iPod nano 6th gen not detected by Windows PCs

Greetings,

The issue is about an iPod nano 6th gen model: MC696LL / A1366 firmware v1.2 PC.

Possible diagnostic:

The iPod is not detected when plugged in Windows PC as its not installing its drivers and the firmware is possibly corrupted preventing recognition of the device by PC.

Issue:

After pluggin in the iPod into the PC, Windows displays no notification related to detecting a new device. Also, under: Control Panel > Devices and Printer, the iPod is not showing. Doing a “hard reset” with the volume - button and power button doesn’t help with getting the device detected as “Disk Mode” and it’s still not appearing under File Explorer > This PC (with the option enabled to display “Hidden items”).

Troubleshooting:

1) I tried with different USB ports and the issue is the same, thus it doesn’t seem caused by faulty USB port.

2) I tried with a different USB cable and the issue still persists thus it seems not to be caused by a faulty USB cable.

3) I plugged in another iPod (nano 4th gen model MB911C / A1285 firmware version v1.0.4) and it gets detected by the Windows PC which suggests that: A) the “Apple Mobile Device” service and “iPod Service” under Control Panel > Administrative tools > Services) which are on “running” status are working fine and; B) there is an issue with the integrated driver(s) of the iPod 6th gen.

4) Even though another iPod gets detected by the PC, I still tried: Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, and stopped the “Apple Mobile Device” service and the “iPod Service” (which were both on “Running” status, then restarted them, but the iPod (6th gen) still isn’t detected by the PC which seems to rule out an issue with the “Apple Mobile Device” service and “iPod Service”.

5) I tried plugging in the iPod (6th gen) into another PC and: it doesn’t prompt notification by Windows, it doesn’t get detected by Windows (I. Control Panel > Device and Printers ; II. File Explorer > This PC) and neither install its drivers thus the issue seems to point to the iPod itself. Even hard reset (vol - with power button) doesn’t have the iPod being detected as “Disk Mode” by the other PC.

6) Back on main PC (and for the continuation of the troubleshooting steps using this PC), I tried deleting the drivers for the iPod nano 4th gen under Device Manager > Portable Devices > iPod name, but the iPod 6th gen still doesn’t get detected by Windows (so the drivers from the iPod 4th gen doesn’t seem to interfere with the installation of the drivers from the iPod 6th gen).

7) I uninstalled iTunes (11.3.0.54) and installed the latest version of iTunes (12.10.11.2), but still the PC doesn’t detect the iPod (6th gen) so new drivers from iTunes doesn’t seem to help with detecting the iPod.

8) With the iPod plugged in the PC, I tried the iTunes’ diagnostics: iTunes > Help > Run Diagnostics… > Device Connectivity tests + Device sync tests. Both tests point to one issue: “no iPod, iPhone, or iPad found”. (Please see the three following pictures).

9) Using a “System Image Backup” I reverted back the Windows installation to the original iTunes installation (11.3.0.54) and tried to manually install usbaapl64.inf from C:\Program File\Common File\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers\usbaapl64.inf which installed “Apple Mobile Device USB Driver” under: Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus controllers, but still the iPod (6th gen) won’t get detected by the (main) PC which now seems to point to faulty firmware on top of possibly corrupted driver(s) on the device.

10) Under Control Panel > Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus controllers, I right clicked on “Apple Mobile Device USB Driver” then “Update Driver Software…” and “Search automatically for updated driver software”, but it returns that “The best driver software for your device is already installed”.

Questions:

1) Is there a driver that could be downloaded from the Windows update catalog website or from Apple Website?

2) Can Apple representative in an Apple Shop help with reinstalling the firmware of this device and/or fully reseting the device?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Best regards,

B