PC not recognizing firewire input ---> Cannot capture vid

[rdc4439]

I am having problems getting my PC to recoginze my firewire input, and am getting frustrated.

I am working with:


Dell Latitude Laptop with firewire board built into motherboard.
JVC DVF21 video camera (and have also attempted a SONY Handcam).
Windows 2000 (cannot upgrade to XP because my company software will only work on 2000).
I downloaded the lastest DirectX - version 9.0

I have been on the phone with Dell customer support for probably 40 hours over the last 3 weeks, and I have them stumped. I have replaced the motherboard, firewire cable, tried 2 different cameras, and reformatted my hard drive and started from scratch - at Dell's urging - still no relief.

I cannot get any help from JVC.

When I plug the firewire cable into my laptop - absolutely nothing happens. I go to device manager - and the IEEE1394 Bus Host Controller (Texas Instruments) says it is working properly.

Can someone tell me what I might be missing here?.

Thanks for your help in advance.
Rich

[Gazorgan]

Have you tried some other firewire (non-camera) device? Like a harddrive?

[BJ_M]

upgrading to dx9 prob made things worse .. what a load of .....


the dell onboard firewire is known to have tons of problems (as do many onboard firewire solutions)...

just get a pccmia firewire card instead ... i think ads makes one ..

of course .. turn on your camera and plug it in AFTER you have booted up ..

many systems have a problem with multiple devices on your firewire chain ... try w/ only one item ...

try running the camera on battery instead of power supply .. sometimes when running on powersupply there is a small voltage differential between devices (which causes a ground loop on the firewire buss) .. rare , but good way to just rule it out as a problem ..

[rdc4439]

BJ_M-

Is there any way to uninstall DX9 without causing a ton of problems? If so, what version, if any should I load?

How do I know what is on my firewire "chain" - Currently the camera is plugged directly into the card?

Running from battery did not work. Next step is to get a PCMIA card.

I have tried (2) different cables from the same manufacturer. Is there a possibility that i do not have a "video ready" cable?

Thanks for your help.

[BJ_M]

cant uninstall dx9 very easy ..
dont know what a video ready dv cable is -- i didnt know there was more than one type.
firewire chain = any thing else plugged into firewire?
try also disabling your usb ports in your bios

[pharlap]

if you want to use the firewire port to capture make sure the camera is turned on before starting computer then it will see camera

[BJ_M]

see this thread here

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=148185&highlight=