x-fi remote control not working

[NomisST]

I was at my cousin's place, he just bought the x-fi fatal1ty. The sound card works fine, everything is cool except for the front panel. We tried everything. I gave it power from the power splitter, power from the actual PSU, we replaced the batteries from the remote, we went to the website and installed the new drivers, we put power into the acutal sound card, we did almost everything and for some reason every time we went and opened creative entertainment center, I believe that's the name, a pop up would come and say there is no IR device detected. I'm either thinking the front panel is busted or the remote. All the things on the front panel doesn't work like for instance if we plugged a mic into it it doesn't pick up, and the remote doesn't work as well. We put in all the cables and so on, so what else am I missing?