Problems with scientific atlanta 3250hd cable box.

I can't get girder or any other programs to learn from my cable box remote. I read a few other threads and one suggestion was to hold the remote closer which didn't work. The other one was to upgrade the firmware but that stopped my usb-uirt from working at all. So i went back to the old firmware and it works again but I still can't get it to learn from my remote. Any info would be much appreciated.