At times like this...i.e. recession, companies with HiTec equipment need to be able to sell a shed load of kit to make it viable, if that doesn't seem likely they will keep adapting and tweeking until better times.

When times are looking better then "brand spanking new" kit will hit the streets and we will be falling over each other for them, in the meantime, they keep upgrading and adding little tweeks, it brings along new buyers and there are millions of itchy fingered techno bods who can't keep their fingers from their wallets, just so they can have the latest kit, in this case the iPad2.4

I wonder how many people will upgrade to have a HD screen on the iPad and sit in front of a 42" LED SonySung with the iPad blocking the view Still at least the poorly spelled words will look a little clearer

Back to the OP's question, I have many devices that refuse to work on the front USB and many that do, the ones that do are all low power devices, anything needing a decent current, e.g. portable hard drive, then it refuses, it is the same with devices with a high data load, my camera wont upload to the ports and doesn't require power from the PC, it has its own.
Not a motherboard expert but maybe the manufacturers designed the front ports more for occasional use with data sticks etc?

mojo wrote:

In case anyone was waiting with baited breath for the outcome, I have now installed xp service pack 3. Plugged iPod into front USB port and still not working. Decided to check one of the ports at the back of the pc as suggested by a couple of people on here et voila! iPod recognised and installed in iTunes. Now if only I'd tried that to start with

i need to do that to my laptop as it was full of unneeded programs, and even though i have taken them off the HDD is still full

needs to start a fresh and due to the lack of LCD screen on it, it might be easier to start fresh with a new PC/MAC

There should be no good reason for this, the difference between the back and fronts are, rear USB's are a direct extension of the board and front ones are connected to a header by cable.

At one time some board manufacturers gave the front USB's 1.1 speed while the rears were USB2.0, the ports being backward compatible but if the device connecting to it insisted on USB 2.0 then they would'nt work in the front.

Some older boards were 'powered' only at the rear (500mA) per port and the front ones were either shared or lower powered and would not take kindly to 'heavy' devices. Maybe the i4 draws greater power than the i3 and/or its software dictates a powered hub.

Either way you have it working now and maybe it was 'just one of those stupid computer things' that has no reason sometimes.

Build your own, I did, loads of fun and very satisfying, I now have exactly what I wanted spec wise and it fits were I want it to fit. Went for a shuttle type design but a little larger than the ones off the shelf, extra hard drives etc for my photos. Motherboard spec was biased towards media, HDMI graphics etc, I recently had a 5GB graphics card to play with, bloody hell that was quick at loading all my pics sadly work wanted it back

im thinking of Apple Mini Mac, below one of my TV's, apple wireless keyboard and mouse, 500GB hard drive and HDMi out for movies and time capsule for additional TB hard space, i can then link up my AppleTV to play the music and movies i own etc

Also i need to link up some more zones around the house, bathroom, garden etc so i can dance whilst dusting or mowing the lawn

I want my iphones to backup and and download photo automatically which i believe can be set up nowadays

I also want all my photos in one place and more easily accessible

rest of the time i will use my ipad2 for surfing ect

npinks wrote:

i can then link up my AppleTV to play the music and movies i own and keep the laptop seperate for the ones I don't

Really thinking of replacing my old pc with an iMac. Had a play with one today and was well impressed. My only concern is longevity. I expect any computer I own to last at least 8 years as my current one has. Anyone run a mac for that long? Has it been good? Would you ever go back to a pc?

mojo wrote:

Really thinking of replacing my old pc with an iMac. Had a play with one today and was well impressed. My only concern is longevity. I expect any computer I own to last at least 8 years as my current one has. Anyone run a mac for that long? Has it been good? Would you ever go back to a pc?

mojo wrote:

Really thinking of replacing my old pc with an iMac. Had a play with one today and was well impressed. My only concern is longevity. I expect any computer I own to last at least 8 years as my current one has. Anyone run a mac for that long? Has it been good? Would you ever go back to a pc?

Mojo - dump the PC and get a Mac - it will be the best thing you ever did.
I have to work with PC's all day but, at home, we are all Mac - they just work! Tattoos - Why would you choose to look like the wall of a public toilet?

npinks wrote:

Try resetting the iPod
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1369