Hardware error or iPod failure?

Question

A family member has a Dell Dimension 4550 PC running Windows XP SP2. She had been successfully sync'ing music from this PC to an iPod Classic (80GB), using iTunes. Starting about three months ago, however, the iPod would no longer sync with the PC. I've been trying to resolve the problem on-and-off for the last few months, without success. I shipped the iPod back to Apple a few weeks ago, but they could find nothing wrong with it and therefore returned it to me; however, the problem still has not been resolved. At this point, the iPod is recognized by Windows XP and by iTunes. When I sync from iTunes to the iPod, however, only a few dozen songs are sync'd--then the process stops, with iTunes saying that the device can now be ejected. Something is causing the sync process to abort.

Why am I posting this message on this forum? Whenever the iPod is connected to the PC and a sync is in process, the following event occurs many times in the Windows System Event Log -

Source: Disk

Event ID: 51
Description: An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk5\D during a paging operation.

The following event sometimes occurs at the same moment that the sync suddenly stops:

Source: Disk

Event ID: 11
Description: The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk5\D.

Using Windows XP's Disk Management applet, I was able to determine that "Harddisk5" appears to be the iPod. If true, this would indicate that either the iPod is at fault or that the Dimension's driver or USB port is at fault.

I tried different USB ports, but had the same results. I downloaded and installed the latest PC BIOS (A08--R67246.exe) and Intel Chipset (R47822.EXE), rebooting after each; however, this has not resolved the problem, either.

Earlier today, I connected the iPod to my Dell XPS 410 PC running Windows Vista. The iPod was recognized by Windows XP and by iTunes and sync'd all of the songs on my PC--about a thousand songs. There were no errors in the event log.

The above leads me to believe that the problem is with the PC (the Dimension 4550); however, the PC is working fine otherwise...and the iPod had been working fine on this PC up until a few months ago.

I'm thinking this might be some type of configuration problem, but I'm not sure. When I Google "An error was detected on device during a paging operation", there are many, many matches--as though this is a common problem. Unfortunately, I have yet to find anyone offering a fix for it.

Does anyone have a suggestion on how to resolve this problem?

Message Edited by Chris Waters on 01-11-2008 02:27 PM

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

Chris Waters,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Is Windows XP service pack 2 installed on this system? Maybe try a repair of Windows XP. I am not sure if this will resolve the issue but, there is a Windows XP Release Candidate 3 (sp3) located on the Microsoft Website. Click the title below to download.

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Chris Waters · Answer

XP SP2 is installed on this system.   I booted to the Dell Utility Partition and ran the System Diagnostics--focusing on the USB and System Board components. All tests passed successfully.   The problem appears to be with Windows XP itself.   I booted from an XP SP2 CD. I accessed the Repair Console and logged in to my XP installation; however, I'm not sure what to do beyond that.   Perhaps I should simply re-apply XP SP2 first?

RoHe · Answer

Hope you don't mind me jumping in...

Might be easier/faster to try a system file check (sfc) first. If you do the XP Repair, you'll have to reinstall all the XP updates and hotfixes again. If sfc fixes it, you're done.

click start>run
type in: sfc /scannow
(space between sfc and /)
click OK
Insert XP CD if sfc requests it and reboot when it's done.

Are we sure this isn't a hardware error on the USB ports, causing trouble reading the iPod's drive? If sfc doesn't fix it, try disconnecting all other USB devices, except mouse, keyboard, ipod. And if that still doesn't do it, maybe you need to uninstall and reinstall the USB ports by disconnecting all USB devices, except mouse and keyboard, then uninstalling all USB entries in Device Manager and rebooting.

Ron

Chris Waters · Answer

I don't mind you jumping in, RoHe. In fact, I'm grateful that you did!   I had already disconnected all other USB devices (my keyboard and mouse are not USB devices) and then rebooted; the problems with the iPod--and the device warnings and errors in the System event log--had not gone away.   I followed your suggestion and (with all USB devices disconnected) performed an 'SFC /scannow'. The process took about 30 minutes to run. There was no feedback whatsoever--so I don't know what, if anything, was fixed. Perhaps I should have run it from a command window? Next, I rebooted and then connected the iPod. That seems to have resolved the problem! Sync'ing works fine now...and none of the device warnings and errors have re-occurred.   I have since re-connected all of the other USB devices and have not seen any problems. I guess one of the system files had become corrupt and was fixed by the SFC process.   I'll wait a few days to consider this problem completely resolved, but I really appreciate your suggestions!

RoHe · Answer

Great! :)

That's a problem with design of sfc, it never tells you (directly) what it did. But, open XP's Event Viewer. Click System at left and look in right pane for "Windows File Protection" entries around the time you ran sfc.

There should be at least 2 of them. First should say "started", the last "successful". If the last one doesn't say "successful", you have additional XP file problems to fix.

Either way now do full malware scans. ;)

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 01-12-2008 11:22 AM

Chris Waters · Answer

There are just those two Windows File Protection events--'started' and 'successful'.   This PC is running Norton Internet Security 2008, which includes spyware protection. I just performed a complete system scan; no issues were found.   IAC, the problem is fixed now and the family member who uses this PC is happy again. Thanks  :)

RoHe · Answer

:)

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Hardware error or iPod failure?

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