ADVC-100 Problems losing connection with the pc

[obiron]

lzicc,
Waiting in anticipation of your results with the new drivers. I, too, have the Dimension 8300 and have had intermittent problems with capture. What seems to work for me is the turn on/off method while there is a video signal into the AVDC. In my case, I've been capturing from a Beta VCR. If I start the tape playing, then turn the AVDC on, I ususally get the video device recognized in My Computer. I don't even start a capture app until I see this condition.

It seems every time I try a capture, I have to do multiple things to get the video device recognized. It seems hit or miss but so far I've been able to get it going every time with difficulty; seems like it's somthing different every time; I don't know the magic but drivers sound promising.

Ron

[rhegedus]

I've never had this problem so my thoughts are probably worthless...

However, I will echo other peoples' thoughts in that I believe the problem to be XP/firewire card related as opposed to ADVC related.

You probably know this but when the ADVC is on, it should be listed under My Computer in windows explorer (XPpro at least). Clicking on it will give you the preview video picture but with no sound.

If you can get all the above then it is likely to be a software issue - if not then I think it's probably a firewire/mobo issue.

[Will Hay]

...you probably know this but when the ADVC is on, it should be listed under My Computer in windows explorer (XPpro at least).

Yep, like this....




Btm left of the picture.

Will Hay

[obiron]

Yep Will, that's the one I refer to in my post. The video device in My Computer. I don't get that little bugger without a lot of foolin' around with different things. I agree with most that it's probably not the Canopus but more likely a firewire/ MB problem. I'm hopeful that lzicc has some success with his new drivers.

I'm at work or I'd track those things down and try myself. :P

[Will Hay]

I'm at work

Yeah, I know, I can see Dave
Say hi for me.
Will

[obiron]

Ok, here's a theory; If there is no video stream into the Canopus it can't decide to switch the video out to digital, so XP doesn't recognize any input on the firewire wire. Just a thought. (and upping my miniscule post count )

[rhegedus]

I think it still shows up as connected and on but without input, but the preview screen is just blank blue.

[Will Hay]

I think it still shows up as connected and on but without input, but the preview screen is just blank blue.

Yes, it does.
The shot I uploaded was of my ADVC with absolutely no leads connected, therefore no input.




Hi Rob
Will

[obiron]

rhegedus wrote:
I think it still shows up as connected and on but without input, but the preview screen is just blank blue.

Yes, it does.
The shot I uploaded was of my ADVC with absolutely no leads connected, therefore no input.

Well, I wish that were the case with my Dim 8300. Of course it's a Dell so maybe that has something to do with it. No video device shows up in my Explorer without great gnashing of teeth. If you guys are seeing your canopus show up just by turning it on, then it has to be a driver problem IMHO.

Hello will; Dave left for the day but I'll pass on the message.

[Will Hay]

What did you do, send him out for coffee and he st8ill hasn't returned?
Yep, sounds like Dave

Mine is instant I'm afriad, turn it on and it's recognised straight away, within a second or two.
It's great
Will

[obiron]

What did you do, send him out for coffee and he st8ill hasn't returned?
Yep, sounds like Dave

Naaaah, if we sent him out for coffee he probably couldn't find his way back (or more realistically, he wouldn't find his way back).

He just comes in around 0 dark 30 and leaves early to make up for it.

BTW, congrats on your bday. I'm with lzicc; I saw 33 a long time ago. In fact, I'm older than your Mum. Some have said I'm older than dirt.

[lzicc]

GOOD NEWS!! So far anyhow. After replacing those system drivers from work, I came home, rebooted the pc, turned on the ADVC unit, and it came right up within a couple of seconds. Shut it off and on a couple of times and it came right back. Sclive saw it everytime. Now I am happy. My big worry was the unit being defective and I wanted to return it before my 30 days was up.
If anyone wants those drivers, please let me know or maybe I can post them somewhere on this site so everyone can get to them. I really appreciate all the input and hope that I can return the favor. By the way Will Hay...Happy Birthday!!

[obiron]

lzicc,
Congratulations; great news. That means there's hope for me. Yes, I would like to get those drivers. Please publish a link or send me a PM.

Thanks for your efforts.

Ron

[SLICK RICK]

lzicc,

Glad to hear you got it working now. Hopefully it stays that way.

SLICK RICK

[painkiller]

(young whippersnappers....)

Anyway, forgive me for holding back - but I happen to agree with regard to a 'driver' issue, in part.

While my P4 is not a Dell, it was put together using an Intel 850GB motherboard & 1.4GHz cpu w/512M of RDRAM. The OS was first WinNT, upgraded to Win2K.

By the time I got my ADVC-100, it lived through Win2K SP2 to 4 as of now.

I have always seemed to have this issue that, whenever I turn off the vid input and the ADVC-100, the PC doesn't always see it next time I power up the ADVC-100. The PC is usually on 24/7.

On occasion, I have noticed that certain sequences of powering up devices, along with waiting over a length of time - the OS 'sees' the ADVC-100 and vid input. More often than not, in order to 'force' the conection I simply add the same OHCI driver as a replacement install and - poof - there it is.

So, that tells me there is no real hardware problem that actually permanently breaks the connection, but I don't understand the driver business myself. I have searched for an upgrade to it but am told I have the latest.

So, who to believe?

[obiron]

Thanks to lzicc I've installed a set of drivers he received from Canopus Tech support. On the surface they appeared identical but after installing I now receive the AVC Compliant DV Tape Recorder/Player icon in my Explorer about 2 or 3 seconds after I power on the ADVC 100; and without any input to it. This I could not get to happen before the update without great effort; and it seemed to be random.

Anyway, if anyone else is interested and has a Dell machine with this problem I have put the email text and a zip file attachment at the following location:

http://webpages.charter.net/kylerh/DellDrivers/

Two files whose filenames are:
New Text Document.txt (original, huh?)
and DellADVC.zip.

Again, kudos to lzicc for ferreting out this information and his persistence.

Thanks.

[lzicc]

Great news obiron. I am glad that I was able to help. And thanks for posting those drivers so that other people can benefit from it. It is a good feeling when you can turn on the ADVC and xp sees it like it is suppposed to.

[buffalodrafter69]

If I might add my experience on this problem. I too have had terrible problems with the ADVC100 and my Dell 8300. I downloaded the replacement drivers from

http://webpages.charter.net/kylerh/DellDrivers/

And after installing them my system seems to be working flawlessly. I tried turning the ADVC100 on and off 15-20 times and each time it was found immediately. I restarted the computer 4-5 times and then turned on the ADVC and each time it recogined the unit within 1 second.

Be sure to read the instructions in the ZIP file as it explains about backing up the old drivers.

By the way this fix is from Canopus but for some reason they refuse to put any mention about it on their website. I have a feeling they are "spinning" the truth to make themselves look good.

Hope this helps

[painkiller]

Well, folks, I have taken the bold step to attempt your solution to mine.

All I can say is, didn't hurt - but didn't change anything for me.

Glad it solved your problems, though. At least you've got one less headache/annoyance to contend with.

Guess I'll keep on searchin'.

ttfn. It's been fun.

[obiron]

painkiller, that's too bad; sorry it didn't work for you. You say you re-installed the same OHCI driver to "force the connection"; have you tried removing the 1394 hardware using Device Manger and reboot; win2k should recognize new hardware (well new to it since it was deleted) and re-install the drivers. Sometimes this can work especially since you've updated a couple of times (Winnt, win2k sp2 then to sp4).

What kind of 1394 hardware do you have?

[painkiller]

Obiron, yes - I have tried that a couple times.

This is a SIIG dual i/o pci card. USB 2.0 ports and Firewire (1394a).
The SIIG support site only gives a driver update intended for the USB portion. They indicate for the Win2K OS - should be plug and play. It goes on to say that the latest SP4 for Win2K overwrites any other 1394bus.sys file with Microsoft's own.

I am likely to try a different brand card soon.

As luck would have it, I live in the Baltimore area, and we will be having a MarketPro Computer Show this weekend. Guess I'll be shopping (again).

[EwanG]

I am likely to try a different brand card soon.

If you can get one cheap or free, that may be worth a shot.

However, I had a number of problems with my ADVC-100 when I had a Toshiba Tablet PC for a few months. Since it had worked flawlessly with my previous machine, I was fairly certain the problem wasn't the ADVC.

A few threads are probably still floating around here from my efforts to figure out how to get it to work. Basically I found that I had a couple different issues which you may want to consider:

1) Had a LaCie Big Disk attached to the same firewire line. Turned out the Big Disk is a RAID 0 device, and the internal bridge would sometimes "hiccup". Solution there was to pull the HDs out of the case and put them in trays to use with a removable firewire HD dock.

2) The model of Toshiba I had used Shared RAM for the Video card. Dropping the settings from 24 bit to 16 bit made a big difference in stability.

Hope this helps,
Ewan