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Wintel 7 machines freeze out iPhone

Jobs can't drive P55?

Updated If you're having trouble syncing your iPhone with a PC based on the Intel P55 chipset and running Windows 7, you're not alone.

For the past six weeks, complaints from users running this trifecta of pain have been clogging a thread on Apple's discussion board. The posts report that - in most cases - iTunes 9 for Windows will recognize the iPhone, but when a sync is attempted, users are greeted with a cryptic "error 0xE8000065" - an iPhone-connection failure notification.

Although the reported configurations that are unable to sync iPhones with iTunes for Windows are many and varied, they have one thing in common: Intel's new P55 Express chipset.

And, of course, the iPhone and iTunes for Windows.

Microsoft Windows 7 - particularly Windows 7 x64 - is also a common thread, although one poster reports the same problem with 32-bit Vista.

Users have experienced the identical problem when using a PC's motherboard-based USB port or a powered USB hub, though some have had success using a PCI-based USB card - which, of course, bypasses the P55's on-board USB controller. Others haven't been so lucky: They're been BSODded when attempting to use a PCI USB card.

Some users have had success with fixes including deleting the iPodDevices.xml file from C:\Users username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes, by disabling Bonjour, or by digging into the BIOS to turn on C-state capability.

The recalcitrant motherboards reported include P55-based units from Micro-Star International (MSI), Gigabyte, and Asustek. MSI and Gigabyte have not returned our calls asking for clarification - although one poster reports that a Gigabyte rep told him that the company is currently "conducting internal testing on this subject."

An Asus representative told The Reg that the company is trying to track down helpful information, but as of time of writing hadn't responded. Intel and Microsoft have both told The Reg that they are investigating the problem, but Apple, as is its wont, hasn't responded to our inquiries.

Apple is scheduled to ship versions of its new 27-inch iMacs with Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processors during November. Although Apple doesn't reveal their chipset choices, it stands to reason that the new iMacs will be P55-based.

Will Mac OS X make a difference? Stay tuned. ®

Update

On Friday afternoon The Reg received the following note from a Microsoft spokesperson: "Microsoft has not seen this particular question posed in the Microsoft Answers for Windows 7 community forum, nor in any of our call centers. We reviewed the issue raised on the Apple Discussion Board and are currently investigating. If we determine this to be a problem specific to Windows 7, we will post an update on the Microsoft Answers site."

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