topic AR31M Remote Control Woes in PCs & Accessories

AR31M Remote Control Woes

pcheet — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 14:19:40 GMT

Hi,

I have a new AR31M :smileygrin: which is great, apart from one thing :
The remote control that was supplied with it doesn't work!

Since I got the machine last week, I have upgraded it to vista Ultimate, uninstalled some of the pre-installed software, and installed Firefox, Avast Anti-irus and Ghost 12 - So far I have installed nothing else.

I have set up Media Center to view digital TV (DVB_T) which worked first time, but the remote just doesn't do anything with it.
When I press a button on the remote a light flashes on the IR receiver, so I know the remote itself is OK.

Have I uninstalled a driver or application or something vital?
Does anybody know what software is needed to make this thing work?

Thanks.

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

MattWilson — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 14:23:48 GMT

Welcome to CLubVAIO

I would reinstall the original utilities .

Extract to C:\utils and install them and see if that helps.

Install these first in this order (Then Reboot and do the rest):

1. Sony Utilities
2. Sony Shared Library
3. VAIO Event Service

Is the IR driver installed?

If not then i would also install that from the preinstalled drivers .

Extract to C:\Drivers and install the IR driver.

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

pcheet — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:45:51 GMT

Thanks Matt,

I installed the utilities (all of which were already on) and it didn't make any difference.

There doesn't appear to be an IR driver in the driver pack (or certainly not one that's obvious) and I don't seem to see anything that could be the IR receiver in Device Manager.

I have to say I didn't try the remote before upgrading Vista, but then the software I removed was just all the 'extra' stuff like Norton and sonicStage, I didn't remove any Vaio software (As far as I know)

This thing is driving me mad!

Thanks.

Paul

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

MattWilson — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:50:40 GMT

Are there any unidentified devices in device manager?

Any with a little yellow triangle on them?

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

pcheet — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:07:33 GMT

No, everything is identified and apparently working properly.

The only thing that looks like it might possibly be something to do with the remote is an input device, named "HID-compliant consumer control device"
The drivers for this are by Microsoft, and are up-to-date.

There is also something called "Sony Firmware Extension Parser Device" which I suppose could be related. The driver for this is also up-to-date.

Paul

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

MattWilson — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:12:52 GMT

The only thing that looks like it might possibly be something to do with the remote is an input device, named "HID-compliant consumer control device"

That will be the IR but i don't know what is wrong with it. Have you used the remote in media center to see if it does anything?

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

pcheet — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:19:44 GMT

Yep, doesn't seem to make any difference if Media Center is running or not, I just don't get any response to the remote apart from the 'receive' light on the front.

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

MattWilson — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:22:45 GMT

Yep, doesn't seem to make any difference if Media Center is running or not, I just don't get any response to the remote apart from the 'receive' light on the front.

Well you really have two choices:

1. Just forget about the remote.

2. You will have to roll back to your original OS and try it (then if it doesn't work then you can contact sony about it)

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

pcheet — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:31:35 GMT

Oh well, I'll grab an image of the hard drive and then restore it back to factory settings

I'll create a support Incident with Sony anyway, as I really do need the upgrade to Vista Ultimate so I can connect to the office network (Especially as they paid for the thing. )

If there was no remote supplied it wouldn't be a problem, but If there's something in the box I just have to make it work :smileynerd:

Thanks for all your help.

Paul

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

MattWilson — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:34:05 GMT

Oh well, I'll grab an image of the hard drive and then restore it back to factory settings   

I'll create a support Incident with Sony anyway, as I really do need the upgrade to Vista Ultimate so I can connect to the office network (Especially as they paid for the thing.    )

If there was no remote supplied it wouldn't be a problem, but If there's something in the box I just have to make it work :smileynerd: 


Thanks for all your help.


Paul

I agree but sony won't look at your case if it is ultimate because they don't support it.

Hope it all works for you.

You are very welcome for the help

Good luck

Re: AR31M Remote Control Woes

tonybeard — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 16:43:56 GMT

Pcheet I read a while back the norton Ghost is directly in conflict with the Vaio recovery utility...something about the way it calculates the partition sizes...I would remove Ghost and use acronis to make an image of you hard drive. better still back up you dicuments and do a factory setting reformat by tapping F10