Shared IPC Compositor Connect Failed (306)

[Hunter]

All right, here is the fabulous story of the issue i'm facing when I start SteamVR.

I just got a brand new HTC vive and started to install it with eager, following the instructions of the ViveSetup. Everything went well until the start of SteamVR.

Looking at the steamVR overlay, everything is green(I updated the firmwares) and detected, every LED on the hardware is green and happy.
BUT the Vive screens are off and steamVR gives me a big "Not Ready" and a little error window above tells me :
"Connect Failed
A key component of SteamVR isn't working properly (306)"

After a little while steam gives me this error message :

"SteamVR failed to initialized for unknown reasons. (Error: Shared IPC Compositor Connect Failed(306))"
(I'm not realy sure about what is the IPC compositor but it's ok)

I tried the few possible fixes I found for this particular issue, I tried a lot of possible fixes for issue close to the on I have
without success. I did cleanly uninstall and reinstall everything, my graphic drivers are up to date (NVIDIA 382.53), replug, swiching usb ports and more ...

I did look up the logs of steamVR and found a few interesting things but i'm not sure how to act on those.

For exemple, the lighthouses doesn't have the bluetooth firmware installed :

"Bluetooth Firmware:	Not yet acquired. Should be 211"

But from my understanding it's not vital for this to work.


from vrclient_vrstartup.txt :

...
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:26.541 - Received success response from vrserver connect
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:26.541 - [Chaperone] No chaperone data. D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\chaperone_info.vrchap does not exist
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:26.543 - Starting vrcompositor process: D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win32\vrcompositor.exe 
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:34.644 - Timeout while waiting for message of type VRMsg_CompositorConnectResponse on pipe VR_CompositorPipe_5632
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:34.644 - Invalid response to connect message. Connect failed
...

from the vrserver.txt :

...
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:34.647 - IPCPipe(vrstartup (5912)): Process disconnected.
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:34.647 - Process vrstartup (5912) disconnected
...

from vrclient_vrmonitor.txt :

...
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:35.850 - WaitNamedPipe VR_CompositorPipe_5632 failed because The semaphore timeout period has expired.
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:36.851 - WaitNamedPipe VR_CompositorPipe_5632 failed because The semaphore timeout period has expired.
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:37.951 - WaitNamedPipe VR_CompositorPipe_5632 failed because The semaphore timeout period has expired.
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:13:39.051 - WaitNamedPipe VR_CompositorPipe_5632 failed because The semaphore timeout period has expired.
...

from vrmonitor.txt :

...
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:14:30.751 - VR_Init successful
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:14:34.754 - Unable to get compositor interface (306)
...
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:14:34.775 - [Status Warning Added LHB-5E231FA5 Base(2)] Tracking Device has no pose (0x0008)
...
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:14:34.783 - [Status Alert] Connect Failed (306)
...
Fri Jun 09 2017 20:15:39.934 - [Status Alert] Connect Failed (306)
...

For information here are some specs :

OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (x64)
GC: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
RAM: 8GB
Proc: i5-6600k @3.50GHz

And some informations about the displays detected in steamVR :

Displays - Direct Mode
Display 0: \\.\DISPLAY1 1920x1080 @ (0, 0) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Primary 
Monitor 0: \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0 Generic PnP Monitor

Display 1: NvAPI 2160x1200 @ (0, 0) NVIDIA  Direct Mode

The only things I have left are some tears and the power of the internet. If anyone have any idea to explore, i'd be grateful.

Please forgive some spelling mistakes, i'm a bit overworked.

[--ranXerox--]

if you friend me now, i can trouble shoot this with you.

[Hunter]

I tested it on a windows 10 and it worked great. Since people are using the Vive with windows 7 without issue, I assume something was not up to date on mine.

Problem solved.

Thanks for the help --ranXerox--

[--ranXerox--]

ohh man, no problem. I hope you had a spare drive to install 10 on. I like helping people...thats why i do for a living.

[unfortunatalie]

Had this for the last 5 months. RETURN IT AND REPLACE IT. Its seriously not worth your hassle and time. Send the entire thing back and buy a new one.

[Samino2]

The same issue error 306 and Compositor not available can you help me ;-;

[blakdeth19]

got one today, had same compositer 400 error. tried all this stuff, maybe this will help you guys but i had the link box go hdmi to dp adapter to dp port on my gpu, and hdmi to my monitor. i switched to hdmi from link box to gpu and did dp adapter to hdmi to the monitor and it fixed my issue :)

[kristindragos]

I'm using windows 10, but still seeing the compositor error. Any suggestions for where to look to start debugging/troubleshooting?

[Alien Identity]

Some HDMI to MiniDisplayPort cables/adaptors cause problems, and some dont. This issue has been causing problems since day one for Vive users. I always recommend using tHDMI between the GPU and Breakoutbox.

The other issue is the onboard GPU and Video Card, I believe that Rift can use the video card while the monitor uses the onboard GPU. SteamVR needs both HMD and Monitor to run off the one GPU.

[kristindragos]

I'm not using any adapters. I'm using the HDMI cable that came with the headset (my Oculus). I'm on my laptop, so I only have one HDMI port. Is there a way to manually check this?

[Alien Identity]

Laptop GPU..... have you disabled the onboard graphics, so only the Video Card is used? The process is diffferent for different laptops so I cant tell you how to do it on your laptop. Either in Bios turn of onboard GPU, or Nvidia Control Panel set High Performance Nvidia GPU to do ALL processing of graphics. If the laptop is using 2 GPU's (the onboard and the Video Card) then it will not work for SteamVR and will give you a Compositor error.

[Samites]

Im having the same issue, anybody haave a solution ive tried multiple other forums and nothing worked. I downgraded my Nvidia driver and nothing works. Help

[DefiantlyErect]

I was having the "Shared IPC Compositor Connect Failed (306)" error in SteamVR and that brought me here. I'd like to share my fix.

For me, this problem was caused by having two video cards. I have an onboard Intel chip and then my Nvidia 1060 in my laptop. The fix is either boot into the Discrete video card mode to force the system to always use the Nvidia card. Or, I just figured out how to set my Nvidia settings to fix this for SteamVR and maintain the hybrid video card settings.

In your Nvidia control panel, under "Manage 3D Settings" click the "Program Settings" tab to create a custom setting for an application.

Drop down that list and look for "vrserver.exe" or add it, mine was found at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SteamVR\bin\win64\vrserver.exe"

Then under "Selected the preferred graphics processor for this program" select your high-performance video card.

Example:
http://imgur.com/a/ayc8m

[wilch1]

Thanks Odie, worked for me!

[Tak!]

Originally posted by Odie McOdieFace:

The fix is either boot into the Discrete video card mode to force the system to always use the Nvidia card. Or, I just figured out how to set my Nvidia settings to fix this for SteamVR and maintain the hybrid video card settings.

I just ran into this as well - either a windows update or an nvidia driver update had reset the setting on my system. Re-applying it resolved the issue.

[Oscar_rodriguez_parga]

I had the same problem after the last update of windows 10 (version 1703. compilation 15063.632). But I reloaded the drivers of my nvidia 780Ti (driver 385.69) I rebooted my computer and ready, My HTC Live came to life,