So after I did the stuff I wrote below, it still didn't work. I thought it did, but then it crapped out right away. I ended up going back to the Apple Store in Palo Alto where I bought it. The "genius" checked it out, and it was truly dead, couldn't even get it to work in mac mode. He said this could only have happened because I unplugged it when I shouldn't have. I said no way dude, I was very careful to only take it out of the dock at the correct time. We did agree that you have to let it sit at least one minute to make really really sure that the WinXP is done with it. And even if it shows the check mark and "Okay to disconnect" on the iPod's screen, if the green arrow thingy icon is still in the system tray, you have to Stop that process first before you take the ipod out of the dock.

Anyway, they gave me a replacement iPod and so I'm happy again.

Ok, so the ipod updater would hang at the end... so push "Mene/Play" again (this is the part they don't tell you), and THEN the firmware update starts... after that, it was all downhill.

Good luck!

Connected ipod to PC, bought song on itunes, download seemed successful, and then ejected ipod (connected through firewire coming off of header on m/b- powered). At this point, there was no disconnect icon in system tray, and the ipod displayed the check mark, so I pulled it off of the dock. I immediately got the black apple of death, and then the file with the exclamation point. Then the ipod reboots back to the BAOD, rinse and repeat. Oh yeah, WinXP.

HAS WORKED FINE THE LAST THREE DAYS!

WTF? It's FOUR DAYS OLD! PLEASE HELP!

Resetting while in the doc does not work. Resetting in the dock and then putting it into disk mode (two outside buttons) down not work. Updater does not find it!