[Megahurts]

I popped out yesterday and bought a generic MCE remote from the local Maplins (here) since I'm fed up of having to have my laptop open to control the HTPC. Since I was in a bit of a rush I neglected to read the bit where it says "Windows7/Vista only" until I got home. And my HTPC is still running XP.

I figured I'd plug it in and give it try before either returning it or spending the rest of the day installing Win7. XP correctly identifies the remote sensor as an eHome IR Device but then throws an error up about not being able to install the software. After a lot of googling and messing around trying to get XP MCE edition hotfixes to install on XP Pro SP3 I found this site:

Code:

To install the drivers for the device, follow these steps:

    * Right-click on the device entry and select Properties.
    * Click on the “Reinstall Driver…” button. Opt to not check Windows Update; you’ve probably already tried with no luck.
    * Get esoteric with the “Install from a list or specific location” option.
    * Get more esoteric with the “I will choose the driver to install” option.
    * Under the “hardware type” box, choose the “Universal Serial Bus controllers” option.
    * On the next page, a correctly-labeled driver should appear as the only option in the box. Continue.
    * Skip affirmatively past any prompts you receive.
    * After the driver is installed, wait a bit while it churns through the resultant child devices that will appear.

You should now be good to go! I just discovered this earlier this evening and was very excited, so I figured I’d make a post about it to save others the pain and heartache that I experienced.

The remote is now working 100% with Eventghost and XBMC. Obviously I can't guarantee that this will work with every remote (mine appears to be manufactured by "Formosa21 Inc. in China") but I thought I'd share this for anyone else having problems.

[Hannes The Hun]

thanks alot, this will be helpful to a lot of people!

[>>X<<]

Surprised you needed to do that when your using SP3

BTW if its using the eHome drivers you should be able to use the remote directly with xbmc without using third party software like event ghost all you need to do is install a reg file

More info here

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi...in_Windows

Make sure the reg key exists first if you decide using it

[Megahurts]

Surprised you needed to do that when your using SP3

BTW if its using the eHome drivers you should be able to use the remote directly with xbmc without using third party software like event ghost all you need to do is install a reg file

More info here

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi...in_Windows

Make sure the reg key exists first if you decide using it

Yeah, I was hoping SP3 would "just work" but apparently not, probably something to do with the remote being on the cheap end of the scale, but from all the googling I did yesterday it seems like a common occurance. Even messing with the pid/vid settings in the usbir.inf file didn't help.

I chose EG before I saw the reg hack method, and I think I'm going to stick with it. Whilst hacking the registry removes a layer of software, with EG I can (re)configure remote key presses easily. Since the USB dongle is also "seeing" events from my Virgin+ cable remote I've got some ideas about semi-automating the archiving of all the shows the better half keeps recording and filling up its HDD with......