WinLIRC

Troubleshooting

A note

See the debugging page for some more recent and comprehensive tips for troubleshooting WinLIRC.

WinLIRC

Note: Running WinLIRC with the "/d" parameter will enable debugging mode, which writes debugging information out to a file. If you're going to mail me about a problem, please use the /d switch, do whatever you were doing that demonstrates the problem, and include the resulting debug file in your e-mail. If you're having trouble getting the receiver to work at all, make sure you do a "Raw Codes" dump (and press some buttons) while you're debugging.

Problem: You get "Cannot find WS2_32.DLL" errors.
Solution: If you have Windows 95, you'll need to download the Winsock 2 update from Microsoft.

Problem: It complains about not having a high-resolution timer.
Solution: To get the accurate timing necessary for decoding infrared signals, WinLIRC uses the Pentium performance counter. If you don't have a Pentium, you don't have this performance counter and therefore can't run WinLIRC.

Problem: It complains about not being able to start the server.
Solution: The most probable cause for this is that you have another program listening on port 8765 and WinLIRC can't bind to it. If possible, stopping the other program should solve the problem. If this is not possible, you'll need to modify the WinLIRC source code and change the port. Note that other software such as Winamp plugins will also need to be changed to reflect the new port.

Problem: Port 8765 is free, but it still complains about not being able to start the server.
Solution: Check to make sure that you have the TCP/IP networking protocol installed (under the Network control panel).

Problem: I have TCP/IP installed, port 8765 is free, and it still complains about not being able to start the server.
Solution: There must be some problem with your TCP/IP setup. Check to see if you can ping 127.0.0.1; if you can't, it's not a WinLIRC problem. If ping works, and WinLIRC still gives this error, please send me the debug output from the latest version of WinLIRC.

Problem: It doesn't work.
Solution: There are a number of reasons why it might not work. Remember that you need to "Learn" a remote control before you can use it. There are a few main reasons why WinLIRC might not work:

1. The IRQ is unavailable. (symptoms: Nothing works. Learning a remote doesn't work at all)

   Windows does NOT return any sort of error message when a port's IRQ is in use. Since WinLIRC makes use of interrupt-based notifications to reduce CPU consumption, signals will never be properly received. On many computers, note that COM1 and COM3 share the same IRQ, as do COM2 and COM4. This means that if you have the receiver plugged into COM2, you can't be using your modem on COM4 while WinLIRC is running.

2. The remote was never properly configured. (symptoms: Learning works, but signals are never decoded)

   Use the "Learn" button in WinLIRC configuration to record a configuration file for a remote control. If this creates a configuration file that still does not work, try generating a configuration file with LIRC under Linux and then using that configuration file for WinLIRC.

3. Your remote is unsupported, or your computer is too slow. (symptoms: Learning may begin to work, but fails with errors)

   If you get excessive "Did not get a consistant signal" errors while trying to learn your remote, chances are that your computer is missing parts of the signal. Try closing all open programs. If you still have problems, your computer may be too slow.

4. Your receiver circuit is flawed (symptoms: no signals are received when you click "Raw Codes")

   There may have been a mistake made while constructing the receiver. Check all of your connections and components to make sure the circuit was built properly.

5. Your voltages aren't correct (symptoms: no signals are received when you click "Raw Codes")

   Some computers, especially laptops, are known to have non-standard voltages on the comport. If you believe this to be the case, you can try using different resistor values in the circuit. With Jim's motherboard and receiver, the measured voltages are (with WinLIRC running) are:
   
   

   IR receiver voltages

   pin	voltage
   RTS	10.50V
   DCD (no signals)	3.55V
   DCD (modulated IR signals)	2.46V
   Vcc (at IR module)	3.98V

Problem: It still doesn't work.
Solution: Run WinLIRC with the '/d' parameter. Do something that demonstrates the problem you're having. If you're having trouble getting the receiver to work at all, be sure to use the "Raw Codes" button in the configuration dialog to get that included in the debug file. E-mail Jim Paris with a description of the problem and include a copy of the debug file.

WinLIRC Winamp Plugin

Problem: It says it can't connect to the server.
Solution: You need to have WinLIRC running for it to connect. Start WinLIRC and then either restart Winamp or attempt to configure the plugin (which causes it to reconnect)

Problem: Winamp isn't finding the plugin.
Solution: Make sure that the plugin is named "gen_ir.dll" and located in the Winamp plugin directory (usually "c:\program files\winamp\plugins\"). Also, make sure that you have Winsock installed.

Problem: It still doesn't work.
Solution: E-mail Jim Paris

Copyright (C) 1999 Jim Paris <jim@jtan.com>.
Copyright (C) 2000 Scott Baily <baily@uiuc.edu>.
Last update: Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 08:27 PM
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