Sep

13

iTunes 8 + Vista = BSOD!

posted in news, by Codrut Nistor


I don't know about you, but I don't miss the Blue Screen Of Death at all. No, I didn't switch to Mac OS X or Linux, although I am using both of them from time to time. Since I started using Windows XP, I only saw the BSOD two or three times, and each time it was about some nasty drivers (that I installed without paying attention to what I am doing), or hardware with problems (last time, it was a damaged memory module, and it wasn't even one of my computers). Now, a new wave of BSODs is coming, but it won't catch me, since I am not using the deadly combination!

What deadly combination? The answer is very simple - iTunes 8, Windows Vista, and an iPod or the iPhone. Pretty cool, don't you think? I always considered the BSOD something funny - obviously, as long as it wasn't happening to me.

Regarding the fatal combination I just mentioned, here's what happened these days to some Windows Vista and iTunes 8 users: as soon as they connected the iPod or iPhone to their Windows Vista computer,
iTunes 8 crashed it with a nice BSOD(for some of them, I guess it was a different color, if they were that much into customizing the look of Vista that they changed the default color of the BSOD!).

According to a tech note from Apple, a workaround for this problem would be to uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support, restart the computer, and the download and install the iTunes 8 installer once again. Nobody seems to have any idea about what's wrong with Apple Mobile Device Support yet, so this is all you need to know, for now.

The funny part is that, according to various sources, including Macworld and ZDNet, Apple replaced the files associated with Apple Mobile Device Support with the ones from iTunes 7.7. Not quite the smartest solution, but at least it works!

9 Comments on “iTunes 8 + Vista = BSOD!”


1

Face, on September 15, 2008

I am surprised, shocked, amazed and completely befuddled by this.

Who would have thought that, after spending untold millions on an attack campaign consisting entirely of lies and gross exaggerations about their key competing operating system, Apple would jump at the chance to make an extremely popular (if limited and bloated) application not work at all on that system, forcing users to download updates and workarounds?

I don't believe for one minute they didn't test this system.

I don't believe for one minute that this wasn't a deliberate attack against Microsoft, an attempt to get more Vista users to switch to macs.

Shameful.

2

Codrut Nistor, on September 15, 2008

Hmmm...I think you may be exaggerating there, but you may also be right. To be honest, I didn't have any conspiracy theory in mind when finding out about this. As you have noticed in the article, this is not something happening all the time, so...random events can't be set up, don't you agree?

3

Sporbie, on September 15, 2008

Probably just a freaky bug, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple really did pull something like that.

I always disliked Apple and their products, even more after those "I'm a PC and I'm a mac commercials".

4

Face, on September 15, 2008

Who says it's random? It wouldn't be at all difficult to set up a whatever% chance to crash spectacularly on device connection.

5

Face, on September 15, 2008

It's the commercials that really get me. They paint Windows as this pathetic, loser guy trying every trick he can think of to wrest business from Apple. Yet in reality, MS is kicking Apple's ass without trying anything at ALL.

"Hi, I'm a mac"
"And I'm free pizza!"

Give me a break.

6

Codrut Nistor, on September 15, 2008

You are right, but you know what's the funny part? Most Windows applications have a whatever% chance to crash, you must admit it! I am not trying to defend Apple here, I always found better alternatives to the iPod, for example, and I really hate iTunes, as a user, but since I used Windows since 3.1, a bunch of Linux distros since 1998, and Mac OS X for a few months, I can't really call one of them "the bad guy."

In the end, it's the user to decide. Just one recent story - some friends had a computer who wouldn't start up again, although they got it two weeks ago, and I installed Windows XP SP2 myself (heh, it seems there are still some Windows XP copies for sale here and there...at least until they run out of stock). Considering the errors I got, I was almost sure the hard drive is failing, but since I couldn't get a disk check to the end, I decided to wipe the disk and try with a Linux distro, and see if it happens the same. I setup Ubuntu, and it all worked great. They used it for a few days this way, then called me to install Windows XP again. "What's wrong with it?" "Nothing, it works great, but...we want Windows XP back!" "Why?" "School is starting soon, we'll need the computer to do the homework..."

Should I have stayed to tell them about OpenOffice for Linux, and the fact that they can have enough games on that platform too, although not quite the latest releases? Nope, I installed Windows XP, applied the updates, tuned it as much as possible, considering that I had to get back home and enjoy my own weekend, and that's it. Windows Vista users won't move to Mac OS X just because some crashes. They are more likely to change the computer, than the OS, it they got Vista and still didn't get back to XP! :)

7

Cezar, on September 16, 2008

Dont know about u guys but I love the article's picture !

8

Apple TV 2.2 Problems, on October 04, 2008

[...] problems to arrive so soon. It's not about the iTunes, since some of us already had to face the BSOD caused by iTunes 8 in Vista; it's even worse - we're talking about serious Apple TV 2.2 problems! Before moving on to the [...]

9

asdfasd, on May 26, 2009

Thank GOD! Maybe people will learn that ITunes sucks, finally. I mean i cant BELIEVE HOW POPULAR IT IS.
Mostly just because people think it's the only thing that supports ipods, even though everything fro winamp to foobar does too.

Post a comment:

Name (required)
Mail (will not be published) (required)
Website

1 pingback(s)/trackback(s) on “iTunes 8 + Vista = BSOD!”