Ipod won't show up in itunes, but there's a twist...

Question

Okay, let's start from the beginning. My dad bought me an iPod for my birthday. But, since we're cheap, he got a refurbished one. It's an iPod (dock connector/3rd gen.) and it came with a split USB and Firewire cable. I plugged it in and everything was going fine at first. I ejected it after it had imported about a gig of music so that I could verify that it was working (I've had trouble with iPods in the past). I listened to it and everything was going just fine. So, I plugged it back in so that it could continue importing my music. Later, I moved the iPod and my computer informed me that I hadn't unplugged it properly. To which I shouted "But I didn't unplug it at all!" Neither my computer nor my iPod seemed to care what I thought. I frantically checked my iPod to make sure that it was still okay and, well, it wasn't. It will admit that there are 7 gigs taken up, but it doesn't recognize any actual songs. Thus begins my two-day battle with my formidable oponent: apple.com. I begin searching around, trying to find ways to fix this. I am told that I need to restore my iPod, so I click the link to discover how to do this. The article tells me to first download the latest version of iTunes. I comply. The next instruction tells me to plug in my iPod. I, being not entirely stupid, had borrowed my friend's iPod cord since I'd determined that that was the source of my problems. I plug in my iPod using this cord and after a bit, finder and my desktop tell me that my iPod is plugged in. ITunes tells me that it can't read what's on my iPod and I should restore it. I click okay and wait patiently for the iPod icon to appear in the source bar. It never does. I decide to restart my computer, hoping that this will work. It doesn't. I then resume my battle with apple.com. After some fruitless and frustrating searching (including an article that told me to restore my iPod in order to fix the problem...idiots), I find the post on this very message board where someone had the same problem that I'm having. In the responses I was given a link to an article. I followed this link and there I was told to download a Mac OS X update thingy. I downloaded this and updated (which took forever). And (surprise) nothing changed. After all of this, I decided that I would give this discussion a try. Please, help.
p.s. - I understand that this is very long, but I felt it best to give a detailed account of all those things that I have already tried. Besides, I'm witty and entertaining...right?
iBook G3   Mac OS X (10.3.8)  

Answer 1

I'm having the same problems. Suddenly, around the end of August, my 3rd generation iPod would charge but not mount via Firewire. It worked fine away from the computer but I could no longer load songs or edit my playlists. I tried all the "Rs" plus switching cables and ports. I plugged into 4 other macs- some with no other firewire devices plugged in.
I installed a version of Panther on one of my hard drives- no luck. I discovered that the iPod would mount with USB2.0 but that connection would not charge the battery AND the USB port rapidlly drains the battery. A full charge lasts a little less than 5 minutes and even less if the iPod is accessed.
I was able to re-install earlier updates with the USB2.0 connection. Still no luck.
I reformatted for both mac and windows- no luck.
All the while, I'm reading posts on this site with others experiencing the same problems. It makes me wonder if the last update did something strange to the way the mac communicates through firewire that "orphaned" the 3rd generation iPods.
If only I could use USB2.0 with out the battery rapidly draining I would be OK. I've posted a request to see if anyone has knowledge of a dual purpose USB2.0 cord that would "Y" into a power adapter. I haven't heard anything yet but I just posted it last night.
Anyways, I'll be checking for responses to your post, my post and many others to see if a solution presents itself.
I don't believe any of the suggestions are "stupid". I'm sure the vast majority of iPod users have newer models and we owners of older ones are kind of low on the radar. It is very frustrating, though. Especially, when its apparent that MANY others are suddenly having the same problem
Thanks!
Don't have time to spell check so I hope I don't sound stupid!