Another, more expensive test would be to purchase an external hard drive with a Firewire interface (not just USB). It seems that the port on your computer is running fine though and that the issue lies with the camera or the cable. But, the drive would help verify that the Firewire port is indeed working.
Yeah thought about that mate and would have bought a firewire drive but I already have 3 and their all usb :-( Dont think there is any gadgets I need that need firewire. Might take my cam into a computer store and say i wanna buy a laptop but i need to try out my camera on it first. That will prove that it is cam/ lead prob. Never know they might break out a new cable to eliminate that. Bit sneaky though lol