Is this normal?

[peggig]

OK, I upgraded to Windows 7, 64-bit, but now my firewire doesn't work and I can't upload video files from my camera (Canon HV40) to my computer. At first, I thought it was a compatibility problem with PRE7, but then I tried uploading the HDV files using HDVSplit, and it also didn't recognize that there was a camcorder connected.

I Googled "firewire Windows 7" and found a number of posts where people had the same problem, and solved it by going into Device Manager and changing their firewire driver to the one labeled "Legacy." However, I tried that, and rebooted, and I still can't get either PRE7 or HDVSplit to recognize there's a camcorder connected.

Does anybody have any suggestions? After spending two days installing Windows 7 64-bit, and all the updates, and then reinstalling all my software, I'd hate to have to go back to Vista and do it all over again just to be able to upload video files.

Help! =:[]

[Peru]

Did you try a different firewire cable?

[Dave McElderry]

Did your firewire port come built into the computer originally, or did you add a firewire card after the fact?

[peggig]

Peru, the firewire cable was working fine up until I upgraded to Windows 7, so I don't think the cable is the problem.

Dave, my computer didn't come with a firewire card, so I had to buy one and install it.

[Chuck Engels]

Do you know the manufacturer and model of the firewire card?

[Dave McElderry]

Yep, that would be my first suspicion. The card may not be compatible with Win 7-64, or it may need an updated driver. If you can provide a make and model one of us may be able to help. If not, you may need to replace it with one that specifically is made to work with Win 7-64.

[peggig]

I don't recall the make and model. I purchased it about three and a half years ago from a local shop.

I wasn't aware that there are firewire cards specifically made to work with Win7-64. It sounds very likely that that's the problem, though. How can you tell if a firewire card is compatible with Win7-64? Does the cable have to be specifically made to work with Win7-64, too, or can I replace the card and use the same cable?

If possible, I'd like to buy it/them locally, so I don't have to wait. I shot some video footage yesterday at a mining camp where you have to go in by helicopter. Someone else there had a camera with an underwater housing, and shot some underwater footage that I'd like to use in my documentary. But his camera is AVCHD and mine is HDV, so I'll have to down-convert both of them to standard definition so I can import them into the same project in PRE7. He's flying out of the mining camp tomorrow and then heading up north, but he offered to stop by tomorrow afternoon and let me upload his footage. That's my only window of opportunity to get this footage, so I need to get a working firewire card tomorrow, if at all possible.

What should I look for that will let me know the card/cable is/are compatible with Win7-64?

And thank you for your help!

[Dave McElderry]

It's not the cable - it's the operating systems that the card supports. When you go shopping just look for that spec on the box. If it just says Windows 7, without specifying 32 or 64 bit, you should be okay. But on the off chance that you'd find one that just says Windows 7-32 bit, I'd be wary. Most newer cards will be backwards compatible so it will likely say that it will work with XP, Vista, and Win 7, for example.

[peggig]

Thank you, Dave.

I looked up the receipt for the card I have. (I thought I'd purchased it locally, but I actually ordered it from NewEgg.) It's listed on the receipt as "SYBA PCI to Firewire 1394a 3+1 ports controller card Model SD-NEC-4F". I just looked it up on the SYBA Web site, hoping I could dowload a driver upgrade, but it says it's compatible with "MS Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP/Vista/7" and "No driver needed." So it seems like it should work, but it doesn't.

Does anybody have any other suggestions?

[Dave McElderry]

Well I'm glad you found the info before you went out and purchased another card. It's hard to imagine that you had a cable or card failure to coincide exactly with the Win 7 upgrade, so at this point I'm at a loss to help. What you might try is to shut the machine down, uninstall the card, boot the machine up without the card in it, shut the machine down, reinstall the card, and boot back up. The machine will see the card as a new device and install appropriately.

[Dave McElderry]

This may seem silly, but it's worth asking - are you sure you've got your camera in the right mode for capture? I know that mine needs to be in the play mode before it will be recognized.

[Chuck Engels]

Without having to actually pull the card out of the machine you can simply disable it, that will provide the same results.
Windows should reinstall the card when you restart the machine, that might be all you need.

Here are some instructions on how to disable hardware in Windows 7
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ ... dows-7.htm

[Dave McElderry]

Without having to actually pull the card out of the machine you can simply disable it, that will provide the same results.
Windows should reinstall the card when you restart the machine, that might be all you need.

Well, maybe. The whole point here is to make Windows see the card as a completely new device and reinstall it. I'm not sure that disabling and reenabling it will do that.

[Chuck Engels]

It might not work Dave, but it is worth a try rather than going through actually pulling the card.
I've had this work many times with Windows XP and various devices. It does actually reinstall the card and the driver so there is a good chance that it will work as well as actually pulling the card out of the machine.

[Dave McElderry]

It might not work Dave, but it is worth a try rather than going through actually pulling the card.
I've had this work many times with Windows XP and various devices. It does actually reinstall the card and the driver so there is a good chance that it will work as well as actually pulling the card out of the machine.

Okay, I've always been under the impression that disable and enable was like turning the device off and on so that it was not active, but the driver was still installed. I'm with you though - whatever gets the job done with the least amount of trouble. It would be great if peggig got this working before running out of time.