Upgrade Hassles

Since Rita hit I have not given computer upgrades too much thought. I have installed all of the Windows critical updates and kept my virus and anti-spyware updated, but I have not paid much attention to the other software. Yesterday I was scanning technology news and saw that Apple was recommending that all users immediately install a new version of
QuickTime because of a critical flaw in older versions. I decided to upgrade my QuickTime and did not realize I was grabbing a tar baby.

Apple bundled an iTunes upgrade along with the QuickTime download. I had been reluctant to upgrade iTunes because I had heard that there had been problems with versions released since 4.9 that came with my iPod. I went ahead and installed the new QuickTime and iTunes. All seemed to go well. I was able to update my subscribed podcasts without problem and transfer them to the iPod. A message popped up that said there was an update available for the iPod. I downloaded it.

After the iPod update was downloaded, I started the install. At that point my anti-virus software started a scheduled scan of my computer. The virus scan really slows my computer, and I was afraid it was going to conflict with the iPod update installation. I clicked on stop for the virus scan. A warning message popped up and asked if I really wanted to stop the scan. I clicked yes. Well, all the buttons on the virus scan were grayed out, and it kept on scanning. Nothing happened with the iPod update install for a long time. Finally it began the installation process at an extremely slow pace. Finally the installation completed and said I needed to restart my computer. I clicked on later. The virus scan went on for another 15 minutes. Finally I restarted my computer.

I connected the iPod, and it took an extremely long time to transfer the update to the iPod. When it finished, it said that I now needed to connect the iPod to an electrical outlet. I did that and the iPod displayed a black screen with the Apple logo on it. There seemed to be a progress bar on the bottom, but it was so dark I could not be sure. Finally it finished and went to a normal charging screen. I disconnected the iPod and listened to a podcast to make sure it was still operable. Everything seemed to be normal. This morning I loaded iTunes, updated the podcasts and synced the iPod. All is well, but I had no idea that I was going to have to go through such an elongated process.