Connecting a Sony HC37E to my PC

[Alien18]

Hi All,

I've searched high and low on the internet for a solution to my problem but can't find anything concrete.

I purchased this Camcorder at the start of the year, and successfully connected it to my XP PC via firewire and transferred video to my PC no probs.

Anyway, the camcorder went unused for some time, and in the meantime I'd done a clean upgrade to Vista.

Forgetting this I connected my Camcorder to my PC, and then remembered that I had to reinstall the software, d'oh! Disconnected everything, installed the Sony software, and reconnected everything.

Now everything is a bit hit and miss, using the Sony software I started to import my video, then a short while into it the program froze. A few attempts (and a reboot) later, I tried using Windows Video Importer, and it froze at the same place in the video.

So guessing it was a video prob I thought - I'll try importing from further on in the video.

But now it seems I can't get any of the software to recognise the camcorder is connected. When I plug it all in and switch on the camcorder, Vista makes the "Beep Beep" sounds that signifies it's connected then the list of options appears (listing various software to capture the video with) but then quickly disappears and the "beep beep" sound signifying that the camcorder has been disconnected plays.

I am wondering if it is a firewire card issue and it wasn't built in on my PC it's on a PCI card I added that has USB 2.0 connectors as well. I got vista to check for driver updates for the card but it says I've got the best ones installed.

Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas please?

Any help would be much appreciated, as I'd love to get cracking making my Home video of my trip to Dublin.