All I can hope for you is that your problem is restricted to your firewire card alone.

I've had the same experience with the 1394 card failing both with and without (two separate occasions) the card fault taking the camcorder and any subsequent device connected to it down along with it.

Once upon a time even the hot disconnection of a printer (parallel/centronics/IEEE1294) port was frowned on. Peripherals were always powered on first. Forget this though as this was before ports were protected by anything more than a simple diode (a signal diode). The world moved on and opto-isolation (signals that went via led and led-detectors) or self-resetting switches (polyswitches/PPTCs) was the order of the day.

I've used a powered firewire hub and had the catastrophic failure mentioned above. I assumed that this would have isolated the power and, given that these hubs don't come cheap, I also assumed that the necessary port protection would be in place.

Fundamentally we all want the next big things in our hands for cheaper than the predecessor. So almost from the first DV camcorders to the most recent and many host adapters too we have insufficient protection in far too many common examples. It burned Apple in their early days with FireWire onboard.

Now, I'm not saying that firewire is somehow a dreadful bus for blowing up on you. However it can't just be from size constraints alone that the 4pin 1394 port has become popular through. I mean, USB2 mini-B connectors still have all the pins present. The difference between 1394 4pin and 6pin is whether power can be tapped off. Now, making power available is all very well if everyone has the same reference for ground or zero-volts. This unfortunately varies a lot with portable equipment especially when it connects to various desktop PC hardware that is plugged into the main supply. When you connect, there can be quite a hostile set of events for the semiconductor to have to handle. Hence the need for thermal fuses, or ideally - self resetting fuses.

Belarc wouldn't detect a port failure as the software side of a 1394 port never asks for a transmission side of a port to be looped back to the receive side electronically or by a relay-clamp. This isn't a provision of the port standard.

So do be cautious about what you plug in to that port next. Or at least, make sure you have accidental grade insurance or a very flexible 'silver service' warranty.

Some 1394 adapters take a molex (hard drive style) power connector to push out power. This probably only protects your PC. Quality cables are also imperative for firewire when there is no inherent protection.

Otherwise, you might be needing to have your signal diodes replaced. A plug-in card isn't too much of a problem at the prices they are available for, but the GV-D1000 would be an expensive repair - especially if out of warranty.

From where I am, this is another good reason for tape to die.

If you google for '1394 polyswitch' you'll see more scaremongering.
Apple has had polyswitches installed on everything after G4 and PowerBook G4 afaik.

If it is just the card, replace the card. TI chipsets are usually good from a driver perspective and ADS have a good reputation generally (and are often seen to use TI chipsets too).

Gigabit ethernet is a more common modern PC interface to find and would in fact suit point-to-point transfers from a camcorder. Especially HDV MPEG-2 transport streams. But who am I to tell a manufacturer to drop this interface that has risks involved yet is known as a plug-n-play resource?

I'd say the reason why it quit was because of an unusual amount of in-rush current into one end, presumably the PC end and this killed the port's data side. A 2cent diode has probably failed but you'll probably be happier to scrap the card entirely as dead.

GODDD, I wish I had your know-how! Where did you go to school? What courses did you take?

Well, I plugged the camera in...same thing...nothing. So it's not the Sony GV-D1000 (Thank God) Vegas saw a webcam I plugged in and even my trusty Roxio Media Creator did not connect. So it must be the card. And if Belarc acts the way you say it does, then who know what else is catching a cold? I priced cards at New Egg (They only carry ONE Firewire card) and it's only 34 bucks. So.....

I would love to study computer hardware.

Studying computer hardware is great - just don't expect to make a living from designing it -- very difficult to do these days, at least in the U.S.

Regards,
Paul (20+ years as an EE, and one of the few remaining from the herd)

When you tried the webcam did you use the same cable you
used with the camera? Could it be bad instead?

You could do a Windows system restore to before you tried the webcam.

Buy a new firewire card, use premium cables and keep your insurance for accidental damage or extended warranty up to date. Then continue as if you never read my tale of woe. I had no issues for many years and I've rarely seen firewire faults reported here either.

IMHO there ought to be an adapter to offer transient protection on your firewire ports (at each end). I thought of the idea of 'designing' a flexi circuit to fit on a 'shunt' or 'pad' that would offer a better mechanical connection with a camcorder or deck than the very rigid 4 pin cables we have today. I would have used polyswitches as self-resetting fuse protection on the data lines.

Trouble is, you'd only buy one after you'd had a catastrophic fault. Not unlike surge protecting your phone/xDSL/ISDN/switch56 lines into your home/office (or using those similar functions offered on many small uninterruptible power supplies).

It would be a good idea to swap the cable out if you are indeed using a different one on the machine with the fault.

If you've got multiple firewire sockets presented then moving sockets may still not help as firewire uses a common bus and the chances are you've blown the transmit or receive direction for that entire bus somewhere closer to the IC controller itself. The controller seems OK as you mentioned that Belarc could see it was present and responding.

If it is truly the card, replace it and get yourself back to where you were. Firewire isn't going away overnight. Yet the more we use MPEG-2 for recording (and MPEG4/AVC/VC1) then the more likely we'll have either flash memory, removable drives or USB2 connectivity. USB2 has many inferior characteristics but I've yet to experience a blown port or device. Just higher CPU utilization in general (for the same type of transfer).

Education wise, I've a college diploma in General Engineering and a university degree (pass grade) in Communication Engineering (EE with a datacoms/ slight broadcasting bias) from Plymouth, Devon. For me, Videography and computers in general are more of a prolonged hobby than the result of formal education. The disciplines are of course very much intertwined as technology. Indeed, there is generally no money in 'hardware'. At least rarely for the designer himself. So I work in the service sector. :-)