs and it would not come up in iTunes. A little pop-up box said that the "USB device not recognized - one of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it." After owning my iPod for less than an afternoon, I now have an ipod that I can do nothing to including change the music, charge it, etc. It works normally otherwise, it just won't connect to my computer. I then plugged in my older 256mb usb stick, and the same message, it too does not get recognized by windows. So I then tried a brand new 1gb usb stick that I had and the same result, not recognized by windows. I updated my itunes to the latest one after purchasing my ipod (version 7.4.3.1) and have looked up everything that I can and tried everything I saw to try, but nothing, absolutely nothing, worked. However my usb mouse, usb joystick, and usb printer all still work, but my moniter that has four usb outlets on it causes the same message, if I plug in the cable that connects one usb on my computer to the four on my moniter, windows can not recognize it. When I look in my device manager at the "unknown device" under the usb controller list it says that there is not driver for it, however I know that the drivers are either on my computer or built into windows. Any help? Anybody have an idea about what to do? Is it something in my windows registry has changed because of the new itunes, etc.?

Compaq SR1538X w/ati radeon 1650pro, Windows XP, regularly used

Posted on Oct 14, 2007 12:22 PM

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16 replies

Dec 3, 2007 7:21 AM in response to bna6789

My wife is having the same problems. She bought a Nano which arrived today, plugged it into her XP powered PC as it says in the manual and she got the same message:

"USB device not recognized - one of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it."

I'm a Mac user and these things generally just work for me. There is no disk with the Nano so apparently no drivers to install. Shouldn't Windows ask to format the Nano?

Dec 28, 2007 9:28 AM in response to bna6789

I had a similar problem. My family has several Ipods and they had all worked in the past. Lately though I couldnt get my itunes or windows to recognize it. I got the same message. I went through every step suggested from reinstalling itunes to resetting my ipods. Finally I got it to work simply by shutting off my printer. It sounds silly but my new printer (HP Photosmart 3150) was screwing up the usb ports somehow. I can honestly say I had tried everything recommended over a span of two weeks and this worked.

Dec 28, 2007 1:54 PM in response to candhklima

I am no expert but I think many of the problems of getting the Ipods to talk to PCs (especially XP and Dell machines) is due to the problem that the some PCs can only recognise one USB2 device at a time (eg Dell 5100 with XP). It was only by unplugging my USB2 wireless connetcion that my Ipod started to work, before I tried this all I kept getting was 'Unknown device'. Looks like some printers are also USB2 so unplugging it solves the problem. I must confess it is a complete mess as 1000's are on forums reporting the same problem. I guess Microsoft will blame Apple who will blame the PC makers and its us who suffer.....

Mar 27, 2008 12:38 PM in response to bna6789

Hey everybody,
My brother and I both got our Ipods (3rd gen, 4Gb) at christmas, and they both have worked fine... untill about 2 months ago when mine suddenly wasn't recognized by Itunes or the computer. It would just do the whole, "USB device not recognized". Then one night i plugged it in to see if anything had changed and it worked. I was like.. oh! well then. Then I tried plugging it in the next morning, because i thought it worked. It didn't. 'The USB device plugged into the computer has malfunctioned, and Windows doesn't recognize it.' It has been doing this ever since. BUT, here's the odd part. Our computer just has different users and whatnot, so my brother goes on his, plugs in his ipod, it works. I go on mine, plug in my ipod, it doesn't work. We tried mine on his and it still doesn't work. Why is mine malfunctioning??? Anybody have any suggestions? I've tried the Apple Troubleshooting thing. Nothing. And sometimes it'll work and sometimes it won't. But lately it just hasn't been working. WHAT CAN I DO???

Mar 27, 2008 3:22 PM in response to bna6789

Today my ipod is acting weird, and I need some help please.. When I power up my computer all is working just fine. When I plug in the usb cable to my computer it makes a single beep sound, not the bells sound. Also my mouse freezes up at this time. If I plug the ipod to the usb cable it does not charge, or sync. When I disconnect the usb cable from the computer it make the same beep sound. The only way to unfreeze the mouse is to restart the computer. I have tried to restart my computer to a past set point and that has not worked either. Any suggestions? Thanks..

Mar 30, 2008 6:53 AM in response to bna6789

Same problem for me, and I just found a solution elsewhere on the internet:

Reset the ipod by pressing both the menu and Center buttons for about 6 sec, until the apple logo appears.

I tried this and it instantly solved the problem for me. My ipod is an 8gig nano and once I did this the itunes software immediately opened up the process to install the ipod software etc. Good luck to you!

Apr 12, 2008 11:23 AM in response to check1212

Many of appear to be having the same problem. I've been trying out all of the suggestions in the support section for over ten hours! I have a dial up account which is really slow, but I'm patient and compliant with instructions. Still, I saw for the first time what appears on an ipod - bought it this morning. This lovely image disappeared roughly ten minutes into plugging it in - I now have a lovely picture of an apple (which now blinks at me after trying some of the solutions). I note that the last two postings are 'problem solved!' ones. I'm afraid that I've tried these solutions to no avail. I'm not even sure if its safe to unplug this thing while its blinking....

Apr 12, 2008 10:47 PM in response to Frances Claffey

Now that I've had some sleep, I realise I didn't really provide information that may lead to some specific help. Here goes - when I first plugged in the ipod nano (8gb), It displayed the screen it was supposed to - I could see the lightning bolt through the battery icon and knew it was charging. The icon for the ipod also appeared in the left-hand listing in itunes (in the section that existed under Library, before the sections Store and Playlists). This section now does not appear (I can't remember the title of this section, but it might have been 'devices'). In fact, I'm pretty sure this problem started when I clicked on this icon - nothing happened and it disappeared - so did the display on the ipod, which is not just the apple. This means itunes has only Library, Store and Playlist in the left-hand colunm. While I accept that computers do not work on normal logic, this seems to me to indicate that the drivers are fine, the system is fine, my laptop is fine - its the ipod or the usb cord. This morning as I tried again, this time my laptop gave me the option to 'click on the balloon to solve the problem' - let me quote: "One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognise it. Try reconnecting the device. If Windows still does not recognise it, replace the device". Come on folks - one of you will surely know how to fix this (short of me taking the ipod back to the store to get my money back).

Apr 13, 2008 4:58 AM in response to Frances Claffey

OK, after steaming and spitting chips about this contraption not working, I just tried to get it and bits back into its box to return it to the store. It wouldn't fit, so I thought I'd give it one last try. Yet again, it still didn't recongise it. So I turned my ire to itunes. There's a 'run diagnostics' option there (sound like star trek, really). Guess what - as it alerted me to the fact that it couldn't find the ipod, I got a little balloon pop up with the good news - found new hardware! Be aware that I've tried everything suggested by the ipod site, including getting the 'thing' from the windows site where they send you a fix-it. It only then has taken the laptop 8 hours to work it out. Hope this helps somebody with as few computer skills as me.

Apr 15, 2008 3:56 AM in response to bna6789

Hi - I know what you mean - I just bought this weekend a iPod Nano 3rd gen. and it won't work with my Vista PC. However, I had an iPod shuffle before that and I had no problems with my Vista PC. So what is the problem. I followed all the suggestions on the Apple site and it still won't work. I ended up installing it on another PC I have with XP and it works fine. So if someone out there has the solution for VISTA please let me know. Thanks.

Windows won't recognize my iPod - USB device not recognized

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