IR receiver issue.

[jbachman2]

I upgraded from Vista to Win7 (again) on Friday night and I am happy to say that everything is working great, everything except my IR receiver.  If I boot the PC up the IR receiver works like a champ, the issue is when I use my harmony remote to go to Directv and then go back to my HTPC, the IR receiver has no lights on it what so ever and I have to unplug the USB and plug it back in to get it working.  This has to be a Win7 issue because all of the hardware is identical as to when this worked well in Vista. 

The IR receiver I am using is: Remote Control and Receiver 1.0A for Media Center PC with Windows Model 1040.  I checked the driver and it is the ehome from 2006.

Some sites mention turning UAC off to correct this issue, others mentioned setting the Human Interface Service from manual to automatic but neither of these fixed my issue.  I’ve considered getting a new IR receiver but I’d want to know it would fix the problem before I go down that road.

Thanks for the help.

[Mike Garcen]

does the HTPC go to sleep when you switch over to DirecTV? You said you read some attempted fixes, so have other people experienced the same?

What happens if you manually go and switch inputs over to your STB, and then back? Same issue? If not, maybe the Harmony remote is doing something…but that’s so odd.

When it stops working, is it still showing in Device Manager?

[jbachman2]

Hi Mike,

I will double-check the sleep settings because I am not 100% sure what they are set at but as of last night when I went from the HTPC to Directv and back again the MCE interface was still up, not a login screen or anything like that.

It seems to me that in Vista the IR receiver was much more active (blinking intermittently even if commands were not being sent) but now it only lights up when I am actively using the MCE.

Since everything I read about this points to a driver issue and with MCE remotes being so inexpensive, I would not be against getting a new one, however I really didn’t see many Windows 7 certified remotes, they all seem to be Vista certified.  If anyone is running a similar setup and isn’t having this issue let me know what remote and I guess more importantly what IR receiver and I’ll look into getting one.  Just BTW, I am also using a wireless keyboard / mouse combo and it does not have any issues dropping with dropping it’s connection when I switch between functions.

[jbachman2]

It still shows in device manager, and searching more on the issue today I found that it might be a Win7 32 bit issue only, 64 bit Win7 users aren’t having the problem.

[jbachman2]

just checked it, the IR receiver drops out of device mgr when i go over to directv.  If I unplug it and plug it back in it shows back up. 

[jbachman2]

The PC was going to sleep, even when I set it not to.  I also set the USB to not go to sleep and for good measure I set the power buttons to do nothing – I know this is over kill but with it still going to sleep after I set it not to I wasn’t taking any chances.  So thanks again shadymg your post set me in the right direction.

[babgvant]

Have you tried plugging it into a different USB port?

[Author]

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