Panasonic DV203 Camcorder Not Recognized by OS

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Guest

I am trying to connect my Panasonic DV203 camcorder to my PC in order to
create DVDs of the content I have video taped. My system refuses to
recognize the camcorder. I get no ping acknowleging a new hardware device as
been attached.

I running Win XP SP2 Home Edition
Motherboard is Intel 865GBF
CPU is Pentium IV 3.0 GHz
512 Meg of RAM

I am trying to connect via a Ultra IEEE 1394 Firewire adapter (ULT-31342).

Device manager shows no conflicts.

I've tried the MS MovieMaker, an evaluation copy of ULead's Video Studio
9.0, and an evaluation copy of Video Edit Magic 4.0. None of them see the
camcorder. I get various error messages from each stating "A video capture
device was not detected" or "No capture device found" or "Either no video
capture driver is installed in this system or no device is connected".
 
Is the camcorder turned on, in VCR mode and connected to an external power
source (not its internal battery)?
 
Carl & Treeman
Thanks for the tips. Yes, camcorder is on, in VCR mode, and hooked up to
the external power supply. I'm taking the camcorder, the firewire cable, and
the PCI card to a friend who is still running SP1. We're going to see what
happens in that configuration. I'll keep you all posted. My own belief is
it is the SP2 problem with firewire that I've seen everyone talking about.

thanks,
-ks_crnhskr
 
Tried camera and cable on a system running Windows 2000. Worked fine.

The PCI card is still a variable. We did not have a chance to test it.
But, since my system recognizes the card I think a problem with the card is
remote.

I will try Treeman's suggestions next.

The saga continues,
ks_crnhskr
 
Ahhhhh, very infuriating. Now it all works and I don't know why.
Here is what I did...

I re-installed the Firewire PCI card. I had never uninstalled the drivers
when I took the card out, so when I put it back they all appeared in the
device manager list with no balloons indicating new hardware had been
installed.

Then with the device manager open I selected "show hidden devices". I know,
I know, I committed the cardinal sin and didn't write down what I was
seeing... There was one driver in the "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" list that
had a yellow exclaimation point. It said something like "Intel SMbus 2.0".
I uninstalled it and rebooted figuring XP would reinstall the driver. It did
not.

So then I plugged the firewire cable into the camcorder and powered up in
the VCR mode. Lo and behold XP recognized the camcorder and Movie Maker
captured the video just fine.

So now I don't know if that Non-Plug and Play driver was the culprit or not.
I didn't change anything else.

Thanks Cari and Treeman for your suggestions. If things start acting up
again I at least now have a few other avenues to pursue.

ks_crnhskr
 
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