camcorder not recognized through firewire

heyy guys...
its my first post here, but i promise it wont be my last after my problem is solved...im not really a newbie to digital video, but i am at a loss with this problem, and was wondering if the experts could suggest something.
I own a Canon ZR50MC digital camcorder. I have an Adaptec FireConnect firewire card installed in my computer. From the past 3 months, my camera has not been recognized by my PC. It has a USB connection for transfer of still pics, and a firewire connection for transfer of digital video/pics. When I used to connect using USB, the camera was recognized and I had no problem downloading my pix. However, the firewire connection was not being recognized when the camera was connected using that. I thought maybe its a software issue and as I had to do a clean install of everything on my computer soon, i thought i would proceed with that now itself. So i formatted my drives and installed fresh software. I updated windows and installed the latest versions of windows media player etc. I also installed Adobe Premiere 6.5. I also installed Canon's own digital pictures program (ZoomBrowser). However, I was still not able to get the computer to recognize the firewire connection. The card is recognized perfectly by the computer. I even changed the PCI slot the card was in, just to see if it would make a difference. Another thing is, earlier when this problem did not exist, the camera would say "PC CONNECT" on its LCD when it was connected using firewire. It does not say that anymore and the computer does not detect anything. I have tried all settings through the camera and installed all possible drivers (canon doesnt even have a video driver, its just supposed to work through the firewire card). So someone please help and tell me what i should do next? Should i invest in a new firewire cable? and then maybe a new card? Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

hmm my gut reaction is to get the cable checked. take the cable to a good computer shop or camera shop and see if they can test it. otherwise then look at the camera's firewire port and then the card.

If the card is being recognised, it is more likely to do with either the camera or the cable. First Try and new cable. Have you looked to see if there are any conflicts on the computer at all, with IO and IRQ's. Usually with my experience, you have to connect the camera to the computer before you turn it on have the camera turned on as well, that way windows sees it through the connection at start up and loads appropriate drivers. With the Plug and Play side of Windows, it doesn't always work. Software confilicts will cause this type of problem.

heyy guys..thanks for the replies....sorry i was trying my best to troubleshoot this thing...well i took it to henry's (sells cameras and camcorders)...they connected the camera using my cable to their imac...and it wasn't detected. unfortunately, they didn't have spare cables lying around as their store had just recently moved, so i bought a new cable from a computer store, came home and tried it out, and it still doesn't work :( ... so i guess it is the camera. yah, i tried all the irq stuff, and starting the camera with the machine etc etc...none worked...i guess it is my camera then...and worse part is, its out of warranty now and i don;t know what to do. i guess i'll be looking at those capture boards which allow you to capture video using a s-video cable and composite audio. i can still do that so that should work fine? i have never worked with a tv-tuner / capture card. i have a couple options there i guess..any knowledge on those topics would be greatly appreciated. thanks again

Canopus and Pinnacle.

Just for interest, have you checked the manual for troublshooting this problem. Are there any settings that need to be turned on, in the camera menus.

Have you looked at the Components to see if there are any yellow ? marks. Right click on the my computer icon and check the hardware, you never know there just might be something doing it, but it does sound like the camera maybe the problem. Although I have had this problem and it is hard to troubleshoot it.

Yah, I have tried all the settings in the camera and checked all hardware problems in the computer, and all components seem to be working fine. One good indicator that the camera is the problem is the fact that it does not say "DV IN" when the cable is connected to the computer. If the problem was with the cable, then it should have said that in the cameras screen and it still doesn't. I guess I will just have to invest in a capture card. The ATI TV Wonder Pro is looking good to me as it accepts S-Video and Composite audio inputs too. Thanks again for the help everyone.

Hope it is okay that I post this here, as I have the similar problem with a JVC GR-D90U camcorder.

Shortly after I got the camera I took video and downloaded it via firewire connection. All worked fine. Left the camera sit for several months, and now tried to connect it again and the computer does not seem to recognize the camera. Firewire card taken out and reinserted, also tried same camcorder same cable different computer. Tried same camcorder different cable same computer. Tried different cable different computer and nothing. The only thing I can think of is that on all three computers that were tried with it, the only thing the same is that all have the latest windows XP updates.

Does anyone know if an up-date for Windows XP could affect camcorders? My camcorder is not suppose to need any special drivers, suppose to be found by XP.

Thanks

Only way to test it for sure is to try a different camera with your connection. I doubt that it would b xp, especially since you tried it on a mac as well. it might be time to send it to a technician

Yet another case here. I am not a newb either. I have successfully captured DV since the first consumer boards showed up from ADS. I have helped numerous friends making "stupid" mistakes, but now I am stumped.

My Sony D8 camera has worked captured flawlessly since inception (1999). Last week I reformatted (XPSP2) and the camera is no longer recognized. The firewire board shows up in device manager. However, the camera no longer indicates DV when pluggen in.

Since it coincided with a reinstall, I am puzzled. I moved PCI slots but no dice. The timing of problems indicates software issues, but XP is generally idiot proof plug and play these days, so suspects are also cable and camera itself. But cables and cameras generally don't break spontaneously. Each suspect equally unlikely.

I will do the Sherlock Holmes thing and narrow the problem down by trying the cam on a different PC, and maybe borrow a cam and try it on my PC. In the meanwhile, any ideas/opinions? Puzzling and frustrating for sure.

Oops, I didn't have my facts straight. The camera does indeed say "DV IN when I plug in the firewire cable. So my situation is almost certainly software related.

Interstingly, my google searches have yet to find a case where somebody using XP was unable to connect but found a software related solution.

IRQ? I haven't fooled around with that stuff since my Soundblaster didn't like my Trident VGA card back in the summer of '92. Don't even know where to look on XP.

Lot's of win98 driver issues and solution. But not XP. I have an old image of previous XP install kicking around somewhere, maybe I will turn back the clock.

Hi There:

I have a SONY DCR-TRV33 camcorder and a DFI Infinity Motherboard with 1394 port, when I bought the camera my computer recognizes the camera through the firewire cable without problem, but one day my computer don't recognizes the camera, just like that. I try the camera in other computers with no results, I try other camera (Sony TRV-18) and this one don’t work either in my computer and other computers, but I try other one (Sony DCR-HC40) and this one works without problem. I read in the web and this problem seems to be a very usually, I don’t know what happen and Why. I reinstall all my OS (Windows XP_SP1_Spanish) and the problem is the same. My camera is broken? or what's the problem?.

I really appreciate if some one could help me with this problem.

Thanks a lot to you all.

Sergio

Hi.

I have a Sony DCR-TRV310. I had it working with my PC two years ago, but now it's finicky.

I have a new firwewire combo card (ZoneNet 4 port USB 2.0 + 3 Port IEEE1394 host card), which XP detected and installed fine.

The camcorder says DV IN so I assume that's working.

I also have a Creative PC-750 webcam which shows up in all three Movie making software suites installed on my PC. I thought maybe there was a conflict there. I uninstalled it but no dice.

It's very odd though, because once in a while, I'll move the firewire to one of the other ports and XP will detect it.

What's even more odd is that last night (after I first installed everything) everything was working fine.

Sorry if I jumped around on this but it's late and I'm tired. Based on other replies in this thread it seems I'm not alone.

Oh- I have XP Pro SP1. Which is different than when I originally had this all working 2 years ago.

Owen

Quote:

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Originally Posted by extinguisher

heyy guys...
its my first post here, but i promise it wont be my last after my problem is solved...im not really a newbie to digital video, but i am at a loss with this problem, and was wondering if the experts could suggest something.
I own a Canon ZR50MC digital camcorder. I have an Adaptec FireConnect firewire card installed in my computer. From the past 3 months, my camera has not been recognized by my PC. It has a USB connection for transfer of still pics, and a firewire connection for transfer of digital video/pics. When I used to connect using USB, the camera was recognized and I had no problem downloading my pix. However, the firewire connection was not being recognized when the camera was connected using that. I thought maybe its a software issue and as I had to do a clean install of everything on my computer soon, i thought i would proceed with that now itself. So i formatted my drives and installed fresh software. I updated windows and installed the latest versions of windows media player etc. I also installed Adobe Premiere 6.5. I also installed Canon's own digital pictures program (ZoomBrowser). However, I was still not able to get the computer to recognize the firewire connection. The card is recognized perfectly by the computer. I even changed the PCI slot the card was in, just to see if it would make a difference. Another thing is, earlier when this problem did not exist, the camera would say "PC CONNECT" on its LCD when it was connected using firewire. It does not say that anymore and the computer does not detect anything. I have tried all settings through the camera and installed all possible drivers (canon doesnt even have a video driver, its just supposed to work through the firewire card). So someone please help and tell me what i should do next? Should i invest in a new firewire cable? and then maybe a new card? Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

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I have the same trouble with Canon zr50mc, Iam using .Win 2000 with MYDVD.M y camera will capture only when I use a Matrox RT2500 card with Adobe Premiere 6.I think that iam looking for a driver for my camera that Canon doesn't make for a firewire (dv) ,only drivers for its usb . Video Wave 7 would only show a icon , it still wouldn't connect the camera.Some articles said you had to have separate IRQ , Win 2000 sets it own .I have added another firewire card. Another article said to remove my RT 2500 card and then place my extra card in first and then replace RT 2500 card. I haven't done that because I got to find my drivers for RT 2500.

I have the same trouble with Canon zr50mc, Iam using .Win 2000 with MYDVD.M y camera will capture only when I use a Matrox RT2500 card with Adobe Premiere 6.I think that iam looking for a driver for my camera that Canon doesn't make for a firewire (dv) ,only drivers for its usb . Video Wave 7 would only show a icon , it still wouldn't connect the camera.Some articles said you had to have separate IRQ , Win 2000 sets it own .I have added another firewire card. Another article said to remove my RT 2500 card and then place my extra card in first and then replace RT 2500 card. I haven't done that because I got to find my drivers for RT 2500.

Everyone seems to be having similar problems. When trying to get your camcorders going you should.
1. Make sure that you have your cards seated and screwed in tightly.
2. Load all appropriate drivers, go to the windows or manufactureers web-sites and make sure you are current.
3. Make sure that the camera is off. Attach the firewire to the camera.
4. Attach the firewire to the PC.
5. Do not start your editing program yet.
6. Turn on your camera and wait for the OS to recognize and load the appropriate device. DV IN on your camcorder doesn't mean you have a successful conection to the PC. It just means that the camcorder sees the cable is plugged into the camera.
7. If the Digital device dialog window pops up, click on the appropriate program link. I always click take no action and then load the program.
8. If you do not get the device loaded, go to start/my computer/control panel/system and click on hardware device manager. Click on any of the listings, then click on the scan for new hardware icon of menu pull down.
9. If the camera is not added, or has a problem, try to reload the drivers.
10. You can always try adding the device under the scanners and camera section of the control panel menu.
11. Are you using an external firewire drive? It should be on a separate PCI firewire card. I haven't seen a camera that will cooperate with a drive on the same card yet, even with 3-5 jacks.

Good luck.

I've been having the same sort of connection problems since installing WinXP Service Pack 2. I'm curious if any one else that has installed XP2 is having the same problems? A friend gave me a utility today that's supposed to fix a problem with firewire connections called 'ubcore'. You might want to google for this utility and try it out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by littlebit

Hope it is okay that I post this here, as I have the similar problem with a JVC GR-D90U camcorder.

Shortly after I got the camera I took video and downloaded it via firewire connection. All worked fine. Left the camera sit for several months, and now tried to connect it again and the computer does not seem to recognize the camera. Firewire card taken out and reinserted, also tried same camcorder same cable different computer. Tried same camcorder different cable same computer. Tried different cable different computer and nothing. The only thing I can think of is that on all three computers that were tried with it, the only thing the same is that all have the latest windows XP updates.

Does anyone know if an up-date for Windows XP could affect camcorders? My camcorder is not suppose to need any special drivers, suppose to be found by XP.

Thanks

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Hi everyone, first post here. I have a canon ZR25MC, I've captured video with it via firewire many times in the past. It had been a while since last capturing video. Now, XP does not detect the camera. I've tried different firewire cards and cables, I've tried going back to Win 2K, Windows XP, Windows XP SP1, and again to Windows XP SP2. The only difference in the operating system changes is that in Win2k, the computer locks while the camera is connected, as soon as it's discinnected, things work fine. I even tried using the ubCore firewire stack mentioned in an earlier reply. In desperation, I've even hooked the camera to a Linux PC ... at least I get more info. The firewire driver in linux is throwing "Ack 0xffffffff, Response Code 0x4".

When connecting a neighbors new panasonic camera to the same computers using the same cable, things work great. I'm certain the issue is with the camera. At this point I've made a few inquiries to Canon and some repair shops to get an idea of how much fixing the camera will cost.

Have you checked with Canon to see if they have a new driver for the camera. Microsoft's technet pages might also be a help.

Good Luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by montypl

I've been having the same sort of connection problems since installing WinXP Service Pack 2. I'm curious if any one else that has installed XP2 is having the same problems? A friend gave me a utility today that's supposed to fix a problem with firewire connections called 'ubcore'. You might want to google for this utility and try it out.

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I also have been having problems as of late. Used to use my Canon Elura2MC with Video Studio with no problems whatsoever on my Monster desktop system and my laptop. Just a couple of days ago I try and hook my camcorder up to both systems and I can't seem to get either to recognise the camcorder. Both worked before and since I have upgraded to XP SP2 neither work so figure its either my firewire port on the camera or SP2 thats causing the problem. I have an external harddrive which connects thru firewire and it has no problems. Strange there are so many people having the same type of problems so I am leaning towards a problem created with SP2.

Anyone finds a solution please post. I was hoping to do a Christmas DVD for the kids of past moments but I'm not having much luck. Would rather not feed the video thru my AIW 9800.

Speedy2

I'm going to make a call into Microsoft tomorrow and see if I can find a fix for the problem. I'll post something one way or another by the afternoon.

Michael

I checked with the Microsoft site last night. While there were some issues with multiple firewire ports, they seem to be fixed. Two of my students have updated to SP2, are using Canon ZR series cameras and aren't having any problems. The only thing that I can think of is having you re-run the windows update and check with Canon to see if you have any newer drivers, eventhough Windows supposedly should see the device. I'll keep looking.

Michael

Well I found a post on another forum with many people having the same problem as myself. Seems that there is a problem with SP2 and some people are reverting back to the SP1 drivers. Here's the thread. I haven't had much luck getting mine to work even after the suggestions.

http://forum.digital-digest.com/arch...c/42557-1.html

Speedy2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freako

Yet another case here. I am not a newb either. I have successfully captured DV since the first consumer boards showed up from ADS. I have helped numerous friends making "stupid" mistakes, but now I am stumped.

My Sony D8 camera has worked captured flawlessly since inception (1999). Last week I reformatted (XPSP2) and the camera is no longer recognized. The firewire board shows up in device manager. However, the camera no longer indicates DV when pluggen in.

Since it coincided with a reinstall, I am puzzled. I moved PCI slots but no dice. The timing of problems indicates software issues, but XP is generally idiot proof plug and play these days, so suspects are also cable and camera itself. But cables and cameras generally don't break spontaneously. Each suspect equally unlikely.

I will do the Sherlock Holmes thing and narrow the problem down by trying the cam on a different PC, and maybe borrow a cam and try it on my PC. In the meanwhile, any ideas/opinions? Puzzling and frustrating for sure.

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I Have been on the net all day like you and have found nothing. I first noticed the problem because my ipod was not being detected anymore. I am also running WinXp SP2 and after doing all the updates the problems creeped in. I thought it was an ipod problem and searched the net for a fix. Then I tried my Sony and connected it to the firewire card with no action just the words "DV IN" on the display. I am now pretty sure the problem is the firewire card issue with Windows. I went out and bought a new firewire card and the thing was it even worked for a week. Now I have the same problem all over again. Does anyone have a fix???? I read the link at micosoft but it didn't fix my problem. http://support.microsoft.com/?id=885222

I just noticed this fix from microsoft which was posted on another site. I'm at work at the moment but when I get home I will try.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...en&Hash=XKC4S9

Hope this works for everyone.

Speedy2

hi there.

i was using my dv camcorder up till i installed winxp sp2, then my firewire went down.
this was a common problem with 75% of all dv camcorders being used with sp2, all firewire drivers got disabled by sp2 and the best fix was to simply reformat your pc with fresh install with new sp2 installed.
the original problem arose only when people already had sp1, then installed sp2 and sp2 drivers caused a conflict with the sp1 firewire drivers.
some experts came up with so-called fixes, but in most cases they never worked, and microsoft knew about the problem but wouldnt aknowledge it till they got a lot of preasure put on them to make a fix.
i just reformated and installed sp2 and my firewire was fine, so if u ever have a problem again, remember just reformat, its easier than messing about looking at other options, in most cases its nearly always going to be a driver problem or a microsoft issue rather than hardware/software related.
i spent 6 weeks trying to fix this mess, if i had known that it was a driver conflick between sp1 and sp2, i would have reformatted at the start.

anyway, just wanted to let u know what most of the problems were caused by.

cheers.....GLEN

OK. I've had enough!!! :mad:

If I can't find a solution to this problem I'm going to drown myself in Bill Gates' pool!

In short, my Panasonic DV camera worked fine on my PC with XP and SP1.
I now have a Sony Vaio laptop, also running XP but with SP2 loaded. Now the camera isn't detected. I've installed hotfixes, uninstalled SP2, formatted, reverted to factory settings, camera not detected, reinstalled SP2. STILL NO JOY!!!

Does anyone have a solution? If not my hardware is going to find itself neatly inserted into a microsoft help desk employee's orifice!

Oh and by the way...

Speedy, that link looks promising. I only wish I could get through the Microsoft validation process :mad:

I've not been able to duplicate the problem, so I can't help fix it. Everyone I know that has upgraded to SP2 is doing just fine with their cameras.

Sorry about that.

:D I found the solution!!!!! :D

Assuming you have service pack 2 installed ...

Go to your control panel. Select the "security center" icon. Turn your windows firewall OFF.

Try connecting your camera now. TA DA!!!!

Hope this solves everyone's problem. It took me four days to figure this out.

Windows was treating your firewire connection like a network connection and automatically firewalled itself when you installed the service pack. You can fix the problem on the firewire connection only by going to Start/Control panel/Network connections and then right clicking on the firewire, 1394 connection. Then left click on properties, the advanced tab and uncheck the protect my computer button. That will take the firewall off of just the firewire if you want to keep your network connection safe.

Great job finding the problem. Good luck with the rest of it.

Hi, first post for me. I posted on some skate filming sites...those people had no clue about all this stuff. I read the whole thing and...still have a problem. I'm running Xp home edt. trying to import with Premiere Pro, and the ZR50MC is (not) the camera of choice. It's not even my camera. Anyways.

"DV IN" is flashing...i assume that is abnormal since it only started flashing after i pushed on the brand new Firewire cable that i bought today.

When i go to the Security Center it says the firewall is on and cannot turn it off from here. When I go to Network Connections and left click 1394. It says the firewall is disconnected. This confuses me to say the least.

anyways, this is not fun, I have to give the camera back tommorrow and if I dont get the footage captured then it seems like I'm gonna have to use ethier Imovie or Windows Movie Maker. Blech...no thanks. So any help would be appreciated ASAP.

Oh yeah, I tried to copy the footage to the Memory Card, and it went through all the steps, and when I went to save the files the video files are not there.

I realize that this is probable too late, but was the camcorder being recognized by Windows? Once you have properly connected and let Windows load the drivers, you should be able to see the Camera under my computer. If this is not happening, your camera is not being seen by your PC. Make sure that you have run all updates, un firewall the firewire, reboot the machine and try again. You could always try the canon web-site to see if there have been any similar problems.

Good luck,

I have been suffering with this problem too - after installing SP2 camcorder + PC just will NOT play!!!
Apparently IT IS a Microsoft issue - basically they have tightened up drivers to meet IEEE 1394 specs more closely - so drivers no longer recognise many devices as being FIREWIRE devices at all.
Anyway after trying many 'Fixes' to no avail - I found this set of instructions and BINGO my Panasonic NV-GX7 is working fine now - no problems at all!!
Hope this helps you and if you can spread the word (link) as there seems to be a lot of people struggling with this problem. Why Microshaft have not addressed this issue is totally beyond me, Christ! - they've had long enough to sort it!!!!

Code:

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http://www.rme-audio.de/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

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Philter

I have another fix to offer - try re-applying SP2.

Everything worked fine before I installed SP2.

I've been struggling with this problem for a week now with a cheapo firewire card based on the VIA chipset, which was recognised fine by Windows but I could not see my Panasonic or Hitachi video cameras. I tried all the things that other folks have suggested in this and other forums to no avail. e.g. Rollback to XP-SP1 drivers, resetting registry entries, restoring original 1394.inf etc and the only thing I didn't try was re-installing Windows from scratch as I could not see that being any different as I would still have to install SP2.

I then bought a new (more expensive) firewire card based on the Texas chipset and it too was recognised but I could not get my camera to be recognised.

In desperation I decided to see if re-applying SP2 in case any subsequent Windows updates or other installations I've done may have damaged something crucial. To my surprise, it worked!

So, if you have already applied SP2, try re-applying it.

Kind regards
Paul Fretter :)

thanks guys, I would have never thought of that myself, as I had windows firewall turned OFF, yet it was still blocking the IEEE 1394 (firewire) connection !

I am posting a pic to help anyone else having the same trouble

You need to uncheck this option to get firewire working again.

Damn you MS with your silly updates changing our settings without us knowing about it.

http://www.dpgr.gr/forum/attachments/XP_firewire.jpg

I had this same problem with xp sp1 and can't get a handle on it. Any suggestions . . .

Camera says dv in
control panel says firewire port working
but
no capture in either premiere elements 6.5. or pro 1.5 or movie maker or windv

other forums say it's a fried connector on the camera. I'm a high school vid prod teacher working with sony trv 19, hc30, hc 85 vx2100 and panasonic gs33 cameras on 8 different work stations--xp and 2000 -- swapped out cables, swapped out pci firewire cards, switched slots in the computer--or all my cameras fried?????????

thanks for any help

Hello,
I have the exact same problem as Graham described in detail (reproduced below):

Turn OFF DV camera and windows signals new device detected "bong": and the
"1394 net adapter" is added to network connections. While camera is ON during boot then
"1394 net adapter" does not detect/start - but neither does the camera.

Ruled out cables, camera and general hardware problems.
Closest possible solution seems to be "Windows XP -- 1394 Net Adapter interferes with existing network setup.":
http://ask.adaptec.com/cgi-bin/adapt...Z2U9MQ**&p_li=

and similar threads:
http://www.rme-audio.de/english/tech...sp2.htm#update

but they do not work despite describing the problem well. Also opened up 1394 in windows firewall (even though it is turned off) as suggested by tommygun above.

Hardware: Asus P5B Deluxe motherboards onboard 1394a Firewire.
Panasonic NV-GS5 camcorder.

although this problem has been described with a lot of other manufacturers hardware
combinations, so it does not look specific to any makes/models.

Windows XP Pro SP2 - could be the culprit. All hotfixes that could possible be applied have
been without success (and removed again after they made no difference).

The really strange part is that the setup works on same machine if I plug the Camcorder into
1394a port that is located ON the motherboard. But when I plug it into the 1394a port exposed
via the back panel of the motherboard then it does not work with "1394 net adaptor" behavior
described. For reasons too long to go into, I cannot just step around this problem by using the
system from the internal motherboard 1394a socket (it will be needed for something else and out of
daily use reach anyway).

Any suggestions or pointers more than welcome for this seemingly common problem without solution!

Thanks,

Keith.

Graham Triggs Wrote:
> One observation I have made which may give you a clue
> ( but means nothing to a relative layman like me) is the following...

> I've been experimenting with both cameras attached, each to a separate
> firewire card, one on my Audigy and one on my new Belkin. If I boot up the
> PC with the cameras turned ON and connected nothing happens, the PC boots
> normally, no devices are detected and usual error message in WMM.
>
> If I then turn off a camera there is a "BONG" as if something has been removed
> and a "1394 net adaptor" appears in the device manager that wasn't previously
> there. If I then turn off the second camera there's another "BONG" and another"
> 1394 net adaptor" appears. One is #2 and the other #3. Turning the cameras
> back on has no effect at this point
>
> If I boot the PC with the cameras turned OFF these two net adaptors are
> already showing in the device manager. Once again turning the cameras
> on has no effect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Peter Vince

other forums say it's a fried connector on the camera. I'm a high school vid prod teacher working with sony trv 19, hc30, hc 85 vx2100 and panasonic gs33 cameras on 8 different work stations--xp and 2000 -- swapped out cables, swapped out pci firewire cards, switched slots in the computer--or all my cameras fried?????????

thanks for any help

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Did all the cameras stop at once or one by one? Did you change anything in the computers before they failed? Are you computers connected to a network where they might have received an update remotely?

Letting students plug and unplug firewire devices is very risky. The 6 pin side can be inserted backwards with a little pressure reversing the polarity of the power and cooking the device on the other end. I lost five tape decks this year to that. I am having them repaired, adding two more and putting firewire switches in to share the decks between two dedicated stations to prevent the problem again. The decks failed one by one over a two week period before I figured out that the plug was in reversed each time I found one dead.

That is why I am asking if they just all magically stopped on the same day or failed in quick succession. I would either bring in a known working camera and try it on a station, or take a camera home to station that you know connects with another device to see if you can eliminate one cause. You have to have one confirmed working item to trouble shoot a system.

Hello,
Its my first post.I have exactly the same problem with my Canon ZR25MC camcorder. My pc ( XP OS SP2) could not recognize my cam through the IEEE 1394 Firewire adapter. I am trying to find solution to the problem.
Thanks for any help.

I didn't read every post, but I just fixed my issue regarding my computer not recognizing my camera. I use a Power Man G-4. and the software supplied is only for PCs. The supplied USB doesn't work with Macs.......I had to go firewire. Still, no camera icon popped up. So I opened iMovie, and there she was, plain as day.

If you are using a Mac and a firewire, try opening iMovie, and it should show up.