How do you disconnect items connected via firewire? It's best to use "safely
remove hardware" rather than just turn off.
Your arguemnet that DELL makes better pc's than MS is a little odd, does
your wifes laptop run XP with SP2? If so, it's not a software problem as
such it's more of a set-up / hardware / configuration.problem.
How do you have the devices connected?
Can you list the hotifxes you've tried it'll make it easier in recommending
what else to try?


--
Graham Hughes
MVP Digital Media
www.myvideoproblems.co.uk
www.dvds2treasure.com
www.simplydv.com