Plug & Play problem

[John B. Nelson]

I just re-read it and you're right. I see it applies to the Home Premium version which is 32 bit and the one I have.

It says I have to contact Microsoft's Customer Support Service (that's gonna be a trip) for the hotfix. I'll do that tomorrow.

-John

[Chris Soucy]

boy, are you ever gonna need it!

May the force be with you!

Cheers,


Chris

[Colin McCaffery]

John,
Like the other responders, you may have tried this already....
In Control Panel, Add & Remove Programs, check that nothing still exists in the way of a driver for the camera ...sometimes I have found that a system restore does not always remove installed items and I have to remove them specifically via that route. I have had several issues with software in the past that I have had to resolve this way.
Failing that, you talked about getting up the nerve to uninstall via Device Manager. There shouldn't be a problem regarding your Firewire with this, but even if there was, a system restore should put it back in. And, even if that didn't do the trick, then a re-installation of Windows Vista should also reinstall your Firewire ...remembering of course not to select a 'fresh installation' (unless you really want to lose all your data!), but to opt for repairing the current version.
I hope this tuppence worth can help...

Colin.

[John B. Nelson]

Ok, I did a IEEE 0394 uninstall and when I restarted the puter it reinstalled fine. No problem with that part. (I don't know what you guys were so worried about.. geesh)

Anyway, I plugged the A1 in and Vista still isn't seeing it. Seems pretty hopeless at the moment.

Just read that Microsoft plans on releasing a service pack around October or November. That's quite a way's way yet. I'm still going to try to contact them for a hotfix but that could take the same amount of time.

Well it's back to the drawing board for this issue. Thanks again for all your suggestions.

-John

[Chris Soucy]

1.
I re - read your first post and a (small) light bulb went on - Ulead VideoStudio. Aha!

I had a similar problem with UVS and my A1 (on an XP system). Tried everything but no go (maddeningly it worked on SD but not HD). Out of sheer desperation because I wasn't sure WHERE the problem was, I downloaded the freebie trial of Adobe Premier Elements 3.
Fired it up and whamo, away it went first time.

Went back to UVS and guess what? Yep, worked a treat and hasn't failed since.

2.
On the off chance this DOESN'T work for you, can I suggest you beg, borrow or steal another camera (or almost any other Firewire gizmo failing a camera) and give that a go on this link. IT may just dislodge whatever ails it.

3.
I was going to suggest you try your camera on another system but the fact that the system can "see" it via the other box sort of renders that a red herring

4.
There is a patch for UVS (for the HV10) which may or may not have been applied to your version depending on when you bought it. Check it out and install it if it's not already there. You might want to check out ALL relevant patches as there's probably a shed load relating to Vista.

At this point the well is starting to run dry - I'm sort of hoping one of the above does the job.

5. You can always re - install UVS and see if that shocks something to life!

I'll ponder some more whilst you work your way through that lot.


Cheers,


Chris

[John B. Nelson]

Hi Chris,

Believe it or not.. (I'm still in shock) I called Microsoft and got through to someone within minutes. They passed me around like a football a few times to different tech people, but they did email me the hotfix in the end. This took no longer than being 15 minutes on the phone with them. I guess I really need to stop saying such horrible things about Microsoft (for the moment anyway.)

The bad news is that it didn't work. GRRRRR!

Chris, the only way I can capture video with UVS is if I downconvert the HD (which looks horrible) or use SD video. There are no patches or fixes that I could find on Ulead/Corel site that address's this issue. I made some comments about that on their forum but haven't heard anything back about that.

As for Premiere Elements 3.0 (which I purchased this past weekend) I can't capture video with it at all regardless of which format I use. I see no preferences listed for the A1 but I did try some of the other ones.. but nothing worked.

Thank God for HDVSplit!

Hooking up another camera to the puter is a good idea. My problem is finding someone who has a camera with a firewire connection to borrow. That might be a real challenge....

-John

[Gert Kracht]

I just discovered something:

Just to be sure:

Set the big wheel on VCR/PLAY

Press menu button
Goto Signal Setup
Is HD Down - Conv on OFF or ON ?
If it is....the camera is set to play PAL in stead of HDV.
Maybe it is...maybe not. But it could cause your problem.
I played around with some programs and discovered they did not 'see' the HDV camera when this is set to ON.

I hope it helps.

[John B. Nelson]

Gert, the HD Down-Conv is OFF.

The AV-> DV is OFF.

I don't know if this matters but when you go into the submenu of TIMECODE and look at the setting for HDV/DV IN (that is what flashes on the camera screen when I plug the camera into the puter) the setting (which is default I assume) is REGEN as opposed to the alternate setting of COPY.

When I told the Canon folks that the HDV/DV IN was blinking, they said it was a connection problem. Well I knew that wasn't the case because it works when I use the box, but I did purchase another cable anyway, the Canon one, so I don't think it's a connection issue.

-John

[Chris Soucy]

Give this a shot:

http://www.versiontracker.com/subscr...FSm3hgod8COyzg

Don't know if it works but hey, nothing ventured...........

CS

[Chris Soucy]

except this one, and it may be a non starter depending on how much pain you're prepared to experience to get the gain.

As you've got an A1 and will, no doubt, be shooting HEAPS of stuff - consider this.

Get yourself an external hard drive - Lacie, Maxtor whatever (preferably BOTH USB and Firewire - the Maxtors used to be, don't know about the latest ones) big enough to not only back up your existing system in it's entirety, but to act as a "video repositry" when you get this sorted.

Back up your system (most of these drives come with backup software) and re - load Vista from scratch, then re - load YOUR stuff. Make sure that when you re - load Vista, that the camera is connected and powered up in VCR mode when that last fatal re - boot happens.

I realise this sounds like an awefull lot of sodding about but I really can't think of an alternative. It does have the advantage (or up side, depending on your point of view) that you can shift downloaded video off your hard drive(s) to make room for more downloads. This gives HEAPS more versatility when editing as you don't have to keep buggering around with tapes. You can ever download directly to the external drive if required, which saves a bit of mucking about.

I know it's no "quick fix" but unless someone comes along with a "magic bullet" there seems to be NO quick fix on your system.

However, as I said, this depends on the amount of pain you're prepared to go through to get there - on top of the shed loads you've already experienced.

I feel your pain - been there, done that, in spades.

Give it some thought.

CS

[Marc Campbell]

Occasionally neither one of my computers will recognize that my A1 is attached. No amount of unplugging, replugging, powering up or down will get the computer to see the camera via the firewire. What I stumbled on was rotating the selector dial past VCR/Play to Ext Cont. The computer then sees the camera. Then rotate the dial back to VCR/Play and all is well in my world again. Might be worth a shot?

[John B. Nelson]

Turning the dial to External Control is what brought this problem on to begin with. It tried to install a new driver, which does not exist.. and in doing so deleted whatever driver it installed previously.

I did find some other messages on other forums describing the same problem I am having and for some your suggestion worked for them.. but in my case no matter what setting I turn the dial to, the computer does not see the A1.

On ocassion I experience problems when I connect my wireless mouse to the laptop.. and I have to switch USB ports for it to recognize it. I'm pretty sure if I had another firewire port available that would solve the problem, but unfortantly I only have 1 port.

-John

[John B. Nelson]

Thanks for your help and suggestions. You're a good man. Thanks to everyone that tried to help me with this.

Chris, if I'm going to do something that drastic it will be reformatting the HDD and installing XP. I really have no use for Vista, its nothing but trouble.

I do have a few options left.. 1: Microsoft told me to call them back if the hotfix didn't work, which it didn't.. but that wil probally mean being on the phone with them for hours. Me personally, I would rather be outside shooting video with my A1. My second option would be to call someone like the Geek Squad and have them deal with it. Problem with that is, the closest Geek.. hehe.. is about 2.5 hours away so I don't know if they will travel that far.

But in the meantime I can still use the box and capture video so I think I will give it a rest for awhile.

Thanks again for all your help.

-John

Oh, BTW... I liked your idea about getting an external HD.. that is something I was thinking about doing eventually. I need to do some more research on that....

[Chris Soucy]

Hey, keep us posted, I'd like to hear that this sorry saga has a happy ending, sometime!

CS

PS. Happy shooting!

[Gert Kracht]

Installing XP was my last solution for your problem.
I was curious about your experiences with Vista.
Many people have problems with Vista. It seems that CS2 also has problems with functioning in Vista. With CS3 that problem should be solved.

I think when your XP system is running ok, you have to wait until the end of this year. Most of the drivers will be ok then and much of all software will be fully compatible with Vista then.

You might consider to use the 64 Bit version of Vista then. I heard Sony is releasing Vegas 64 bit around that period.

For now I also stick to XP because many of my programs refuse to work with Vista.

Good luck!

Gert