Fastmedia remote support page

There are several different "shareware" and "freeware" software packages available for this remote.   Review each below for compatibility to your O/S and check out the respective web sites to choose the one that seems best suited to your needs. 

The WinLIRC package functions to allow the assignment of the IR Codes of the buttons you wish to assign functions to. IR Assistant works in conjunction with WinLIRC and functions to then assign your applications commands to the buttons. Both of these programs are free and well documented.

Download WINLIRC here:   http://winlirc.sourceforge.net/

Download IR Assistant here:   http://www.irassistant.com

INSTRUCTIONS:

Packard Bell Remote Control Starters Kit

1. Install the IR Receiver into a serial port.
2. Download WinLIRC (FREE) Here
   
3. Download IRAssistant (FREE for edu and personal use) http://www.irassistant.com
4. Download WinLIRC plug-in for IRAssistant (FREE)  http://www.irassistant.com go to downloads, then scroll down to ira_lirc for the IRAssistant winLIRC plug-in
5. Download these config files.  here
6. Extract everything into one directory.
7. Run WINLIRC.EXE first. Then select the Port where your IR Receiver is installed to. Then for Config, point to the file "packard_bell.cf" with the Browse button.
   
   
8. Then Run IRAssistant.exe.
9. UPDATE: You need to select the WinLIRC Plugin within IRAssistant. To do this you need to expand IRAssistant. Go to File->Settings. Then under Driver, click and Highlight "LIRC driver". Click OK. Then Activate IRAssistant.
   
   
10. You'll need to fix the path to your winamp program if it is not installed in c:\Program Files\Winamp\winamp.exe. To do this, open IRAssistant.
    Select Winamp->Edit->Edit Item->Edit->Double Click on LAUNCH:I:c:\Pro...->Fix the path
11. Also make sure IRAssistant is activated.
    
    
12. Your remote will be configured as shown below, but you can alter it...
13. NEW! Did you know that you can use just about any remote with your packard bell serial port receiver? Go to http://www.lirc.org. Then download the correct config file for your new remote. Use the new "xxxx.cf" file instead of the "packard_bell.cf" file in Step 9! If www.lirc.org does not have a config file for your remote, then you can always have WINLIRC learn your remote. After installing your new remote, you will need to reassign button commands in IRAssistant (To learn more about assigning commands to buttons, read the IRAssistant help file).

 

Packard Bell Drivers  (Works with Windows 3.1/95/98/ME - does not work with WinNT/2000/XP)

They provide basic mouse functionality and the low-end support required for the Remote Selector program described below. 

Download the file at  Click here to download fastmedia drivers version 1.03  linked to above and double click on it. (it is a windows self-extracting archive) when it asks for a directory, tell it to extract to c:\. This will create a c:\pack103 directory with the driver installation files in it.  Inside that directory is a file, setup.exe. Double click on it to install the drivers, then reboot the computer.

The first thing you need to do in getting this set up correctly is to tell the packard bell drivers what COM port you have the remote on.

Here are a few notes:

1. this device seems to like com2 better than com1
2. you MUST have another mouse installed either ps/2 or serial in addition to the remote.
3. nothing appears in the device manager - the device manager has nothing to do with this device, so do not go trying to add it into the control panel.

What you need to do is figure out whether your com port is COM1 or COM2. even if you only have 1 com port it can be COM2, also you may have an internal modem installed that takes up a com port. The way to do this is to go into the control panel, then to system, then to device manager, and click the little (+) sign next to Ports (COM & LPT), it will say Communications port (COMX) where X is a number - that number is the com port. Once you know what com port number the receiver is connected to, you need to change the packard bell driver's configuration. to do this:

Go to the Start menu, Run and type in c:\windows\system.ini and hit enter; a text file will open up. scroll down until you see this: [386enh]; under that section there will be a line that says: pbirport=X where X is a number. this is the com port that the driver is looking for. Change that number to the number of your com port.

Here are other settings you can use in your system.ini [386enh] section:

Troubleshooting the Packard Bell 1.03 driver

1) review the below support page thoroughly
2) make sure batteries are fresh
3) The remote is NOT supposed to show up in control panel/system device manager and NO the red emitter window at the top of the remote is not supposed to light up.
4) You must have another mouse connected at the same time for the remote work properly.
5) Make sure the COM port is active and working (you may need to go into the BIOS setup screen to do this)
6) Make sure COM number being used is configured in the system.ini 
7) Check to see if Logitech mouse driver being used (with or without a Logitech mouse) and if so that you review the support page for a workaround. Also look at the Resolving IRQ conflicts section
8) in the rare instances where the standard FastMedia driver has conflicts with the specific configuration we have found that the WIRC or WinLIRC shareware apps (see support sheet for link) which have their own driver, seems to work.

Logitech Mouse Driver Problem:

On bootup, the Logitech mouse drivers search all PS/2 and COM ports for possible pointing devices. If your modem or other serial device no longer functions after installing Logitech mouse drivers, you must eliminate the COM port your modem is on from the search as shown below.

MANY OEM MANUFACTURERS use logitech mouse drivers, (compaq's presarios do for example) so be sure to check this out before going crazy . . .

1) Windows 9x If you have problems operating other serial devices together with MouseWare, in Windows 95 run Regedit.exe, edit the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Logitech\MouseWare\CurrentVersion\Global\PortSearchOrder
and remove the COM port that the affected serial device is using.

Resolving IRQ Conflicts

Connect the IR receiver to a serial port which doesn't share an IRQ with any other device. Traditionally, certain serial ports share IRQ's (interrupts). COM1 and COM3 both use IRQ 4, while COM2 and COM4 both use IRQ 3. If other serial devices (such as a serial mouse or modem) exist on your system, and it is feasible to change the configuration of your serial ports (e.g. through the BIOS setup or jumpers on the I/O card), simply configure each serial device to use it's own IRQ exclusively.

UNINSTALLATION OF THE PACKARD BELL DRIVER

How to Remove the Packard Bell IR Software

To fully uninstall, follow these two steps:

GIRDER  (Works with Windows 3.1/95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP)

Here  is a link to another shareware program that works with the remote: