Hi,

I had my zalman HD160 working great with my remote. Until all of a sudden two days ago, (I suspect after an update from windows) the Remote stopped working.

Since the system is set to power to standby via the remote, I rebooted the system. That also didn't work. Replaced the batteries, also didn't work. However if I take the power of completely, the VFD interface resets and works for a while. Strangely enough, after some time, or when I resume from standby, it would stop working again.

Sometimes the driver crashes and says, the device was forcefully rejected. sometimes nothing happens. Sometimes the software claims there is no IR device found.

I have updated all software, however, no change. Also the display doesn't work anymore, it only says welcome to HTPC and it gives the device driver version.

I checked all connections to the ASUS P4C-800 deluxe motherboard they all seem fine.

I hope someone else has an idea.

 

thank you in advance.

I have the same exact case and though i had it working fine under x64, I was never able to get it to work on the 32bit version of Vista reliably (odd, right?). I ended up just unplugging the usb connection for the VFD and using a Gyration Media center remote instead. VFD's and such displays I think are a waste, though when the remote worked it was nice.

You guys aren't talking about MCE2005, are you?

ahh..sorry..I was referring to Vista. I didn't notice what forum it was in. Please forgive my ignorance

Sorry, I am talking about MCE 2005.

The exact same thing happened to me within the past couple of days.  My htpc was rock stable and working fine for almost two years.  All of a sudden, remote is on the fritz.  I got the same error messages about the device not being present and the connection being rejected.  Drive update did nothing.  My vfd continues to work, thought I never programmed mine to say anything other than welcome to htpc.

Off topic, the vfd would often go haywire and just display random letters scrolling by with no sensible data at all.  I never was too concerned because everything else worked fine and I could ignore it.

Any help on the remote/irtans issue would be much appreciated.  I too suspect it must have to do with a windows update, as I have made no other changes to the computer recently and hardly use it for anything other than tv and music.

Zalman HD160, XPMCE, AMD 3800+, Nvidia dual tv, Nvidia 7300LE

If you find a solution please let me know. Right now the only other thing I can come up with is a hardware issue. My vendor is looking if he can replace the unit. I'll keep you posted.

 

hube

No luck so far in finding a solution to our problem.  Admittedly, I haven't been aggressively pursuing it due to being busy.  I am considering this product (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848&cl=us,en#) as a solution to the problem, albeit an expensive one.  I have been having problems with my rf wireless keyboard though and this would be a nice, small fix for both problems.  Have you had any luck trying to obtain a new vfd/ir receiver?

Interestingly enough, I also have the Zalman HD160, and I use it exclusivley as a mediacenter.  I don't have a keyboard or mouse attached and have not for the past two years.  I administer the computer via remote desktop connection when I need to do things.

Mine too has been working perfectly.  Two days ago (Late Thursday Evening) I installed some new plugins and ran windows update.  I have not run windows update on the machine in at least a year.  I skipped the IE 7 update as I dont use the computer as a computer, but only a media device.

Anyway, Today in the middle of the day MCE 2005 stopped responding to the remote.  I noticed that the IRTrans software has a "Detected IR Commands" window.  So, I right clicked the tray icon and launched it.  Every command my remote is sending is definately being recieved by the software.  So, I know this is not a hardware issue.  Something has happened either to windows, or to media center 2005.

Now, Since I don't have a keyboard or mouse, and this IS MY TV.  My family cannot watch tv, unless I remote in from another computer and turn something on.  Someone please help!

Sorry to double post, but maybe this will help to diagnose the problem. I checked my windows updates, and there are only 3 that have happened in the past month (all within the past few days).

8/1/08 - Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications(KB905474)
8/3/08 - GDR 3068 for SQL Server Database Services 2005 ENU (KB948109)
8/3/08 - GDR 3068 for SQL Server Tools and Workstation Components 2005 ENU (KB948109)

Now, I did not have SQL server installed on this machine until 3 days ago when I installed the MCE Plugin "My Movies 2.46 Server".  Since today is when my problem began, I will try removing the 2 updates that happened today.  I will report back if it works.

Update:

Well, I removed all the above programs one by one and the problem is still not solved.  There are no other resent windows updates on my machine.  I downloaded the latest version of irTrans and installed it.  Still no help.

Update 2:

No solution found.  I did find that Zalman has updated drivers for the IR Trans.  The file includes updated VFD drivers as well.  I installed both, and still no help.  Also, I found nothing useful on the above error.

Question, does anyone know how MCE gets the information from the irTrans software which actually recieves the remote commands?  It seems the communication between the two software programs is the problem.

I did manage to get an error.. I am off to research it now "Media Center Media Status Aggrigator Service" has encountered an error.

Wow.  We definitely all have the same issue.  I started getting that Status Aggregator problem as well.  It causes media center to stop responding to things.  I have to alt-tab to the error message and clear it, then everything is okay.  Problem is that keeps happening and it is annoying and intrusive.  I've looked for solutions to the Aggregator and found nothing that works so far.  From what I undersand, the aggregator takes information from media center and sends it to the vfd software.  Since there seems to be a problem somewhere in this chain, it gets no response and crashes.  I have tried just closing it.  I have tried unregistering and re-registering it.  Both with no relief.

Also, I did get that Logitech keyboard and it is awesome.  I don't think I'll go back to the IR remote even when I get it working again.  That d*** aggregator service though.

How do you remove specific windows updates?  I know it can be done, but I looked around and couldn't find where.  Also, both hube and I started having the problem in early July, so the update (assuming it was one, which I think we do) must have come out before then.

I haven't seen the media center aggregator service error in 24 hours.  This solution seems to have worked for me:

http://blog.lausdahl.com/post/Media-Center-Media-Status-Aggregator-Service-has-stopped-working.aspx

Hope it works for you guys, too.  Let me know of anything else you find out.

i have a zalman hd160 and i noticed that windows update was offering an updated driver for the IRtrans software - i chose not to install it and i'm not experiencing any of the problems indicated here...  (both vista and xpmce)

further comment.... i used to have a lot of problems with the irtrans crashing when I first installed it.  the solution to this was to modify the startup shortcut to prevent the built in webserver from accepting commands:

"C:\Program Files\IRTrans\irtranstray.exe" -no_web usb

perhaps some new software (or antivirus) is attempting to talk to the irtrans web server port and causing problems?

i installed the latest drivers and have no issues, even VFD is working properly.

 

there is a check box in the IRtrans hub to enable VFD. Everything works fine