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DK2 screen goes black after a while with "direct to driver"

LordJuanlo
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EDIT: SOLVED, it turned out to be a faulty HDMI cable

As far as I know, I'm the only one having this problem. I already have a case opened with Oculus support, but I want to find out if there are more people with this issue (case #106813, if cyberealty wants to ask them).

My DK2 screen goes black when playing games or demos, even the Oculus Scene from the Oculus Runtime App. It usually takes between 5 and 10 minutes, but it always happens using the 0.7 runtime and nVidia 355.83 and 355.84 drivers. First time it happened in Windows 10, so to make sure it wasn't an OS problem, I installed Windows 8.1 on the same computer in a different partition, so now I can dual boot both, and I can reproduce the problem in both partitions. It's a completely clean OS install with all Windows Update patches, chipset drivers, GPU drivers, DirectX, Oculus Runtime and the neccesary C++ runtimes.

All VR apps start fine and run fine on the Rift, I can play for a while, but the DK2 screen turns black after some minutes. When that happens, the mirror screen starts crawling and the CPU usage goes down to 1% while it goes to low speed mode (around 1.2 GHz), the same behaviour than sitting on Windows desktop with no 3D apps launched. The DK2 light goes from blue to orange. If I launch a new VR app it starts fine, but again it goes black after a while, usually faster than before (1 minute or less). I've tested it with Doom 3, Dirt Rally, Ethan Carter and even the Oculus Scene from the runtime.

Under Windows 10 I can't try older nVidia drivers because they won't work with the 0.7 runtime, but under Windows 8.1, downgrading to 355.60 drivers, which don't support Gameworks VR and "direct to driver", make my DK2 runs flawlessly, I can play for hours with no problems at all. Using 355.84 also makes the problem happen in Windows 8.1.

I've sent the OVR service logs to Oculus support and they couldn't find any problems on it, so I'm guessing that there *might* be a problem with "direct to driver" mode on nVidia drivers under certain system configurations. My computer specs are the following:

- Asus Rampage IV Formula (Intel X79)
- Intel i7-3930K (hexa-core)
- 32 GB G.Skill DDR3 2133 Mhz (4x8 Mb quad channel)
- MSI GeForce 980 TI
- Samsung SSD 840 EVO 1 TB
- 1000W PSU
- 4K Crosswind monitor (display port)

I've tried to set my main monitor to 1080P and removed all unnecesary USB devices, but it didn't help. Everything is clocked at default speeds, and the system is completely stable. I've had the DK1 and the DK2 on this computer with no issues until the arrival of 0.7 runtime and the "direct to driver" mode. I've tried both the Intel USB 2.0 ports and the ASMedia USB 3.0 ports on my motherboard and the problem remains. The only way to have no problems is using Windows 8.1 with older nVidia drivers, where it's always rock solid.

Based on my previous experience as AMD driver betatester, the only think I can think of if some kind of incompatibility between "direct to driver" mode and my computer. I already suffered a nasty bug on AMD drivers that only happened on X79 motherboards with multiple cards and monitors. Thanks to the help of the comunity, we helped AMD to squash it, so if that happened in the past... why couldn't be happening again?

Anyone else here with Intel X79 platform? Any problems with "direct to driver" mode on nVidia cards?
Comunidad española de RV / Spanish VR Community
29 REPLIES 29

LordJuanlo
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"jhordies" wrote:
I hope someone will find a workaround ...


On my computer, the only workaround is downgrading to 355.60 drivers, they should work under Windows 7 and Windows 8. They don't have the "direct to driver" feature and they have been working perfecly for me with Runtime 0.7.

By the way, it's good to see that I'm not the only one with this problem, I feel better somehow :lol:
Comunidad española de RV / Spanish VR Community

jhordies
Honored Guest
the only workaround is downgrading to 355.60 drivers ...


Thanks, I'll give it a shot and keep you posted on the results.

By the way, it's good to see that I'm not the only one with this problem, I feel better somehow


I was also wondering 🙂

jhordies
Honored Guest
Unfortunately no change there still the same behavior. To maybe help refine the problem I activated the oculus performance monitor the stats I can see are as follow inside project cars:

- compositor missed V-Sync : climbing real fast 50-100 / seconds
- framerate : 50 Hz
- compositor GPU time : 1.99ms
- App render GPU : N/A
- App render CPU : 0ms

@LordJuanlo : are you using runtime v0.6 or v0.7 ?

Did some more tests with other "debug" parameters
- motion to photon latency : 20ms

I also notice that when the black screen happens, the DK2 led is in fact black for a second or so and than back to orange. But of course the game (project cars here) has lost the "connection“ to the display.

LordJuanlo
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I'm using runtime 0.7 under both Windows 8.1 and 10. Maybe the problem takes longer to happen with older drivers, but so far I haven't been able to reproduce it under Windows 8.1 with pre-direct to driver drivers. I'll try again and report back, for the last few days I have been using only Windows 10 to try to get the black screen on as many apps as possible... and it happens in ALL of them.

I'll take a look at the Rift to see if the light turns off before turning orange.
Comunidad española de RV / Spanish VR Community

beatet
Honored Guest
My problem was with the hdmi cable. If anyone has problems with the screen, it is worth trying another cable

LordJuanlo
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Testing a new HDMI cable as we speak... will report back.
Comunidad española de RV / Spanish VR Community

axelat
Honored Guest
I changed the HDMI Cable and I think it solved the problem for me. I just played for 20 minutes without any problems. I think my original HDMI cable has a loose connection. Since Win10/0.7 the screen stays black after a lost HDMI signal...

LordJuanlo
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I have been using a new cable for 1 hour without problems. My guess is that this new "direct to diver" mode is more sensitive to cable problems and as soon as a small disconnection happens, it shuts off the HMD, while the older drivers are somehow more tolerable.
Comunidad española de RV / Spanish VR Community

LordJuanlo
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After lots of testing with the new cable, now I can say that the problem has been fixed, so it was a faulty HDMI cable.
Comunidad española de RV / Spanish VR Community

ysern
Honored Guest
"jhordies" wrote:

- compositor missed V-Sync : climbing real fast 50-100 / seconds
- framerate : 50 Hz
- compositor GPU time : 1.99ms
- App render GPU : N/A
- App render CPU : 0ms


I have exactly the same problem! jhordies, do you have a solution for this?