Studio XPS Owners: Have you figured out how to get a non-Dell remote working?

I have a Studio XPS 13 (aka. 1340) but Im sure this would probably be relevant for Studio XPS 16 owners as well. On the front of the system, you will notice an IR receiver which is meant to go with the Dell IR remote (which I didnt order). In the device manager, it appears as a generic Infrared HID device.

I am just wondering if anyone has been able to successfully get their Studio XPS working with an IR remote? Maybe with a Windows Media Center remote control, or perhaps get it to recognize/learn from a typical remote control you might have laying around?

 

There is a very easy way to get the standard Microsoft Media Center Remote control to work with the Studio XPS laptops.

First download the IR Drivers from the Dell website for the Studio XPS 13. It should be a file R196531.exe. Use Winzip to extract the files from this exe. There is a file called "MSFT.reg"

Right click on this file MSFT.reg, and select "Edit". It should open this file in Notepad.

The second line will look like this:
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da]


Simply edit this line and remove the beginning dash "-" so it is this:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da]

Save it. Then just double click on it. Click "Yes" when prompted.


More info: The Dell installer actually removes support for the standard Microsoft Media Center remote by running this registry file. The dash "-" tells the registry to delete this key from the registry.

Changing it to get rid of the dash simply means to add this back to the registry. It simply adds back support for this remote.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. When you say standard Microsoft Media Center Remote, which model exactly are you talking about? Is there some sort of standard maybe? I was thinking about getting one of the HP Media Center Remotes...but not sure if that is compatible.

 

my brothers remote from an hp dv4 laptop works on my dell, no set up required or anything, it just works.

 

I wonder if this would allow me to use my Harmony remote to control it. That would be sweet.

 

After some more reading, I am getting the impression that any RC6 compatible remote will work using ejohnson0547's method above. Can someone confirm?

 

I am using a "Microsoft" branded remote for Vista. And it controls my Studio XPS 13 perfectly. It is this exact one from Newegg, part number A9O-00007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16880100851

I cannot confirm any other remote but anyone compatible with this should work.

 

Thanks so much for this solution. I searched forever to try to get my Studio XPS 16 ITECIR Infrared Receiver working with my Logitech Harmony remote. I get so angry knowing that Dell intentionally disabled this feature in their installer.

 

Did you get your Harmony remote working? I can't get mine to work with my Studio XPS 16. The Studio XPS 16 is not a valid option when programing the Harmony 880 remote. I tried telling the Harmony I had a Studio XPS 15 and that didn't work. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Ken - When setting up your Logitech Harmony choose "Media Center PC" as your device. That's what I use to control my Studio XPS 16. It emulates a Microsoft remote and works fine with my laptop.

 

jwk147

I tried that with no luck. I also tried xps 16, xps 13 and still no luck. In a message (above) from fernandez21 he said a HP DV4 remote worked on his Dell. Out of desperation I tried programming the remote for a HP DV4 and everything now works fine!!!
So to get a Logictech Harmony 880 remote to work with a Dell Studio XPS 16 program the remote for a HP DV4.

 

I've been using my DirecTV remote since I got my laptop. I just set "AV2" to Media Center and it worked. Not sure if I'm using Dell's IR driver or just the stock one from Microsoft.

 

Thanks. That worked for me. The "Media Center PC" entry was hidden in the DVD selection on my DirecTV R-15.

 

Would you be able to post the actual .reg file? This sounds interesting. Also is it the same for the SXPS16?

 

I can't even get it to install the infrared reciever properly

 

Is there a way to use HP dv9720us laptop's remote with Dell Studio XPS 1645? I unzipped the driver update exe and found InstallRegistry.reg with the below code. UninstallRegistry.exe has the opposite (It has a '-' for 57df and no '-' for 57da). I tried all combos of modifying the registry (having only one of these entries or having both of these entries and clearing both of these entries). None of them seemed to work Anyone plz advice.

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57df]
"RemoteName"="RC6 based MCE remote for Dell"
"EnableDebounce"=dword:00000001
"EnableVendorPassThrough"=dword:00000001
"DecoderID"=dword:00000001
"CodeSetID"=dword:00000000
"CodeBitLen"=dword:00000020
"CodeSetNum0"=dword:00000001
"CodeSetNum1"=dword:00000002
"CodeSetNum2"=dword:00000003
"CodeSetNum3"=dword:00000004
"CodeSetNumMask"=dword:00007000
"CodeSetNumShiftBits"=dword:0000000c
"CodeMatchMask"=dword:ffff7f00
"CodeMatchValue"=dword:801C2B00
"DataMask"=dword:000000ff
"DataShiftBits"=dword:00000000
"ReportLength"=dword:00000003
"ReportDescriptor"=hex:05,0c,09,01,a1,01,85,01,19,00,2a,3c,02,15,00,26,3c,02,\
  95,01,75,10,81,00,c0,06,bc,ff,09,88,a1,01,85,02,19,01,29,ff,15,00,25,01,95,\
  01,75,08,81,00,c0,05,01,09,80,a1,01,85,03,19,81,29,83,25,01,75,01,95,03,81,\
  02,75,01,95,05,81,01,c0,05,01,09,06,a1,01,85,04,05,07,19,e0,29,e8,75,01,95,\
  08,81,02,19,00,29,90,26,ff,00,75,08,95,01,81,00,c0
"ReportMappingTable"=hex:59,00,00,00,04,00,51,58,00,00,00,04,00,52,5b,00,00,00,\
  04,00,4f,5a,00,00,00,04,00,50,5c,00,00,00,04,00,28,0f,00,00,00,01,09,02,a4,\
  00,00,00,01,24,02,2e,00,00,00,01,b3,00,2f,00,00,00,01,b4,00,20,00,00,00,01,\
  b5,00,21,00,00,00,01,b6,00,31,00,00,00,01,b7,00,2c,00,00,00,01,cd,00,10,00,\
  00,00,01,e9,00,11,00,00,00,01,ea,00,0d,00,00,00,01,e2,00,ce,00,00,00,01,9c,\
  00,cf,00,00,00,01,9d,00,0c,00,00,00,03,82,00,9c,00,00,00,02,0d,00,9b,00,00,\
  00,02,a0,00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\HidIr\Remotes\745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da]
"RemoteName"="RC6 based MCE remote"
"EnableDebounce"=dword:00000001
"EnableVendorPassThrough"=dword:00000001
"DecoderID"=dword:00000001
"CodeSetID"=dword:00000000
"CodeBitLen"=dword:00000020
"CodeSetNum0"=dword:00000001
"CodeSetNum1"=dword:00000002
"CodeSetNum2"=dword:00000003
"CodeSetNum3"=dword:00000004
"CodeSetNumMask"=dword:00007000
"CodeSetNumShiftBits"=dword:0000000c
"CodeMatchMask"=dword:ffff0f00
"CodeMatchValue"=dword:800f0400
"DataMask"=dword:000000ff
"DataShiftBits"=dword:00000000
"ReportLength"=dword:00000003
"ReportDescriptor"=hex:05,0c,09,01,a1,01,85,01,19,00,2a,3c,02,15,00,26,3c,02,\
  95,01,75,10,81,00,c0,06,bc,ff,09,88,a1,01,85,02,19,01,29,ff,15,00,25,01,95,\
  01,75,08,81,00,c0,05,01,09,80,a1,01,85,03,19,81,29,83,25,01,75,01,95,03,81,\
  02,75,01,95,05,81,01,c0,05,01,09,06,a1,01,85,04,05,07,19,e0,29,e8,75,01,95,\
  08,81,02,19,00,29,90,26,ff,00,75,08,95,01,81,00,c0
"ReportMappingTable"=hex:01,00,00,00,04,00,1e,02,00,00,00,04,00,1f,03,00,00,00,\
  04,00,20,04,00,00,00,04,00,21,05,00,00,00,04,00,22,06,00,00,00,04,00,23,07,\
  00,00,00,04,00,24,08,00,00,00,04,00,25,09,00,00,00,04,00,26,00,00,00,00,04,\
  00,27,0b,00,00,00,04,00,28,0a,00,00,00,04,00,29,1d,00,00,00,04,02,25,1c,00,\
  00,00,04,02,20,1f,00,00,00,04,00,51,1e,00,00,00,04,00,52,21,00,00,00,04,00,\
  4f,20,00,00,00,04,00,50,22,00,00,00,04,00,28,4e,00,00,00,01,08,02,0f,00,00,\
  00,01,09,02,23,00,00,00,01,24,02,16,00,00,00,01,b0,00,18,00,00,00,01,b1,00,\
  17,00,00,00,01,b2,00,14,00,00,00,01,b3,00,15,00,00,00,01,b4,00,1a,00,00,00,\
  01,b5,00,1b,00,00,00,01,b6,00,19,00,00,00,01,b7,00,6e,00,00,00,01,cd,00,10,\
  00,00,00,01,e9,00,11,00,00,00,01,ea,00,0e,00,00,00,01,e2,00,26,00,00,00,01,\
  8d,00,12,00,00,00,01,9c,00,13,00,00,00,01,9d,00,0c,00,00,00,03,82,00,2a,00,\
  00,00,03,82,00

 

As mentioned above the standard Microsoft Media Centre Remote works perfectly with my XPS 1645.

However I have the opposite problem, does anyone know how to disable the infra red port as it keeps recognising our media pc remote when it's being used in the same room as the laptop and it's driving me up the wall.

You can't seem to disable it via device manager.

 

I never noticed that, but yeah, you can't disable it. You could always put a piece of black tape or something similar over the receiver, but I doubt that's the answer you're looking for.

You could also try doing the opposite of what the others in this thread are doing, ie adding the "-" in the registry to disable it instead of removing the "-".