Hv30 firewire connector not responding
 

Possible camera damage, is there any thing else that maybe causing this?
Was working this morning and now after some use, nothing. Not recognised on my pc. If the firewire cable is broke:
are there any alternatives to getting the footage captured?
Is it a big job to get fixed?

If the pc does not bong when the cam is switched on it is not recognising the cam, you could try reinstaling the software and if that does not work get a new lead.
The easiest way to prove that there is nothing wrong with the cams firewire output is to try it with some other equipment.

Try replacing the firewire cable with a new one (they are cheap), before doing anything else.

I had a $100 firewire card zap out, replaced it with a $9 one, and things are perfect--try cheap!

Try another cable and another computer. If you plugged a 6-pin cable into the machine after you plugged the 4-pin end into the cable you could have let the magic black smoke out of the camera's interface. Swapping computers and cables will tell you if that's the problem.

The most common cause of this is failing to power down both cam and computer before either connecting or disconnecting the firewire cable. Firewire is supposed to be hot swappable but in actual practice camcorders can be very sensitive and the ports in the cams get "fried".

If you take the advice to try another computer, do both of you a favor and power down both before plugging in or unplugging anything.

One employee "fried" the ports in 5 professional camcorders, one after another, trying to get one to work. Very expensive repairs on those.