ipod problems - cant format (disk write error), cant transfer large files, etc

[aoLhaTer]

having several problems with a recently obtained 2nd gen 20gb ipod

i wanted to start clean so i tried to format (restore)
i downloaded the latest utlity (1.2.6) and pressed restore
the progress bar went about 75% then gave an error
formatting failure. disk write error.

when it started up again there was a status bar below the apple logo on the loading screen of the ipod
progress bar finished and it loaded up the normal screen

using ephpod i can successfully transfer files but it goes .5-.3MB/s
this is horribly slow

i wanted to further test speeds so i tried to transfer a 32mb file via windows
i got this error when i did it:
cannot copy "file": Data error (cyclic redundancy check)
i am able to copy small files though like pictures


im thinking the hd just may be bad
i have to call apple when their tech support is open and see if they can help


firewire controller is onboard on my abit at7 max2 mobo
TSB43AB23 by Texas Instruments

[couchpotato]

I CAN HELP YOU!!!
Ok I had the same problem. I don't know what causes it and frankly, I don't care. What you need to do is restart your computer and go into the BIOS (del). Go to PCI settings or something. You have to change a specific setting. It is called "PCI Latency Setting". Change it from 32 to 250. If your mobo doesnt have this setting you need to buy PCI firewire card. It also has to be one of the expensive ones. I bought a cheap one and just changed my pci latency and it was all good again.

[aoLhaTer]

exactly
thats right on :)

i didnt update this thread but after doing more reading i figured out thats what i needed to do last night
i changed it to 64 then 96 then 128
at 96 everything worked and i could transfer at 5.5mb a second
128 was the same as 96

everything works well now :)


only problem left is very very minor
ipod reports that theres 18 gigs left when there really is much less
im told this is a common problem

[mattm]

I have had problems exactly as you describe here, the ipod seemed okay when there was only a small amount of music on it but once I had a few hundred tunes it starting locking up on transfer and then I discovered it would lock up during formatting as well.....

The tip about altering PCI latency was encouraging, but on my pc there is no option to change it in the BIOS - I am using a really cheap (PCLine ?15 from PCWorld) firewire card with windows XP and there appeared to be no way to change any settings on the firewire card.

Another post on the net pointed to a utility called powerstrip from http://www.entechtaiwan.net/ps.htm which is really intended for tweaking AGP graphics cards, but it allows the PCI latency value of all the cards in the machine to be viewed and altered.... sure enough increasing the value on my cheapo firewire card from 32 to 128 has cured my ipod.

It will now format without problems and I have succesfully downloaded just short of 1000 tunes (5Gb) in one go with no errors.

Many thanks couchpotato for the tip on PCI latency and I hope powerstrip can be of some help to others experiencing problems.

[silver_haze20]

mattm, please can you tell me a quick step by step as to how you changed the latency in powerstrip. have you the registered version?

cheers

i tried upping the latency in the bios, but it was as high as it would go (64)