XP not detecting my Panasonic NV-DS29 camcorder

[cookie_396]

I recently got myself an all-singing all-dancing new laptop
to replace my clunky old P3 laptop and have a problem with
XP not detecting my Panasonic NV-DS29 when I connect them
via the firewire ports.

It worked perfectly well with my old laptop when I had a
firewire card plugged into the PCMCIA slot.

According to Microsoft, I need service pack 1 installed, which
I have and update 810032, which I did yesterday but XP still
cant see it.
It got so bad last night that I was waving the camcorder in
front of the screen screaming "look, its here, on the end
of this &%$@ing wire you piece of junk..." at it, which had
exactly the same effect as installing the Microsoft patches.

And I cant use the firewire card that I used to use on my
old laptop because my kids fed it to my cockatoo a couple
of month ago. Kids are really helpfull like that!

Anyway, I am not sure what I can do next. Panasonic are
rubbish at customer support and insist I phone my local
Panasonic service people to arrange to have the camcorder
picked up and looked at...even though there is nothing
wrong with it. Bizarre!

Is there anybody here who can help me or point me towards
somewhere that can?

If it's and help Arcsoft's video impression gives me an
'cannot find VFW driver' message and Pinnacle's expression
gives me a 'cant initiate DV capture device' message.

 

[Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media]

Starting from the very beginning....
Does XP ping when you cannect the cam?
Check the ieee1394 connection is ok in device manager.
If not I'd suspect a cable connection problem. I've found 4 pin cables,
particualrly cheap ones, to be a real pain. I use either apple or belkin
ones as I used to have a lot of trouble connecting stuff to my laptop.
Why it's only laptop end and not cam end I do not know, must be something to
do with the way they make laptop 4 pin ports!!
Try wiggling the cable connection - gently as we don't want to break
anything.

 

[cookie_396]

Thanks for the response Graham.

XP doesn't ping, it just sits there laughing at me.
Device manager looks ok. Says connected at 400 mps, working etc.
Cheap 4 pin cables eh? Hmmm, would you call 6.99 cheap
I'll try wiggling it a bit at the laptop end.

 

[Graham Hughes, MVP Digital Media]

depends where you are In Uk pounds my cables cost £18.99 each, which for
the hassle I used to have with the ones supplied with my external hdd etc,
well worth it.

Graham

 

[cookie_396]

Cheers Graham,
got a belkin cable and everything is working okay now.
Thanks for the advice

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