no camera detected

  • Thread starter Thread starter gaak51
  • Start date Start date
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gaak51

CANON CAMCORDER ZR50MC is not detected.
HAVE INSTALLED FIREWIRE 3-PORT PCI Card. HELP!
 
Hi there,

Things I might would do....

Click on Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device
Manager > Network Adapters and look for the Firewire Card. If present right
click and check properties...in particular you want to see the message
saying its working OK. If its not working, try the Troubleshooter option
that you will be presented with.

Assuming the above is OK, In Device Manager look for IEEE 1394 Bus Host
Controller, right click and again look at properties...try the trouble
shooter if there is an issue.

Moving on....and still in Device Manager look for Imaging Devices and open
it up. Plug your camera into the firewire cable, turn it on and put it into
VCR mode. After a short period of time you should see your camera appear as
a Device. If it does appear then right click it and again check the
properties. At this point you might want to Update the driver.

If the camera does not appear as a device, then disconnect the camera and
reboot the system. and try looking for the camera again. If its still not
there and assuming that XP has told you that your firewire card is installed
and working properly, take 3 steps backwards and away from your machine and
shout at it loudly and slowly...it will not solve the camera problem, but
you will feel a whole lot better :)

Seriously, If all of the above fails, I would turn computer off, remove the
firewire card and reboot. Then get hold of something like the free version
of Ashampoo registry cleaner and let it do its job....then reboot the
computer and run that software again...sometimes rebooting reveals further
files / entries that were perhaps locked on the first run. I would also use
something like the Ashampoo redundant files program to get rid of those as
well and reboot and run again for the same reasons as above...Tedious this
is !!! Anyway, after you have done all of that, reinstall the card and
follow through with the "New Hardware Found" procedures and before you plug
the camera in at all.....go to the Device Manager and confirm the card is
working...plugging the camera in before you do this will start another "New
Hardware Found" routine and that will almost confuse any issue that may
already exist.

If none of this works, I can sell you a nice big hammer! :)
 
John Kelly said:
If none of this works, I can sell you a nice big hammer! :)
Click to expand...

Not so fast, there are still a few options!

Plug'n'Pray only can see your camcorder, if the whole chain is intact - only
one (or more) broken link(s) and p'n'p can't see the camcorder anymore:

- Check with a differen IEEE 1394 cable (in most cases it's the cable)
- Connect your camcorder to another PC - if it works there, then you know
camcoder and cable are working well
- Connect another camcorder to your PC - if this works, this cable and the
IEEE adapter are working well

Possible failures:
- Dead IEEE 1394 adapter output circuit (I've had such an adapter)
- Loose contact (connectors / cable) - another cable may help as seen many
times
- Dead IEEE Port on the camcorder...

....I've seen camcorders with this fault.
It seems, the IEEE Port on some camcorder models is not terminated properly,
so it may be damaged by voltage peaks (see also here:
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/professional/tib/tib7042.jhtml )

- Switch the camcorder off
- Connect the cable to the PC (now it's grounded)
- Connect the cable to the camcorder
- If it's connected, switch the power to "VCR" or "Play"

Some camcorder (JVC?) seems to have a problem, if the AC-Adapter connected -
try with battery only (has helped others).

If it's still not working, try to boot with connected and powered camcorder.
I've also seen, it may bedetected, if DirectX was uninstalled and installed
with the connected and powered camcorder.
Others solved the problem with a clean installation of XP

If still not working, think about the "nice big hammer" of John Kelly...

Cheers,
Hausi
 
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