Hi, does anyone have a link to a generic firewire card driver? I googled and searched here, but no luck. I have no idea what brand the firewire card is that's in my PC, as I bought it 3 years ago from Pantip in Bkk. I've downloaded the few that I could find, but they aren't working. The Xp (SP2) PC recognises the card, but won't install it, so I can't use my camcorder (MiniDV) with it. Any ideas?

Cheers.

Load windows 7 or put it in someone else's computer with vista or 7 will most likely install it and tell you what it is.

Do you have a (1) onboard Firewire chipset or (2) PCI Firewire Card.

If (1)
Try to find out the motherboard model, the brand and model is usually printed on the motherboard itself. Then google for this model. Either you can find drivers for this specific board or you find information on which Firewire chipset it uses

If (2)
Lookup the firewire chipset used on your card. Just look for the largest (usually square and flat) chip on your card. Then google for this.


When opening the computer case better detach the PC from the power source. Usually you should ground yourself before touching the insides of your PC, not sure where to do that in Thailand though with no electric grounding, heating pipes or metal water pipes in place
Just avoid touching the card and chips while examining to avoid electrostatic issues.


You could also try one of those driver packs & update utillities, but never used one before. something like this http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/0...ws-xp-computer/. Just try to make sure the program you download is trustworthy (google, check download.com, softpedia, filehippo, etc).
Most software I tested would only update software and drivers though and not identify missing drivers.

Maybe somebody knows a good tool?

welo

This post has been edited by welo: 2009-11-05 16:32:35

It's a separate card I installed into the PC a few years ago (bought from Pantip Bkk), and it used to work fine. I have XP SP2, and no internet connection to use automatic driver recognition software. I have to use a web cafe to download everything, take it home and then install it, so I cannot even update my antivrus! Last time if got infected I took it to a local shop and they cleaned it all up, but since then I've lost the driver that used to run the firewire card. The PC tells me there's a card installed (no brand) but the camcorder isn't being registered, so I'm assuming it's the driver.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.

If you have any driver for the card installed it should show up in the Device Manager (howto start Device Manager). If no driver is installed or the device is not working properly there will be a yellow exclamation mark.

You can also use this little tool to get a list of Hardware in your PC. Look for 'firewire' or 'ieee 1394' or similiar.



If the model and name are not part of the name you can use this database to look up the device from the highlighted string at the beginning. VEN_xxx is the vendor and DEV_xxx is the device.

If you tell me what you find I can try to find an updated driver for you.


If no driver is installed you should still find a 'Unknown Device' and be able to extract the vendor and device ids

source: this youtube video


Of course it might also be an issue with the camcorder, or the camcorder and this special card, or windows, or whatever

Do you have any other Firewire device that you can use to test if your Firewire card works (maybe from a friend)?

I also assume that you didn't use the Camcorder on this PC with this card before, correct?


Just be careful with all those driver update utillities around. Many of them are malware and I don't know any that would easily identify a unknown device.


You could also try to get one of those driver CDs (don't have one but I guess you could get at Panthip) and have Windows look there for an updated driver.


And again. If you can open your computer case and have a look at the printings on the card itself...


welo

Btw I recommend Avira Personal Antivirus, it is free and has pretty good detection rates, and it supports offline updates.


Download here: http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Anti...nload-6527.html

latest virus definition file (updated regularly): http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Avir...load-82517.html

Vendor page: http://www.free-av.com/en/trialpay_downloa..._antivirus.html

Tuturial how to update: http://forum.avira.com/wbb/index.php?page=...;threadid=12073

HTH
welo

welo - Many thanks for the advice, especially for the anti-virus that can be manually updated!

I did use the same PC and camcorder with this card before, as I said it was since the PC went to the local shop for disinfecting that I now have this problem. I don't have any other firewire devices to check as I only bought the card when I bought the camcorder, and it has worked fine before.

I'll take your info above home with me, check it and let you know the outcome. Cheers!

This is my card's code: PCI\VEN_0106&DEV_3044&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_46\4&25700A26&0&4020 and I tried it in the above database, but no luck so far.

I also tried to install Avira, but knowing I have to uninstall the existing one first, I came unstuck. The computer shop guy installed McAffee into my PC (unasked), and I cannot see an uninstall option anywhere. I looked in the Add/Remove Programs, Start Menu pop-up, and on the antivirus console from the icon near the clock. No uninstall option. Any ideas how I can uninstall McAffee to install Avira? Cheers.