Bizzare problem capturing - NEWBIE

[Aarell]

I am trying to 'capture' from my Mini DV - I am using Firewire and all goes well for about half of the tape - [around 30 mins] - then everything stops and the following message appears:
'Video Capture device not detected - verify that device is turned on and connected properly'.
It makes no sense at all. Half of the tape is captured and plays back perfectly.???

I have tried a different camera - same thing - my computer is new and dedicated purely to video - it has never been used on the internet. I bought Cyberlink Power Director 10 and then discovered it will not capture Mini DV properly. So my attempts thus described have been in Windows Movie Maker.Can somebody please help me or suggest a way around this peculiar problem. I am totally new to video editing and not at all conversant with all the jargon. Please keep it simple! I have been so looking forward to editing it all and getting creative - and I can't even get past the first hurdle!! I have 20 hours of fantastic footage from Zimbabwe to edit - and I am getting REALLY frustrated!!
Thank you.

[DB83]

Try WinDV

[usually_quiet]

WinDV might be worth a try. It is old software, but works well even for those who are using Windows 7.