Vista - VMC stopped responding to remote

I'm running Vista SP1, fully patched, on a refurb Gateway HTPC that came with a Gateway branded remote + IR receiver. I use a Logitech Harmony 550 remote that already knew how to talk to Media Center.

A couple weeks ago, around the time I installed Windows' latest updates (installed 9/13/08), Media Center stopped responding to both the Harmony & the Gateway remotes (I checked both). The IR receiver flashes for both remotes, and also appears with no problems in Device Manager. Device Manager shows no hardware conflicts and no other hardware problems. Media Center responds just fine to my wireless xGene mini-keyboard with trackball--but the remote makes TV viewing so much easier.

I have searched online and in this forum, and nobody else seems to be reporting this problem, so it can't be an issue with the Windows updates (unless it's specific to something else in my PC). The closest I came was a post on Aaron Stebner's blog citing the same problem after MCE 2005's Update Rollup 2. The solution then was to reconfigure the broadcast channel range, but the steps Stebner gives don't appear to work with my remote.

Any ideas? TIA!!

A few months ago my media center remote stopped working as well. I eventually found out that for some reason the "Human Interface Device Access" service had been disabled, resetting it to automatic worked for me, you may want to check to make sure its running

Dang, that sounded promising--but HID Access is indeed started and on Automatic as a Local System account. Thanks for the quick reply, tho!

I too am using a harmony 550, vista home wmc, and it suddenly stopped working. I removed all the devices in the HID (because I didn't know which one was for the IR receiver - they all had the same generic name) then restarted the computer and it's working again.

Hi,

I have a similar issue. My Vista PC is a Asus CS5110 Essentio which comes with a remote for Media Centre.

I recently applied SP1 and other available updates around the same time my remote stopped working. The remote will only work to turn the PC on. once the OS loads, the remote has no functionality. This suggests the remote itself is ok and that the issue is a software problem (drivers maybe?)

Device manager seems fine. And the HID services are running.

I'm going to try rolling back to a restore point before each update I applied and see how I go...

Anyone else have any ideas?

I have the same problem. Installing SP2 does not solve the problem. Any suggestions?

Same problem here with an X-Gene 2.4 ghz usb 2.0 remote.

I just did a clean install and the remote worked fine at first. Once i let windows do all updates the remote has not worked since.

I get a popup message from my tray saying "USB device has stopped working. Please disconnect".

My problem solved this way:
Got myself a new IR receiver, and everything is honkey dory again!
New drivers were installed automatically and everything fine. I have to use the old reciever for the keyboard, however. Doesn't matter, now I can use the Media Center with my Harmone One remote again.

Yeah solved my problem not too long ago also. I uninstalled "Unknown device" in device manager. Uplugged the reciever. Restarted. Plugged reciever into different usb group. It works now.