Panasonic PV-GS120 won't connect to IEEE- card via firewire... omg plz help me

I originally purchased my PV-GS120 a few years back. However, I was never able to get it to connect to any pc.

Fast forward to present day and my friend, thinking it worked, used it to video a wedding. Now I desperately need the minidv cassette video to be transferred to my pc.

Nothing works... no matter what I do, the camera just won't pop up on the computer. There appears to be no connection.

I have tried troubleshooting this at length using the legacy driver solution provided by Microsoft and several other drivers. I don't think it's because of windows updates either. I tried rolling back and checking the update history for anything related but no luck. Worth noting this camera wouldn't connect via firewire even years ago on a Windows 7 machine.

My pc has a standard IEEE 1394 card that has 2 female firewire ports and 2 usb ports, with 1 more of each on the side. I don't think it's the issue since I can access it ok in device manager and it's responsive.

I've tried several different firewire cables including brand new ones.

I've tinkered with the camera settings and reset it.

I'm at a loss. There is no cheap solution other than buying a new ieee card, but I have no guarantee that will work. I can't afford to buy a second-hand mindv camera just to upload video.

Please help with any suggestions or experience you may have. Thank you so very much!

EDIT: I tried a different legacy driver and the camcorder is now listed on the 'Bluetooth & Other Devices' settings tab. Yay! So my pc can 'see' it. But now I need a transfer app that recognizes it :( the original software was HD Writer, then Windows Essentials - Movie Maker after that. All discontinued. Looking for a replacement app now...

EDIT2: If anyone finds this and has the same problem with an older Panasonic camcorder firewire connection, my advice is this...

1 - make sure you have legacy host controller driver for your ieee card (i used "1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)")

2 - forget Panasonic support, it won't help

3 - make sure you are using a SD card (not sdhc) that is less than 1gb or even smaller (older readers cant deal with modern high capacities, mine only accepts 256mb) - CARD ERROR and CHECK CARD warnings even after using the camcorder to format the card indicate this

4 - for video capture from the cassette, connect firewire to pc and make sure dial is set to video play (green triangle) and not sd card options or video record (which is for making it a webcam)

5- Use Adobe Premiere for capture!

6 - you may have to reset the camcorder - it's the tiny button on right side cassette door

7 - serial number is hidden behind battery but don't bother with any driver download site that asks for it, it won't help

8 - check 'bluetooth and other devices' if camcorder not appearing... may show there if not on 'devices and printers'

9 - working driver for actual camcorder (in Computer Management) is from 2006 (10.0.15063.0) under 'imaging devices'

10 - You really need to have the right usb driver installed before you plug in the usb cable. Get it here, last on the list - this link has some other program options in case Premiere doesn't work or you want to try.. be warned though I tried most of these, and the ones that were able to install at all couldn't recognize the camcorder

11 - if you see "DV __" mysteriously appearing in your device manager, you may not have the right usb drivers yet