Firewire no longer recognized - tried to repair, but tells me no TCP/IP installed

[David D]

On my laptop, using XP prof., my firewire is no longer recognized. So
I go into the connection for the 1394, under support and hit REPAIR.
It then gives me this error :

Windows could not finish repairing the problem because the following
action could not be complete :
TCP/IP is not enabled for this connection. Cannot proceed.

For assistance, contact the person that manages your network.

There are checkmarks beside the TCP/IP, so I don't get it. If I
UNCHECK the TCP/IP connection, it asks for a disk for the drivers or
something.

Any ideas?

PS _ I have already disabled the connection and removed the IEEE94
Bus hot controller from the device manager and rebooted - this did not
fix the problem.

 

[David D]

I should also mention - the firewire is the INTERNAL 4pin port for the
laptop. Interestly enough, I also have a PCMIA firewire card (6pin)
that recognizes the camera right away, it is just the INTERNAL 4pin.
Also, tried the 4pin cable and camera on another laptop, and it works
fine - so the cable and the camera seem to be working ok.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I should also mention - the firewire is the INTERNAL 4pin port for the
laptop. Interestly enough, I also have a PCMIA firewire card (6pin)
that recognizes the camera right away, it is just the INTERNAL 4pin.
Also, tried the 4pin cable and camera on another laptop, and it works
fine - so the cable and the camera seem to be working ok.

A couple of thoughts spring to mind:

1. The firewire port has become faulty in some way, and the installer is
unable to complete its function because it can't fully communicate.

2. TCP/IP seems to be a right royal pain in the arse. For some reason it
seems to disconnect itself (software wise) from one some or all network
ports for no adequately explored reason. A system restore to before the
point where it stopped usually fixes the problem, but it is rarely a
permanent solution. On my machine, it is the bluetooth port that seems to
keep becoming disconnected (and I'm not convinced that TCP/IP is anything to
do with bluetooth - but I could be wrong).

 

[David D]

I am going to try and find a system restore point, Iam hoping HP has
something in its software that will help me. Everything I have tried
doesn't seem to be working at all...