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Can Oculus give us some clarity on the cause of Right Headphone problem and how to avoid it?

phoenixdigital
Heroic Explorer
To start with I want to commend Oculus for providing RMAs for some
people with this issue who are outside of their warranty period. This is excellent customer service and a great way to keep brand loyalty and trust in the Rift as a whole. I feel
bad for those you have denied though for whatever reasons you have. It
is pretty unfair that apparently through no fault of their own their
Rift audio has died without any chance of repair or an option to buy a
replacement ribbon cable to attempt repair themselves.

Can Oculus give us some information about why this is happening to some users?

Is
it a fault with some Rifts during manufacturing or are the users doing
something that increases the chance of this internal ribbon cable tearing?

Is there anything we can do to avoid this happening to us?

Should we be avoiding stretching the headband springs too much?

This
is pretty critical because Oculus still have no paid spare parts or
repair service. If we inadvertently break our Rifts through normal use
when out of warranty we are shit out of luck and have to buy a brand new
headset or switch to an external set of headphones. Unless of course your support staff decide to provide an RMA outside of warranty which appears to be about a 50/50 chance from the 36 posts I read.

I did some
searching on this topic on both reddit and these forums and found about
36 posts on the topic since June 2016. 16 of these posts occurred in the
last 3 months so it appears to be something that is getting worse with
time. If this happens to more and more people when out of warranty this
is going to be a large PR problem. That said 36 posts of the however
many tens/hundreds of thousands of Rifts out there is quite small in the
big scheme of things too. Having a way to fix it ourselves by buying
a part if out of warranty would be great for piece of mind though.

Do you have any plans for spare parts service?

Some clarity on the issue would be great to be sure we treat our expensive excellent VR device with the care it deserves.

Possible causes
I'm
wondering if the underlying cause is the tension springs in the
headband itself somehow catching on this internal ribbon cable causing it to
tear. Maybe repeated stretching of the headband springs over time causes
the ribbon cable to move into a position where it can tear inside the
headstrap?

Springs here
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Oculus+Rift+CV1+Teardown/60612#s126787

Springs in action as this person stretches the tension springs to put it on
https://j.gifs.com/AnBwW3.gif

If
this is known to cause the problem could Oculus let us know so we
stop doing it as much. I'd much prefer to avoid doing whatever it is
that can cause this ribbon cable to tear than run the risk of it happening when I get
out of warranty.

Some pics of the torn ribbon cable from various posts
https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/comment/525398/#Comment_525398

https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/comment/531518#Comment_531518


CPU: i5 6600K (conservative overclock), GPU: Asus GTX1080Ti (not overclocked), motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming, USB Card 1: Inatek 4 Port, USB Card 2: Startek 2 Port
41 REPLIES 41

Rob_In_Phoenix
Rising Star
This bothers me quite a bit that the whole headset can be rendered useless from the failure of a 5 cent part.  These things cost hundreds of dollars and when one cheap little part fails, there's nothing we can do?

It's a shame a perfectly good headset is reduced to a paperweight if this happens.

I've never had any issue with my headset at all so far, but it makes me uncomfortable to know my number may come up at any time.

phoenixdigital
Heroic Explorer


This bothers me quite a bit that the whole headset can be rendered useless from the failure of a 5 cent part.  These things cost hundreds of dollars and when one cheap little part fails, there's nothing we can do?



Yes it is a concern. More of a concern those who have this failure outside of warranty due to no

  • Paid spare parts service
  • Paid repair/replacement service 
 For those deemed outside of warranty the current solution offered by Oculus support of "Buy a new headset + touch + sensors" is a very poor way to treat loyal early adopters.

At a minimum they should be offering these customers the option to pay to replace just the headset at a reasonable cost neutral price to Oculus. Pretty sure already have a headset only SKU as I recall seeing other users post images of them a while ago when they get RMAs.




It's a shame a perfectly good headset is reduced to a paperweight if this happens.


  In before we see people/support saying "Use an external set of headphones" The problem is deeper than that when this ribbon cable fails completely you lose the rear tracking LEDs. Once the tear starts it will end up tearing completely over time with repeated flexing of this cable. 

External headphones are NOT a solution.




I've never had any issue with my headset at all so far, but it makes me uncomfortable to know my number may come up at any time.





I treated my headset with great care and it happened to me too. I specifically avoided flexing those side straps because I knew this problem could arise. I rarely played high intensity experiences with me flailing around like a madman.

Prior to it happening to me I thought that maybe this was something that will possibly only happen to a small number of users. My number came up though and I'm a little more worried for others now.

If this is an inevitable failure for all headsets this is going to be a major problem for Oculus.


 I've been documenting threads on this issue for over a year now and currently have a list of 52 63 threads with users posting about this. Of those 52 63 threads there are multiple users posting reporting to have had the same problem. While still not too common it is definitely large enough to be a problem that I would hope Oculus has addressed internally with a design/manufacturing change even if they don't plan on publicly acknowledging it.


 I'm currently on the first level of Oculus support and was asked to


  1. re-seat the the USB and both ends of the HDMI to the headset - Didn't resolve the issue
  2. swapped headphones - fault stayed on the right hand side
  3. take photos attached of either end of cable - all looks good I haven't plugged or unplugged the cables for months (until this and above tests)
  4. collect support logs and attach to support ticket

Edit: I updated my list of users posting about this issue and found an additional 11 from the last few months on reddit/oculus forums (up from 52) . I have sent this list to support.
CPU: i5 6600K (conservative overclock), GPU: Asus GTX1080Ti (not overclocked), motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming, USB Card 1: Inatek 4 Port, USB Card 2: Startek 2 Port

phoenixdigital
Heroic Explorer

I've put together an unscientific survey to see if we can get some idea of how widespread this issue is. It also allows people without the issue to let their voice be heard as well. I encourage all users to fill it out.


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15DWS5lVTzBGwrgs-kmewo9m7AjrWoSuZrNaX7yeXA8U


CPU: i5 6600K (conservative overclock), GPU: Asus GTX1080Ti (not overclocked), motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming, USB Card 1: Inatek 4 Port, USB Card 2: Startek 2 Port

Rob_In_Phoenix
Rising Star


I've put together an unscientific survey to see if we can get some idea of how widespread this issue is. It also allows people without the issue to let their voice be heard as well. I encourage all users to fill it out.


https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15DWS5lVTzBGwrgs-kmewo9m7AjrWoSuZrNaX7yeXA8U





Done.

wasyl00
Protege
I’m on my 3rd Rift, yes 3rd! Two previous ones died becuse of the right headphone issue. First one after about 7 months, second after about 11 and I was super careful with the second. Kudos to Oculus for no problem quick replacements and thank gods for 2 year warranty. 

As I’m approaching the end of warranty period I was getting more and more stressed about inevitable, sound loss (yes, after 1st replacement I was hoping for construction improvements of this relatively wide-spread issue - but nope, second died too!) So this time I decided to mod slightly right spring arm with a bit of electrical tape. 

What I did was, I fixed the arm in locked postion. The key is to fix it in the position it normally sits on you face and only use the left arm’s spring mechanism to put it on/off. You may need another person to help you with the tape while you’re wearing the Rift. There is no cable in the left arm so there’s no problem. So far its really good, its not loose as you would think. I hope that eliminating the movement of the right arm completely will solve this
damn problem. 

This will not work if you have more than one user, obviously. 

Pic:
usld3fb2dy8f.jpeg

Rob_In_Phoenix
Rising Star
Hmmm, Interesting idea.  I wonder if I should try this with mine.  I've had my headset for about 15 months.

phoenixdigital
Heroic Explorer
There is a lesser version of this mod for those who still like demo to others. This was an idea from reddit user geebee666.

Ref: https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/7v5d2a/preventive_audio_cable_failure_measure/

azaf94l6eixq.jpg
This method is similar to what wasyl00 posted however the tape only stops the right arm from moving further into the headset slide mechanism than it needs to. You still have the ability to extend it outward to fit the headset to new users.

Not as bulletproof a solution as wasyl00 by totally immobilising the slide completely but a better option as it does restrict the motion somewhat.

I really wish Oculus would fix this with a design change. I'm guessing they have done the maths behind the scenes and worked out it is cheaper to offer replacements to users than it is to publicly acknowledge the issue by making a design change. 😞 If all Rifts end up like this the Rift brand is going to cop a beating from the public backlash if they are told "buy a new headset"

Based on the survey I posted earlier people seem to expect these things to last at least 3-5 years before failing. Still a small sample set but in time we will get more results.

nlhmyar3zlod.png



CPU: i5 6600K (conservative overclock), GPU: Asus GTX1080Ti (not overclocked), motherboard: Asus Z170 Pro Gaming, USB Card 1: Inatek 4 Port, USB Card 2: Startek 2 Port

wasyl00
Protege



There is a lesser version of this mod...



Yes this was actually my inspiration. Its a better solution than standard as it should limit some of the movement and also absorb that return impact of the spring, extending life of flex cable in the process (its all about fatigue prevention IMO).

If you check this reddit thread there is even my comment about permament fix. 😉 

I hope I will ride my modded rift until gen 2. 

riddick_nobody
Honored Guest
Out of curiosity,
Would it not be possible to prevent this by hot gluing or epoxy down the ribbon to the board so it cannot be pulled on at the connection?  you could still remove the cable but would require some razor work, might be worth while mod.

wasyl00
Protege
The problem is that we don’t even know exactly where the break point is and if it is even in the same spot for everybody. Is it a plug or one of the bends? Not enough data, I guess. Due to the warranty I did not mess around with mine but I read that even opening the damn thing is extremely difficult and even harder to fix without replacement parts. 

I think if someone figured this out it would be a one hell of a business idea with all of these faulty out of warranty headsets around that oculus doesn’t want to fix.