Windows 7 wont see Z5

[Gerald Webb]

Hi guys, really thought this was a thing of the past, but, its back...
Windows 7 64bit,SP1 I cant get the Z5 to be recognized at all,
In device manager, the firewire is there, even tried changing to the Legacy driver. But no Z5 in Sound Video and Game controllers.
Tried the Firewire port with a Lacie firewire hard drive, all is ok there.
Just tried my HV20 and its the same, doesn't even register in Device Manager.
Tried all the alternate settings in the Z5 menu to no avail, but I know for sure the HV20 hasnt had the menu played with since the last time it was used and captured from.
Its a new PC, P9X79 Asus board, 3930k i7...
Come to think of it, I used to have an MSI Mobo on my old PC that would never ever capture in 64bit Windows, Vista or 7, had to dual boot into XP to do my captures, then when I changed to my Gigabyte board all was good.
Might quickly install 32 bit 7 on another drive and see if it'll work on that....
any ideas or thoughts greatly appreciated

[Leslie Wand]

as a temp measure use hdvsplit.

presume you're using legacy drivers, and checked cable.....

[Gerald Webb]

Thanks Leslie,
Would HDV split be any different if the cam/s arnt even showing up to Windows though?
Installed 32bit Windows 7 last night and both cams dont show up in that either, sigh of relief though that there prob isnt anything wrong with the Z5 since the HV20 is behaving exactly the same.
Do cables fail often? That seems to be the next logical thing to eliminate.
This is a massive timewaster.

[Leslie Wand]

well, i'd first check the cable - i usually have at least two to hand and one unused new one at any one time. seems the cheaper the cable the flakier they are (and the ones usually supplied with cameras are cheap ones!).

i'd dl hdvsplit anyway - many people consider it a better option than the capture utility in vegas. i've used both, and they both capture my material ;-)

yes, things like this make one very angry and despondent...

[Gerald Webb]

Leslie, just out of interest, before I waste any more time on this. I just ordered a Mrc1, If i'm going to use the Mrc1 only, do I need to resolve this?
I have a usb3 card reader which I was going to transfer the CF card files with, and if I want to record to tape and card, and the card fails for whatever reason, I can still capture the tape via HDMI out of cam directly to Cineform or MXF.
Is my logic correct?
Still annoying not knowing why :(

[Leslie Wand]

i still use tape when i shoot, but basically only for b'kup. i use a sandisk firewire cf reader, but your usb3 or my firewire are plenty fast - no more making coffee while the files transfer....

i've never actually gone back to a tape - i use sandisk extreme 16gb cards, and bought an adata 32gb card a few months ago which has proved fine (about a 1/3rd the price of the 16gb sandisk!)

i see nothing wrong with your logic - can you record via hdmi? i have a bm intensity card card which will, but i wasn't aware 'regular' onboard hdmi would?

try a new cable and hdvsplit as well, one's a few dollars, the other free ;-)

[Gerald Webb]

thanks again Leslie,
I just grabbed a cpl of those Adata 32gb cards, they are a bargain.
I have an Intensity as well :)
Seems like it is an issue with the motherboard inbuilt Firewire.
I'll write this out for people Googling in the future.
Asus P9X79 motherboard confirmed to have no Firewire capture from Sony Z5 and Canon HV20 video cameras (both confirmed working 100% with same Firewire cable on another PC and Mac.
On the Asus board I tried Windows 7 64bit, Windows 7 32 bit, and even an install of XP Pro SP3.
All 3 Operating systems cannot even see the Cameras in Device Manager (Legacy drivers were tried as well).
But,
The same Firewire port performs ok with a Lacie External hard drive.

If anyone can suggest a fix or even a hint of a reason for this please speak up.

[Leslie Wand]

i suspect it's the onboard firewire - get a cheap pci card and give it a whirl....