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Rift S screen becomes grainy/snowy for a fraction of a second every once in a while for no reason

euliver
Honored Guest
I already updated all possibly related drivers (Windows 10, Oculus and Nvidia) and checked the cable connections on both ends, it doesn't seem to be a connectivity problem as far as I can tell. It doesn't seem to be related to moving the cable or not at all. The screen just randomly turns grainy/snowy (like a grainy TV screen used to I guess) for a fraction of a second for no reason while playing games, but immediately returns to normal. It just flashes. Doesn't matter which game or software I try either. I'm worried it might be a hardware problem, but that seems unlikely too, wouldn't the Rift S just shut off completely if it just lost connection? Not sure. Anyway, it isn't all that bothersome and happens rarely and randomly, but I'd certainly prefer it if this wouldn't happen anymore, and not just because I fear it might become worse. I hope it's a software problem and that I can find out what causes it soon, so that I won't have to return the unit.


142 REPLIES 142

battlestarsc
Honored Guest
Not only am I getting that fuzzy screen for about one frame every 6 hours or so, but if I enter 'passthrough', about 50% my Rift S will either have fixed fuzzy screen, black screen, restart, lose partial tracking of controllers, or just crash outright (any of the following: VR app, ALL Oculus software, or even my PC). (Funny issue with the controllers, seems to happen randomly except always after using passthrough, both become 'fixed' by my side but still otherwise function. So I can move the pointer around, point and click, but the controller position is fixed in place). This issue occurs with all apps (I've used and had the issues with: Oculus home, Rec Room, Beat Saber, OrbusVR, VirtualDesktop, Bigscreen, RoboRecall, Altroom, SpacePirate Trainer, and Blade & Sorcery.) And my attempts to do Settings>Beta>RestartOculusSoftware cause the Oculus software to stop and NOT start until reboot. Also, for debug purposes, I do not allow apps from outside the Oculus Store (to test this issue and see if it was Steam causing it, even tried Uninstalling Steam, to no avail), I'm running Windows 10 with all updates, with Gforce driver 430.64 (display driver) and latest CUDA driver. Hardware x470 mobo, Ryzen 7 1700, 64GB RAM, GTX1080, Oculus Software runs from a RAID 0 array of 5x 120GB SSDs. 

sraura
Heroic Explorer

TomCgcmfc said:

That's plausible as well.  I'll try changing my power plan settings to keep the hard drives on all the time when plugged in.

It was set to shut off after 30 minutes of inactivity which seems just about the time I get that short flash.  Maybe just a coincidence?


Windows 10 has new USB power related settings in in "advanced power management"... And in device manager under USB-controllers. However I don't think they directly cause the issues with rift s. However indirectly (bugs in code) they might play part - as they do with the external hard disks.

TomCgcmfc
MVP
MVP

CrashFu said:

I've gotten occasional (rare, like once an hour) artifacts, too..  but mine are very colorful.  Like bright primary colors.  Only on small portions of the screen at a time.

Is that what you guys were seeing, or were yours like monochrome or something?

Ya, my flashes are more like yours.  Lots of vertical colours between white ones.  Makes it look more white than say a rainbow.  For me it's mainly the sudden brightness of it when playing a darker background game that's annoying.
i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers

MadFerrIt
Explorer
I'm having these flashes as well, typically for less than a second and white noise as the OP described. 

In addition starting to have very unusual performance issues (created a thread for this hoping to find others experiencing the same), and actually have started to notice these flashes occurring on a more regular basis.

Anonymous
Not applicable

CrashFu said:

I've gotten occasional (rare, like once an hour) artifacts, too..  but mine are very colorful.  Like bright primary colors.  Only on small portions of the screen at a time.

Is that what you guys were seeing, or were yours like monochrome or something?



I've been seeing those too. But I've also seen them when I'm not wearing my headset. I thought those mushrooms tasted a bit funny, man.

TomCgcmfc
MVP
MVP

snowdog said:


CrashFu said:

I've gotten occasional (rare, like once an hour) artifacts, too..  but mine are very colorful.  Like bright primary colors.  Only on small portions of the screen at a time.

Is that what you guys were seeing, or were yours like monochrome or something?



I've been seeing those too. But I've also seen them when I'm not wearing my headset. I thought those mushrooms tasted a bit funny, man.

Wow Snowy, you're better than Mick Jagger; Sex, Drugs, Rock'n Roll, and VR, lol!
i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers

TomCgcmfc
MVP
MVP
Ok, I've now tried both potential fixes for this occasional headset display flash and the short answer is, neither fixed the problem.

I disabled my hard disks from stopping after inactivity in my win10 power plan.  I had set it at 30 minutes.  This did not have any effect whatsoever.  I kinda did not think it would because our disk drives are hardly ever inactive during VR sessions.

The other thing I tried was disabling the Rift Camera using Device manager.  I did this after starting up normally then disabled it using the Oculus home Desktop, navigating with my mouse to the device manager.  What this did was kill the touch controllers so I just started X-plane 11 from the Oculus Home desktop's shortcut and then used the xp11 virtual mouse from that point on to select menus.  I fly with flight sticks so this was no problem.  It was interesting to see that once I was in the cockpit if I moved my head back and forth the whole view shifted with me.  My zoom key still worked ok.  Anyway, I flew around for ~30-40 minutes before getting the ''Flash'.  The flash itself was a little more subtle though so there much be something in this, who knows?
i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 32Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers

Comic_Book_Guy
Superstar
Same here. Not really a problem, but it sure isn't normal. Oculus needs to speak up and improve their customer support /relations /communication. Asking each individual for their DXdiag and replying with copy pasta suggestions is getting old. I would have thought we'd get something from them by now.
So, we have white screen flashes, sketchy tracking ( not everyone suffers this), bad audio, Oculus software that won't install for some mysterious reason until I made a new Windows user account ( rare issue, yay me), non-working units, black outs and crashes caused by built in audio...what else am I forgetting? And what does Oculus do? They offer copy pasta;

" Oculus have updated the 'Troubleshooting Tips' section of the Rift-S support pages:

"If you’re seeing snow, static, or a similar visual disturbance in your Rift S headset, try these troubleshooting tips:
  1. Disconnect and Reconnect your Rift S from your computer. To do this:
    • Unplug the USB cable from your computer..
    • Unplug the mini DisplayPort or DisplayPort cable from your computer.
    • First re-plug your USB cable into your computer.
    • Wait 5 seconds, or until the light on your headset comes on.
    • Re-plug your mini DisplayPort or DisplayPort cable into your computer.
  2. Unplug and Replug your Rift S headset. To do this:
    • Carefully remove the facial interface from your headset. This will allow you to access the cable.
    • Unplug the cable from the headset.
    • Wait 5 seconds.
    • Insert the cable back into your headset.
    • Insert the facial interface back into your headset.
  3. Restart your Oculus Service. To do this:
    • Open the Oculus app on your computer.
    • Click Settings on the left side of the app.
    • Click Beta at the top of the settings options.
    • Click Restart Oculus.  

Copy fricken pasta. I cringe for the folks that wait 3 days for support to answer...only to get the above. To be fair anyone with half a brain should be able to trouble shoot and if you didn't take any of these steps you deserve it but when these steps don't work?! well, that's another story. They should answer publicly, acknowledging that there are issues. A one sentence vague acknowledgment and claim of a firmware update " soon" is kind of insulting for a $500 device.

Anonymous
Not applicable

MadFerrIt said:

I'm having these flashes as well, typically for less than a second and white noise as the OP described. 

In addition starting to have very unusual performance issues (created a thread for this hoping to find others experiencing the same), and actually have started to notice these flashes occurring on a more regular basis.

I am having the occasion brief white flashes as well.

Skozios
Protege
White flashes here too, like someone keeps taking photos every hour, but out of sight such that it's not in your face.  Hope it is fixed soon as many people will not wish to hold on too long to defective devices.