I have had my MiniDV tape camcorder for about a year now. Over the last couple of weeks my PC is suddenly not detecting the camcorder consistently. I have tried rebooting my computer and sometimes that works and I can stream video. But then I'll try at a diffent time and when I turn on the camcorder, it doesn't detect it! I went so far as to buy a new firewire cable and that did not help. I know the drivers are installed properly. Today, I really had something strange happen - after I had rebooted and reconnected the hardware and had got the camcorder detected, I started a video capture. Things were going OK when suddenly, right in the middle of the capture the camcorder was no longer detected and caused the program to crash! My goodness, what's going on?? Any help is apprciated.
is your camcorder playing up during normal shooting or playback direct to the TV?
It does sound strange and you will need to eliminate one element at a time.
Does your PC playup at all during normal operation? Can it detect other devices and has it ever stopped midway with any other devices?
What has changed with either the camcorder or the PC? Have you added any other S/W or H/W to the PC?
Has the camcorder been dropped or otherwise changed? Was it exposed to moisture as in rain or dew at all? Have you noticed a case of condensation on the camcorder?
Can you borrow another miniDV camera from a friend or family member and try to see if the same thing happens or conversly, you can take your drivers and cable and camera to a mates house and try to capture some files on his/her PC?
Yes, playback and camera shooting is normal, with no difficulties. It does detect all other devices, as far as I can tell. I did notice that one time when I disconnected one of the numerous USB attachments that I have and reconnected it using a different USB slot, that my PC detected that AND my digital camcorder that one time. Perhaps there is an issue with the number of attached devices?
Now - I tried hooking up another digital camcorder and got the same results - it did not detect that one either. I do not have the software for that camera installed, but it still should have detected it. So, we know it is not the firewire cable, and I do not believe it is the DV connection on the camcorder. I am leaning more towards your suggestion that, besides a hardware issue, it could be a software one and I have purchased an up to date anti-virus program so as to cover that possibilty..
I live in the northeast US, which unfortunately, this time of year has serious problems with summer humidity. While there was no instance of the camera being exposed to moisture in the form of rain, etc, it is possible that humidity has caused some problems. At the present time, the humidity has backed off a bit,though.
I'm wondering if it could be the port itself to which I am connecting.
I could try installing an ieee 1394 card in my son's computer and see if it plays on that. Any further ideas based on what I've said here, let me know.
unless the camera is seriously affected by humidity (which would have other issues in playback) I dont think it is from your camcorder.
I think it could be a software or hardware issue with the PC. The best way of troubleshooting it would be to use another PC. Attach your camera and see if you can capture some video on the new PC.
On your PC, you mentioned you have some other USB devices. It was not clear if they are working or not?
Do you use a USB hub? if yes, is it a powered hub or unpowered?
I am getting to think it might be a power supply issue. In that, there is not enough power to supply the drives, USB devices and Firewire all at the same time.
Is the firewire port part of a combo card with both USB and firewire together?
Do you have a firewire port on the M/B itself that you can use?
If you do have one on the M/B it would help to eliminate the firewire card that is a PCI bus for example.
It was not clear if you think this trouble started after you added some S/W to the system or not?
Lastly, make sure you dont have any viruses or spyware on the system.
Thanks Behrad, for your help on this matter. For now, I think I have solved it. Firstly, believe it or not, I did not have a "Genuine" Windows copy of Windows XP on my PC and had to get it authenticated. This allowed me to download very necessary hardware and software updates for my PC. I thought that might solve things, but the problem still persisted though. Finally, I disconnected and then re-installed my firewire port and, as to your question, yes it is indeed, a direct connection to the motherboard. Perhaps something was loose. After re-connecting, the camcorder has (so far) been detected. So, for the time being it seems everything is OK. Again, thank you for your assistance!
