IR Remote HID Device, can it be temporarily disabled????

[Paul Gray]

Hi All

I have a little problem, and despite googleing for many times I cannot find
the answer to this...

Anyway, I have a HP Pavilion TX2000 laptop (tabletPC), which has an inbuilt
IR Remote control HID device, which picks up the RC6 type remote control
signals (as used by Media Center).

My problem is that when my other half is watching TV and I am using my
Laptop in the same room, if she presses the "green button" on the Media
center remote (we use Media Center exclusively), Windows Media Center starts
up on my Laptop. Likewise when she presses the up or down buttons on the
remote control, it sends the equivalent keypresses on my laptop, which makes
my sceen scroll up or down.

I would like to (temporarily) disable the remote control receiver device in
my laptop when required, unfortunately there is no option to disable "HID"
type devices in device manager, and if I remove the Driver (which requires a
reboot) the driver reinstalls immediately on reboot.

Does anyone there know how I can disable the remote control
receiver,preferably in a way that I can toggle on and off as required, as
this is causing be a bit of a headache at the moment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Paul
***@bigfoot.com

[Hu Ru]

"Paul Gray" <***@bigfoot.com> wrote in message news:BF05C268-3F9D-4496-B741-***@microsoft.com...
Hi All

I have a little problem, and despite googleing for many times I cannot find
the answer to this...

Anyway, I have a HP Pavilion TX2000 laptop (tabletPC), which has an inbuilt
IR Remote control HID device, which picks up the RC6 type remote control
signals (as used by Media Center).

My problem is that when my other half is watching TV and I am using my
Laptop in the same room, if she presses the "green button" on the Media
center remote (we use Media Center exclusively), Windows Media Center starts
up on my Laptop. Likewise when she presses the up or down buttons on the
remote control, it sends the equivalent keypresses on my laptop, which makes
my sceen scroll up or down.

I would like to (temporarily) disable the remote control receiver device in
my laptop when required, unfortunately there is no option to disable "HID"
type devices in device manager, and if I remove the Driver (which requires a
reboot) the driver reinstalls immediately on reboot.

Does anyone there know how I can disable the remote control
receiver,preferably in a way that I can toggle on and off as required, as
this is causing be a bit of a headache at the moment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Paul
***@bigfoot.com

Low tech would be a strip opaque tape over I.R. sensor of laptop.

[Nigel Barker]

Post by Paul Gray
My problem is that when my other half is watching TV and I am using my
Laptop in the same room, if she presses the "green button" on the Media
center remote (we use Media Center exclusively), Windows Media Center starts
up on my Laptop. Likewise when she presses the up or down buttons on the
remote control, it sends the equivalent keypresses on my laptop, which makes
my sceen scroll up or down.
I would like to (temporarily) disable the remote control receiver device in
my laptop when required, unfortunately there is no option to disable "HID"
type devices in device manager, and if I remove the Driver (which requires a
reboot) the driver reinstalls immediately on reboot.

Even better than disabling it is to have each Media Center system respond just to their own remote
control. TweakMCE for MCE 2005 provides an easy interface for this.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3400190A-511A-4A3A-9B89-524511A76F58&displaylang=en

If you have Vista than you must edit the necessary registry keys by hand thus:-

Set Remote Control ID - To enable your Media Center to respond to a specific remote control ID do
the following; 1. Press and hold the DVD Menu key on the remote then press a number button (1-8) for
5 seconds. Remotes with visible LED signal indicators will blink twice to confirm the change. 2.
Enter that same number below. 3. Save. 4. Restart the Media Center PC. Note: To enable Media Center
to respond to all remotes use the number 0. A reboot is required for this setting to take effect.

Registry key -
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da
Registry value - CodeSetNum0
Registry value data type - REG_DWORD
This setting also requires deleting the following registry values:

Registry key -
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da
Registry value - CodeSetNum1
Registry value - CodeSetNum2
Registry value - CodeSetNum3

Other registry keys for Media Center functions rendered accessible by TweakMCE for MCE 2005 are
detailed in Aaron Stebner's blog & can be used in Vista.
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/04/29/586961.aspx
--

Cheers

Nigel Barker
Live from the sunny Cote d'Azur
MCE MVP