Windows 7 - IR Hardware not Detected

I have been running a Comcast Cable Tuner through an old Hauppauge Win TV HVR-1600 NTSC/ATSC Combo card that came out of an old HP box. The original IR receiver and remote are buried deep somewhere, likely the dump. This has worked for years plenty well for my needs. I had to keep it tuned to channel 3 only and tune though my Comcast tuner. No problem.
I just installed an SSD and did a clean install of Win 7 HP x64. When I ran WMC for the first time and tried to configure the live TV settings, I got hung up with the "IR Hardware not Detected"
I tried every conceivable option trying to set it up, the tuner most definitely being found since I could see and hear it in the setup, but as soon as I would hit next, it would die with the IR message. I Googled and tried every option I could find. Nothing worked.
In frustration I decided to try one more time. This time after firing up WMC and hitting "live TV" up popped the old snow channel. It was tuned to channel 2 so I bumped it up to channel 3 and there it was just like it had been working before the clean Win-7 install.
Don't ask me what I did. I have no clue. I posted this to let others (I have seen quite a few) know that there is hope. And maybe someone a lot smarter than me can tell us all how I did it.