iPOD and Laptop software compatability issues

Hi,

I am having a problem with my ipods and laptop. I can connect an ipod to my laptop but when it is connected, the laptop is unresponsive and when I try to transfer songs it will allow me to move about 100 at a time before giving me an error "disk write error." I have also had problems tryign to use the updater.

Both Ipods connect well with my PC (although I think taht I had a similar problems when I first got my Ipod) using the same cables etc.

I am thinking that it is a software conflict. I have the current Ipod and Itunes software. I have tried to disable other software like my antivirus (avast) but not sure what else to try to do, am really keen to aviod formatting my laptop so is there anyway to isolate the problem.

Thanks Derek