New way to get MCE Remote signals in EG (for Vista/Win7)

[defrag]

Hi Brett,

Had a few fun and games trying to get the plugin to learn the codes from the mouse on the mce keyboard. At first, it detected the mouse move then displayed a whole stream of pronto codes. So tried again and this time it just locked up all mouse and keyboard input to windows and I had to reboot.

This happened a few times, so I've just installed your new version and I'm now getting the following error from EG: "The plugin was not able to change the state of the HID service. You must be logged in as Administrator to change the state". I made sure I uninstalled the previous version and rebooted just to be sure. The account is no different to when I installed the previous version which was working fine!

EDIT: I'm running Win 7 RTM x64 and I used the 64 bit installer

Thanks

[stottle]

@Defrag

The message "The plugin was not able to change the state of the HID service. " is only in the old plugin, not the new one. Did you uninstall MceRemote_Vista and then install MceRemote (the original) instead of MceRemote_Vista?

@Ronny/James,

Still working on a new version.

Brett

[defrag]

The message "The plugin was not able to change the state of the HID service. " is only in the old plugin, not the new one. Did you uninstall MceRemote_Vista and then install MceRemote (the original) instead of MceRemote_Vista?

OK not sure what was going on there as the original MCE plugin was not in my installed plugins list. But managed to get that sorted now and I am definately running the new version.

So, back to the MCE Keyboard issue. Now if I try to get the plugin to learn either a mouse movement or click it locks up EG (and not the whole system this time). The mouse move is the worse as it is obviously broadcasting rapid signals which are different depending on which way the cursor is moving so if I go learn and then move the mouse a bit I get a very large pronto code as it is obviously grabbing each signal fired by the mouse move. Unfortunately if I go to grab the code, EG hangs. Trying to capture a mouse click just causes EG to hang with no captured pronto code.

Now, I can filter these out of the EG log as said before, so the system is usable, but would be nice to sort this as the keyboard is a part of the eHome devices and has to use the MS usb receiver.

[stottle]

So, back to the MCE Keyboard issue. Now if I try to get the plugin to learn either a mouse movement or click it locks up EG (and not the whole system this time). The mouse move is the worse as it is obviously broadcasting rapid signals which are different depending on which way the cursor is moving so if I go learn and then move the mouse a bit I get a very large pronto code as it is obviously grabbing each signal fired by the mouse move. Unfortunately if I go to grab the code, EG hangs. Trying to capture a mouse click just causes EG to hang with no captured pronto code.

Maybe there's an easier way to get me the info to try to block these signals. Attached is a slight mod to the plugin which will print the timings that are being sent to the IrDecoder. Can you copy some of these new messages for mouse events from the log and post them?

Brett

[defrag]

Sorry for not coming back earlier, been fighting with my HTPC! After a fresh install of Win7 and a fresh setup of EG, eveything was working fine. I did not include the original MCE plugin into EG, installed the latest version your your plugin everything was as it it should be and I was about to test your mod then last night I fired up the HTPC and the service threw an exception (which I didn't manage to catch) and I lost the cursor, enter and numeric keys off the remote. In fact this is the same behaviour as if I disable the HID settings in the original plugin. The buttons are still caught by the plugin, but I now loose autorepeat on the up down left right! This is the same after serveral reboots, although I don't get the exception anymore. I am going to drop down to the version before as that was working fine, but I will try your mod tonight before going back.

[defrag]

OK, the service is now crashing as soon as the remote is used... this is on every reboot. Also after the service dies, I loose all response from the remote (but the keyboard still works). This has only been happening with the new version. Iwas going to roll back to the earlier version, but I've lost the file now - don't suppose you kept a copy? All I've got from the error and the windows event log is as follows:

Code: Select all

The actual windows error text:

Files that help describe the problem:
  C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\AppCrash_AlternateMceIrSe_5f723a47e4123cb6a4400dcbf672bc1d126f697_cab_0ec27500\WER7445.tmp.appcompat.txt
  C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\AppCrash_AlternateMceIrSe_5f723a47e4123cb6a4400dcbf672bc1d126f697_cab_0ec27500\WER7455.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
  C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\AppCrash_AlternateMceIrSe_5f723a47e4123cb6a4400dcbf672bc1d126f697_cab_0ec27500\WER74D4.tmp.mdmp


The eror data from Windows event log:

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Application Error" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>100</Task> 
  <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-09-17T17:37:43.000000000Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>493</EventRecordID> 
  <Channel>Application</Channel> 
  <Computer>HTPC</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data>AlternateMceIrService_x64.exe</Data> 
  <Data>0.0.0.0</Data> 
  <Data>4aa54bcd</Data> 
  <Data>ntdll.dll</Data> 
  <Data>6.1.7600.16384</Data> 
  <Data>4a584c72</Data> 
  <Data>c0000374</Data> 
  <Data>00000000000c6cd2</Data> 
  <Data>5a8</Data> 
  <Data>01ca37bd3eeb6000</Data> 
  <Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\EventGhost\plugins\MceRemote_Vista\AlternateMceIrService_x64.exe</Data> 
  <Data>C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll</Data> 
  <Data>cdc52ae0-a3b0-11de-bcd6-000129a74ace</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

[stottle]

@Defrag,

When correctly installed, the AlternateMceIrService should be the only code that talks to the MCE IR device. If you had the old Mce plugin installed as well as the new one, both would be trying to work with the device and that will mess things up. Also, the installer will change some registry keys so that (once restarted) the OS won't handle events from the remote - the OS should still handle the keyboard.

From your descriptions, it is hard to tell if you are configured correctly or not, and when you add the IR keyboard, it gets even trickier.

Please try this:
1) Make sure the old plugin (MceRemote) isn't installed in EG. If it is, delete it from EG's AutoStart section.
2) Double click the MceRemote_Vista plugin in EG to open the config and hit the "uninstall" button. This will uninstall the service and add back the registry keys.
3) Reboot
4) Without starting EG: Test to make sure the Remote and keyboard work FROM THE OS. Open Notepad and make sure typing from the keyboard is input to Notepad. Number keys on the remote should also show up in the document, the "Ok" button should work like enter, and the up/down/left/right keys should work like the keyboard arrow keys to move around.
5) Start EG: Run the same tests as above, they should work the same as in step 4.
6) Open the MceRemote_Vista config dialog and hit the "install" button.
7) Reboot
Without starting EG: Repeat the Notepad tests. The keyboard should work fine. There should be no response to the remote in Notepad.
9) Start EG. Don't use the remote at first. You said the service didn't throw until a remote signal was received. Run the "MceRemote_Vista->Get MCE IR device capability" action and post back what that says in the log.
10) Try the remote, see if it cause an exception or not.

Let me know how that goes.

Thanks,
Brett

[defrag]

The last exception was on a fresh install of Win7 with a clean EG install. The remote and keyboard work fine in the OS, the up,down, left, right on the remote works in the OS (this can be seen in explorer, IE etc). In EG I only loaded your plugin and I rebooted after install. At first all was ok, default behaviour of the remote was still fine in the OS. Thinking back though, there was a suspend as I usually let the htpc go into hybrid sleep after an hour of unuse. I will continue to test over the weekend. Thanks for you patience!!

EDIT: Throughout all of this the keyboard is unaffected!! It is only the remote keys that have problems.

[stottle]

The last exception was on a fresh install of Win7 with a clean EG install. The remote and keyboard work fine in the OS, the up,down, left, right on the remote works in the OS (this can be seen in explorer, IE etc). In EG I only loaded your plugin and I rebooted after install. At first all was ok, default behaviour of the remote was still fine in the OS.

Sorry, "the remote was still fine in the OS" isn't clear to me. Once you install the plugin and the service (and reboot), the remote should NOT work in the OS. The only time the remote should do anything is when EG is running, with the plugin loaded. To make sure I understand, with the plugin/service installed, what happens when EG is not running and you use the remote with Notepad open? Do you still get input in the document, or not?

EDIT: Throughout all of this the keyboard is unaffected!! It is only the remote keys that have problems.

There are different registry keys that tell the OS whether or not to respond to MCE IR devices. My service installation should tell the OS not to respond to remote signals, but leaves the keyboard registry keys alone. So this is the expected/desired behaviour.

Thanks for you patience!!

No problem, I want to get this working. Thanks for you patience, too!

Brett

[Ronny]

Brett,

I've added the new plugin in a fresh EG profile.
Now the MCE remote buttons are recognized as: e.g. MceRemote.Mce.Play

The only option that doesn't work yet, is the learn option.
I still can't learn an IR code from an other remote.
Sometimes the program doesn't respont at all and closes.

I hope you find a solution for this.

Thanks for your help!

Ronny

[Ronny]

Brett, is there any improvement yet?

Ronny

[stottle]

Not yet.

Brett

[jitterjames]

I've noticed a few people are having problems because they are still trying to use the old mce plugin on vista. I think that this (great new) version of the plugin should either be added to the standard install, or the old version of the plugin should specifically mention that this new version for vista exists when you try to install it.

just my 2 cents.

J

[oridanus]

Hi

I noticed that the response times are slower on Win7 with the new plug-in (and service) compare to the old plug-in on windows XP.
farther more you can't press and old a key on the remote - is this the behavior for all of you?

Is there a way to let Windows 7 handle the remote (its doing it faster and with the ability to press and hold a button ), but get the blasters work?

Thanks

[edit]

I see that it is an EventGhost behavior , if you press and hold even a keyboard key ( with keyboard plug-in ) you get only one event. is there a way to get more then one event?

[jitterjames]

I see that it is an EventGhost behavior , if you press and hold even a keyboard key ( with keyboard plug-in ) you get only one event. is there a way to get more then one event?

I think you just need to add an autorepeat action to your macro. Click 'Add Action' and then look under EventGhost in the tree.

There is also a 'Jump if Long Press' action that can trigger other macros.

Autorepeat works fine with my mce remote.