Problems with computer recognizing camcorder

[serrac]

I have already scoured the forums and found someone with a similar issue and walked myself through the resolution to no avail. Here's my problem..

I have a Toshiba laptop running Windows Vista 32-bit and a Samsung SC-D365 miniDV camcorder. According to the user's manual I should be able to hook up the camcorder via firewire to my computer and capture the video from the miniDV tape that I have in it. So, when I do this, my computer doesn't recognize that I have anything plugged in. I have installed the Vista driver via Samsung's website and have video editing software available on the computer that also came with the camcorder. But nothing happens. According to my device manager, the IEEE1394 port is working fine, I even uninstalled it and let it reinstall itself on startup.

The camcorder is about 2 years old but I haven't used it that much so I don't really know what the problem could be. I have done all of the troubleshooting that Samsung offered. I also tried to install it on another computer I have (also running Vista 32-bit) and it worked for a brief second (there's a little DV logo that pops up on the camcorder screen) but as soon as the driver loaded, it quit working.

Things that I know:
* The cable is fine because my old Nikon DSLR camera has a firewire port and I tired that and it worked.
* When I shut down my computer and the camera is plugged in, the little "DV" symbol appears, as soon as I turn my computer back on, it goes away so this tells me the cable and the camera are okay but they're not seeing each other when the computer is on.
* I am 5-1/2 weeks out of warranty and Samsung wants an absurd amount of money to fix it. But I don't have the money to fix it or buy another camera at the current time and I need to get the information off of this tape.
* I have: Windows Movie Maker, Ulead Video Studio, and WinDV on my computer.

Please help!

[minidv2dvd]

try it in this order.

turn on the cam with a tape you want to capture in it.
put the cam in play mode.
with the computer running plug in the cam with the firewire cable.
wait a couple minutes.
start windv - does it find the cam?

other than that take the cam somewhere with a known working firewire port and see if it works there.

if no go to both, the port on the cam is most likely dead.

[serrac]

That didn't work. I know the firewire port on my computer works because I stated, I can hook up my DSLR and it's fine. And the camera, when I shut the computer down, the camera acts like it's plugged in because the little DV icon pops up (as the user manual states) and this is the ONLY time that comes up. It makes zero sense.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Does your cam have a setting for DV IN vs DV OUT or similar? If so, make sure that DV OUT is selected.

Also, see if this document helps:

http://www.enosoft.net/products/enodvproc/help/htm/_troubleshootingdvdeviceconnectivity.htm

[serrac]

Yeah, the setting is set to "OUT" Looking over the document you provided. Thanks.

[hiptune]

That didn't work. I know the firewire port on my computer works because I stated, I can hook up my DSLR and it's fine. And the camera, when I shut the computer down, the camera acts like it's plugged in because the little DV icon pops up (as the user manual states) and this is the ONLY time that comes up. It makes zero sense.

Yes, but ain't that exactly how a FW port gets fried, plugging the camera into a FW jack while all are powered up?