Mac won't recgonize iPod

[tech4all]

When I plug my 4G iPod to my Mac, it will not show up on the Mac. It worked fine the other day, but now nothing. It is, however, charging via firewire, but iTunes doesn't see it nor do I see the iPod icon the on the desktop.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[MikeLaRiviere]

A Few Things...

Here's a few suggestions. But first, a question: did you use it with a PC previously? If so, there may be a problem with the disk format, which you can, of course, fix. On to the suggestions:

1. Restart your computer and try again.

2. Go into Applications:Utilitiesisk Utility, and see if the iPod shows up there. Perhaps you will see some sort of hard drive or fire wire disk there.

3. Perform a hard reset (or two). Look in your iPod's manual regarding how to do this.

Make sure you have your music backed up before you start tinkering with your iPod (i.e., don't do any of these things if your iPod hold all of your music and your hard drive holds none, but I highly doubt you are in such a situation).

Mike LaRiviere

 

[tech4all]

Ok something else just happened. I rebooted my Mac, and at my desktop I got some weird graphic that said something about a system failure and kernal and stuff like that. One time when I restarted it stayed at this blue screen and one point the mouse didn't move so I had to restart again. This is weird, I hope its not too serious.

 

[jimsowden]

Sounds to me like a logic board failure. Call apple care or take it to a authorized service center.

 

[MikeLaRiviere]

First, did you add any RAM to the machine? If so, what brand?

Do a few things:

1. Run Apple Hardware Diagnostics, which came on one of your install discs, and/or Micromat TechTools.

2. Take out the extra RAM stick (if there is one) and see if the problem is solved.

3. Reinstall the OS using your system restore discs. You can do this without destroying your data; I believe the appropriate option is "archive and install," which will keep your programs and files intact.

I had the same problem as you, and it turned out to be poor-quality RAM. I hope you are able to solve your problem quickly.

Mike LaRiviere

 

[Horrortaxi]

Sounds to me like a logic board failure. Call apple care or take it to a authorized service center.

Pretty quick to jump to the worst case.

Let's start simple. Create another user account and see if the iPod will work well in it. If it does, then you've narrowed the problem down to something in your account. No need to reinstall the OS or anything like that. If it still doesn't work, then do the Hardware Diagnostics, as suggested and remove 3rd party RAM, as suggested.

There are some "just for the hell of it" things you can try with the iPod. You've probably already reset it. You can also "restore" it, which basically reformats it. Most likely it's not a problem with the iPod but you have to rule it out as a cause.

Quick longshot--do you have an iSight? iSights can cause problems with iPods. If you do have one, unplug it and try the iPod.

 

[tech4all]

Thank you for your replies.

I did add additional RAM that is from Apple (2, 512mb sticks). I got the Mac on June 13 last month and everything was working great until a few hours ago (btw: im at school on a different computer), but today I plugged in my iPod and that's when the problem started-the computer didn't see it or anything. At times the system just froze and I had to reboot via the power button. I'm not sure what that system failure and kernal thing was about (it wasn't a total black screen, but rather where the text was and it had a black "highlight" to it.)

And as you can imagine I started to panic because this thing is brand new. I did get AppleCare with the G5 so I'll call them and tell them what happened, and hopefully the problem will be resolved ASAP.

Also, I just plugged my iPod in the Mac here at school and it worked just right.

EDIT: Oh yeah I don't have an iSight.