Genealogy Chat

Hi, off subject but I bought son a mini I-pod for Chrissie and guess what, my Windows ME doesnt support it. Apparently it needs at least Win 2000 SP4 or XP. Can anyone advise a way round this PLEASE. I am quite desperate, as you can imagine, sitting on here today! Hope you all had a peaceful day!

Heather - afraid to tell you this but I think you're stuffed - sorry. If the I Pod wants Win 2K or XP then you can do nothing other than upgrade the operating system on your computer from ME to XP. And if you're not "into" computers, I wouldn't advise attempting this yourself. Sorry :(((

I wonder how many poor b****ers are sitting at home today feeling the same! I mean all the kids were crazing for these things but there was no mention they only worked on certain Windows, was there. It is in very small print on the box - all the ads said windows compatible. Oh well, trip to PC World tomorrow then. (After watching the local hunt go off for probably last time). Merry christmas

Only way round it is to go on I POD website and get windows EM driver then active sync from microsoft

hope you get message

Val, thats really kind of you but we have tried that options several times today and it just keeps closing the pc down because of an error. I am wondering whether I should get an upgrade to XP - does hubby know where I could download that from and will it cause me any problems with the stuff on my pc please?

If you do down load XP make sure you save your emails and other i.e. Doc, just in case. My brother did this and now can't find his old emails. What ever you do have fun Hope Christmas was happy and have a good new year. Irene

XP won't cause you any problems but it will replace everything on your PC. You'll lose all your settings and everything you've saved from Word documents to emails. Save everything you want to keep to disc before you install XP and then put it all back on. If you do get stuck, try the Microsoft website.

Many thanks guys for the kind advice. Valerie, very many thanks to you for your private emails. I have been to PC World today and their stand still says the IPODS are "compatible with windows and macs". No defination of what windows and I did complain. I was told they had already put XP on two systems that day for the same reason - at £200 a go!!! What a con. The update program was nearly a hundred quid. I am not sure what to do now, so may give son the option of buying himself a computer from Mesh and paying me back weekly from his wages. I was told by the "expert" at PC World that I could not download anyone elses XP as it would not initialise or something and would be illegal!!! And misleading adverts arent??

Heather I have e-mailed you. Chrissie

Take back the Ipod and get another that is compatible. Another brand is Creative, which I know works with Windows 98, and there must be others.

Many thanks Twinkle. I had thought about that, although son has already managed to wipe its memory as he connected it to our pc which as you know had the wrong software! I have been looking at IPOD problem websites and it seems there is a lot of disgruntled parents and unhappy kids out there with the same problem!

Sent you a reply re XP installation. I'm surprsised that ME not supported. Windows in theory is anything from 1981 on!! Twinkle is right although I PODS are the "fashionable" ones there are others just as good. On new systems even the cheapest base units can do anything normal users need to. You don't need to spend a fortune Bob