Asus Z170-A motherboard incompatibility?

Fahrenuf · May 2016

Since the day I received my Rift (CV1), I've been plagued with sensor/tracking and sound issues. Occasionally, head tracking will stop. Either the gyroscopic tracking freezes for a second (scene does not rotate when head is turned) or camera tracking will stop (rotation works but the scene moves with me when I move the location of my head). Sometimes it will start quickly teleporting me around the scene too. On top of all this, sometimes the sound will completely stop mid-game.

I've noticed this is multiple games and at the Oculus Home. It is most prevalent in Lucky's Tale and second most at the Home. Oddly, it never seems to happen in Farlands.

System specs:
Asus A170-A motherboard
Intel i5 6600K (not overclocked currently)
MSI Geforce 970 Gaming 4G
Inateck Superspeed 7 port PCI-E to USB 3.0 card (the recommended card)
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB RAM
750 watt power supply

Troubleshooting steps taken:
* Clean installed Windows 10 64 with minimal setup afterwards
* Bought and installed the Inateck recommended PCI-E to USB card (attached the power). Connected both devices to this card and nothing else. Disconnected all other unnecessary devices.
* Attached the Rift to my son's system (i5 2500K and same exact video card model). It worked perfectly fine on his system.
* Using the Xbox controller wired.
* Removed all sources of IR in the room that I could.
* Tried all combinations of USB slots including USB 2.0.
* Swapped my keyboard and mouse with my son's system
* Disabled the power management options via device manager
* Built in sound on motherboard is disabled via the bios
* Darkened the room
* Re-positioned the camera

Through my online and forum searches, I've found a few people complain of similar issues. Two of those mentioned which motherboard they are using. Both had the same motherboard as me (Asus Z170-A). I build this system for the Rift and it appears that I made a bad motherboard choice. Does anyone else have this motherboard with no tracking or sound issues using the Rift? Any ideas I could try, other than dropping another $150 for a new motherboard. While I don't know what else it could be, I'm afraid it won't fix the issue.

stigbeater · May 2016

i have the same board and had this issue so went to the asus site and downloaded the latest usb 3.0 drivers with oculus fixes in and now all works fine.

Fahrenuf · May 2016

The latest USB drivers from the Asus site didn't fix my issue. If yours is working flawlessly now, then there might be hope for my system.

cybereality · May 2016

Do you have another computer you can test on? I'd also not rule out that the Rift cable could be defective.

Fahrenuf · May 2016

I tested it on my son's system for a few hours. It worked flawlessly.

Fahrenuf · May 2016

I should add, that after all the troubleshooting I've done, I believe the camera is functioning properly now. I haven't seen the teleporting or issue with moving my head recently. Both of these are camera related. I am still having the problem with head rotation hiccuping and sound cutting out. I am mostly seeing these issues in Lucky's Tale. To a lesser degree in The Climb, Elite Dangerous, and Home.

frviana · May 2016

Fixed the problem with a workaround. I also have an ASUS but the Z87-A. The motherboard disconnects a USB 3.0 and reconnects every time Oculus makes a change in Policy for Power.
Change your power settings to Performance, change in advanced to disable power change on USB and then execute the instructions from this link -> http://www.thewindowsclub.com/specify-custom-active-power-plan-windows

This will prevent windows and other applications to change the power settings.
It solved my problem.

Fahrenuf · May 2016

My issue was solved last night! Went into the bios and reset it to defaults. On saving, it informed me that it was disabling XMP and setting my 3000MHz ram down to 2666MHz default bios settings (along with a few other changes related to this). Rebooted and everything is working great!

frviana · May 2016

Did you try to set your memory speed back to 3000MHz to see if you isolate the problem?
I want to get to the bottom of this as well.

Fahrenuf · May 2016

I'll mess with the setting this weekend and get back with anything I find. Last night I just wanted to play.

Creesball · May 2016

I have the same board and no issues to report.
All board settings are set to default a part from the on board sound. I have that disabled.

I have the following connected to the baord:
GTX 970 reference card
16gb Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x8gb DDR4-2400
intel i5 6400

Spyrde · July 2016

I have (had) the same issue with Z-170-A, with xmp enabled I couldn't get the tracking working without problems, no matter what usb port was used. So far with XMP disabled I have not noticed any issues with tracking. Anyone done more testing what actually causes this, this is fine for temporary solution but running my ram way down isn't a good solution.

Edit.

Searching with xmp and usb issues gives several results so I guess its more of an universal problem with xmp causing problems with usb ports, so I guess manually changing memory settings could solve the problem?

mrbungle83 · October 2016

I disabled xmp still have the same issue with this board.

Fiege · October 2016

frviana said:

Fixed the problem with a workaround. I also have an ASUS but the Z87-A. The motherboard disconnects a USB 3.0 and reconnects every time Oculus makes a change in Policy for Power.
Change your power settings to Performance, change in advanced to disable power change on USB and then execute the instructions from this link -> http://www.thewindowsclub.com/specify-custom-active-power-plan-windows

This will prevent windows and other applications to change the power settings.
It solved my problem.

Yeah, it does seem to help indeed, but alas only good for Win 10 Pro users, since there is no way to do it in Win 10 Home.

I have an Asus ROG M8F, and for me the Intel USB 3.1 turned out to be the best port. It still sometimes gets recognized as USB 2.0, but no disconnects whatsoever since Oculus replaced my faulty HMD.

riky.m · October 2016

I have the same board and no problems to report.

mrbungle83 · November 2016

I can't fix it, I have re-formatted, I have the recommended USB 3.0 card, I sent my logs to oculus support and was told I need to re install software, 2nd clean install still getting poor tracking quality I am out of ideas tried all the USB tricks, been troubleshooting this for over a month with no luck.

The strange thing is, sometimes it just plays ball i can run 2 hour races in assetto corsa and project cars without a single bit of lag then the next day I can't use it at all, I purchased it to run competitive races but I just cant rely on it.

I am so utterly disappointed. Troubleshooting is near impossible because when you think its working as it's done 2 consecutive days the 3rd day it just wont work... completely random.

Traprock · November 2016

Can I ask why you are using the innatek card instead of your native USB 3.0 on your Asus motherboard? I ended up installing a 5 port one on my MSI z170a board so I could leave my rift using the ones on the main board and still have plenty of others for other devices like my hotas, game pad, and driving wheel, as well as mouse and keyboard.
Was it that you tried the Asus ports and found they didn't work and then got the innatek card?
Luckily the rift works on both my native USB ports and the five port innatek card. There may be something else going on rather than just an incompatibility issues.

Rebaseke · December 2016

I had a picture twitching issue when moving my head as well with my Rift on a Asus Z170i board. Disabling XMP seems to have cleared it up.

takitus · December 2016

I uninstalled the entire Asus AI Suite, and disabled the 'Generic Superspeed USB Hub' in device manager and it fixed my issues. I have a Maximus VIII Gene. Played for 3 hours straight afterwards and its amazing!

dreimer1986 · December 2016

Z170-A here, too. All working fine. Rift on USB3.1 and 2 Sensors on USB3 + a 3rd on USB2. I use the most recent drivers found from Snappy Driver Installer and most recent BIOS.

mrbungle83 · January 2017

Please Oculus (sorry for being dramatic) can you help me. I have purchased the inatec 4 port card, I have tried every available driver on the planet, I have sent my sensor back to you and got a new one, I cannot get this working.

Please help me, If i use the inatec (4 port one) i get poor tracking quality, if i use USB 2.0 I get jittering constantly, if I use my on-board ASmedia 3.1 It constantly disconnects if i use the USB 3.0 extensible host controller ports it does all of the above. Please Please get me a solution.

I have no other problems with any USB devices, I use Thrustmaster T500rs with TH8A shifter.

dreimer1986 said:

Z170-A here, too. All working fine. Rift on USB3.1 and 2 Sensors on USB3 + a 3rd on USB2. I use the most recent drivers found from Snappy Driver Installer and most recent BIOS.

Thanks for your post, so we know it is possible for it to work correctly on this board.

I have tried disabling the 3.1 controller in the bios drivers from the above recommendation (snappy) with and without overclocking, XMP Disabled.

The support team have stopped answering me since i requested a refund. I'm really disappointed that you cannot help me this has gone on for months.

You cannot recommend one single other USB card to try??? you tell me to reinstall software when I send you my logs, i keep having to jump through hoops, i literally must have spent 60 hours just troubleshooting. I have installed windows 7 64 bit and loaded all the up to date drivers and updates and it does exactly the same thing in both operating systems. I need a solution or A refund, It's completely unacceptable that I can just be left in limbo after purchasing such an expensive product.

Z170-A, GTX 980ti, i7 6700k, 16 Gig Corsair Vengance LED 1066Mhz DDR4. 650w Corsair PSU SanDisk 512gb SSD. Latest Bios (2202) latest drivers.

vannagirl · January 2017

i am not techy like many here but have you tried windows 10 i read it solves many bugs and issues over windows 7 when it comes to vr, maybe dual boot and experiment?

mrbungle83 · January 2017

vannagirl said:

i am not techy like many here but have you tried windows 10 i read it solves many bugs and issues over windows 7 when it comes to vr, maybe dual boot and experiment?

Yes, thanks for your reply, I have both windows 10 and 7 dual booting, i installed 7 after having no luck with 10.

ToJKa · January 2017

Yeah, just doesn't work with this MB regardless of ports or drivers or XMP.

That in addition to the busted cable that causes disconnects if i breathe

But hey, this'll be cool thing if anyone ever figures out how to make it work.

mrbungle83 · January 2017

yea i just got a brand new rift, same problem, just random behaviour. I'd love to get it fixed.i have the inateck card too and it still act's weird, oculus there must be a incompatibility can you please grab a Z170-A and test.

metadane · January 2017

I have the Z170-A and the Inateck card and I do not have these problems. I had USB disconnects and poor tracking quality previous to changing the USB power management settings, which are widely reported and explained in other threads and on reddit.

I do have the XY translational shift of the guardian system, which is supposedly being worked on.

mrbungle83 · February 2017

Thanks, I tried all the troubleshooting steps I could, in the end I changed to an Asus maximums ranger board and since then all my problems are gone. Whats the XY transitional shift of the guardian system??

spetke · February 2017

Sigh.. seems like I might have to do the same thing eventually.
I first got the tracking to work with the Inateck card but when I updated the mobo's bios to 3007 and then bad tracking returned and now nothing seems to fix it.

danknugz · February 2017

I don't have the z170-a but a very similar asus model (z170 pro gaming), things work fine here for the most part.

when installing the os you might want to make sure you are installing drivers in the correct order, mainly make sure you get the latest chipset drivers and install those first, before anything else

spetke · February 2017

Well i've done two complete windows reinstalls and numerous tests with all thinkable driver combinations to no avail. Now the newest gained feature is sensor not being found at all despite being visible in the device manager all the time.

mrbungle83 · February 2017

It sounds like you had exactly the same problem as me, looks like your gonna have to bite the bullet, although oculus don't see this board as problematic as they sent me a brand new rift knowing I was using Z170-a.

Asus Z170-A motherboard incompatibility?

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Asus Z170-A motherboard incompatibility?

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