Are you capturing from a DV camcorder or using an analog -> DV converter of some sort? If you're using a converter, you probably have the preference to Enable DV Device Control turned on. This usually causes the capture to stop after 2 to 3 seconds every time.

There is also an option under Preferences / Capture for maximum capture time. Make sure this is set to longer than the amount you want to capture or disabled.

I am capturing from my dv camera using firewire. I am using xp. I have never used moviemaker but I will give it a go and I will check my preferences. I was also curios where do I go to change my option of what harddrive I want to save files to when I am done. I have a 300 GB external and 2 internal harddrives.

Dropped Frames VASST FAQ

i followed those instructions and what it said is device 0 is set to DMA if available and current mode is PIO mode then it says device 1 is set to DMA if available and current setting is ULTRA DMA MODE 5. I see that one of them said PIO mode but I didn't see how to change it. does this mean I don't have a DMA setting there. what do I do? Appreciate that link. that is awesome.

device 0 is set to DMA if available and current mode is PIO mode

Since device 0 is usually your boot drive (the C: drive) and device 1 is often (although not always) your DVD drive/burner. If device 0 is PIO, then you will drop frames, and the computer performance will be absolutely awful. The bad news is that your computer is really screwed up. The good news is that once you get this fixed, you will notice a huge difference in performance, not to mention that you will be able to capture video without dropping frames. I wrote that FAQ, and as I said at the beginning, the only acceptable number of dropped frames (when capturing DV) is zero.

If you have a Dell computer, you must change DMA through the Intel software, not through the Control Panel. The software is called the Intel Application Accelerator. If you cannot find it on your Start menu, then you will find an Intel folder in your Program Files folder, and you can navigate to the EXE file from there and start the application.

Once started, click on the "+" mark next to the "Primary Channel," and then click on the Master drive. In the right pane, you will see various settings, most of which you cannot change. The only one that you can change that relates to your problem is the "Transfer Mode Limit" parameter. That should be set to "No Limit."

If you don't have a Dell, you should be able to change the DMA mode in the Control Panel, where you obviously were looking. If not, perhaps there is a cable problem or something else.

thanks for all the help, i don't have a dell though. I have a computer a friend of mine put together for me. I am trying to figure out right now exactly what i have in this computer. I guess this wasn't such a good idea after all. Lesson learned i guess. How would i find out what the problem is if it won't let me change the setting. I appreciate all the help considering it is free. I am really anxious about getting started. I am doing a demo for a friend of mine who builds guitars and we are going to put it up on his website so people can see what goes on in his shop. Some shots of him building and guitars he has finished etc......... The website is neddguitars.com if anyone likes guitars he does awesome custom work. Thanks again.

I don't know how much more help I can provide. It is possible, if the disk drive is really small (like 200 megabytes or less), that is old enough to not support DMA. It is also possible that he used a cable that doesn't match your disk drive and motherboard (there is a 40pin and an 80pin cable, although I'm not sure if using the wrong one would invalidate DMA).

As always, rather than ask questions here, Google is your friend:

DMA PIO Answers

You definitely need to fix this. Your computer will never edit video without this fix, and it will be dog-slow.