Team Esteve

For those of you who don’t know, I decided to abandon my Tivo and put a computer in our bedroom to act as a media center. I found a good deal on a computer that had a Media Center version of Vista pre-loaded and I already had a TV Tuner card, IR remote and Remote control. A couple of hardware pieces and I was set. Not only am I currently using it on our tube TV via S-video, I’m ready to output via DVI for video and Digital Audio for output when we upgrade our television. The last piece I bought was a bluetooth Keyboard/mouse combo so Kristen can facebook from the bed if she wants (and I don’t have to stay 3-feet from the TV if I want to upgrade drivers or surf the web).

With all that complete, I thought I was set. If I’m blogging about this, then we all know that statement was incorrect right?

Right.

So I’m about to hop on the Elliptical trainer and watch an episode of The Soup from last Friday when the remote stops responding. I had already started playing the episode so I wasn’t worried about it at the time, but thought it was odd. So tonight I decided to tackle the problem. I went onto the interwebs and found a troubleshooting ‘guide’ on HP’s website. I put guide in quotes because it boiled down to this:

1) Did you replace the batteries?
2) Is the IR receiver blocked?
3) Is the receiver in your device manager?
4) Does the red light light up when you press a button on the remote?
5) You’re doin’ it wrong.

So after going through their ‘guide,’ I googled a little harder and found the site The Green Button. Mercifully they actually care about Media Center and its community. I found a lot of helpful information and finally found out the real problem:

One of the battery contacts in the remote has started to rust.

I followed their advice and cleaned the contact with rubbing alcohol and reset the remote by putting a peper clip between the + and – contacts, reinsertted the batteries, and now it’s working again.

Major props to The Green Button Community. You saved me from a VERY frustrating night.