1) use winamp or foobar
2) use something besides ipod
lol jk. seriously though, a bunch of people have lots of problems with itunes. the only sure-fire way to resolve anything is to uninstall your ipod from your system, uninstall itunes, remove any trace of everything, and then re-install. it may sound extreme, but without more info, it's really anyone's guess what the problem (and fix) is.