OK, I’m sure this is a common problem and I’m no Windows 10 expert, but some notes on making a computer work that is trying to use an older camcorder with Firewire:
- Make sure you have taken the updates. Windows 10 has lots of them. I can’t actually remember where I found the automatic Windows update screen, but you want to turn it on.
- Go to Control Panel/Security and Maintenance and turn on Network Firewall, Virus Protection, Spyware and unwanted software protection,
- Make sure you take the nVidia updates.
- Older computers back then didn’t have Wifi, so just get a USB Wifi adapter
- Run Windows Update Advisor. This seems to do the major version updates. And it is where I ran into problems.
Windows Update Problems
- Error Oxc1900208. Wow, I have not used Windows in a while, but to get a huge hexadecimal number on something like the Windows 10 Creator Update. That’s quite a strange thing in the 21st century. The translation by the way is that some application is incompatible. No one seems to know how to figure out which application it is on the entire Internet. But there is some who think you can find it at
c:/windows/panther
 and look for xml files. These files seem to work last year, but not in 2017. Basically, the advice is just remove antivirus if you have it and pray - Confusion between Windows Update and the Windows Update Advisor. Apparently, there are two update mechanisms, if you go to Window menu on the lower left and right click, you can eventually find the Windows Update manager (man does Windows have lots of ways to do the same thing).
- Right now Windows Update is working but not the Windows Upgrade Advisor. Argh! It did try to run the installer once and complained about an application that is not actually installed (called DeepFreeze), so ugh, what’s a person to do.
The second issue is that Windows 10 does not really support Firewire/1394 anymore. According to Studio Productions, the fix is to install the Windows 8.x legacy driver on Windows 10. (Boy does that sound scary!):
- Down the .msi file and right click and install it.
- At least on Windows 10, the information (designed for Windows 8.x) is wrong, the .inf file lives in
c:\program files (x86)\1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)\x74_driver
 and you right click onLegacy1394
 labeled as Setup Information. - Then Right click on the Windows Icon, choose Device Manager and to to
IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers
 and right click select install/find the drivers/look for myself and then selectIEEE 1394 Bus host controller (legacy)
 The default is a driver that doesn’t work properly. So this can get reset.