Solution to skipping ipod problem?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Solution to Apple ipod skipping
Date: 	Tue, 11 Apr 2006 23:18:59 -0400
From: 	Tony Celia 

Not sure if you're still monitoring this issue, but I found the fix to 
my ipod "skipping" problem.  I had purchased the Motorola Phone Tools 
software for my Motorola V710 cell phone.  The phone tools software 
installed a "WatchDog" process that monitored the USB connection to 
determine when the phone was connected (I think that's what it did).  
When this WatchDog process was in the startup 
(HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run key in the Windows 
2000 registry), I had problems playing songs that I transferred to my 
ipod.  When I deleted the "WatchDog.exe" entry from the HKLM\...\Run 
key and rebooted my PC, the transferred songs played fine.
 
_Scenario_
- Songs transferred to my ipod using itunes 4.8.0.32
- Song type: AAC Audio file, itunes 4.6 encoding
- OS: Windows 2000 SP4
- ipod dock: Insten(r) dock connected via USB 2.0
- ipod model: older 15GB model
 
_Symptoms_
- Songs that had been transferred to the ipod (using itunes) and 
subsequently played on the ipod would stop before the end of the song.  
The next song would start playing immediately (before the previous song 
had finished).
- ipod songs played in itunes (using the ipod as a hard drive) would 
play fine
- repeated attempts to delete and retransfer songs were unsuccessful
- defragging ipod was unsuccessful
 
_Suspected Problem_
- a background process was interfering with the transfer of songs from 
the computer to the ipod (via USB)
- the interfering background process somehow corrupted transferred files 
in a way that only affected songs played on the ipod
 
_Fix_
- removed the background process (in this case, "WatchDog.exe" installed 
by Motorola Phone Tools) from the HKLM\...\Run key in the registry
- rebooted the PC
- deleted songs from ipod and retransferred them to the ipod
 
_Results_
- songs transferred to the ipod play fine without "skipping"