IPod won't sync after restore - Please Help!!!

Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to read my posting.
I have a 3rd Gen 40gb iPod which was running the 2.2 firmware on Windows XP, which has been fine up until recently. The songs started to randomly skip during playback; this went on for a few weeks. So I decided to restore/reformat the iPod using the iPod updater software and this is where the problem started.
I downloaded the most up to date updater from Apple and updated the firmware to version 2.3. However when I came to sync my iPod with iTunes (ver 6) it would start transferring tracks and get about 5 or 6 on there and then it would hang and not transfer anymore and my iPod would just say Do not disconnect. This happened about 3 or 4 times. I decided to restore the firmware on my iPod to 2.2 using an older updater and now iTunes won’t see / sync my iPod at all…
Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong or what I should do to sort the problem?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Windows PC   Windows XP  

I would suggest that you go to firmware version 2.3 again (as opposed to 2.2), as this may be why iTunes isn't recognizing it now.
But, I understand that after you restored your iPod (with the 2.3 version), iTunes would bog up after updating only a few songs.
I think it's probably better to have 2.3 instead of 2.2. Try assigning your iPod a different drive letter when you connect it.
Log off of any other users on your computer.
Then, connect your iPod. When you connect your iPod, press and hold the "Ctrl" and "Shift" keys for about 20-30 seconds. This will prevent automatic-syncing from happening in iTunes.
After you've stopped automatic-update setting, assign your iPod a different drive letter (see below):
1 - Go to "START -> Control Panel -> Admin Tools (if you don't see this, click on "classic view" button on the left panel) -> Computer Management."
2 - Click on the "Disk Management" button in the left panel area.
3 - Right-click on your iPod's listing there (after a few moments when it gets recognized in this drive window), and click on "Change Drive letter and Paths". Then the "Change..." button.
Here's what it should look like:
Assign your iPod the letter "M" "N", "O" or the like (further along in the alphabet).
For more details, see this article:
Windows confuses iPod drive letter / Changing drive letter
If you need any additional help on how to follow these steps, post back with the details of your issue, and I'd be glad to try to help.
-Kylene
If any post helps or solves your problem, please click the "Solved" or "Helpful" buttons on top of that post. Thank you for helping the boards!

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