e-ignite

I recently had some fairly serious problems with my iPod Touch when the latest 2.0.2 firmware was released.  I don’t normally blog about these problems to complain, but it seems to me that there could be a serious issue affecting all iPod Touch and iPhone users - the Apple support website offered little or no help and at one point, I thought I might have bricked my iPod.  In the hope of helping anyone out who may suffer the same problems, here’s my story…

Firstly, I should make it clear that my iPod is 100% above-board.  It’s not Jailbroken and I bought and paid for both the original software update (the January Software Update which added mail functionality along with weather and stocks gadgets), and the iPhone 2.0 update for iPod Touch.  I absolutely love my iPod and use it intensively for checking my email, general web surfing and all things music and video.

I first noticed a problem when I tried to update my iPod to the 2.0.2 software - I was able to update to 2.0.0 and 2.0.1 without any problems whatsoever just weeks earlier.  I launched iTunes, plugged my iPod in and a “New Hardware Detected” bubble came up in Windows XP (Pro) stating that new hardware was found and it was a “Digital Stills Camera”.  I thought that this was a bit strange, and within a few second, Windows went into memory dump mode and I got the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD).  Annoyed, I re-booted and plugged my iPod back in - this time it worked, connected no problem and so I started downloading the new firmware.   The firmware downloaded (although at almost 250Mb, it seemed like a huge download for such a small device… I guess that’s just the way it is though) and began to install on my iPod.  The “Digital Stills Camera” bubble popped up again in Windows and within seconds, my computer blue-screened and the software install didn’t finish correctly.  I tried switching the iPod on - it worked, remembered my password etc, but when I tried to open anything (the Settings dialog for example), it just froze up.

“Oh dear” I thought…

Read the rest of this entry »