iPod - only being detected by PC intermittently

[PeteyG]

I have a 3rd generation 15 gig iPod. I also have a Dell Inspiron laptop, with a 4 pin firewire connection, using Texas Instruments OHCI firewire, and windows XP.

I would like to attach my iPod to the spare 6 pin port in the back of my external firewire hard drive.

I had a lot of trouble getting my iPod to be recognized by my computer, but seemingly magically it started working. It worked for a bit connected to both my laptop, and my external hard drive.

I have transferred files to and from my iPod, have had it mounted as a disk... have SEEN it working as it should on a number of occaisions, and have even spent a day listening to all the music that I transferred over.

But now, when I plug it into my computer (on a full charge), it actives but then does nothing. It is not recognized at all.

[PeteyG]

I can get it working sometimes, but there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why it works sometimes, but doesn't most of the rest of the time.

If it is a problem with my firewire card, would getting a firewire hub (something I've been considering anyway) help out at all?

[Jyunte]

First of all, is your external drive in a LavaLink enclosure? If so, understand that although LavaLink claims their enclosures are IEEE1394 compliant, they are not (they don't even daisy chain off each other, so your iPod won't daisy chain off one of their enclosures!).

Something to check... look under the power settings in Control Panel. Are your drives going to sleep after non-use? I found that if my external firewire drives are "asleep" when I connect my iPod, the iPod is quite often not recognized. Simply double clicking on the external hard drive in My Computer, letting the drive spin up, then connecting the iPod seems to help.

[PeteyG]

Originally posted by Jyunte
Something to check... look under the power settings in Control Panel. Are your drives going to sleep after non-use? I found that if my external firewire drives are "asleep" when I connect my iPod, the iPod is quite often not recognized. Simply double clicking on the external hard drive in My Computer, letting the drive spin up, then connecting the iPod seems to help.

That seems to be it exactly! I do have my drives set to go to sleep after a period. It also seems that simply using files from or saving to the drive doesn't make it active. Only going into 'my computer' in windoze does it actually spin the drive up and activate it.

Thank you so much, you have solved the mystery as to why my iPod only worked some of the time. The blinking 'do not disconnect' screen is so sweet to see!