Blacking out fault - Oculus Rift.

[Flitgun]

Annoyingly, I have just encountered the 'blacking out' fault. The Rift display goes completely black for a second or two, then normal, repeat + repeat + repeat. Sometimes there's colored tv static.

 

After googling 'blacking out' it seems many others have had this. Reading the results of these help requests brings up a variety of actions which fixed the problem - basically replacing cables to updating drivers. I've put in a ticket with Oculus for my fault.

 

Anybody here had the blacking out fault?

[BlznSaddles]

Yeah mine does it, once or twice an hour. Just blacks out for a second. No fix that I have found, I even did a clean os reinstall. Best I can gather is it is related to windows 10. Nvidia 1070 here.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Hey you two, this is typical, try these solutions:

Win 10 settings to high performance. Edit energy plan settings, disable USB power saving globally. Use inateck / fresco logic USB 3.0 pci-e internal hub with power connection to MB. Latter is an inofficial requirement. Go into device manager, turn off "can into energy savings" individually for every USB root hub /controller you can find.

 

Try this, might help sooner than the snailpace ticket at oculus.

[BlznSaddles]

Hey you two, this is typical, try these solutions:

Win 10 settings to high performance. Edit energy plan settings, disable USB power saving globally. Use inateck / fresco logic USB 3.0 pci-e internal hub with power connection to MB. Latter is an inofficial requirement. Go into device manager, turn off "can into energy savings" individually for every USB root hub /controller you can find.

 

Try this, might help sooner than the snailpace ticket at oculus.

Yeah I tried this too but no fix yet. Also have a problem where the oculus won’t fire up after a computer restart until I reseat the HDMI cable. Maybe related, maybe not.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

I have disabled ovr server in the task scheduler (not manager!) and start it manually before playing, using OTT for this once. You might want to get that tool and use the same. Save time crawling.

[Flitgun]

Well, it's been a week and a bit, and Oculus had some tasks for me to check (which did include Fenris' suggestion above, in part, more or less). Most of this time has been me 'getting around' to completing these tasks. However, these steps did not fix my Rift and the problem persists. There had been a pause of about a few days until today when Oculus replied - that my warranty had expired - and...

"However in this case, we were able to make an exception. I've processed a warranty replacement for your Oculus Rift." [unquote] I think that means they will send me a new one.

 

Can't complain at that. 10/10 customer support so far.

 

How are you getting on BlznSaddles? Have you followed through with Oculus' requests for info? 

[dburne]

Well, it's been a week and a bit, and Oculus had some tasks for me to check (which did include Fenris' suggestion above, in part, more or less). Most of this time has been me 'getting around' to completing these tasks. However, these steps did not fix my Rift and the problem persists. There had been a pause of about a few days until today when Oculus replied - that my warranty had expired - and...

"However in this case, we were able to make an exception. I've processed a warranty replacement for your Oculus Rift." [unquote] I think that means they will send me a new one.

 

Can't complain at that. 10/10 customer support so far.

 

How are you getting on BlznSaddles? Have you followed through with Oculus' requests for info? 

 

 

 

Nice to see you getting some good support on this issue.

I have been fortunate so far, have not had any blacking out on my Rift. 

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Edit

 

I revise that statement that Oculus support was any good. They exchanged one broken Rift., and send me a second one that went clusterf as well with its IMU sensor. It would tilt left when cold and right when hot, no recalibration fixed it. No idea what they do with their stuff when they send it from US to Europe, but they refused helping it / sending me a new one. They demand screenshots of the tilted screen, of which I have sent multiple ones - in total more than a dozen. But "they cannot see how the screen is tilted in this pictures", and always demand different, new pictures. Of Apps, of Oculus Home, of Steam, etc....

 

Oculus has some serious quality assurance issues, there seems to be a large set of IMUs around, faulty screens, not working sensors, etc. If you're lucky, you will enjoy it big time for hopefully ever. But if you're unlucky, your Rift turns apecrap after a while and you'll be stuck with a broken unit.

Edited December 9, 2017 by 2./JG51_Fenris_Wolf

[BlznSaddles]

Well, it's been a week and a bit, and Oculus had some tasks for me to check (which did include Fenris' suggestion above, in part, more or less). Most of this time has been me 'getting around' to completing these tasks. However, these steps did not fix my Rift and the problem persists. There had been a pause of about a few days until today when Oculus replied - that my warranty had expired - and...

"However in this case, we were able to make an exception. I've processed a warranty replacement for your Oculus Rift." [unquote] I think that means they will send me a new one.

 

Can't complain at that. 10/10 customer support so far.

 

How are you getting on BlznSaddles? Have you followed through with Oculus' requests for info? 

 

No, in general I have just been living with it.  I will start a ticket with them, let me know when you get a replacement oculus whether or not it fixes the problem.  I did some research back in July and thought that this blackout issue was due to my 1070 and the Windows 10 creator update.  So I didn't immediately think it was the Oculus itself.  I have seen some people doing various things in the BIOS but unfortunately my PC has a pretty limited BIOS and I don't have a ton of options there.  

[dburne]

Definitely should not be having any blackouts, I would contact Oculus support asap. 

[BlznSaddles]

Definitely should not be having any blackouts, I would contact Oculus support asap. 

 

I just sent them a support ticket and received a response to try some things out.  I'll work on that today.

[BlznSaddles]

So an update:  I tried the suggestions that Oculus tech support offered up... switching USB port power so they don't shut off, reseated and photographed the HDMI cable connection inside the headset etc... all things I had done before.  They wanted to know if I could connect directly to the graphics card HDMI instead of through a jumper.  Well my PC is a Lenovo all-in-one with a full size 1070... kind of weird.  And it has an internal jumper that goes from the I/O ports on the back of the machine to the 1070 which is located internally and sideways without much room.  Their cable is very thin and is squashed in there at the top of the video card.  It's pretty much the only thing I haven't been able to do so I used the Lenovo repair manual to disassemble the back of the PC and remove most of the back plastic housing.  Then I was able to get the components zip tied back in place as a temporary solution and this allowed me to get to the video card ports directly.

 

Well it seems like it's working fine.  I flew for most of the afternoon with zero dropouts, and the rift comes on correctly after a reboot now.  So I took the plastic housing and cut the vents out from above the video card, allowing me to put the PC back together and still be able to access the video card.  Seems like it's working great.  So I guess I can just chalk that all up to Lenovo being stupid in their engineering department.

 

And all this time I thought it was a windows creator update/nVidia problem...  Oh well I'm glad it's working correctly now, I would have done this fix long ago if I had known it was the problem.

[dburne]

 

 

And all this time I thought it was a windows creator update/nVidia problem...  Oh well I'm glad it's working correctly now, I would have done this fix long ago if I had known it was the problem.

 

 

 

Great to hear, hope it stays resolved for ya!

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Great to hear it works now, and very interesting story! Who would have guessed that! 

[chiliwili69]

Good learning, thanks for sharing

[HunDread]

In case anyone else has black outs with the Rift I'm throwing in my experience. Quite specific but may still help out someone.

 

I also had some black outs recently. Bit different than in the OP - mine is like Blackout >> IL-2 crashes >> Rift comes alive

 

My PC has only two SSD's inside and I have a few external HDD's connected through USB docking stations (with on/off switches). It appears I do not get the blackouts in case these are switched off (fingers crossed). These may be messing with the USB connection of the Rift when they are on. 

[OrLoK]

The only time I experienced blackouts was when my sensors got moved and my calibration was out of sync. (due to horrid but amazing cats).

 

Worth a try but it looks like some of you guys are having deeper issues

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

The only time I experienced blackouts was when my sensors got moved and my calibration was out of sync. (due to horrid but amazing cats).

 

Worth a try but it looks like some of you guys are having deeper issues

I have engulfed my sensors into cat-removal-spray just for this. The little buggers may go anywhere, except the garderobe and my setup. 

[Flitgun]

Just for the record... Yesterday I received a brand new Rift. There was some kerfuffle with the freighting to and fro, but that aside I think it arrived quite smartly.

 

I made no changes to my PC - the new one has cured the problem entirely. So it seems the issue was within the device itself.

 

10 out of 10 for Oculus support. Fingers crossed the same fault does not arise in the replacement.

[dburne]

Just for the record... Yesterday I received a brand new Rift. There was some kerfuffle with the freighting to and fro, but that aside I think it arrived quite smartly.

 

I made no changes to my PC - the new one has cured the problem entirely. So it seems the issue was within the device itself.

 

10 out of 10 for Oculus support. Fingers crossed the same fault does not arise in the replacement.

 

 

 

Hope that takes care of it all!

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

The amount of broken Rifts in circulation gets terrifying, if you start looking for Reddit and other Forum posts in Rift issues... My second (!) Rift turned apecrap (IMU sensor temperature issue, calibration doesn't fix it - and it never fell, it was treated like a newborn!), and Oculus stalls/denies support! Now I shall live with a tilted Horizon that tilts left or right depending on temperature! Really Oculus?? 

[dburne]

The amount of broken Rifts in circulation gets terrifying, if you start looking for Reddit and other Forum posts in Rift issues... My second (!) Rift turned apecrap (IMU sensor temperature issue, calibration doesn't fix it - and it never fell, it was treated like a newborn!), and Oculus stalls/denies support! Now I shall live with a tilted Horizon that tilts left or right depending on temperature! Really Oculus?? 

 

Have you posted over on the Oculus forums, maybe PM cybereality and see if he can help?

I have seen several instances of good support over there.

[TG-55Panthercules]

The amount of broken Rifts in circulation gets terrifying, if you start looking for Reddit and other Forum posts in Rift issues... My second (!) Rift turned apecrap (IMU sensor temperature issue, calibration doesn't fix it - and it never fell, it was treated like a newborn!), and Oculus stalls/denies support! Now I shall live with a tilted Horizon that tilts left or right depending on temperature! Really Oculus?? 

 

 

I have engulfed my sensors into cat-removal-spray just for this. The little buggers may go anywhere, except the garderobe and my setup. 

 

 

Maybe if you didn't engulf all your VR stuff in cat-removal-spray you wouldn't have these problems?

 

Seriously, sounds like you've had some bad experiences - bummer.  Fortunately mine has remained solid since I got it a few months ago - hopefully it will last long enough for the next generation of VR stuff to get here next year.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Maybe you don't know what you are talking about?

 

 

Are you aware that an IMU sensor has nothing to do with the (camera) sensors that you mentioned? Do you know what the IMU sensor is, and where it is? Obviously not. Hence what you posted makes absolutely zero sense. 

 

 

FYI regarding the cat deterrent: Just a line each near the foot of each sensor. I vividly called that engulfing, because it surrounds the sensors. The issue with the IMU (which isn't even located in the cameras nor feeds them) appeared way before that. Also, in such cases the first thing you do is troubleshoot by exception, by changing premises, by testing with different cameras, on different computers, and actually in my case even getting a secondary Rift too see if my second Rift (which doesn't mean secondary Rift!!) really is the source.   Then you check IMU Calibration, watch the log, see how the thing irregularly adjusts grades of inclination by degrees of temperature, each iteration of the calibration different grade at the same temperatures. What does that tell us, clearly, with no further questions? Yes. Faulty IMU.

[TG-55Panthercules]

Maybe you don't know what you are talking about?

 

 

Are you aware that an IMU sensor has nothing to do with the (camera) sensors that you mentioned? Do you know what the IMU sensor is, and where it is? Obviously not. Hence what you posted makes absolutely zero sense. 

 

 

FYI regarding the cat deterrent: Just a line each near the foot of each sensor. I vividly called that engulfing, because it surrounds the sensors. The issue with the IMU (which isn't even located in the cameras nor feeds them) appeared way before that. Also, in such cases the first thing you do is troubleshoot by exception, by changing premises, by testing with different cameras, on different computers, and actually in my case even getting a secondary Rift too see if my second Rift (which doesn't mean secondary Rift!!) really is the source.   Then you check IMU Calibration, watch the log, see how the thing irregularly adjusts grades of inclination by degrees of temperature, each iteration of the calibration different grade at the same temperatures. What does that tell us, clearly, with no further questions? Yes. Faulty IMU.

 

Not sure to whom this is directed, but you do realize that "Maybe if you didn't engulf all your VR stuff in cat-removal-spray you wouldn't have these problems?" was (an attempt at) a joke, right?

 

I thought the subsequent "Seriously" would have made that obvious enough, but maybe I should have thrown in a smiley face or two just to be sure.

 

Sorry if my meaning didn't come across well - I was actually trying to sympathize with your troubles.  Hope you get them worked out.

[HunDread]

The amount of broken Rifts in circulation gets terrifying, if you start looking for Reddit and other Forum posts in Rift issues... My second (!) Rift turned apecrap (IMU sensor temperature issue, calibration doesn't fix it - and it never fell, it was treated like a newborn!), and Oculus stalls/denies support! Now I shall live with a tilted Horizon that tilts left or right depending on temperature! Really Oculus?? 

 

Add one more....

 

My Rift seems to have just died last week. I have had some blackouts recently as I posted above and thought I found the reason but apparently I was wrong.

 

After the last blackout I cannot get a picture on the Rift and the sensor remains yellow no matter what I do.

 

This is what I have done so far (probably I will copy-past this from here when I contact Oculus support)

 

- Tried all USB ports on my PC

- Reinstalled GPU driver

- Tried a DisplayPort >> HDMI adapter in GPU

- Reinstalled Windows 10

- Updated BIOS

- Tried on a friend's PC

- Reinstalled Oculus Drivers

- Updated Rift Frimware

- (bought a 2d game so I can kill my PC time during the holidays while I do the arrangements with Oculus support)

 

This is what I can remember.

Edited December 11, 2017 by -[HRAF]Black_Sab

[dburne]

Add one more....

 

My Rift seems to have just died last week. I have had some blackouts recently as I posted above and thought I found the reason but apparently I was wrong.

 

After the last blackout I cannot get a picture on the Rift and the sensor remains yellow no matter what I do.

 

This is what I have done so far (probably I will copy-past this from here when I contact Oculus support)

 

- Tried all USB ports on my PC

- Reinstalled GPU driver

- Tried a DisplayPort >> HDMI adapter in GPU

- Reinstalled Windows 10

- Updated BIOS

- Tried on a friend's PC

- Reinstalled Oculus Drivers

- (bought a 2d game so I can kill my PC time during the holidays while I do the arrangements with Oculus support)

 

This is what I can remember.

 

Bummer,

Sounds like you have already done much of what they will likely ask you to do, so hopefully they can get you sorted before too much time passes. Keep us posted.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Not sure to whom this is directed, but you do realize that "Maybe if you didn't engulf all your VR stuff in cat-removal-spray you wouldn't have these problems?" was (an attempt at) a joke, right?

 

I thought the subsequent "Seriously" would have made that obvious enough, but maybe I should have thrown in a smiley face or two just to be sure.

 

Sorry if my meaning didn't come across well - I was actually trying to sympathize with your troubles. Hope you get them worked out.

Sorry as well for misunderstanding then. It was (initially) received as passive-aggressive suggestion saying that I had destroyed it myself. The Rift between German humor and the rest of the world is sometimes too large I guess

Lately I have been out of luck with quite a few hardware deliveries arriving faulty, among that 2x 4k monitors with dead pixels, 1x joystick, 2x Oculus Rifts, and my throttle had two buttons dieing. I am that Joe that has a fitting cloth piece for all his peripherals, so they don't collect dust when not in use, and keep plastic foil on remotes, or keep the carpet for the footrest in the car, do oil changes et cetera myself, it's 5 years but still smells and feels new. I have been still brought up to handle hardware respectfully, so that it serves me in the long run. So faulty plastic hardware really bugs me

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Bummer,

Sounds like you have already done much of what they will likely ask you to do, so hopefully they can get you sorted before too much time passes. Keep us posted.

They begin to walk through from 0 in every support process unfortunately. I today received the mail that I need to send my Rift in and will receive a new one (my third Rift). Good luck!

They need to work on two things: QA for their deliverer of internal sensors, and QA for the final product. Re-engineering the whole hmd for cv2 is probably already underway. I hope they run with something similar to lighthouse this time.

[dburne]

They begin to walk through from 0 in every support process unfortunately. I today received the mail that I need to send my Rift in and will receive a new one (my third Rift). Good luck!

They need to work on two things: QA for their deliverer of internal sensors, and QA for the final product. Re-engineering the whole hmd for cv2 is probably already underway. I hope they run with something similar to lighthouse this time.

 

Hopefully your new unit gets it all sorted for you.

 

I guess I have been fortunate, have not had a moments trouble with mine. I got it middle of January, so my warranty will be up in about a month. My luck it will happen to me after that < severe knocking on wood>....

[HunDread]

They begin to walk through from 0 in every support process unfortunately. I today received the mail that I need to send my Rift in and will receive a new one (my third Rift). Good luck!

They need to work on two things: QA for their deliverer of internal sensors, and QA for the final product. Re-engineering the whole hmd for cv2 is probably already underway. I hope they run with something similar to lighthouse this time.

So far it doesn't look too bad. They have been quick in replies and they only wanted me to confirm I am using the GPU ports (which is clearly from the template and not too appropriate after all the troubleshooting steps I've done) and to send them the logs (which is expected).

 

They also asked for my current shipping address and to send them pictures of the serial numbers on the HMD and the box.

 

They are checking the logs now - I expect this to take a few days then I'll see what happens.

 

The only thing I'm worried about is that the Rift is not available to my country from the Oculus website and I ordered it not long after release to a friend in Switzerland. I hope this does not cause any issues if it comes to replacing it. I think they might as well look at this as a comnpliment to their product that I was not able to wait another few months until their product appeared with local retailers. And I also had the DK2 so I have been with them for quite a long time so I hope they don't try to screw up my RMA.

[dburne]

So far it doesn't look too bad. They have been quick in replies and they only wanted me to confirm I am using the GPU ports (which is clearly from the template and not too appropriate after all the troubleshooting steps I've done) and to send them the logs (which is expected).

 

They also asked for my current shipping address and to send them pictures of the serial numbers on the HMD and the box.

 

They are checking the logs now - I expect this to take a few days then I'll see what happens.

 

The only thing I'm worried about is that the Rift is not available to my country from the Oculus website and I ordered it not long after release to a friend in Switzerland. I hope this does not cause any issues if it comes to replacing it. I think they might as well look at this as a comnpliment to their product that I was not able to wait another few months until their product appeared with local retailers. And I also had the DK2 so I have been with them for quite a long time so I hope they don't try to screw up my RMA.

 

Hope it all goes well.

 

If you run into any snag PM cybereality over on their forums, he can be very helpful.

[doog442]

Annoyingly, I have just encountered the 'blacking out' fault. The Rift display goes completely black for a second or two, then normal, repeat + repeat + repeat. Sometimes there's colored tv static.

 

After googling 'blacking out' it seems many others have had this. Reading the results of these help requests brings up a variety of actions which fixed the problem - basically replacing cables to updating drivers. I've put in a ticket with Oculus for my fault.

 

Anybody here had the blacking out fault?

 

 

Interesting

 

I've had a couple of black outs but nothing on a regular basis.These have only occurred on IL2 so I presumed it was a game issue as the game crashed. (It never crashed pre Rift - not once)  I also had the coloured TV static the other day, something I've never seen before but it was on my monitor rather than the headset. 

 

I was thinking it was more of conflict between Oculus / IL2 and the rest of system, including NVIDIA drivers etc so am not massively concerned. If it happens again I may well re -consider.

 

I'll work my way through the thread, some interesting solutions / points raised

 

cheers

[Flitgun]

Hi doog442

 

The blacking out fault for me was very sudden. I had had no trouble and then I was faced with black outs every few seconds - each black out lasting a few seconds. This did not only occur in IL2, but in DCS and others too, even the Oculus lounge - or whatever that place is called. The Rift was immediately unusable.

 

I understand the frequency of the blackouts does vary with different users and that this issue may be 'lived with' when the black outs are infrequent and minor (I say this as I believe some in this thread are examples of this). I would be interested to know if the problem of minor and infrequent black outs develops into more frequent and lengthy black outs further down the line - Does the blacking out fault get worse over time - like a worn out mechanical fault(?)