Hello,
Well in that case it falls into a number of items each of which must be
eliminated.
1) The camera itself
2) The installation of the firewire card and the card itself,
3) The integrity of the firewire cable
There is not much to say about the camera itself. It either works or it does
not. Much of the camera related issues are tied in closely to the whole picture
and cannot be properly tested without going to a computer that is known to work
OK.
The firewire card: Power down and remove the card...reboot twice and then
re-install. Follow any on-screen prompts. After installation right click on My
Computer then Manage > Device Manager and look for the card. While you are
there you might want to see if there are any Icons showing that there is some
condition other than normal in existence for any device in your computer.....it
will be an exclamation mark along side the device name. If there is an issue we
would need to know about it just in case it impacts on your present known
problem. If there are no exclamation marks we can assume the card is
functioning properly.
I have not got a firewire card on this computer......while still looking at the
device manager, see if you can determine whether or not it has a Texas
Instruments chipset...this because I have been told that there is a problem
with that chipset causing firewire cards to not function well....sorry that's
vague, that's all I know.
The next step would be to check the cable...if it were not for the cost I would
suggest that you buy a new one anyway.....First, are there any kinks? that
would be bad news as it may cause an increase in the resistance along any one
of the paths. If you have access to a multi meter what you should do is set it
to detect resistance and connect terminal one of the cable to one lead, then
connecting each of the other terminal look for a leak...its not likely to be
there....next connect the same terminal at the other end of the lead to the
meter. You should get a strong flow of current...make a note of the resistance.
Test each of the other cables making a note of the resistance...keeping in mind
how small a value you are working with, you should expect all of the values to
be in the same ball park (that's a bit vague I know) If any one is wildly
different then the cable is a good candidate but remember that the method of
testing itself is a bit heath robinson
Next, the complete setup...plug everything in and with the capture options
demonstrate that you can wind and rewind and play the tape in the camera. If
all seems well and using Movie Maker....get it to do a 10second capture of the
tape...or whatever short interval you think appropriate. When done, can you
play the captured file?? or does it fail to do even a short capture. It will
not be a great surprise if this step fails as well.
If that last part also fails its time to get a friend to allow you to plug your
camera into his firewire enabled computer.
There are a lot of options for you to work through and its not the end......one
area I have neglected is the software. You should download the latest DirectX
drivers from Microsoft...the last time I looked it was version 9.0c. You should
also grab the version 9 (or 10 if you prefer) windows media player and codec
pack at the same time. You should install these even if you believe they are
already properly installed....the routine is...
Reboot and install DirectX
Reboot again and install Codecs
reboot yet again and install Media Player
I should have put all of this first...ho hum. It is important that you do the
reboots...its all to do with file locks...don't worry if you have no idea what
I am talking about...you don't need to know.
There is a lot of stuff to try out ....have fun...if you don't, can I interest
you in the new mark 2 10lb lump hammer, it has a nice non-slip handle so that
you can put some real effort into it
Good Luck
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at
www.the-kellys.org
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