Recently (finally) made the switch from Win Me to Win XP Home SP2. Under Me, I had my Sony PC55E running great on a TI 1394 controller.
With XP it simply doesn't work. It's not like XP doesn't see the cam - it's thrown up various attempts at installing it, and occasionally I'll get the Sony DV Cam icon in My Computer or maybe an Imaging Device in Device Manager, but bottom line is detection seems flaky to the point that even Windows Movie Maker can't access the cam.
Tried powering on the cam before startup but it makes no difference. If I leave the cam running, sometimes it'll randomly pop up for a few seconds before it's screwed again.
The hardware config is unchanged, only the OS.
I guess this has been asked a thousand times but searching the forums and Google hasn't turned up a solution.
1. ieee1394 firewire networking disabled ?
2. firewall on above disabled ?
Thanks for replying.
I haven't disabled the 1394 network adaptor, and Windows firewall is disabled.
I've been playing some more, and it seems it will now detect the cam if I turn it off and on a couple of times, however when Windows tries to initialise the cam, either through Movie Maker or by double-clicking the icon in My Computer, it hangs.
If I then go into dev man the cam is listed under Imaging Devices, but if I scan for changes it disappears, suggesting the link is flaky and intermittent - probably the cause of the hang on initialisation. Sometimes I get the disconnect 'bing bong' a couple of minutes later like it's been polling the cam and finally decided it's not there...
Clear as mud no doubt.
Cheers
try disabling the ieee1394 networking , it 'may' fix the problem.
Thanks again...
I disabled the 1394 network connection, but the cam still needed an off-and-on 3 times until it popped up. XP then dropped it again and couldn't initialise it.
When XP first installed the cam it struggled - could there be a driver problem? Also, Win Me used to have a MS TV/Vid Net Adpt in Network Adaptors after installing my cam - it looked like XP tried installing this but it is not present at any time. Should XP have this also?
Way back when I upgraded Win Me to DX9, it also complained when enumerating my old Pana DS11B, but worked fine after it had got there. It seems XP also struggled to enumerate, but now also can't maintain a connection...
I'd be reluctant to fork out to replace something that was working, but would a change of 1394 card help?
some cards are better than others.
don't see a need for tv/vid net adpt if that isn't what your camera is.
maybe removing the 'drivers' for the card and then re-installing the drivers after rebooting might update them to the latest drivers / inf file.
try a new cable , might be as simple as that.
update directx to latest version.
update video card drivers to latest version.
Thanks.
I'm already running the latest VGA driver, DX9 etc...
I think I will try my old Pana DS11B - if that works at least it isolates the Sony cam as the awkward component.
If XP struggles with the Pana as well, I'll borrow a cable to try, and lastly replace the 1394 card.
If I get the stupid thing working I'll post back.
Cheers.
OK - tried the Sony PC55E with a new cable on a friend's laptop with VIA firewire onboard. It worked straight away - although he's already installed his own Sony HC-something, so the laptop probably had less work to do to enumerate the PC55E.
I then tried the PC55E on the same laptop with my cable. Also fine. I then tried it on his Mac Mini with my cable. Also fine.
So that just leaves the 1394 card in my PC, or some setting that's buggering things up. I've installed one of the XP SP2 firewire updates to fix the SP2 bug that sets all firewire ports to S100. No difference. I've read up today that switching the motherboard to APIC from ACPI can improve enumeration reliability and performance in XP, so I'm giving that a try tonight. Failing that I'll be in the market for a new 1394 card... any recommendations?
Thanks!
SOLVED IT!!!
Tried my old Pana DS11B and it worked first time. Flushed with success I tried the Sony PC55E again, but it failed exactly as before.
Out of interest I viewed the hidden devices on dev man, and noticed the other support devices (61883/AVC etc) remained installed. Unable to uninstall them from dev man, I went into the registry and deleted as many of the keys for 61883, AVC, Sony etc as I could (some could not delete as they were in use).
I plugged the PC55E back in, and XP went through the enumeration from scratch and correctly installed first time! Device initialisation is fine, and footage can be captured again. I also noticed the MS TV/Vid Adpt reappeared, so perhaps this missing component was the problem...?
Harlequin, thanks for your help, and anyone else that viewed this thread to help...
UPDATE 20.07.05: It seems the 4-pin firewire port on the I/O cradle of the PC55E is a little iffy - wiggling the cable makes the cam connect/disconnect to Windows. Quite possibly the reason it screwed the install the first time... Great cam for its size, but poor low light performance and a fimsy dock!
Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum so go gently...
My Sony DCR TRV240 E camcorder has recently not been recognised by my Dell Inspiron 6000 (XP Service Pk 3, 2Gb DDR SDRAM Ram, 1.6GHz chip, all up to date, running AVG and Zone-Alarm Pro)
The camera has been faultless for 7 years and has always been recognised by Windows Movie Maker program. However three weeks ago when I connected up the camcorder a message flashed up stating 'A video capture device was not detected - please verify it's working and try again'
I tried four different leads, and also tried the camera on different laptop with the original lead and it works perfectly and shows up in the other computer's device manager. In short I know the camera is fine.
So far, I have tried updating new drivers for the OHCI IEEE1394 Host Controller but XP already has these built in plus a message stating there is no newer version of the driver than the one already installed.'
Since I know the camera and fire-wire leads work on another Dell computer, where does the problem lie? According to device manager my 1394 Host Controller is working perfectly as there's no yellow warning tags etc.
I've also tried downloading the patches via Microsoft site but it does squat.
Is there something in the registry that can be tweaked to make the firewire controller recognise the camera?
When I typed this problem into Google, a huge amount of postings was listed. It would seem this is a common fault.
Any info and advice greatfully received. I'm brave enough to go into the registry so long as someone can point me in the right direction.
Regards
Doc
Hi Doc, and welcome! I appreciate your query is (vaguely) related to the earlier parts of this thread, but this thread is over four years old!
I strongly suggest you start a new thread to avoid respondents not realising this. You're bound to get a better/more relevant and up-to-date answer! Good luck!