Video transfer problem

I have a 2007 Latitude D630, running Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2, 2.4 Ghz Intel processor. Every time I try to transfer video through a firewire from my Sony HDR HC3 camera the computer freezes up. I have used both Windows Movie maker software and Vegas software, happens every time with both. My wife has the exact same computer, happens every time with hers as well. When I hook up the same camera/firewire to my much less powerful 2002 Dell Dimension 8200 desktop everything works fine (again using Windows movie maker). So I'm convinced it's a fundamental problem with the computer and not the camera or cable or video editing software. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated. PS, I'm not very computer savvy so the more basic the better, thanks!

 

Same OS on the desktop? Stuff like this can be really hard to track down, from actual hardware issues, to just a simple driver problem.

First thing I would do is try to do it in safe mode or something see if its some laptop software running in the background thats causing a conflict (esp if it has a built in webcam)

 

I read a thread here with the same problem as yours. Try searching for "Firewire sound card". It had something to do with the sound card.

 

Silas, thanks very much for your advice. I found the thread. It's titled "Firewire issue affecting all the Dell Core Duo notebooks". After disabling both my CD/DVD drive and wireless card everything works fine. A pain, but at least it works.