Rift USB 3 Problems

Rob Turbo · 11 Sep 2017 at 20:53

Before I bought a Rift I ran the Oculus Compatibility Checker and it had no problems with my USB, I was expecting problems because I have a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H with an Etron controller, but it said everything was fine so I went ahead and bought it. I set it up without any problems, it had no complaints about the headset and one sensor being USB 3 and the second sensor USB 2, I then used it without problems for around 2 weeks.

Over the weekend I decided to upgrade to Windows 10 (made a backup image of my SSD first), the upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 went smoothly, the Rift continued to work perfectly but the computer was running slower, I was already overdue a clean install so decided to format and install a fresh version of Windows 10, again, everything went smoothly, until I installed Oculus home, the beginning of the setup was fine, it found the headset and both the sensors and didn't have any problems setting up the sensors and guardian, when it got to the "continue in your headset" part is where the problems started, the headset wouldn't turn on, the amber light was on and the software knew it was there but the display wouldn't turn on.

I made sure I'd installed all the drivers and everything seemed fine, ran the Oculus Compatibility Checker again and now it said my USB controller wasn't compatible! Not wanting to mess around I restored my Windows 7 backup image and everything was fine again.

Today I decided I'd give it another go, but this time disable the Etron controller in device manager, that worked as far as the headset now turns on, but I get warnings about one of the sensors not tracking properly, I've tried every combination of USB ports with the same results, I ignored it and carried on with the setup but the display keeps freezing for a second or two, making it almost impossible to use.

Now I could go back to Windows 7 again and leave it at that, but the reason I went to 10 in the first place is it's only a matter of time before all/most new releases won't support 7. I'm at that point where the performance increase isn't great enough to justify the cost of a new motherboard/processor/RAM, so a new motherboard with compatible USB 3 isn't happening, leaving me with one last solution, a USB 3 PCI-E card..

TL: DR, OcUK don't seem to sell the recommended Inateck card, does the StarTech 4 Port USB 3.0 PCI-E card (PEXUSB3S42) work with the Rift? I would really like to have it working properly by Wednesday, my son is coming to play on it and I'd rather not have to go through the whole restore Windows 7, format, install Windows 10, try again!

Rob Turbo · 11 Sep 2017 at 21:58

danoliver1 said:
Might be worth a read.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp....ing_usb_30_incompatible_port_issues_try_this/

I found a solution in the comments there, I edited out the UsbBlackList in Compatibility.json then changed it to read only, enabled my Etron controller in device manager again and ran the Rift setup again, it shows all the ports as USB 2 but doesn't complain about them and it's running smooth again, thanks for the pointer!

Rob Turbo · 16 Sep 2017 at 11:22

I guess I spoke too soon, I'm getting a lot of poor tracking errors for the headset and sensors, every couple of minutes, whenever it happens the display freezes for a second or two. I gave in and bought an Inateck USB 3 PCI-E card with the Fresco Logic chipset, I've tried it with Microsoft drivers and Fresco Logic drivers, power management always disabled, memory usage is 50-65%, CPU is around 40-50%, GPU around 30-40% when it happens, I can't even play anything that would stress it further, I've nearly gone down a couple of times when the display has frozen!

I've tried Google and none of the solutions I found work for me, all I can think now is go back to Windows 7 again.

Rob Turbo · 16 Sep 2017 at 12:41

Shiari said:
These USB devices aren't going to be blacklisted for the fun of it, that type of blacklisting would be done because they've found problems themselves, or because customers did. And at I believe 450Mbit of data for each of these sensors, some USB controllers are going to fail. All in all it's easier to blacklist as a stern warning the device isn't supported (and let people try for themselves at their own risk) rather than just allow and deal with tons more support issues.

That's why I'm not using the blacklisted controllers! Even with the Etron controller disabled in Device Manager I get the same problems. Besides, the blacklisted Etron controller caused NO issues in Windows 7.

If you're using the Inateck with Windows drivers you should be ok, but if you're using it with the Fresco Logic drivers you'll need some registry fix patch that needs to be applied at every boot. Oculus Tray Tool is one way of taking care of that for you, otherwise just go back to the Windows drivers by removing the device and software and letting it detect again.

As I said, I've tried both Windows drivers and the Fresco Logic drivers, with power management disabled, I've tried both manually and with Oculus Tray Tool.

Other than that, you've not given any detail on your configuration, what games/experiences are giving you problems, etc. All you did was to give some ballpark usage percentages without any context whatsoever.

If it's VR, it happens, there's no particular game/experience that it happens with, it's everything, even just sitting in Oculus Home, the "ballpark usage percentages" were merely to show that nothing was being maxed out, it's not just when I'm running something that pushes hardware to it's limits.

Rob Turbo · 16 Sep 2017 at 14:22

When I use Windows drivers for the Inateck card I get a warning in Oculus Home saying "USB driver update recommended", no warnings at all when using the Fresco Logic drivers. Every time the display freezes I get a warning saying "poor tracking quality" for either a sensor or the headset, sometimes one sensor and the headset at the same time, this doesn't last long, it's only there for a few seconds then goes away, to see it I have to either quickly take the headset off as soon as it happens or I'll watch the Oculus Home settings window while someone else uses the headset.

I have one sensor and the headset plugged into the Inateck card, nothing else, the second sensor is in a USB 2 port on the motherboard, I was having the same issues but more often using the onboard Intel USB 3 ports, I tried using the Etron USB ports after I edited compatibility.json but they didn't work at all, just a permanent warning about poor tracking and it wouldn't even attempt to set up.

I have an i5 3570k @ 4.3Ghz, Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H, 8GB Kingston HyperX 1600, Asus GTX 1080 Turbo, Razer Blackwidow Chroma, Logitech G502 Proteus, Xbox 360 wireless receiver and one Rift sensor plugged into onboard USB 2 ports, Rift headset and one sensor plugged into Inateck USB 3 PCI-E card. Running a clean install of Windows 10 Home, nothing but drivers, Firefox, Steam, Oculus Home and Oculus Tray Tool installed, all drivers downloaded from manufacturers sites.

Rob Turbo · 16 Sep 2017 at 16:31

I've just tried two sensors in the Inateck with Microsoft drivers and the headset in USB 3 and then 2 on the motherboard, same problem, then again with two sensors in the Inateck with Fresco Logic drivers and the headset in USB 3 on the motherboard, this worked the best with only one slight tracking stutter in Oculus Medium within about 10 minutes of use, I'll give it a proper go tonight.