I ran into the same problem. I was uploading and downloading, and for no apparent reason the download to the remote stopped working. I then checked the remote and the program was gone from there, therefore registering "empty". I tried several times to download and it would always fail. I even called Univeral Remote Control, but they could not help. I then took the remote to the office and tried it there. It worked. I then took it home again and now it worked at home as well. The computer is the same at work, running Win98 etc. I can't explain why it wouldn't work at home and then work at the office, and then work at home again. It was all very strange. It has worked fine ever since.