DK2 going blank?

[Mack Winston]

Anyone still play with the Oculus DK2?

This isn't an E : D problem - it's a DK2 problem and I'm wondering if anyone's solved it. Ever since the Oculus Home turned to the cityscape from above, I've had a problem where after a random period of time (sometimes before E : D has finished launching, other times I can play for hours before the problem shows up), the DK2 display goes blank and the head tracking ceases working (all the LEDs - the blue one on the tracking camera and the LED on the headset) are turned off. Of course this usually chooses the most critical time to happen, such as in the middle of a battle or when I'm just about to go through the mailslot with 1% hull left.

Restarting Oculus and E : D does not bring the DK2 back to life. There are only two methods I have discovered of bringing the DK2 back to life: a complete powerdown of the whole computer, or unplugging the DK2's USB connection and plugging it back in (obviously the latter is preferable). Unfortunately E : D must be restarted regardless. When unplugging the DK2 after its screen went blank Windows makes the "Du-du-dum" USB unplugged sound, so at least the USB part of the headset didn't die when the screen went blank.

If you have a solution to this (other than "buy a CV1, the DK2 is not supported" - if I was going to do that, I wouldn't be asking this question) I'd love to know it.

 

[Kerrash]

Does this happen on any game?
I would guess it is where Oculus are not bothering to test support on DK2 anymore

Similar thing happened to my DK1 before I had to upgrade.

 

[Dooguk]

Anyone still play with the Oculus DK2?

This isn't an E : D problem - it's a DK2 problem and I'm wondering if anyone's solved it. Ever since the Oculus Home turned to the cityscape from above, I've had a problem where after a random period of time (sometimes before E : D has finished launching, other times I can play for hours before the problem shows up), the DK2 display goes blank and the head tracking ceases working (all the LEDs - the blue one on the tracking camera and the LED on the headset) are turned off. Of course this usually chooses the most critical time to happen, such as in the middle of a battle or when I'm just about to go through the mailslot with 1% hull left.

Restarting Oculus and E : D does not bring the DK2 back to life. There are only two methods I have discovered of bringing the DK2 back to life: a complete powerdown of the whole computer, or unplugging the DK2's USB connection and plugging it back in (obviously the latter is preferable). Unfortunately E : D must be restarted regardless. When unplugging the DK2 after its screen went blank Windows makes the "Du-du-dum" USB unplugged sound, so at least the USB part of the headset didn't die when the screen went blank.

If you have a solution to this (other than "buy a CV1, the DK2 is not supported" - if I was going to do that, I wouldn't be asking this question) I'd love to know it.

I am still using my DK2 with no problems, but I have had similar experiences in the past and fixed them.

I have just installed a Vega 56, and in order to make sure everything worked first time, I made sure the graphics card drivers and Oculus drivers and software were totally gone (as best I could) from the system.

Download latest drivers for your card, and the latest Oculus drivers. Don't install them yet.

Switch off your PC and unplug you DK2. Reboot.

Uninstall the Oculus software. Then search for any folder with the name Oculus in it and delete it. I did this to make sure it was a clean install, and it worked.

Uninstall your graphics driver using DDU from here http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html. Use the recommended setting (safe mode).

Your system will reboot after this.

Now install your latest graphics card drivers.

Shutdown the PC again and plugin your DK2. After it boots install the Oculus software.

Fingers crossed it hopefully works.

EDIT: Oculus software link https://www.oculus.com/setup/

 

[Kizbot]

Hey Winston, DK2 user here, bought one off ebay about 2 years ago and it was absolutely awesome! It was quite well used but still had life in it. Then similar thing started to happen to me....

Randomly during a game, there would be a momentary pause in tracking, the screen would go slightly grey (FD's solution to tell you the tracking is not working) I would hear the 'USB device disconnected' windows chime, followed by the 'USB device connected' windows chime. The tracking would start working again about 10-15 seconds later. But it also would randomly stop tracking altogether. The only way I could get it to continue working was to physically unplug the usb camera and plug it back in, after about 10-15 seconds the tracking would start again. This was annoying but didn't stop me playing Elite. That was tolerable.

Then about 10 months ago something changed. The tracking didn't just stop..the screen also went black in the headset, nothing I did to the tracking camera would make the headset come back on. I couldn't recover it without force closing Elite, which into turn would make oculus home appear back on the screen in the headset. It wasnt triggered by wiggling the cable or shaking the headset so it appears it wasnt a loose connection but this problem could be triggered after 1min, 5mins, 27mins... it was totally random and sadly made the DK2 unit completely useless. I tried using a powered USB hub, additional usb PCI card in my tower, using the power adapter that came with the DK2... nothing fixed the problem. Because the problem appeared to get progressivly worse, I decided it was probably faulty hardware. I'll also mention that I went through all the uninstall/start again blah blah as mentioned in Dooguk's post above and it didn't make any difference for me.

I bit the bullet and went back on to ebay and bought a second DK2. I had to do another complete uninstall/reinstall for the second DK2 unit, as the software takes note of its serial numbers.
I could tell this one was hardly used as well because the firmware was completely out of date! Meaning Oculus home wouldn't let me use it. Something I suspect the seller knew but didn't know how to fix.
I uninstalled Oculus Home. Downloaded the DK2 firmware update file. Installed the old runtime, either 0.6 or 0.8 (I can't remember sorry) and then updated the firmware with that. Then installed Oculus home again and...

\o/

....all was good with the world. It still says 'DK2 not supported' but have had no trouble getting it to work with Elite, Project Cars or any other game that doesn't require Oculus touch.
So glad I did because this unit I'm using now hasnt given me a single problem, and has been going strong the last 3 months. Not one disconnect. I've chalked it up to something faulty in the electronic circuit boards and/or wiring.

Worth bareing in mind that these DK2's were built in relatively poor conditions (compared to other mass manufactured products.) It just wasnt built to last, only long enough for a dev to get some software on the table.

So while I'm afraid the answer probably is 'You need to buy a new one..' I can still say that a DK2 is still a viable option.
While not officially supported, they don't appear to have done anything to stop it working, so long as you are happy without having access to Oculus touch.
Just so you know (in the UK) I picked up my second DK2 unit for about £110. It had little signs of use and still had all the cables and box. It's still a cheap window into VR.