Ok, so I have an Inspiron 9100 with a firewire port. I have a 5 year old Canon ZR85 MiniDV camcorder. A couple of years ago, I connected via firewire between my Canon and the computer (running xp), the computer saw the Canon and allowed me to download my videos from the dv tapes.

Last night I noticed I had built up quite a collection of tapes again, so I start the computer (now running Windows 7) and connect the ZR85 via firewire, I get nothing (the computer never sees the device.)
I try everything I can think of as far as starting things in different order, letting the movie play, turning the camera on and off, rebooting the computer, etc; still nothing.
So I check the Windows 7 site. It says the ZR85 is compatible so should be no problem. I check the Canon site, it says should be compatible and no new drivers available, I switch out firewire cables. I check the device manager on my computer and it says the firewire port is working correctly. I check for new drivers for the port, it says they are up to date.
So basically I figure it must be the port on the camcorder?