Updating to 1.2.6 but laptop can't see iPOD

[huggies]

Hey guys,

Trying to help my sister out, who is having major battery problems. It just doesn't seem to hold a charge, and so I told her to update to 1.2.6 (she has 20 gig pc ipod). Problem is, her laptop firewire card doesn't provide power, so when she tries to go through the updater, it doesn't recognize her ipod as being connected.... Is she just gonna have to do this on a pc w/ power firewire connection?

I'll keep searching the forums, but appreciate any help you guys might be able to offer!

Thanks!

[huggies]

anyone? The computer can recognize her ipod when it has a charge, but since the firewire is not 6-pin, it obviously won't give power...

anything i'm not thinking of?

Thanks again!

[snowdog99]

Even a 6 pin fire-wire PC card in a laptop will not provide power. As long as the iPod is fully charged first it should be perfectly possible to restore, update or sync from a laptop without power from the puter. (I did this quite happily till some bar-steward stole my laptop.)

iPods can be quite fussy about fire-wire cards, I had to try a couple to get it to work. The one that worked is a Unibrain Firecard-400. In fact, since I'm not replacing the laptop I have one going spare if any UK iPodders are interested.:D

[ashawley]

Try putting it in forced firewire mode: do a reset (menu + pause/play) at the Apple logo, press the FF & Rew buttons. It should change to "Ok to Disconnect". Connect the iPod and it should change to "Do Not Disconnect".

Next, try the updater, you should be using the 1.3 Updater (http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/) for a 20giger. It's the latest version (newer than 1.2.6).

Once the updater goes through its process, it will unmount the iPod and you'll need to connect it to the AC Adaptor to let it finish the firmware flash. The updater will tell you to "disconnect and reconnect the iPod". Don't reconnect it to the PC, connect it to the AC adaptor at this point (since her firewire card doesn't provide power.

Adam

[huggies]

Adam, thanks for the instructions.

She was able to put it into firewire mode. Unfortunately, as soon as she unplugs it from the wall, it's dead. So it sounds to me like it's not holding a charge at all...time to call apple? or do you have any other ideas?

thanks for your help!

[ashawley]

How long has she let it charged while connected to the AC adaptor?

Sorry, I'm not quite following the exact steps she's taking...

Adam

[huggies]

She has let it charge several hours. She told me that she plugged it in last night, and it said typical "charging"...then she came back several hours later and it said "charged". As soon as she unplugs it, it's dead. Can't get anything. So I initially was thinking that it's a battery issue that might be able to be fixed by upgrading her firmware (older than 1.2.6 that seemed to fix the many battery issues).

But since she has a laptop, she can never get it to have power when plugged into computer (since it doesn't provide power).

Very crazy...