The Microsoft remote is one of the most useful MCE add-ons to your HTPC. However, the package does sport an external USB IR receiver which is fairly unattractive and adds an extra visible item on your home theater shelf. Furthermore, you might be wondering, is there an internal solution? Can I use my MS remote without buying a new 3rd party internal IR receiver?

 

The answer is yes.  All you need is an USB internal header to female socket adapter and a crevice in your case to cram your IR dongle

 To our surprise the MS IR receiver fits perfectly in a 3.5" drive bay, which left us wondering whether this was intentional on Microsoft's side. Though the IR dongle is relatively big and bulky, the 3.5" fit is quite beneficial since you can simply put the receiver behind the 3.5" bay without having to break open the receiver. It's worth pointing out that the receiver will work behind your bay bezel and it is therefore not necessary to remove it. An interesting string of HTPC cases which have a built in IR window are the nMediaPC 400 and 500 series. With the proper tools, you can bust open the IR box and place the receiver up against the window, eliminating any signal interference.

 The last part of the installation requires the internal USB adapter. On your motherboard, locate any free USB pins that
USB pins you might have. They can easily be recognized by following the cables going from your case front panel, if it has USB ports, to your motherboard. The word "USB" is often printed next to the pins making it easier to identify them. Insert the adapter on to the motherboard and the Microsoft IR dongle and you should now have a fully operational Internal receiver.

The internal USB adapter is not an absolute necessity. You could easily have your cable go out through one of your PCI/AGP expansion slots in the back of your case and plug it in to your regular USB port on the I/O interface.

Finally to open the box, start by removing the front rubber feet. This will expose two T-6 Torx screws. Please note that only the front feet have screws hidden behind them.

 

 

 

fig. 1Next grab the front of the box on both sides and pull away from the IR window as indicated in fig. 1.

** Warning** the top half of the box is screwed to the IR chip. Hence apply more force to pull apart the bottom half.

fig. 2The rear part of the box is secured by two latches which will part under a fair amount of force. Once the bottom portion is removed unscrew yet another T-6 Torx screw which is securing the silicon chip to the top part of the IR box, fig. 2.

 

 

Once this is done the remaining parts are easily removed.