Service Pack 3 Glitch Kills Video Capture

After installing Windows XP SP3 my camcorder was no longer recognized when I plugged in the Firewire cable. No matter what I tried it wouldn’t allow me to capture video.

Turns out there’s a glitch in the IEE1394 driver you get with Microsoft’s service pack that is well documented. However, the fix isn’t that easy to find.

Fortunately it’s quick and simple.

If you roll back the OHCI1394.sys file to the SP2 version you’ll be able to capture video again. And this error isn’t specific to any particular brand of camera or computer- I have a JVC but we tried a Panasonic, a Sony and Canon without any better results. This also applies to other Firewire devices, like hard drives.

I was able to fix the problem by copying the OHCI1394.sys file from my Dell’s system support files (look for a folder called C:\i386). Otherwise dig out your Windows XP disk. Once you find a pre-SP3 version of the file open C:\Windows\System 32\Drivers and make a copy of your current OHCI1394.sys file. You might want to email it back to Bill later. Now copy the older version of the file into the System 32 Drivers folder and you’ll get a warning that you’re copying over a newer file. Just say “Thank you very much” and click OK.

Now restart and you should be good to go.

Abother option is uninstall SP3. That’s a more lengthy process but easily done through the Add/Remove Program section of Control Panel. Hope this helps someone else solve their video capture troubles!


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