IPod Mini Problems Please Help

Question

This is my second post of the type... no one replied to that so im hoping someone could help me.
Problems:
-Wont Update or Load Songs
-It starts loading, gets to around the 5th song (out of well over 600) and says "Ipod Update Complete, OK To Disconnect" though nothing is on the iPod.
-Occasionally wont restore to factory settings.
Okay, before you suggest the five R's, ill note that ive put several MONTHS into this, and ive tried them well over 20 times in order.
Things Tried
-5 R's Repeatedly (as noted above)
-updating on a friends computer (several times with no luck, same problems)
-requested help over the phone
-The number i called was the Apple US Help Line, which the person helped me for about an hour before he said he did not know what was up, and transfered me to the Canadian help line, where they demanded a large sum for help, which i could not pay (under 18).
-When i first noticed the problems, I sent it in (around the end of december)and problems continued upon arrival of the new mini.
I will also note that my sisters iPod Nano works perfectly fine, no problems, as well as my friends iPods adding songs from my computer.
Please please help... im currently resorting to a crappy CD player that skips for my music... and have been... its starting to break me inside.
Thank you,
Milan

Answer 1

Natalie,
If you have your iPod set to transfer your music manually, then that “do not disconnect” message will continue to be displayed on your iPod until you manually eject it.
You can do this by clicking on the little eject icon next to the iPod listing in the source window of iTunes, or right click on it and select “eject”. Another way would be to use the “safely remove hardware” icon in the system tray next to the clock (looks like a grey rectangle with a green arrow above it). Click on this then select your iPod. Or through Windows, select start/my computer, right click on the iPod, select eject.
If you have your iPod set to automatically sync with iTunes, right click on the iPod in iTunes, select options and if you have a check mark in the box marked “enable disk use”, remove it and your iPod should automatically disconnect after it’s finished transferring music.
For the iPod to automatically open iTunes, you have to have "open iTunes when this iPod is attached" checked.
Go to edit/preferences/iPod to do this.
If you prefer to keep the iPod set to manual transfer, look at this. In fact, the whole tutorial is a must read.
Managing Your Songs Manually
iPod Tutorial
iTunes Tutorial Windows