Firewire working but DV Camera not recognised

[kathdawson]

It did work for about 5 mins yesterday but now it doesn't detect the device, I think it must be a windows issue but can anyone help?

I have 2 DV cameras and neither are recognised. I bought a firewire connection plugin board for the computer and once I got rid of the exclamation mark in the device driver it picked up the "DVcamera" (little yellow bubble in bottom righthand corner) and windows movie maker allowed me to use it as a camcorder - job done.

i recorded 2 short videos then it stopped working and now my computer reports that the firewire is working fine but no camera is detected.

I've rebooted & tried connecting/reconnecting in all modes I can think of - nothing.

any ideas?

Thanks,
Kath

[MarkE19]

Could be a few things:

dodgy firewire cable - try another one
camcorder needs to be in AV/replay mode to be detected
try connecting cam to PC when both are off. Then boot PC and once done power on camcorder
start the editing program after the cam is connected and powered on (Windows wont always show the cam, but as long as the software detects it all is ok)

Mark.

[kathdawson]

thnaks Mark, I'll give that a try although I think that was one of the combos I did yesterday. If that doesn't work I'll go buy another firewire. Does it matter that its 4pin to 6 pin?

I have 4 pin in the camera and I could insert either on the computer. I have 4 pin to 6 pin at the moment.

I also think I might have bought the firewire in the USA years ago, I live in the UK but presumably the cables are global - I have to ask stupid questions to get to the bottom of this

Cheers,
Kath

[MarkE19]

4 pin to 6 pin is the standard cable for connecting a camcorder to a PC (laptops often require 4>4).
Firewire cables are common in all countries, so a USA sourced cable is fine to use in the UK (as long as it works that is ).

Mark.

[kathdawson]

Originally Posted by MarkE19

Could be a few things:

try connecting cam to PC when both are off. Then boot PC and once done power on camcorder
start the editing program after the cam is connected and powered on (Windows wont always show the cam, but as long as the software detects it all is ok)

Mark.

OMG Mark, that worked! exactly as you said here....
no power on the DV camera, boot the computer, turn ob the camera and I got a popup that asked if I wanted to use it as a camera to record on Windows Movie Maker. I guess I always had the software open or opened it after the camera was on.

Thank you so much for taking the time - its been driving me mad for days
Kath