09/12/2008, 9:30am, EDT
Friday, September 12th
iTunes 8 triggering blue-screens in Windows Vista
iTunes 8 may be causing "blue screen of death" crashes within Windows Vista, according to various users. Some visitors to Apple's support forums complain that when they attempt to plug an iPod or iPhone into a PC, their systems crash immediately, forcing a reboot. iTunes is believed to be responsible mainly due to the timing of the crashes, and a Vista error message, referencing an Apple-supplied USB driver. "I think it's safe to say then that either Apple's USB driver shipped with iTunes 8 is broken on Vista, or it's causing a problem with some other common Vista driver," claims one user.
Although some have avoided BSOD errors by unplugging other USB devices, problems persist for other people, despite their removing virtually every USB device, and attempting fresh installs of the software.
iTunes has generated problems for Windows Vista users in the past, most notably when running on the 64-bit edition of the OS, which has long had compatibility issues. Most recently the v7.7 update produced BSOD crashes for 64-bit users, but the new error affects 32-bit systems as well.
Filed under: iPod, iPhone, troubleshooting, Apple
Other story tags: iTunes, Vista, Windows
,
, 12
,
,
,
,
,

subscribe to comments
for this article
Same old problem
Writing software for the mish mash of Windows and user machines is a nightmare. It is what finally broke Vista. However, if one wants the large Windows base one has to put up with it. Itunes cannot solve Windows basic problem, but has to exit within it. They will. Again the wisdom of controlling both the software and hardware interfaces is brought home. Buy Mac.
exist
"exist" instead of "exit" Freudian slip.
Likely the same...
Windows users that like to jailbreak/unlock their iPhones/iPod touches so they can violate their Purchase agreements to prove their independence. Coincidentally, the same folks who flaunt the fact that they use only bootleg copies of Windows for their P-of-C's. Buy Mac!
Crafty Scheme!
.
Of course, Apple is doing this on purpose.
Make ALL those PeeSea machines crash! The legions of Stockholm Syndrome suffering Windows users will finally have had enough.
Lemming-like (or would that be more monkey-like), they'll simultaneously chuck those ugly and unstable DOSBoxes out the window and head to the nearest Apple Store.
This is why the one vendor model works. With Windows applications it's difficult to write software for literally millions of possible hardware configurations and have it work on every machine.
Maybe Windows 7 will fix everything. Just wait for another 3, 4, 5 years?
Condolences.
.
Which Service Pack
Curious if Vista machines with the issue have SP1 or not.
Re: scheme
Right. Because we know no one would blame Apple for releasing an update that crashes their computer, they would blame Microsoft.
Just like all those iPhone users blaming ATT instead of Apple for connection issues. What? They're blaming Apple? Oh, never mind then.
But its nice to see Apple spending the same amount of QA time for their Windows software they seem to give their Mac software!
Keepin' it real
Hey, it's testudo! Thanks for that dose of levity. You know, I had a friend once who spouted the most right-wing neocon tripe you've ever heard ... but then secretly confided he was a liberal and just wanted to repel people into the liberal camp with his liberal-hating propaganda. I see now that you're doing the same thing, testudo. Keep it up, and Macs should take over the world in a jiffy!
What people don’t realize
…is that it’s not Apple’s fault. Is iTunes doing this on Mac OS? No. WinXP? No. Win2K? No. Win98? No. Win3.1? No. (Who cares if it doesn’t run on the last few; that’s not the point.) It’s obviously VISTA that’s the problem. Microsoft needs to fix Vista to work with iTunes 8.
(j/k) :-P
Apple did this...
just to prove to folks that there actually still is a legacy BSoD in Vista!
I can see the new "get a mac" commercial now.
i use a mac...
and itunes is not very good. any version of it. it's slow!