New Lenove (IBM Thinkpad) T60P laptop, Windows XP (SP2), 2 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, ATI FireGL V5200 video card and DVD recordable drive with all the latest system updates and drivers. Connecting the Sony DCR-PC100 MiniDV camcorder through a removable IEEE 1394 PCIMICA Firewire card. The camcorder is recognized and can be operated by the computer, but trying to view, capture or transfer video (using Windows Movive Maker or InterVideo DVD Creator 3 Platinum) freezes the computer requiring a hard reboot.

Any ideas on what to check? Is there any possibility of a software(?) problem with the Sony itself? Are likely hardware suspects the removable PC firewire connection card, the internal PCI card, the motherboard or the video card (all new and all running the latest drivers and firmware)?