Promblem Using Panasonic HD1200A in Final Cut

I rented a Panasonic HD1200A deck to load DVC ProHD material that I'm using in a documentary. I've used the deck successfully before on the same computer I'm using now.

This time, every time I go into log and capture, FCP gives me an error message saying it is unable to initialize the deck. All audio/video settings and capture settings are correct. I've changed firewire cables, switched ports, and finally switched computers, but the same problem continues. On the second computer, we found that if the deck was connected to the computer, the computer did not recognize our external firewire lacie drive. When we disconnected the deck, the drive appeared.

Both computers are dual 2.5 G5s with 1 GB RAM running FCP 5.1. If anyone has any ideas about why this might be happening, I'd appreciate it. Thanks,

Todd