Unknown Error (-124) with my 40GB iPod....

Question

Unknown Error (-124) with my 40GB iPod....

One day my iPod decided to stop working with my PC (a Sony Vaio). I would not show up in iTunes and often after plugging in my iPod, iTunes would crash. So I decided to wipe the iPod and restore it. I did that, I even got as far as naming the iPod and it began to update it with my music library. It got to about song 320 (out of about 4000) and then iTunes crashed. This was all done using my dock and USB. I tried again, this time with my Fire Wire. I restored it, plugged it in, named it, and the update began again. This time a warning came up saying "Unknown error as occured (-124)." I need to figure out what I wrong with this. Also, if the iPod is connected using my USB, whenever I open My Computer it crashes as well. Something is seriously wrong here and I miss my music. Anyone got any ideas?

Posted on Sep 6, 2005 5:55 PM

Reply

Answer 1

b noir

Level 9

72,336 points

Sep 6, 2005 8:15 PM in response to Andrew Huddleston1

hi Andrew!

hmmmmm. possibly two diffrent problems going on here. the (-124) seems to indicate something skunky about the hard-drive on the ipod. you might be able to fix it by connecting by firewire and running a chkdsk over it.

the crash ... especially if you're getting a blue screen. I'm beginning to associate the majority of those with:

(1) old Roxio products on the PC
(2) problems with the USB internally in the machine, or a dodgy dock.
(3) overagressive antivirus software.

at first glance, i'd suspect the dock in your case. but let's try to cover all three.

(1) what other CD burning/ripping software do you have on your machine? what versions do they show in their "about" screens?
(2) can you plug your ipod
b directly
into the USB without crashing the PC?
(3) can you plug in via the dock without crashing if your antivirus packages are turned off?

love, b

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 8, 2005 9:39 AM in response to b noir

Sorry about taking so long, school is keeping me busy. Ok, on to what you asked me B.

(1) I have the following burning software:
-Roxio Easy Media Creator Ver. 7.0
-Nero 6 Ultra Edition Ver. 6.0
-Drag'n Drop CD+DVD (Basic VAIO edition)
Please keep in mind, my iPod worked fine even with these programs for nearly a year.

(2) I can plug my iPod direct with the USB without the PC crashing. The "Autoplay" window pops up for quite sometime and it may or may not show up in iTunes. Also, it takes forever for windows to boot if my iPod is plugged in when I startup and the same goes for iTunes. The program will basically never start until I unplug my iPod.

(3) I closed my virus protection software (Norton Systemworks) and connected to the dock. Same problem. Again, my iPod worked fine with this exact software for quite sometime.

Also, a new thing has possed up recently. a balloon bubble from the toolbar now says "Windows- Delayed Write Failed. Windows was unable to save all the data for the file I:. The data hase been lost...etc etc."

The iPod makes noise inside like its trying to do something but it just never works out. I really need to figure this thing out soon and if I don't, Apple Store here I come. I just hope and pray its some sort of defect and is not going to cost me any money. Thanks for the help.

Andrew

Reply

Answer 3

b noir

Level 9

72,336 points

Sep 8, 2005 10:09 AM in response to Andrew Huddleston1

The iPod makes noise inside like its trying to do something but it just never works out. I really need to figure this thing out soon and if I don't, Apple Store here I come.

🙂 school comes first, whether we like it or not. you know, if it's making grinding noises, the Apple Store is probably your best first bet ... this might be a sick hard drive.

I can plug my iPod direct with the USB without the PC crashing. The "Autoplay" window pops up for quite sometime and it may or may not show up in iTunes. Also, it takes forever for windows to boot if my iPod is plugged in when I startup and the same goes for iTunes. The program will basically never start until I unplug my iPod.

i'm inclined also to take the dock in to the store too. that seems suspiciously closely associated with the crash. the autoplay business also looks like a symptom of a hard drive problem on the ipod.

love, b

Reply