MY PC WONT RECOGNISE PANASONIC NV - GS5 !! ANYONE HELP PLEASE ??

[GRENDLE]

Hi,

Can anyone help me.

I have a PANASONIC NV - GS5 Cammcorder.
Troubles is when I connect via my firewire, my pc doesn't recognise my cammcorder..... really frustrating !!
Does any know if there's any software I need to download or any advise in general would be appreciated.

Cheers!
David

[redwudz]

Unfortunately this is a fairly common problem. But I have yet to see a comprehensive fix. Here's one list of possible things to try:

e: camcorder not recognized through firewire

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=4249

Other possibilities: Bad FireWire cable, bad Firewire card, change in the OS drivers that messed things up, and likely many more. Check with your camcorder manufacturer for more ideas. The FireWire driver is part of XP, so there is really nothing necessary to add in the way of drivers or programs. Try the camera and cable on a computer that has a known working FireWire connection to eliminate the camera or the cable as the problem.

Others may also have some suggestions.

And welcome to our forums.

[JohnnyMalaria]

A couple of troubleshooting options:

With the camcorder powered off, connect it to your PC via the Firewire cable. Turn the camcorder on (either camera or VTR mode). Do you hear a 'ba-dip'? This is the usual announcement for new hardware being connected. If you do, then you know that at least there is some communication between the camcorder and the PC. If you don't, then there's a high likelihood that there is a hardware fault at one end of the link.

Do you know anyone with a different camcorder or a different PC with Firewire that you could test with?

Has it *ever* worked? If it has and now doesn't, it is possible that the Firewire port has been fried. Some manufacturers, such as Sony, warn about inadvertently connecting the 4-pin connection the wrong way around (it takes some effort but apparently some people have done it!)

Finally, which Service Pack of XP are you using?

[GRENDLE]

Hi

thanks for the info

Will give all your options a go

Regards,
David

[JohnnyMalaria]

Try this, too:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810032

"After you upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), you may experience problems when you try to use your digital video (DV) camera. The Panasonic NV-C5 DV camera may not be enumerated correctly when you plug it into your computer. The camcorder driver is not loaded, but no error messages are reported. You hear the new-device-enumeration sound and you see the new-device bubble, but only the lower drivers in the stack are loaded. Without the top-level camcorder driver, the device does not seem to be discovered by Windows."

[Bjs]

There is more from ms : pc is off to start with .

1: Attach power adapter to camera
2: Attach firewire cable to camera , then to pc
3: Turn camera on and wait till power on is complete
4: Turn pc on

According to the info I dug out of ms , this is how camera's should be connected , otherwise issue's can appear .

Disconnection of the camera is the reverse of the above procedure .

Some camera's have been reported that if connected incorrectly , the interface on the camera will be damaged .

The camera will function as normal , but will nolonger communicate with the pc ... one or more camera manufacturer's have made the decision , that camera's operated in such manner void warrantee and as such will not be repaired , as the user failed to take specific precautions .

I wrote back and pointed out it is not the end user's actual fault under current law , but the salesperson's fault for not either indicating those instructions or showing the correct procedure on connecting/disconnecting such device's to / from the pc prior to completion of the sale .

This still dosent let the end user off the hook , as they should always do some research prior to investing in such device's , and fully read the enclosed instructions that come with such device's

I blew the hell out of sony because we found this info on page 32 of 45 , two thirds down , and in the smallest print in the entire manual ... and it was not part of the index ... lamo's .

---------------------

Also :

Some firewire cards are inferior in quality

But the card itself may need to be moved to another slot in order to fully fuction correctly ... it dose happen ... a lot .

The correct card installation to follow is :

(Do not install any addon card in pci1 slot = it shares resources with onboard/agp slot)
(Pci2 and pci3 share resources = either slot may be used , but not both)
(Pci4 and pci5 share resources = either slot may be used , but not both)

[handyguy]

It would be better for us if you told us what type of computer you have.

[drbig]

Maybe this has been solved long ago, but I had a similar problem with my NV-GS50. That is, XP wouldn't recognize the camcorder.
After frustrating searches on the web I changed two things: I used another firewire socket on the pc (one on the backside instead of the more easily reachable socket on the front), and I uninstalled the USB driver that came with the camcorder. The first change since I actually don't know there is anything connected to the socket on the inside of the box I have, and the second since several DV capture SW I tried complained about the camcorder not being correctly attached via *USB* (my thought being that it may try USB as long as it finds that driver). The result: I can now capture the film, but I don't know which of the two things that fixed the problem.

[ellenbecker]

Can anyone tell me why when I connect my Mac PowerBook G4 to the Panasonic television, using the S cable, the tv says No Signal? Does Panasonic not recognize Macs? Only PC? Want to watch computer content on the big screen. Not very good at this kind of thing.

[brucejackson]

did you choose displays under system preferences?