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VIA Firewire card and other problems
I recently bought a second hand Dell Inspiron 6000 with WINXP Media Center Edition 2005 notebook that I have loaded with Adobe Premiere CS3 (free trial download). I have a Zonet firewire card with a VIA chipset. At one point I had Premiere up and running but only able to capture DV (no HDV option appeared in capture settings). I subsequently had problems getting Premiere to load and have not been able to get it to load since. Also, now when I simply plug in the firewire card
WITHOUT the camcorder (Canon hv20) connected the computer freezes (with no response to keyboard or mouse).
Based on my experience I suspect replacing the firewire card and reloading the OS might solve my problems but I would like to get some input from some experts.Questions:
1. Does the trial version of Adobe Premiere actually have HDV enabled?
2. Should I get rid of the Zonet firewire card? And get what?
Adobe website isn’t specific about firewire cards.3. Is it possible to load an “off the shelf” store bought copy of Windows XP on a Dell computer instead of using the OS and driver discs that come from Dell? (I don’t have the Dell discs). I’m reluctant to order the Dell OS discs and leary of all the crap that gets loaded with the Dell software.
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9 Replies
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1.Capturing HDV must be done within an HDV project. Also the camera must be set to HDV Out and not HDV downconvert. If you have HDV project presets you should be able to capture HDV.
2. Check Device Manager and expand IEEE 1394… Whatever is listed there should have OHCI in its name, and no yellow!!!
3. An off the shelf Windows XP disc will work just fine, but you will probably need to search for a driver or 2.
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[Scott Jensen] “3. Is it possible to load an “off the shelf” store bought copy of Windows XP on a Dell computer instead of using the OS and driver discs that come from Dell?”
Yes, Just goto dell and download the proper drivers for the system, a clean install is the best way to go, media center unless a clean load can be a pita, plus if you try to get rid of some add-on functions they sometimes repair themselves, people who load entertainment laptops assume the buyers aren’t too bright -
When I insert the firewire card, a “found new hardware” window appears claiming “VIA OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 host controller”.
In device manager an icon appears after inserting the card claiming OHCI but with the dreaded yellow exclamation mark. Soon thereafter computer locks up.
For what its worth this notebook has a built-in firewire port but its 4 pin (doesn’t match my cable). It shows working in Device manager. I tried to disable it (the built in firewire port) thinking it might be conflicting with my PCMCIA firewire card but no luck.
Suggestions?
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o.k. thanks Blast. The driver file sizes and sheer number of files on the Dell website are kind of daunting. I think I’ll wait for the OS discs to arrive via snail mail. None of the filenames and descriptions really seem to refer to the specific firewire 1394 problem I’m having.
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According to the other post you just made you have a onboard fire port, why don’t you get the proper firewire cable, if going to a camcorder get a 4pin to 4pin, or a six pin to 4 pin adapter.
With the VIA adapter did you install from a disk or let xp load its own drivers? -
Do you have XP SP2 installed? I think that’s necessary for HDV camera driver support.
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Yes. Winxp sp2 media center edition 2005.
I suspect my OS is corrupted based on various other quirkiness. I ran Registry Mechanic from PCTOOLS.com and it found 300+ problems and repaired only half of them. I hope a fresh OS install (ordered replacement OS discs from Dell today) will solve my problems.
Thanks for the input. -
[Blast1] “According to the other post you just made you have a onboard fire port, why don’t you get the proper firewire cable”
Extra cost of $30 for a cable.
Besides I really suspect a fresh OS ($10.99 from Dell) install will solve the problems. Also I’ve read on a review site this model having problems with the built in firewire port. Not sure my VIA chipset firewire card is better. I might eventually have to upgrade to a non VIA chipset card, but I’ll first see if the fresh OS install solves the problem(s).
[Blast1] “With the VIA adapter did you install from a disk or let xp load its own drivers?”
oddly there was no disc included with my firewire card so I let XP load the drivers.
Thanks for your help!
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[Scott Jensen] “Extra cost of $30 for a cable.”
You can find 4 to 4 cables on the net for under $4, it helps to have a couple around
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