flashing grey screen

[jagibson]

 

Thank you for your message.  We had anticipated more responses to my information request.  I will follow up next week with any suggestions or findings based on what was collected so far.  I apologize for the time in between responses,  as you can imagine there are lots of variables that can come into play when looking into cause.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  My next follow up will be on monday west coast US time.  Thank you.

 

John

[Dave0590]

@jagibson 

@Synthesis 

 

Hello everyone,

 

I did some more testing this weekend and here are the results:

 

I went over a friend of mine who also owns a Vive. I brought my HMD to test it on a completely different setup and in a different environment. He has an Intel i7 6700K cpu, 16 gb of ram, ASUS Z170 board and MSI GTX 1070 graphics card. He doesn't have Viveport or Revive installed and he's on SteamVR beta. His setup is in the basement so it was pretty cool, about 21-22 °C/70-72°F. I live on the second floor of an apartment building. This time of summer, my room temperature is about 25-26°C/77-79°F. It took at least a good hour of game session but the headset's tracking finally gave up. It takes only about 30 minutes in my apartment to lose tracking. It thus seems to be correlated with room temperature.

 

We then tried his headset for almost two hours without any issue. I don't have the manufactured date of his HMD but he purchased his Vive 2016/11 and it came with the old 3-in-1 cable. The manufactured date of my HMD is 2016/12. I purchased it in 2017/02 and it came with the new 3-in-1 cable. The flashing grey screen problem first began at the same position of my friend's play area when compared to mine. This lost of tracking then gradually spreads over pretty much the entire play area with time. I attached a photo to this post where lost of tracking is first experienced with my HMD. This is true for both my play area and my friend's.

 

TLDR: I tried my HMD over at my friend's house who also own a Vive. My headset would still get the flashing grey screen problem after 1 hour. We encountered no problem with my friend's HMD during our play session of almost 2 hours.

 

[Aidarpro]

,
BIG thanks for your test and report!
It's very interesting informations for me.
Can you say that you used only headset or a whole kit (base stations, cables and link box) in your friend's house?

[Dave0590]

@Aidarpro

Pleased to know that my test is useful to you.

I only brought my headset to his house. The rest of the Vive equipment used was his (base stations, link box,  USB/HDMI cables and controllers).

[AGR-13]

 

Thanks to Dave for taking the time to do an test for elimination. So it actually means: there are just a few headsets affected and the issue goes with to a different location with a whole different environment.  So it stays with the headset. So that rules out the rest of the equipment as a root cause. 

Additional  test: Today I played also around 30min only in the environment of Oculus - since I wanted to test how it reacts to revive. -> same issue occured.

 

Two things:

- 1. - I could stop the issue for 15min when I cooled down the Vive - and I put the Icepack not over a sensor. So it took about 10sec to cool it down enough, so that the issue didn't return for around 15min

-  2. - When I put a finger on the sensor (see pic below) then I also could stop the issue immediately. But when I lifted the finger, the issue returned immediately. It disappeared only during the finger was on the sensor (similar to the test of ) 

 

And it is worse when putting the head in a down direction. 

 

So this my additional information to the case. 

 

Question to everybody: Does anybody have a Deluxe Audio Strap? (I use one)

 

Question to HTC: Could you maybe send out some brandnew units built in 2017 to the people who have the issue. I think we could make some comparison tests for you if we can reproduce the issue also with another headset? 

 

 

 

[AGR-13]

 

Thanks to Dave for taking the time to do an test for elimination. So it actually means: there are just a few headsets affected and the issue goes with to a different location with a whole different environment.  So it stays with the headset. So that rules out the rest of the equipment as a root cause.

Additional  test: Today I played also around 30min only in the environment of Oculus - since I wanted to test how it reacts to revive. -> same issue occured

 

Two things:

- 1. - I could stop the issue for 15min when I cooled down the Vive - and I put the Icepack not over a sensor. So it took about 10sec to cool it down enough, so that the issue didn't return for around 15min

- 2. - When I put a finger on the sensor (red circle in pic below) then I also could stop the issue immediately. But when I lifted the finger, the issue returned immediately. It disappeared only during the finger was on the sensor (similar to the test of )

 

And it is worse when putting the head in a down direction.

 

So this my additional information to the case.

 

Question to everybody: Does anybody have a Deluxe Audio Strap? (I use one)

 

Question to HTC: Could you maybe send out some brandnew units built in 2017 to the people who have the issue. I think we could make some comparison tests for you if we can reproduce the issue also with another headset?

 

 

[AGR-13]

 

Thanks to Dave for taking the time to do an test for elimination. So it actually means: there are just a few headsets affected and the issue goes with to a different location with a whole different environment.  So it stays with the headset. So that rules out the rest of the equipment as a root cause.

Additional test: Today I played also around 30min only in the environment of Oculus - since I wanted to test how it reacts to revive. -> same issue occured, also in the Preview of another app in Vive, again in Elite Dangerous

 

Two things:

- 1. - I could stop the issue for 15min when I cooled down the Vive - and I put the Icepack not over a sensor. So it took about 10sec to cool it down enough, so that the issue didn't return for around 15min

- 2. - When I put a finger on the sensor (red circle in pic below) then I also could stop the issue immediately. But when I lifted the finger, the issue returned immediately. It disappeared only during the finger was on the sensor (similar to the test of )

 

And it is worse when putting the head in a down direction.

 

So this my additional information to the case.

 

Question to everybody: Does anybody have a Deluxe Audio Strap? (I use one)

 

Question to HTC: Could you maybe send out some brandnew units built in 2017 to the people who have the issue. I think we could make some comparison tests for you if we can reproduce the issue also with another headset?

 

 

[Manblingo]

I'm replying primarily so I can continue to track this issue as it proceeds.  I have been noticing this exact issue on my headset purchased at the end of 2016 with the new 3-1 cable.  My game room is a little warm (mid 80s fahrenheit), I noticed the headset was very warm to the touch during use and the screen would turn gray mostly when angling my head slightly downward.

[Aidarpro]

,

Thanks for your answer.

I think that Dave0590 tests Indicates the cause of the hardware of HMD.

And i has concluded that my HMD is defective:smileysad:

, what then offers me the HTC? Can you (HTC) replacement my HMD?

 

 

[Vildan]

According to what wrote here, it's obviously spoilage. HTC, it's important for us, how are you going to make exchange activity. I think, if we just take it to shop, they won't do all in right way, and after some time, back it to us with this issue, like we read here from some people.