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Can't import video through Firewire - Computer freezes

Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 12:41 pm
by harrouet
Dear all,

At first thanks to all this community for being alive and kicking. I have been reading this forum for a while and read very interesting things.

I am now part of the minority who is having a problem with a T60 (P/N 2613-EAU, ATI x1400, 1 GB RAM, 40GB 7200rpm). :(

I am trying to import movies into my T60 for editing through a TrendNet Firewire CardBus adapter (Part number TFW-H2PC), and from a Canon DV camcorder (part number MV880X).

I am not trying to start a flame war but this works fine on a Dell laptop computer under Win XP SP2. This is to say that we can rule out a hardware issue from the Firewire card or the camcorder.

However, on my T60, the computer hangs as soon as I am trying to import the video. More precisely, the computer recognizes the Firewire card and the DV camera correctly, as I am able to fast forward the camera or stop the tape from the computer. However, whenever I try to record the video on the hard drive or just play it to preview it, the computer hangs.

There is no blue screen involved: the screen literally freezes and neither the mouse nor the keyboard has any effect on the computer anymore.

This happens in both Intervideo's WinDVD Creator or Windows Movie Maker, so the issue in not in the application software.

I am using the IBM/Lenovo Preload hard drive image with only MS Office added, so no fancy things here.

Please help. What could hang the computer in such a brutal way for such a simple thing as a movie transfer?

I am naturally at your disposal to provide you with any further information if need be.

Regards,
Jean-David Harrouet

Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:51 pm
by GomJabbar
Since I have not worked with what you are attempting, I will just give a few random shots in the dark that you can try if you like.

Go to Start > Run, and type dxdiag in the text box, then click on OK to run DirectX diagnostics.

Try turning off Hardware Acceleration on your graphics adapter. Right-click on an open area of your desktop and choose Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot tab (at least this is where it is located for my ATI adapter).

Try importing into Windows Media Player (not movie maker) and see what happens.

Defragment your hard drive. Go to My Computer and right-click on C: drive, choose Properties > Tools > Defragmentation. Also make sure you have plenty of hard drive space available for the imported file.

While in My Computer, see if there is a drive letter associated with your camera. If so, try and copy the file from your camera to your hard drive. After the file is copied, then try to play the file from your hard drive.

While in My Computer, right-click on your optical drive and choose Properties > DLA, and uncheck box to: Enable DLA on your drives.

Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:55 pm
by steveg47
This forum link has good info on Firewire issues.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=firewire

Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 2:04 pm
by smugiri
Another shot in the dark: try this import utility to pull video from the camera to the card. I had similar issues that disappeared when I tried a combination of stuff including using this utility rather than the standard camcorder tools so I was never really certain which change fixed the problem.

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:24 am
by Turboqueef
steveg47 wrote:This forum link has good info on Firewire issues.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... t=firewire
I had the same problem and it went away when I purchased the Adaptec DuoConnect AUA-1422 PCMCIA from COMP USA.