Please help a newbie with his WinPod

[Ruahrc]

I just got my shiny new iPod (10GB for Windows) and have a couple questions about both the firmware and EphPod.

I know that there is a version 1.2.1 firmware out for iPods, but apple.com only appears to offer it for macs? If I go the "About" screen on my iPod it shows up as v1.2 firmware. What is the difference between the two and should I try to upgrade mine? My university libraries have Macs, could I go to apple.com and download and update my iPod using the macs in the library, even though I have a Windows iPod? Is it needed to upgrade? I heard the 1.2.1 release fixed battery drain/battery level indicator issues- something that seems fairly important.

I also had a couple questions about EphPod. I use EphPod 2.58, and all I installed from the iPod CD was the Updater. I was able to transfer all my songs correctly, but when I went to verify the iPod database, it had about 10 songs whose filesize was incorrect. If I tried to play these songs off the iPod they were in error because it would start playing partway through the song. (The same mp3 played in Winamp was normal) If I delete these 10 songs and re-copy them, about 5 of them would be still corrupted. If I repeated this process about 3 times all the songs would copy over ok. Does anyone else have this problem? The firewirecard I'm using is the Audigy SB1394 port, Windows XP Pro SP1

Another question I had about EphPod was the Updater. If I click on Update Firmware- this new window comes up but the "Next" button is greyed out and so I have to press cancel. Is this feature not working in the 2.58 version of EphPod?

Some other problems I have been having:
-I cannot get my contacts or calender on the iPod. I tried using EphPod's contact transfer button but it says "Cannot handle 'LastName'" and seems to fail. Manually copying vCard files into the Contacts folder of the iPod via Windows Explorer copes the files correctly, but the contacts do not show up on the iPod. I'm using Outlook XP. I don't even know how to transfer my calendar over. The manual is not very clear about this.

-If I go to the "About" screen on the iPod, it says I have 155 songs, which is correct, but it reports 9.2GB free of 9.2GB capacity. It should be about 8.3GB free because of those 155 songs though. Is this just a quirk of using EphPod? It doesn't really bother me though because my music collection is nowhere near 10GB so I won't need to worry about space.

All of these problems are fairly minor, though- and I'm really really happy with my purchase. Next step: 35's and etys

. Need to make more green though hehe.

Thanks!

Ruahrc

 

[Taphil]

- 1.2.1 is supposed to fix the battery drain issue, if it even applies to you.

- Don't update it on a Mac. It'll turn your iPod into a Mac iPod, which won't work natively in Windows.

- The Audigy card may pose a problem. Look for and install the VIA chipset PCI latency patch if you have a motherboard with the VIA chipset.

- The Updater included with Ephpod was made to work with older Mac iPods, and it's an old version which doesn't work at all.

- The About screen is a bug. You can try doing a restore or format the drive, and then try transferring songs over again to see if that fixes it.