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How to fix Media Center remote control if it breaks when installing IR update rollup

  • Artículo

We recently released Update Rollup 1 for eHome Infrared Receivers for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. There are some fixes in this package that may cause your Media Center remote control to stop working. Specifically, we previously allowed channels 1-8 to broadcast IR signals on, and with this package installed the remote is limited to channels 1-4. If your remote is broadcasting on channels 5-8, here is what you can do to change to a channel in the 1-4 range to allow it to start working again:

  • Hold down the “DVD Menu” button and the “1” key at the same time for 5 seconds (or the "2", "3" or "4" key if you want to have the remote broadcast on one of the other supported channels instead
  • After 5 seconds, the LED on the IR receiver should blink twice, and your remote should work correctly again.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2005
    Just curious -- there's got to be a good story behind a breaking change like that? Can you tell?

  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 24, 2005
    Hi stillopentolearn - I am very sorry to hear that you're having these problems with your Media Center machine and also having issues with customer support. I have posted a couple of additional suggestins for fixing IR receiver issues that may help here - you can find them at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/10/24/484423.aspx.

    If this doesn't work, please contact me using http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/contact.aspx and I will try to suggest some additional steps and hopefully we can get this figured out.

  • Anonymous
    December 15, 2005
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 11, 2006
    Hi, I just wanted to say thankyou for supplying the information required to get my remote control working - that is , remove the batteries, short the contacts to reset the dammed thing!
    Once again, thank you

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2006
    I recently bought wireless Microsoft Media Center keyboard/Mouse/USB transmitter. When I plugged that in my MCE2005 PC, all the media center related keys work just fine. I can't use the pointer nor use any of the regualr keys to surf the Net.

    Remote is working fine. I've downloaded rollup 2 package as well.

    Any thoughts?

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2006
    Are it posible to have two Media Center remote receivers conectet to one PC (different rooms) When I connet two only one works.
    henrik@paaske.as

  • Anonymous
    April 24, 2006
    Hi Henrik - It is not possible to have 2 different remote receivers and have them both receive the input commands.  The IR driver will only deliver the commands to the last receiver connected to the system bus.  If you need to use remotes in separate rooms, you may want to look into IR blasters or other technologies to amplify the signal to the receiver that you have plugged into your Media Center computer.  I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

  • Anonymous
    January 08, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 09, 2008
    Hi Quang777 - I'm sorry, but I don't have much experience with troubleshooting sleep/resume issues such as this.  The workarounds I know of for remote control issues are listed in the Remote Control and IR Receiver Issues section of the article at http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/articles/487537.aspx.  However, none of those issues specifically address problems that only occur after waking from sleep. I'd suggest posting a question at one of the following locations to see if anyone there can help suggest any additional workarounds: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/83/ShowForum.aspx For the video card issue, do you see this error from the OS itself or only within Media Center?  I typically suggest trying to update the drivers on the system, but it sounds like you already tried that and got pretty bad results.  It might help to search for any FAQs on the nVidia site to see if you can narrow down that issue that way.

  • Anonymous
    January 19, 2008
    Thanks Aaron for the advice. I think I figured out one of my problem with the video card. I completely uninstalled the older version and reinstalled almost the latest version of the nvidia drivers. It helped with the video error. However, I'm still perplexed with the remote issue. After some experimenting, I was able to determine that the system does still see the remote receiver (ie, it's in the device manager) and also provides power (ie, the red LED does come on when I send remote commands). So I don't think it's a USB suspend power issue. However, the only button that seems to work after a resume from a suspend, is the power button. None of the other buttons on any of my remotes, including the original Windows MCE remote work unless I do a reboot or a device manager rescan. Would a complete "clean reinstall" of the remote help? If so, how does one do that? Thanks

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2008
    Hi Quang777 - This sounds like a more general suspend/resume issue with the OS than an issue with your remote control.  It wouldn't hurt to try to re-install your remote - to do that you'd want to remove it from Device Manager and then unplug it, re-plug it in and let Windows detect the device and re-install the driver for you.  You can also try to re-install the most recent Media Center IR driver package from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b39d53f1-0ac9-433b-b488-4cab82f31dc8 (if you're running Windows XP Media Center Edition only - this driver will not work on Windows Vista). I'd also suggest posting a question at one of the forums that I posted previously to see if anyone else in the community can provide any other workarounds that might help you in this scenario.

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2008
    I got it to work. I did both steps 2 & 3 together on your recommended fixes. Thanks for the help. Now if I can only get the multi ATSC tuners to work cleanly. Sometimes the MCE seems to hang for some reason. Not sure if it's b/c it's confused which tuner to use or if it's comskip that's doing it. Thanks again.

  • Anonymous
    July 27, 2010
    Thanks for posting this. It worked perfectly.

  • Anonymous
    March 09, 2011
    Kept on trying things listed here until one worked. Ended up being the IR channel needed to be changed. Funny though, the update that supposedly causes the problem was installed years ago. I went to bed last night with it working, and this morning it would not work. Thank goodness for this site and for the range of tips on how to fix this remote!

  • Anonymous
    November 28, 2014
    Thanks for the advice, I just reset my to channel 1 and it started working again.  You just saved me $65.95 on a new remote. :)