You say Windows doesn't detect it: is there nothing present in Device Manager? Does a bubble not come up on the screen saying 'new hardware detected' when you attach it/switch it on? If those reveal nothing, it may be as well to start eliminating stuff - like, can you borrow another Firewire cable? - it's not unknown for cheap ones to be faulty. Can you borrow another camera - see if there's an issue with the camera? After that, I'm all out of ideas... :(

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