Another Newb needing help

[DwarF]

Howdy all. I have been reading (and reading and reading) and I still can't seem to get my remote setup correctly. My sig has details of the hardware and here is the software:

XP Pro
IRTrans USB client
MCE 2005 remote

First, I have tried the USB-UIRT config in sage, and it says it can't initialize the port. I have also tried the external setup. I was able to map the up/down/left/right keys, but the rest just sit there waiting for me to press a key. So, I thought the IRTrans is not sending the signal to the system somehow.

I have been through the IRTrans interface a zillion times and can't seem to get anything useful from it. the mediacenter has all the keys mapped, but I can't get the recognized by the OS. The IRTrans icon is blinking when I press all the buttons, so I think it is recieving the signals fine.

I have also tried to install girder 4, but it doesn't list Sage as a supported application. I read through several posts here but was unable to get it to send commands to Sage. I am about to go back and install an older version of Girder to see if that works any better. I can see the commands all being recieved by Girder, they just aren't getting sent to sage

In any case, all pointers are appriciated.