For my MythTV, I have a Microsoft MCE Remote to control it.  It’s supported under linux via the mceusb module.  As much as I typically hate anything Microsoft, it’s a surprisingly good remote and works very well.  I reprogrammed the "TV" button to operate the Power control for my TV, and made some fairly extensive customizations to the lircrc file to configure the extra buttons to work better.  The biggest change was moving the "Menu" controls from the "OK" button to the central Windows button.

But over the last few weeks, the remote has started randomly "shutting down" for no apparent reason.  I’ve heard of this before, and most people claim to simply replace the remote (It’s only $35 afterall) and everything’s better.  Most folks simply chalk it up to a fragile design, but it seemed pretty odd to me.  Of course, the first thing I checked was the batteries.  My multimeter showed them at nearly full charge and they worked just fine in other remotes.  I did some more research, and couldn’t find anything to fix it.  It seemed the only solution was to simply remove the batteries, wait about 10 minutes, and then reinsert the batteries.  That fixed it every time, but it’s an annoying thing to have to do when you’re navigating the list of recorded programs.  A 10 minute "please wait" is really not very WAF-friendly.

Today, however, I replaced the existing Energizer AA’s with my NiMH Rechargable AA’s (I love these things).  To my surprise, the entire remote seems to be "cured".  The previous batteries still test just fine, but there seems to be some kind of sustained voltage drain problem.  The remote would only shut down after I hit many buttons in long sequences (Navigating long menus or long lists), and I guess there was just a slight fluctuation that would cause the remote to "lock up".  Anyway, it’s fixed now and if anyone else comes to this page with similar problems: Just try switching the batteries.
[tag:mythtv][tag:mce][tag:remote]

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