IR remote (IR221) and Windows 7 RTM

I have a Philips-based Origenae IR221 remote receiver. I have always liked these because they could power on/off the computer (with a connection to +5V standby) while hidden away inside the PC case.

I upgraded to Windows 7 RTM on a new machine recently, with a new IR221. While the remote will power on/off the PC, it doesn't seem to function within WMC or WMP11. Also, there is a USB device with the yellow exclamation point in the device manager, although I am unsure what device this might be. There is an HID-compliant consumer control device listed in Human Interface Devices. It is not clear if this is an IR221, however.

Does Windows 7 x64 support this device? Windows Vista x64 sure seemed to. But it was slightly more mature last year. There are no drivers on Origenae's site for this product, supposed to be in windows.

I just received the following email from Origenae support:

Dear Sir,

Unfortunately, IR221 is not supports Windows 7 properly and only supports
for Windows Vista.

The power on/off function don't matter with OS because it working by
hardware and remote function(play, stop, forward, back, etc) should be
installed separately. But as I mentioned you above, IR221 is not support
Windows 7.

We already have inquired it to Philips corp. that they released the new
module for Windows 7 and they didn't have a plan to release the driver of
IR221 to working for Windows 7 environment.

Sorry for inconvenience.

It looks like more of the same old bleeding-edge garbage. Lot's of buggy junk out there for W7, despite M$ trying to give the public and hardware mfg's plenty of opportunity to prepare.

Does anybody have suggestions for a good IR remote that is actually supported under Win7? I would prefer one that can be mounted internally, and accepts a +5V standby power and power switch connections to support powering on/off of the PC.

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I bought my IR221 from you last month.

However, when I read the link it says "optional IR221 module". This would seem to be the source of my current problem. This looks like a VF display module, not an IR receiver.

As to Win 7, you can download (torrent) the RTM version and use it for 30 days (can be extended 4 times), by which time the official release will have happened and you can just type in your purchased key. There need not be a barrier to your Windows 7 testing.

Zygmunt,

Thanks for the update. Perhaps you will consider allowing me to return the IR221 I bought a couple weeks ago for credit towards the IR311 when it becomes available? I had no reason to expect an incompatibility with Windows 7

Best regards,

I can't speak for the 'typical' external USB receivers, that wasn't what I used.

The appeal of the Philips/microsoft receiver was that they were natively supported by Windows, and would actually power on/off the PC, as opposed to just sleep. I also liked that they were internal - no extra box required.

Apparently we'll have to wait until November (or later) to get the IR311, which is supposedly Win 7 capable.