Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. Thank you. Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. Thank you. Please choose the appropriate forum for this topic. Thank you. Hey guys, I just wanted to share what I just did in the hopes in may help others out there that are experiencing problems with Windows not recognizing their iPod.

I've had my 3G iPod for a while now. I had been using it every day in "disk mode" to copy files I was working on between home and my office. At work, I only have USB 2.0 (no firewire) so I've been using the USB/Firewire cable to connect my iPod. It worked great for several months.

A few weeks ago, I was doing some testing with iPod Agent at work using my iPod connected to USB. I ended up locking my computer up and having to reboot. From that point on, my PC at work would no longer recognize my iPod. I'd attach it to USB and I'd get a message in Windows saying something like "A USB device attached to this computer has malfunctioned" and the Help said to replace it. I've since done everything to my iPod to try to get it to work again at the office. Resetting, restoring, etc. all to no avail. What's odd is that it works great at home on USB and firewire. I have a laptop with USB and it works fine on their as well. So, I knew it was something with my office PC. So, today I tried something. I attached my iPod to my office PC and of course Windows didn't recognize it. My iPod just sat their at the main menu. I then decided to remove all the USB drivers from Windows. Of course, since I have a USB mouse, I lost usage of my mouse during this. I ended up having to use the keyboard to navigate through Windows to finish removing the USB drivers. As I was removing the drivers, I glanced at my iPod and to my surprise it was indicating "do not disconnect". I then opened up "My Computer" and sure enough, my iPod was showing up. Very weird. It was like one of the USB drivers was interfering with it being recognized. I then told Windows to add "new hardware" and it promptly readded the USB drivers. I rebooted and all is fine once again. I can now connect my iPod to USB on my office PC and Windows and iTunes once again recognize it. Woohoo!

So, if any of you are having trouble with Windows not recognizing your iPod, I feel it's worth a shot to try what I did. I did this on a Windows XP machine. Windows XP has built-in support for USB so there should be no problem in removing the drivers and letting Windows re-add them. Here are some step-by-step instructions if you want to try it. Do not use a USB keyboard for this as you will lose control of all USB devices by doing this and you wouldn't be able to finish.

1) Close any programs you have running

2) Connect your iPod to USB - verify it isn't being recognized by waiting 15 minutes or so and seeing it still isn't recongized (does not say "do not disconnect")

3) Click Start and right-click on My Computer and select Properties.

4) Select the Hardware tab.

5) Click the Device Manager button.

6) Scroll down the list and locate the entry labeled Universal Serial Bus controllers and click on the little + sign next to it to expand the contents.

7) Highlight any one of the entries you just expanded under Universal Serial Bus controllers and press the Delete key on your keyboard. You will be asked to confirm the removal of the device. Click OK to this message.

8) Repeat step #7 for every item under the Universal Serial Bus controllers heading.

During this process, you will lose control of your mouse so you will have to finish it using the keyboard. Just use the arrow keys to select an item.

Also, during this process, keep checking your iPod. If it ever indicates "do not disconnect" you can stop removing items from the USB controllers list as you've already removed whatever was causing the problem.

9) Close the Device Manager window. If you are stuck using just the keyboard, you can close the window by hitting Alt-F4 on your keyboard.

10) Now you should be back to the System Properties window. Click the Add Harware Wizard button. If using a keyboard only, press the Tab key on your keyboard until you see this button is highlighted. Then, press the space bar to click the button.

11) The Add Hardware Wizard window will come up. Click Next.

Windows should then start adding in all the USB controllers. Once it's finished, close those windows.

12) If your iPod now says "do not disconnect", locate the Safely Remove Harware icon in your system tray (by the clock). It looks like a little green arrow above a little gray box. Double click on this icon. The Safely Remove Hardware window will open. Select your iPod from the list and click the Stop button. This will eject your iPod and the screen of your iPod should now indicate "Ok to disconnect".

13) Reboot your PC

Once your PC comes back up, hopefully all will be well and your iPod will be recognized by your computer and iTunes.

Please post back here if you try this and let me know if it worked for you or not.