I'll try the clean boot.  Thanks for providing that term so that I could google it. Makes sense with me having the network and everything.

I got a PCI card for my laptop, then later saw that I have firewire (4 pin) on the side of my laptop (I told you guys I wasn't that great with computers :( 

After searching message boards, a guy swears that if you use a 6 pin /4 pin firewire, you will most likely have problems because the Sony manuals (and SOME other manuals) say use only 4 pin /4 pin.  The guy said he knows it sounds silly and shouldn't matter, but he had two computers, two different operating systems, and the 4 pin / 4 pin cable solved his problem.  Strange.

So, I'm going to try a 4 pin / 4 pin firewire cable on my laptop and see if it works.  On my desktop I'll try the clean boot.  The firewire card I bought for $99 (I think) 4 years ago has 6 pin.

So that's where I am now.  We just had our toughest time of the year here at work, so I had to abandon the camera issues for a while.

I'll let you guys know how it goes, and again, appreciate all of your comments.  There are some really kind people on here.