Infrared Monitor start failure / "IrDA Protocol" missing

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Ian Wu - 07 Nov 2003 11:19 GMT

Hi,

I want to connect my cell-phone to my Computer via infrared connection.

WinXP correctly identify my USB infrared device in the DeviceManager, shown
as "Infrared Devices = > SigmaTel USB-IrDA dongle #2".

The problem is with establishing a connection with my cell phone, and my
other infrared devices. Normally, when 2 infrared transceivers are put
together, there should be an icon appeared on the taskbar, but this time.
the icon appear doesn't appear. Which i suspect this is caused by the
failure of starting windows service called "infrared monitor".

This "infrared monitor" service depends on 3 services - IrDA protocol,
Remote Procedure Call, Terminal Service. I have successfully started Remote
procedure Call and Terminal Service, but I don't see a service called "IrDA
protocol" in there.

I checked the Event Viewer, It displayed with the following message:

" The Infrared Monitor service depends on the IrDA Protocol service which
failed to start because of the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified."

I have tried to put in the windows XP CD to repair all the system files, and
do the sfc /scannow to check the system files. But they still doesn't help.
It seems that the "missing file" is not related to the winXP system at
all...
Probably, the "irda protocol service" could be somehow installed in to the
winXP, but i don't know how.

If anyone knows the solution to this problem please let me know.

Thanks in advnace for helping.

Ian Wu

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Adam Greatrix - 07 Nov 2003 20:04 GMT

> WinXP correctly identify my USB infrared device in the DeviceManager, shown
> as "Infrared Devices = > SigmaTel USB-IrDA dongle #2".

Same here... for reference, later on after you've fixed the service problem,
if it doesn't work very well try setting it to Vishay 6101E for the Infrared
Tranceiver Type - I couldn't get mine to connect reliably at all until I
changed this value... but that isn't your problem here...

> The problem is with establishing a connection with my cell phone, and my
> other infrared devices. Normally, when 2 infrared transceivers are put
> together, there should be an icon appeared on the taskbar, but this time.
> the icon appear doesn't appear. Which i suspect this is caused by the
> failure of starting windows service called "infrared monitor".

Yes - I have Infrared Monitor started on my computer, if I stop it the tray
icon does not appear, nor can I connect my phone.

> This "infrared monitor" service depends on 3 services - IrDA protocol,
> Remote Procedure Call, Terminal Service. I have successfully started Remote
> procedure Call and Terminal Service, but I don't see a service called "IrDA
> protocol" in there.

The path to the executable in the service properties is:
"C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs". You could try adding it
manually maybe?

It says this service depends on the following system components:
IrDA Protocol
RPC
Terminal Services
+---RPC

It is more likely that it's just what it says - the IrDA protocol is not
installed (or is missing)... The IrDA protocol on my machine was installed
from the netidra.inf file (located with all the other inf files in
c:\windows\inf). You could try looking through the netirda.inf file and make
sure all the required files are still installed where they should be. Here
is the list from my computer:

C:\Windows\System32\irftp.exe
C:\Windows\System32\irmon.dll
C:\Windows\System32\wshirda.dll
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\irda.sys
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\rasirda.sys

If a file is not where it should be, have a look on your Windows XP CD in
the I386 folder, in the DRIVER.CAB file - all the required files for the
IrDA protocol are in there.

After checking the above and copying any missing files back try rebooting
and starting the IrDA Monitor Service (which should appear after the files
are replaced).

Let us all know if this works.

Adam

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philip.moore@london.com - 06 Dec 2004 14:50 GMT

Hi Adam - just wanted to let you know that I agree with your
suggestions. I had the same problem as Ian Wu, with Infrared Monitor
not starting. In the end, I found that irda.sys was missing from my
system32/Drivers directory. I think that Service Pack 2 re/moved this
file, but I can't be sure.

Anyway, I got irda.sys out of the C:\windows\driver
cache\i386\Driver.cab file (using Winzip to do the extraction), and
stuck it in the location you gave. After a reboot, the infrared
monitor service restarted automatically and finally worked.
Took me 4 hours to figure this out - sure wish I'd read your post :)

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philip.moore@london.com - 06 Dec 2004 14:50 GMT

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bmju - 04 Aug 2005 13:15 GMT

I got this error. I used device manager uninstall my infrared port, the
rebooted, and plug and play in XP reinstalled it, and fixed the problem

--
bmju

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Dirk G. Straka - 09 Nov 2003 17:45 GMT

Hi Ian Wu,

thus spoke "Ian Wu" <ian.wu@sympatico.ca>:
[...no IR Monitor]

> " The Infrared Monitor service depends on the IrDA
> Protocol service which failed to start because of
> the following error:
> The system cannot find the file specified."

I suppose this error occurs, because XP doesn't support IrDA at
all (same as my Win2k Pro). Perhaps you want to install IrComm2k
<http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~kiszka/IrCOMM2k/Downloads/IrCOMM2k-2.0.0-beta1.exe>
and try again ...

HTH.

Greets, Dirk

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Carl. - 09 Nov 2003 17:55 GMT

> Hi Ian Wu,
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> I suppose this error occurs, because XP doesn't support IrDA at
> all (same as my Win2k Pro). Perhaps you want to install IrComm2k

<http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~kiszka/IrCOMM2k/Downloads/IrCOMM2k-2.0.0-b
eta1.exe>

> and try again ...
>
> HTH.
>
> Greets, Dirk

I have XP (pro) and no problems with my cheap sigmatel IR adapter. Windows
"installed" it on its own, no need for driver disks or anything.

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