"WMR needs an update / could not be installed"

[1Sascha]

I'm pretty much at my wits' end here.

 

Installed WMR yesterday for the first time ever on this PC (used Oculus before) and the G2 got detected fine and worked perfectly for hours. Then two Windows-Updates came ("KB5029263" for Win 11 22H2 and "KB5028948" for .NET Framework). Installed those and after the reboot(s), I tried to start another VR session. Then I got this:

 

 

 

Well... technically it first read "WMR couldn't start/needs an update". Looked for info on the web and then went into the MS store... pressed the "Update"-Button for WMR in there. Didn't help. Finally uninstalled everything related to VR and tried a re-install of WMR. Same result as above. Setup got as far as "center your headset" and after that I'd get that lovely warning up there. The set gets detected by Windows and the WMR installer correctly. It does show up correctly in Device Manager.

 

Just de-installed both Windows updates, technically reverting the PC to its state when the set was running fine. Still no success getting WMR installed.

 

Not sure what to do next - seems to me that Windows updates have effectively bricked my set - well... probably bricked WMR, but that amounts to the same thing, really.

 

I'm currently re-installing both those Windows updates and will try another WMR install, but I don't have much hope.

 

Anyone got any further info or helpful advice on how to fix this? Some folks have suggested installing a Windows Beta-build from the Insider program, but I'm not sure I want to do that. Other than that, I didn't find any useful info on how to fix this, but it does seem to happen to both Win 10 and 11 users and it's been happening for quite a while from all I can tell. Some posts describing the exact same thing that happened to me are around 2 years old or older.

 

 

S.

[1Sascha]

Ok... going to reply to my own thread because that might help others who run into the same $hit:

 

Don't ask me why, but it's working again now.

 

 

Tried uninstalling both Windows updates that had come yesterday evening, then re-installing WMR. That didn't work.

 

As a last ditch effort, I re-installed both Windows-Updates, then installed WMR again. This time, I started WMR-installation by plugging in the head-set - not by going through the store and clicking on "download". No idea if that makes a difference.

 

In any case: This time the installation completed as expected. One difference I noticed was that this time around OpenXR got downloaded and installed during WMR setup (Windows pop-up announcing that appeared at the bottom right of my desktop). I never saw that pop-up during any of my unsuccessful WMR-installation attempts.

All I can think of as an explanation is that on the first install of those two Win11 updates, something got hosed. Reverting the PC to before the two updates and then re-installing them might have fixed whatever issue was caused during the first install of those updates yesterday. Or perhaps some of the files the installer was trying to download from the web weren't there and/or hosed as well? No idea.

 

That might also explain why some folks have reported that switching to a Windows beta-build had cured this problem for them.

 

On a slightly worrying note: During the last WMR installation attempt before the successful one, my PC simply shut off (as if I had switched off the PSU) while I was trying to insert the USB-C plug into its socket when prompted by the installer. I wonder if I caused a short back there somehow?

 

 

 

S.

Edited August 11, 2023 by 1Sascha