iPod and Laptop Issues (2 different ones)

First is my iPod. Is the battery life just this naturally short? I listen for average about 30 mins. 1 hour max if I'm lucky. The Battery bar on the top is halfway down and then all of a sudden it says I'm out of battery power. I'm thinking something is wrong with it. Something that holds 30 gigs worth of songs can't die this easily.

Second is the Laptop. It's the family laptop and its real crappy now, and for some reason after the recent reformatting, it wont even give us the little icon in the bottom left corner to allow us to connect to a wireless router that we own. Anyone know how to fix this?

I have no clue.

I have no clue.

Did you really have to post that?

Anyway, I'm not sure about the laptop thing, maybe it's not a default setting and you have to enable the networks icon to show up on systray. Right click the taskbar > Properties > Notification Area > Customize. Again, I'm not sure, that might be the problem but with the wrong solution.

As for the iPod, what kind of iPod do you have? And for how long have you had it?

right click on my computer > properties > device manager, under "network devices" there is probably an unknown device. You need to install drivers for it.

I bet apple has some kind of warranty on the batteries of the 30gig IPods.

Is anything else able to connect to the router? If so, you may have to reinstall your drivers for your wireless card.

Is the iPod new? If so, the battery might be defective. If you've had it a while, that's actually a common problem that lithium ion (ie. all rechargeable electronics) batteries get as they age... My cell phone does the reverse, where it goes from full -> half power in 2 seconds and then down from there. It stinks because it beeps "low battery" for a whole day, sometimes, and then I have to keep it on silent. =/

Basically, both are the same problem: the carbon lattice that is designed to keep the lithium organized, so that it will charge correctly, has started to get disordered and is less effective. The problem would show up much earlier if the battery was defective (the lattice was messed up to begin with, or had a flaw that was easily opened one of the first times it was charged). Or, possibly, if you dropped it... that could also create a flaw.

It could also be the battery drivers, but I know less about that.



Like others have said, your laptop probably needs wireless card drivers. Check the manufacturer's website (of your computer, if it's built-in, or your wireless card if you installed it later) and download the correct drivers for your model.