Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[lOth]

[Edit by moderator -- the problem discussed here no longer exists with MC11.1  See lOth's post here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=8;topic=30493.5#msg209911 ]

I'll start a specific thread for this because I wish there was one when the problem happened to me and I started freaking out.

Symptoms:

your iPod keeps restarting : the iPod logo is displayed for a few seconds, you can hear some hd activity and suddenly it shuts off, display the logo again, etc, etc... forever.

resetting it manually (hold select and menu for a few seconds) doesn't get you out of the loop? it won't enter disk mode (hold select and play for a few seconds)? Fear not: there's the diagnostic mode.

First, I did this with a 4G (40gb photo) iPod and assume it will work with all 4g, probably with minis, (5g please let us know how to get into disk mode on 5gs) and nano.
Then please note that if you follow these instructions all content will be erased from your iPod, but you'll be out of the RLOD (restart loop of death).

Here's what I did and you might want to try if you're stuck in that dreadful loop:

_make sure MC and/or iTunes (or any other program communicating with the iPod) is closed. If you really want to be sure, open the task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL) and kill ipodservice.exe and ituneshelper.exe if they're in the list of your running tasks.
_plug your looping iPod to the computer
_wait for the next restart
_when the apple logo appears hold the menu and back buttons together until the iPod restarts in diagnostic mode.
_in the iPod diagnostics menu, scroll down to diskmode and select
_your iPod should restart, but this time it will display the 'do not disconnect screen'
_wait for the iPod to appear as a disk drive on your computer
_run the latest iPod updater from apple (http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/, beware: 55Mb download)
_choose restore and follow the instructions
_once the process is completed, please initialize your iPod to work with MC (of course  )

After a couple hours of intense anxiety, I have a working iPod again.

Hope it will help.

For more info on 'diagnostic mode':

http://playlistmag.com/features/2004/11/ipphpotpour/index.php

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/ipod-photo-diagnostic-mode-revealed/

[SteveG]

IOth,

Thanks for sharing this and for taking the time to post it for other's benefit.

Steve

[Chris Shaw]

How odd. I had exactly this problem over the weekend. And found the same solution, fortunately. I resynced it overnight to get all my stuff onto it and found it constantly rebooting in the morning again. This time, I did the same but instead of a restore, I flashed to the newest firmware, did a quick resync with MC and it was back up without losing any data.

[NoCodeUK]

Hey guys.

This has just happened to me.  I bought a brand new shiny iPod 5th gen and tried to use it with MC.  All appeared to be fine and MC said tracks were transferred.  I disconnected iPod and there were no tracks so I reconnected and asked MC to rebuild iPods db.  Again all seemed fine I disconnected iPod and it got stuck in infinite restart loop.

I managed to get into disk mode but the updater does not seem to recognise ipod.  I did get it to recognise once, started a restore but it bombed out almost staright away and iPod is still poorly.  Any one any ideas or I may have to return it to the shop and get a new one which is frustrating as I haven't even listened to any music on it yet!!

Adam

[SteveG]

Adam,

What version of MC are you running?

Steve

[benmaxwell]

Steve,

Same thing happened to me last night.  I'm running the new .60 build.  I solved it (for now) by throwing my new black 60gb 5gen into disk mode (action and play/pause together) and it showed up in the updater.  (There was NO menu item in the new diagnostic mode, btw). Here's the sysinfo:

Media Center Registered 11.1.60 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 11\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 2382 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 515 MB, Free - 170 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.2900 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2900 / Shell32.dll: 6.0.2900 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.57 (1008) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-1997 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.57 (1008)

Ripping /   Drive G:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive H:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive G: YAMAHA   CRW-F1E            Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:44  MaxSpeed:44  BurnProof:Yes
  Drive H: SONY     DVD RW DRU-530A    Addr: 2:0:0  Speed:40  MaxSpeed:40  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None


I uninstalled MC11 completely and am reloading library.  Then I'll initialize ipod and start a test sync.

-Ben


no joy: had it happen again.  it happens right after syncing, and ejecting ipod from within MC.  Trying to track down where the culprit is.

[lOth]

maybe we should sticky this until this problem is gone...

I realize this is not very good advertisement for the alpha but people might appreciate it if they don't have to believe for too long that they killed their iPod (not the most pleasant feeling, believe me).

[JimH]

I'm not sure it's MC that is doing it.  Even if it is, it's not very graceful handling of the error by the iPod firmware.

[lOth]

it's not about pointing fingers, it's about providing a quick and working fix to a very annoying issue. After I managed to restore my iPod I didn't really care if it was MC, iTunes or Windows that had crashed it that way, I was just glad the loop was finally over.

[SteveG]

In case this helps others, I will sticky it.

[lOth]

thanks Steve.

It's happened to me again today and I'm pretty sure it has to do with something MC does wrong when ejecting the iPod.

Here's what I did today. I had all these files that displayed the wrong cover art so I figured I tried deleting the itunesdb file, launch MC to rebuild the db from iPod. That's what happened but I couldn't check whether it fixed my cover art problem: I tried to eject the iPod from within MC and the flashing 'Do not disconnect' message froze. I left it that way for about 30min (just in case) and finally decided to close MC and eject the iPod through the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in Windows. I was then told that it was safe to remove my device but 'Do not disconnect' was still frozen. I unplugged it anyway. Still frozen. I did a reset and then got into the loop of death. That's my story for today.

Please note that I have a fresh system, installed about a week ago. No iTunes, no anapod, no nothing ever installed having to do with the iPod except for MC and the last iPod updater.

[JimH]

It sounds like the itunesdb file isn't written correctly or isn't completely written.

Can you try a test in which you give MC extra time to complete the write BEFORE you eject the iPod?  It might give us a clue about what is going wrong.

I also think you've said that the amount of data you're moving to the iPod is a factor -- full or nearly full is a problem, right?

[lOth]

I think I might have figured what's happening here. Once a transfer was over, MC jumped to the home page. From there I ejected the iPod by right clicking it and not seing anything happening after a little while, ejected through windows. Most of the time the iPod ends up fine (although it's cover art mess...) but if unlucky you get into the loop. Now, instead of staying on the home page after transfer was done I went back to the iPod under drives and devices. Then I right-clicked eject and realized that it said 'working...' in the upper pane on the right side. Ejecting the iPod from MC is just extremely long, and the amount of data that's been just moved to the iPod is definitely a factor.

I'm using 11.1.060 and as a general rule everything is much slower than before : sync portable info to MC, analyze audio, the pause between the last file transfered and the jump to the home page, the time to eject the iPod. When a lot of files are involved the whole process is extremely long and (it seems) can lead to a crash (C++ runtime error)

[benmaxwell]

Guys,

I had this happen to me a bunch of times with my new 60gb video ipod.  I think what I0th said is 100% correct.  I never had the lag he did when ejecting, but it was (sadly) definately MC that was causing the problems.  (smaller batches of test syncs we screwing me up - I have over 7500 songs, and that 1st sync was okay, but it was with a 11.0.53 build, I think -- the new 11.1.060 was the root). 

I've been syncing with iTunes (yuck!) and I never had the loop of death happen at all.  I MUCH prefer MC... it's a more powerful tool for managing music and video, especially tagging and your smartlists kick ass... but until this bug is squashed, I have to use crapple's app. 

[NoCodeUK]

Hi all,

After trashing my last iPod and having to get it exchanged at the apple store it was so dead using an early alpha I was a little loathed to try again.  However I took the plunge today using the latest ( at that time ) build 63 and all seemed to be fine.  iPod ejected and no restart loop and all tracks were present and correct.  One thing I did notice is that after MC has uploaded tracks the Lyrics feature on my 5g iPod no longer works.  Even for tunes that were uploaded previously with itunes and which worked...  I am guessing this has not been implemented yet.  Is it on the to do list?  Cheers Adam

[SteveG]

Adam,

Lyrics are not currently implemented. It may end up on the todo list, but is definitely behind photo support and full video support.

Steve

[LonWar]

Hi all,

After trashing my last iPod and having to get it exchanged at the apple store it was so dead using an early alpha I was a little loathed to try again.  However I took the plunge today using the latest ( at that time ) build 63 and all seemed to be fine.  iPod ejected and no restart loop and all tracks were present and correct.  One thing I did notice is that after MC has uploaded tracks the Lyrics feature on my 5g iPod no longer works.  Even for tunes that were uploaded previously with itunes and which worked...  I am guessing this has not been implemented yet.  Is it on the to do list?  Cheers Adam

Hi Adam, How is the new Ipods? I am interested in the screen, is it easier to scratch then the 4gen photo's?
I'd like to get one, but I know the Nano's screen scratched very easily.

[LonWar]

How long do you have to hold the back and menu buttons for? I can't seem to get into diagnostic mode...   


Edit:  I found it, On the Photo 60gb, you press Play and Select.