iPod vs. Vista

Just bought an iPod shuffle. Gee they are cute and the built-in clip is an inspiration in functional design. Attached it to a USB port on my new computer running Vista and got a friendly beep that the computer recognized new hardware. Then all &*#%^@! broke loose. The USB mouse and keyboard no longer responded. Detached the iPod, still no keyboard or mouse. Unplugged both, plugged them back in, still no response. Powered down a couple of times, switching out USB ports and plugging the mouse and keyboard in both with power down and power up. Still no response.

Pulled out the warranty for the computer to find the toll-free number. I expected to be on hold for quite awhile but I was connected to a technician in under a minute. He had me do a drain all power shut down (power down, remove power cord and then hold the power button for an additional 20 seconds before replacing the power cord and turning the computer back on) That did the trick and the mouse and keyboard were back. However, I have two hard drives in a RAID 1 array and the array had to rebuild itself. I left the computer churning away while I gathered strength to try again with the iPod. BTW, it's a Dell. I'm really impressed with the customer service I received.

You know when people say RTFM? They really mean it. Turns out I should have downloaded and installed iTunes before connecting my Shuffle to the computer. Did things in the correct order and now I'm bopping to my tunes.