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iPhone woes - "unknown device"
Kate of Lokys
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
We picked up a new iPhone a few days ago, with Rogers, and so far it has been absolutely fantastic.
Then last night, we tried syncing it with our computers so we could, you know, load MP3s on it and stuff. And the damned thing won't be recognized. We keep getting "USB Device Not Recognized" errors, and it only shows up as "Unknown Device." The iPhone is charging off USB just fine, but Windows won't load the right drivers for it.
Things we have tried:
We're pretty much at wit's end at this point. Did we just get a bum iPhone, or what? Are there any other tricks we can try before we deal with the hassle of repair or exchange? Rogers made it abundantly clear that if there were any problems with the phone, we needed to take it up with Apple, we couldn't just exchange the phone for another one. And there's no Apple store in town, which means either a long drive or sending our four-day-old pristine iPhone on a magical adventure ride through the Canadian mail service.
We just want the damned thing to work.
Then last night, we tried syncing it with our computers so we could, you know, load MP3s on it and stuff. And the damned thing won't be recognized. We keep getting "USB Device Not Recognized" errors, and it only shows up as "Unknown Device." The iPhone is charging off USB just fine, but Windows won't load the right drivers for it.
Things we have tried:
- Three different operating systems: OS X, Vista, and XP.
- Two different computers: an upgraded Dell Vostro, and my own custom-built Kilava, who uses fairly standard parts.
- Installing, uninstalling, and reinstalling iTunes on both computers.
- Manually downloading usbaapl.sys and dropping it into windows/inf and windows/system32/drivers.
- Resetting the iPhone, hard resetting the iPhone, putting the iPhone into recovery mode.
- Laying offerings of choice Weetabix, flavoured with delicate honey and soaked in purest milk, before the altar of our household gods.
- Every possible combination of the aforementioned: unplugging the iPhone, uninstalling iTunes, turning off the computer, unplugging the computer, turning off the iPhone, rebooting the Weetabix, turning on the iPhone, plugging the computer back in, turning the computer back on, reinstalling iTunes, going through the shutoff and restart cycle again, eating some of the Weetabix, booting the computer back up, plugging in the iPhone, cursing the failure of the household gods.
We're pretty much at wit's end at this point. Did we just get a bum iPhone, or what? Are there any other tricks we can try before we deal with the hassle of repair or exchange? Rogers made it abundantly clear that if there were any problems with the phone, we needed to take it up with Apple, we couldn't just exchange the phone for another one. And there's no Apple store in town, which means either a long drive or sending our four-day-old pristine iPhone on a magical adventure ride through the Canadian mail service.
We just want the damned thing to work.
Kate of Lokys on
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You should have Apple support to call on this too, might want to hit them up.
So, completely fresh installs of the latest version. And no, the iPhone doesn't come with any drivers. The installation instructions consist of "Download iTunes, connect the iPhone to your computer, sync."
Has some tips you can give a try.
I got online and booked an appointment for tomorrow at the nearest Apple Store. Which is two and a half hours away by highway. The best case scenario in this situation, as far as I'm concerned, is we get there, they plug our iPhone into their computer, it doesn't work there either, they say "My goodness, you must have encountered a one-in-a-million manufacturing defect, please accept this replacement and our apologies." The worst case scenario is, they plug it into their computer, it works just fine, they shrug and say "Huh, I guess it's just your shitty luck that this thing doesn't work on either of the two computers you tried it on at home, maybe you should buy a Mac while you're here." In which case we cancel the contract (we have 30 days to do so without penalty, provided we don't use more than half an hour of talk time), and I never get to buy an iPhone again because they'll have my name on record as having purchased one, so I won't be a new subscriber anymore. Yay!
This has been my first-ever experience with an Apple product. "It just works" my ass. My ten year old Rio PMP300 still works. My less-than-ten-day-old iPhone? Nope, sorry, but have fun driving five hours round trip to try getting it up and running!
The fact that it's an unknown device leads me to believe windows detects it, just doesn't know what else to do with it. There's a few things that could be wrong here. Drivers, for one, are a big thing. Chances are iTunes should've taken care of that. That's cool.
The other likely problem is that you're using a USB 1.1 port. Have you tried different USB ports? Have you tried the back ports only (front ones are sometimes USB 1.1 on some pre-fabbed PCs/laptops)?
I'm pretty sure she said she tried it on OS X first. >_>
I apologize for my snark. I deal with this every day and there are some seriously retarded people who actually deal with computers on a regular basis and know quite a bit.
Yes, I am fairly confident you have a bad unit.
I bought one a week ago and had zero problems with any computers I connected it to recognizing it
I've had that problem with my iPod before, but it's never consistent across machines, and resetting/reformatting the device usually fixes it.
Oh, no problem, half the reason for posting this was so somebody could check our Ps and Qs. This is the first time in 15+ years of using Apple equipment that I've had a hardware failure (naturally the first faulty Apple product I bought was the thing intended to "convert" my girlfriend >_>), so Kate and I were both convinced it had to be a "PICNIC" issue.
The issue is more than likely a Windows issue and not something with your iPhone. If it were the iPhone it shouldn't work with ANY computer, Mac or PC.
Oh, hey I'm making a game! Check it out: Dr. Weirdo!
they said it didn't
Oh, hey I'm making a game! Check it out: Dr. Weirdo!
How were they dicks? You have piqued my interest.
Actually, I'm kinda curious what happen and what was wrong
Well, since you guys asked. :P
I have to fill in a gap in the story before I get into the gory parts: my hunch was that it was a bad sync cable, but the tech Kate spoke to on the phone didn't seem to think that was a possibility because it was drawing a charge from AC. We were also told not to use any 3rd party/replacement cables (apparently at peril of voiding our warranty). Those details are kind of important, because otherwise you'll probably be wondering why we didn't just buy a $10 replacement cable from Walmart in the first place (God knows I'm wondering that. :?)
We drove to Toronto yesterday to get the thing looked at. We were told Friday that if we brought it in, they'd take care of it for us on the spot, so we opted to do that instead of shipping it in (and getting it back god-knows-when, probably missing our 30 day window to just return it to Rogers and be done with it). We got right in for our appointment to see a Genius, and while he was extremely friendly and professional, he just ignored me. Instead of checking the cable first, he insisted on reformatting and reinstalling everything, then updating to the latest version of the firmware (while we just sat there for about 20 minutes -- an eternity in a loud, crowded store, I got elbowed three or four times). After going through all of those steps, he finally announced "it works fine with my known-good cable, but why don't we try it with yours, just to make sure!"
Sure enough, our cable was bad.
So at this point, I'm thinking, "at least he'll grab a cable off the accessory display and we'll be good to go". Instead, he gave us the URL for Apple's warranty replacement website and told us to go home and order a new cable.
I would have been merely "pissed" at that point. The guy we talked to on the phone Friday could have just as easily said "maybe it's a bad cable, let me send you one before you drive all the way to Toronto" and spared us the whole ordeal. Or he could have told us about the warranty replacement site himself and let us take care of it. Instead, they pretty much tied our hands on troubleshooting it ourselves and made us waste an entire day, only to be told "go home".
But what really grinds my gears is that to get a replacement cable mailed out, I had to give them my credit card. The language on the site implied that I'd be billed for the replacement cable if (and only if) I didn't return the bad cable within 10 business days, but they've already dinged my credit card for $20. I guess I get my money back if I jump through their hoops some more, I don't even know at this point.
To summarize, it took 30 minutes on the phone, 30 minutes sitting in the store, five hours in our car, ten minutes ordering a replacement cable, $50 in gas, and a $20 deposit (which I probably won't get back) to perform a diagnostic any Rogers store should have been able to do for us and get a $2 replacement part.
I bought this for Kate to make a convert out of her. I think I've been converted back. >_>
The crappy thing is I saw this thread yesterday and (I'm sure I wasn't the only one) 'maybe it's the cable', but then I thought "Nah, they both seem to be really computer savvy, they probably checked that already"
Then... yeah.
Anyway. There's not much else we can do about it at this point, so we might as well lock this before I start posting the epic rant I have typed up in my scratchpad <_<
So now that you have the cable are you all systems go?
"So alternate, against the grain, anti establishment - so you're just a regular joe again, right?"
a short list of older chargers and FM transmitters made for older iPods have been known to just fry iPhone 3Gs. The dock connector is the same, the power throughput isn't.
it's probably just easier for Apple to say "don't use them" than have to endorse individual products without the Made for iPhone sticker on them
I'll also say that this is one of the few times I've ever seen Apple Support not be as helpful as they could, but I can't really fault them for any of the moves they made from a support standpoint. They need your credit card to pay for the cable if you don't send back the old one (though they shouldn't have charged it, they should have done a Pending charge to make sure the funds were available, and then canceled it. It'd still show up on your bill temporarily.), they shouldn't be endorsing third party cables (though you should have tried it anyway and lied to them if they asked), and it's not really their fault that they don't have a closer location to you.
It sucks that the guy at the store skipped trying it before he went through the rest of the standard steps, but that's really the only misstep they made. I know it seems pretty bad to you guys being on the receiving end, but as support myself, there's only so much they can do for a malfunctioning device without actually looking at it.
I'm going to bicker with you a bit on this one point (the rest I either mostly agree with, or just don't want to veer off into D&D territory with). Our hometown of London, ON isn't a small little hamlet, it's a thriving city with a metro population of almost a half million. We have at least a couple of Apple dealers here (including one right here on campus), and dozens of Rogers locations. I'm sure any of them should be able to provide basic support (we're talking about a faulty cable, not a fried logic board), but we were explicitly told at various points in our Excellent iPhone Adventure that none of them could/would help us; we had to send it in or go to Toronto. The local Apple vendors are evidently not required to help, and Rogers employees are apparently outright forbidden from providing assistance -- they told us Apple required us to go through Apple's channels for support, period.
And Kate is asking me to add that they had an entire wall dedicated to iPhone 3G accessories at the Apple store. Wouldn't one of those cables have worked? An OEM cable is an OEM cable, right?
I know you're just coming at this from the perspective of a support guy, but from the perspective of the consumer, it seems like there were an awful lot of times where they could have helped us without either making us travel or making us wait. And it really seems like they shouldn't have told us they could fix/replace the phone on the spot at the Apple store if they couldn't -- if they'd told us "we'll have a look, but we'll probably have you send it in for replacement/repair anyway", we wouldn't have made the trip.
It doesn't do much good to bitch about it at this point, I know, but...
If there's anything here I'm surprised about, it's Rogers. They should be offering support on these things because Apple Stores are a hell of a lot more sparse in Canada than they are in the US, and we don't even have that many of them outside of major cities. If I had a similar issue with mine, I could've brought it into an AT&T store and they'd have helped me out. Though AT&T technically doesn't offer support on these in the US, but they usually take a shot at it before sending people off to Apple, and this is definitely an issue they could've covered.
edit: what the fuck that is a random spammer
edit2: I'm not really trying to defend Apple here either, I'm just saying that it seems they did try to accommodate you, but circumstance made for a worse experience. I know they could have fixed your shit immediately by just handing you a cable from the shelf, but that just isn't how warranty replacements work with any company.
Apple Canada for the lose.
I had a problem with my iPod and went to the Apple Store in Sacramento. I was fairly sure it was my cable (turns out it was a bug in the firmware on the iPod's at that time) but I came in went "I spoke to Apple support, they think I might need a new cable, but I don't have one. I have my old one with me."
Dude 1: "Hey, do you think I'm violating policy if I just exchange the cable?"
Dude 2: "[laughs] Yeah, probably, but whatever."
And I get a new cable.
Apple US have been nothing but amazing for me, I think they're taught to be much more "fix the customer, not the policy" oriented, maybe Apple Canada needs some lessons.
There's probably a grain of truth in this -- I've never had any problems with Apple in the States, but then again, they've never sold me broken stuff. >_>
To put a final stake through this thread's heart: we've decided we're probably going to just cancel the plan and return the phone.
I have this problem constantly. I have had 3 different iPhones (all worked fine, the first was a 1st gen and the other two were upgrades - I have a 3GS 32Gb now). I have also had this problem with different PC hardware and different WinXP installs (as the original poster has too).
This issue of "Device not Recognised" happens constantly. It isn't a cable issue, I have two official Apple cables and a 3rd party cable, all of which work fine.
The problem comes and goes depending on how the PC is feeling at the time, which way the wind is blowing and which orientation the iPhone has been sitting in my pocket.
The trick which I use that works (which may incidentally take upwards of 4 attempts) when this happens is as follows;
1) Try different USB ports. Some ports on my PC like the iPhone one day and then they'll change their mind the next. I have no idea why, perhaps iTunes only likes some of the the colours of my socks.
2) When you get the 'Unknown Device' issue leave the phone plugged in, so that...
3) ...it is easy to find; when you go to Device Manager and open your USB ports it is listed as an unknown device. Just remove that one.
4) Disconnect the iPhone and then reboot.
5) When the PC is stable at the desktop, try plugging the iPhone back in. If you STILL have the same issue then continue to the next step.
6) Right, you'll have to remove the "USB Hub" entries from the USB section of device manager. Just zap them all. Be aware that this may affect your mouse or keyboard so just do the best you can.
7) Reboot and let the PC come back up and discover all its ports again.
8) Try the iPhone again. If you STILL have the same issue then go back to 5 and try it again. And again. And again. Once more...
I found this to be a complete pain in the ar$e but most of the time it works. ALSO keep stabbing it in a different USB port. This MUST be an Apple Device Driver issue, everything else I have that is USB works perfectly fine. More complicated gadgets like my previous Nokia's had flaky software but worked. My Windows Mobile got on stormingly well with my OS. But the iPhone talking to the Windows PC is like a foreigner who speaks with an occasional drunken dialect.
All my mates with Mac's say that Apple gear "just works".
Not. On. A. PC. It. Doesn't.
I have the pleasure of using the iPhone every day, it is an awesome device. But unfortunately its disease-ridden chum that is iTunes is just f&cking awful. It doesn't work properly on the PC. I don't know if this is a ploy by Apple to give me an incentive to buy Apple gear, but all it does is stack up my annoyance with Apple.