Headset display randomly freezes. Desktop game framerate becomes a slideshow.

[Daggetd]

This is a problem that has been plaguing me for months. I'm completely lost as to what might be causing it, and I need help figuring this issue out because it's becoming very frequent and frustrating.

During VR play, the headset's screens will almost completely freeze up, but the game will still act as normal. The frozen image will wobble slightly with head movements, but the image itself might as well be a screenshot. Sound from the game will behave as normal, and the wand tracking will also behave as normal (confirmed by still being able to hear collision noises, my weapon firing, or the haptic feedback of the wand coming into contact with an interactable object in the game). On the desktop, the game will also appear to run, but in ~0.5fps. If the game is left running for a few minutes, it eventually returns to a normal 60+ framerate. The steamVR webdeveloper log will spam something about an Aquiresync Timeout, and the performance graph will show spikes and display errors. Curiously, after I shut down all the VR programs when this error occurs, the ViveVRcompositor is the only program that remains running and actively using CPU, requiring me to shut it down in the task manager.

When the display error occurs, the only fix is to completely restart the headset and steamVR, thus interrupting whatever game session I was in. Maddeningly, this error seems to occur completely randomly, and with no indication to what might cause it. At most I've gone three weeks without it occurring. But over the last two days I've had it occur four times. Each within 10, 20, 5, and 90 minutes of restarting. I can no longer end a game because I want to, I end a game because my f**king headset freezes and I have to quit.

I've had it occur when the game's framerate hitched, and I've had it while games were running smoothly.
It's occurred no matter whether I have any extra programs running, or whether the only programs running are the essentials - steam, steamVR, and the vive console.
It's occurred while the headset was hot, and it's occurred while the headset is relatively cool.
I've updated all the firmware, tried reinstalling the vive software, updating graphics drivers, reinstalling/validating steamvr.

I'm lost as to what could cause this. I can't isolate the what might be the problem. So I'm asking here for some developer help. With their help, hopefully I can provide enough information to figure out a fix.

Headset is Cosmos Elite
OS Name    Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Processor    Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 v5 @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BaseBoard Product    E3 PRO GAMING V5
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)    32.0 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Driver Version    27.21.14.6611

Please, let me know what info you might need to help diagnose and fix this problem.

[Daggetd]

Thanks for the input. I'll run performance monitor next time I jump into VR and see what it reads when the issue occurs again.
However, I won't try disabling hyperthreading without more info or certainty that it will fix the problem.
 

For future PC upgrades, would you recommend I prioritise a better CPU or a better GPU?

[darkfyrealgoma]

I run the Elite playing tons of games fine on a 1660TI but I have an 8 core system.
I would not go any lower for CPU than a i7 9700K 8 core
it sounds as if your issue is CPU overload.
Focus on bumping that CPU, then a new card after prices drop as I am..

[cate]

with a 3070, 5900x, 32gb ram, and steamvr on m.2 and games on a modern ssd, I experience similar issues though I suspect it's due to the wireless hardware being incapable/not good enough
(using cosmos elite wireless modded with effective fan cooling for wireless antenna thing (temps stay below 60 celcius!) among other minor mods

Playing games, like beat saber, occosainly either:
-no sound for a bit
-random blue/gray screen
-super laggy for a sec then entire headset and controllers restart
-extremely stuttery slideshow like visuals for some time

But who knows. maybe this is also in part thanks to VIVE software (which honestly wouldn't be too surprising, given VIVE were the people who designed and approved the horrendous cosmos elite ( uncomfortable, flip up is an awful feature, wands are outdated, software is extremely primative (basically no pass through), lens are extremely cheap and horrible which makes zero sense, halo design imo is uncomfortable and creates issues and given the cosmos elite is supposed to be a premium headset, good for gamers, a typical strap design should be used. and for the argument flip up and halo and not good comfort is all thanks to flip up, for develoeprs, well it's a very bad solution - flip up introduces so many flaws and very bad things about the headset, and other solutions like high quality pass through or good in-vr desktop software support (so multiple screens/tabs displayed at once, virtual touch rather than click keyboard ,etc), are all so so so much smarter and simply better).

[HahaYouLooked]

Wow! I just submitted a ticket to support because I'm also at my wits end about it with my Cosmos Elite, So I don't know if it has to do with it being wireless unfortunately.

It doesn't matter what game I try, at some point it will inevitably freeze up. Just like you, I could go a week without it but then it'll plague me for an entire days session!

It happened when I had an i7-4790, GTX 1070, and 16GB DDR3 on a HDD, and it still happens with my i9 10900k, GTX 1070, and 32GB DDR4 on an M.2 SSD. I assume, it'll continue when I get a 3080.

 

[Alex Wang]

 

On 5/8/2021 at 12:52 PM, cate said:

with a 3070, 5900x, 32gb ram, and steamvr on m.2 and games on a modern ssd, I experience similar issues though I suspect it's due to the wireless hardware being incapable/not good enough
(using cosmos elite wireless modded with effective fan cooling for wireless antenna thing (temps stay below 60 celcius!) among other minor mods

Playing games, like beat saber, occosainly either:
-no sound for a bit
-random blue/gray screen
-super laggy for a sec then entire headset and controllers restart
-extremely stuttery slideshow like visuals for some time

But who knows. maybe this is also in part thanks to VIVE software (which honestly wouldn't be too surprising, given VIVE were the people who designed and approved the horrendous cosmos elite ( uncomfortable, flip up is an awful feature, wands are outdated, software is extremely primative (basically no pass through), lens are extremely cheap and horrible which makes zero sense, halo design imo is uncomfortable and creates issues and given the cosmos elite is supposed to be a premium headset, good for gamers, a typical strap design should be used. and for the argument flip up and halo and not good comfort is all thanks to flip up, for develoeprs, well it's a very bad solution - flip up introduces so many flaws and very bad things about the headset, and other solutions like high quality pass through or good in-vr desktop software support (so multiple screens/tabs displayed at once, virtual touch rather than click keyboard ,etc), are all so so so much smarter and simply better).

Hi Cate,

Please help to report an issue through Vive Console for us to further check your problem. Thank you.

Alex

[cate]

Sure. when should I create the report? before, during, or after the whole restarting phase?

[Badelhas]

Hi. I'm having similar issues, very interested in knowing: how did you fixed your issues?

Cheers 

[cate]

7 hours ago, Badelhas said:

Hi. I'm having similar issues, very interested in knowing: how did you fixed your issues?

Cheers 

I didn't fix mine, it still bugeers up super often still. but some shit to try:

disable usb power saving mode
test with steam or vive xr modes
disable controllers going to sleep after some time of inactivity
if wireless, add a cooling fan that must use a seperate battery, and consider changing the usb cable if you've had it a while and it's just started recently-ish
and if wireless ensure the pcie card is on an x4 iirc
dont turn the headset on and leave it without wearing it for a while, this often fucks up steamvr and requires a restart. instead start the headset then intend to use it within a couple of minutes

then other shit I woulda forgot but eh doesnt really matter the vive headset andor firmware and or software is all dogshit. I've needed to return mine 3 times I think or at least 2 because first the headstrap adjustment broke and second the device no matter what would not connect/communicate with my computer, and even vive couldnt fix it

so just best of luck, and when it fucks up so much you can't bare it, consider asking for a refund for something that actually works like the index or quest 2 or hp reverb etc

Just now, cate said:

I didn't fix mine, it still bugeers up super often still. but some shit to try:

disable usb power saving mode
test with steam or vive xr modes
disable controllers going to sleep after some time of inactivity
if wireless, add a cooling fan that must use a seperate battery, and consider changing the usb cable if you've had it a while and it's just started recently-ish
and if wireless ensure the pcie card is on an x4 iirc
dont turn the headset on and leave it without wearing it for a while, this often fucks up steamvr and requires a restart. instead start the headset then intend to use it within a couple of minutes

then other shit I woulda forgot but eh doesnt really matter the vive headset andor firmware and or software is all dogshit. I've needed to return mine 3 times I think or at least 2 because first the headstrap adjustment broke and second the device no matter what would not connect/communicate with my computer, and even vive couldnt fix it

so just best of luck, and when it fucks up so much you can't bare it, consider asking for a refund for something that actually works like the index or quest 2 or hp reverb etc

ah and heres what someone from vive suggested I do which helped fix something iirc:

 

Reset the USB drivers:
1. Unplug all Link Box cables from your PC.
2. Navigate to SteamVR > Settings > Developer.
3. Click on Remove all SteamVR USB Devices. Verify the USB cable or any other cable is not plugged into the Link Box and click Yes.
4. Once this is complete, quit SteamVR.
5. Restart your PC.
6. Plug them in the following order: AC Adapter > DP > USB. This will reinstall all Vive USB drivers.

After you've done the above, power cycle the link box with the next troubleshooting:

1. Quit SteamVR
2. Unplug the power and USB cords from the PC side of the Link Box.
3. Wait a few seconds, and then plug the power and USB cords back into the Link Box. You may see more drivers install. Wait for this process to finish.
4. Launch SteamVR.

[Badelhas]

18 hours ago, cate said:

I didn't fix mine, it still bugeers up super often still. but some shit to try:

disable usb power saving mode
test with steam or vive xr modes
disable controllers going to sleep after some time of inactivity
if wireless, add a cooling fan that must use a seperate battery, and consider changing the usb cable if you've had it a while and it's just started recently-ish
and if wireless ensure the pcie card is on an x4 iirc
dont turn the headset on and leave it without wearing it for a while, this often fucks up steamvr and requires a restart. instead start the headset then intend to use it within a couple of minutes

then other shit I woulda forgot but eh doesnt really matter the vive headset andor firmware and or software is all dogshit. I've needed to return mine 3 times I think or at least 2 because first the headstrap adjustment broke and second the device no matter what would not connect/communicate with my computer, and even vive couldnt fix it

so just best of luck, and when it fucks up so much you can't bare it, consider asking for a refund for something that actually works like the index or quest 2 or hp reverb etc

ah and heres what someone from vive suggested I do which helped fix something iirc:

 

Reset the USB drivers:
1. Unplug all Link Box cables from your PC.
2. Navigate to SteamVR > Settings > Developer.
3. Click on Remove all SteamVR USB Devices. Verify the USB cable or any other cable is not plugged into the Link Box and click Yes.
4. Once this is complete, quit SteamVR.
5. Restart your PC.
6. Plug them in the following order: AC Adapter > DP > USB. This will reinstall all Vive USB drivers.

After you've done the above, power cycle the link box with the next troubleshooting:

1. Quit SteamVR
2. Unplug the power and USB cords from the PC side of the Link Box.
3. Wait a few seconds, and then plug the power and USB cords back into the Link Box. You may see more drivers install. Wait for this process to finish.
4. Launch SteamVR.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. I tried them and I am happy to announce that everything seems to be working perfectly now (knock on wood) :)

Meanwhile I installed the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, replacing the Ryzen 5 3600 CPU. I currently own the Nvidia 3060ti GPU, I was thinking about upgrading to the 3800 (I can get it used for 500 and sell mine for 300). I know I wont be able to use full resolution in almost none of the games but, in your opinion, it´s a worthy upgrade? I wish I could get a current gen but these prices are simply outrageous.

Also, I am a bit lost regarding SteamVR and Vive Console setting. With the OG Vive I left it everything on AUTO. What setting do you use on both softwares?

I see that SteamVR selects 150% resolution if I put it in Manual but just left it on Auto and selected "Balanced" mode on Vive Console since I read its the more adequate for my current GPU. Should I change it to AUTO?

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers!