Using Asrock Smart Remote with XBMC

Hello all,

I built my xbmc system a while back using an Asrock H67M-ITX motherboard, and have been using a generic rf keyboard to control xbmc so far. Everything works very nicely except that my wife keeps hitting the wrong keyboard buttons and messing things up in xbmc. So...with that in mind, I thought it would be easy to pick up the ASROCK smart remote and use that to control xbmc.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been that simple. The Asrock remote requires a 3rd party driver, the "Nuvoton W836x7HG driver" but it is listed as being 100% MCE compatible. I installed the driver and in the device manager, under "human interface devices", 2 new items showed up - Nuvoton W836x7HG CIR device driver, and Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver.

Within xbmc, I installed the MCE addon and ran the option to "apply current settings to remote", shutdown xbmc, then rebooted.

I thought I would be able to simply install the driver and be off and running. However, that hasn't really happened. The remote doesn't seem to do anything in xmbc. Occassionally I can get a single command to work, but not very effectively. I am working within inches of the receiver, so range shouldn't be an issue.

I know that the remote and driver work because I can use it to reliably wake the pc from the off state.

I know this is one of the more popular motherboards and remotes, is there something I'm missing here?

Any help would be appreciated.

another user has the same issue as you with his ASROCK SMART REMOTE.
he's able to wake from S5 state but cant actually control XBMC with the remote..
pretty much a %50 working CIR receiver kinda, not passing commands to your htpc...

i suggest you ask ASROCK tech support as thats what he ended up doing.
we couldnt find whats wrong.
so far, were waiting on ASROCK for an answer...

meanwhile, there solutions for you.
only use the ASROCK CIR RECEIVER for wake from S5
and then get another USB REMOTE package.

check in my HTPC guide for suggestions.
what i suggest in their are remotes easy to set up!
i dont like complicated stuff

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=117372

That's what I was afraid of. I just can't figure out why the remote wouldn't be passing commands to XBMC. Admittedly I don't know much about how MCE remotes work with xbmc, as I've previously just used Girder to remap keyboard commands to xbmc commands. I just thought it would be so easy to have the remote "ready to go". Not so much. Thanks for the link to the guide, I'll take a read through it.

I'm having the same problem, Asrock sent me an RMA for the Smart Remote.
steved1961

Is there any way to test if the remote is working properly? For instance, if I push the mute button on the remote, should it mute windows, or does it only work when you are inside a media-center type application?

If I unplug the ASRock receiver and reboot, the ASRock remote will work with my HP IR USB receiver. So the remote itself seems to work just the ASRock receiver seems to be bad. The ASRock remote will function as a MCE remote on a second PC I have that uses the standard Microsoft USB IR receiver. I tested with Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player. both work with the ASRock remote using a USB IR receiver..
steved1961

yeah, asrock receiver seems poor quality overall.
inteset cir re-pin'ed FTW!

I have had the same identical problem and am trying to get this resolved, but some moderator with clearly nothing better to do has been deleting my posts.

The only response I've had so far is to contact the Europe division. I'll update this thread if and when I get any resolution with this product.

seems there's poop support for this product :/

Absolutely zero response from ASRock Europe. Any luck your side Steve?

Annoying as hell, as I'm holding off on buying another remote until I know that this one is beyond help.