Valve Index has been an extremely frustrating experience.

[Username]

I bought the full package for $1k, disconnected all Rift items. My audio setup includes a DAC (schiit modi into schiit magni) which leads to HD650s for audio. My mic includes a Shure SM7B into a Roland VT-4 connected with USB.

That said, I've never experienced any issues with the Rift, but I have been with the index, so to troubleshoot I disconnected every single USB device from my computer (with the exception of keyboard and mouse).

After rebooting several times (with no avail) I've had the computer hard freeze when plugging in the VR headset, I've had only one controller (the left one) track until a reboot, I've had audio that worked in the HMD last night, but so far today I've done everything I possibly can to try to get it to work with no luck, playing test tones on the device leaves me with "Failed to play test tone." when the device appears in Windows Sound and is green, I've tried every configuration imaginable in Steam VR by setting the appropriate HMD devices and Microphones.

Nothing works appropriately. With only the Index VR headset plugged in Steam doesn't detect it on reboot unless I wait, unplug the main cable, and plug it back in, then the USB sound plays 3-6 times before its detected and shows up. There have been several times where I only get a repeating USB sound in an infinite loop until I disconnect it.

Currently, after many random reboots, moving cables to different ports, and reconnecting the main cable on the HMD its working but without audio. This is infuriating.

[Sleeping Lesson]

I'm having a similar experience. Sound was working for a bit last night, and now today I can't get anything to play through the Index. Have uninstalled Nvidia and Steam VR drivers multiple times to no avail.

[Username]

So I had it working for a while today, I used the Steam VR Developer menu to remove all USB devices, and then rebooted. Plugging in the USB didn't activate the HMD, but having it plugged in and then reconnecting the main cable made everything work and so I played VR for a while until...

I plugged the controllers into the PC via USB to charge, absolute chaos. Looping USB connect and disconnect sounds, constant warnings that the headset had been disconnected, check it for sweat etc, then warnings that it had been disconnected mid-cable. These two messages over and over and over until I un-plugged the Index controllers.

After 5 reboots I'm back to where I was yesterday, VR with no sound, and once again I had sound earlier.

This experience is miserable.

[Username]

As an experiment, opening the control panel Sounds options, without touching anything at all, as it sits on the Playback tab, is causing Steam VR to experience a critical failure over and over so I choose Restart SteamVR - until it says a Critical Component of Steam VR is Failing, and it links me to a page that tells me to uninstall several programs - none of which I have installed.

Apparently several other people are able to get sound simply by having the Sounds options open on the Playback tab, mine just makes SteamVR endlessly crash.

[RaV Mahov]

Did you, by any chance, use SteamVR audio settings that allow autmatic audio switching (on SteamVR startup) back and forth from Index to the regular speaker outputs, as well as audio mirroring?

http://i.imgur.com/MTk5ADA.png
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4is689/psa_steamvr_can_automatically_set_your_audio/

[Username]

Originally posted by RaV Mahov:

Did you, by any chance, use SteamVR audio settings that allow automatic audio switching (on SteamVR startup) back and forth from Index to the regular speaker outputs, as well as audio mirroring?

http://i.imgur.com/MTk5ADA.png
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4is689/psa_steamvr_can_automatically_set_your_audio/

Unfortunately if I have these settings set to automatically switch audio to the Index HMD SteamVR will crash once the game starts and a sound plays. To get around this I currently have all the settings pointed to send audio to my DAC/Headphones and have the sound mirrored to the Index HMD. This prevents the crashing in a game, sometimes sound comes out of the HMD like it should, sometimes it only comes out of my usual headphones.

Others with similar issues online had mentioned opening the Windows sound settings to the Playback tab and it fixed it for them, for me it just makes SteamVR crash instantly, over and over.

There seems to be no single fix, for me. Audio has worked after 10-20 reboots of Windows at random. Audio worked after SteamVR crashed 10 times and then reached a new fail state where the message informed me to remove conflicting software - of which nothing was removed because I didn't have anything on the list of conflicts - but then audio played next time I opened it, Audio worked after uninstalling all Valve Index related USB devices, rebooting, and plugging things back in, Audio worked after randomly disabling two Nvidia High Definition Audio devices.

Its completely random, and the solution of fiddling with every setting possible, and moving the USB port around doesn't help me get any closer to why this is happening. I appreciate your suggestion, though.

[Username]

These issues aren't generating any notable Windows Alerts logs in Computer Management, does anyone know if the SteamVR crash dumps a verbose log anywhere that I can read to maybe get a hint?

edit: will be looking at logs in these locations: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/135509758529538311/

[Damsteri]

You can set/see the location of the log directory in SteamVR. You can change it from SteamVR settings -> Developer -> Paths (scroll to the bottom).

There are lots of log files in that folder, not just one log file. Have you checked those?

Btw. Are you using OpenVR Advanced Settings? I have found out that it crashes the SteamVR when opened and there is no valid audio output (all disabled, no default in windows).

[epmode]

I'm having severe USB issues too. And this is with a new computer/motherboard wtih a whole bunch of USB 3.1 ports, fully updated BIOS/chipset/drivers.

Considering a return. Does Valve even do returns for this thing?

[RaV Mahov]

Originally posted by epmode:

I'm having severe USB issues too. And this is with a new computer/motherboard wtih a whole bunch of USB 3.1 ports, fully updated BIOS/chipset/drivers.

Considering a return. Does Valve even do returns for this thing?

I would wait for a moment before considering return anyway.
Also, Vive had issues with its internal camera when connected to USB 3.0 (Vive used 2.0).
Once you started the camera (accidentally or not), you were pretty much forced to restart SteamVR because everything blinked and failed.
Try various ports, not only 3.1. It might turn out to be the same problem (for some reason).

[Damsteri]

I don't have experience with Valve Index headset, but I have used multiple PCs with multiple Vive / Vive Pro headsets.

There was only one case where I couldn't get headset recognized properly. I had to used lots of time to fix that, as it was work laptop back then. The system lost Vive randomly and I had to reboot the laptop to get it recognized or reinstall USB-drivers and try a different port. It was a nightmare,

Do you have any overclocked components? By yourself or factory overclocked.

I found out that my work laptop's factory overclock (Lenovo with physical OC-button) wasn't compatible with SteamVR after Windows 10 Fall 2017 Creators update. SteamVR worked with OC before, but not after it. It seems that either Lenovo's OC tool was to blame or changes in Windows OS. There was no update to the tool. I got the laptop working without problems with Vive after I avoid using that Lenovo's OC-button.

Testing on different computer would be the best solution. That allows you to see if the problem is in the headset or your computer.

[epmode]

I keep reading about people getting around these USB issues by using a USB 2.0 port instead of 3.X. The only 2.0 ports my computer has are at the front of my case. They're too far away from the video card so I can't connect HDMI and USB simultaneously.

This is very frustrating.

[RaV Mahov]

Originally posted by epmode:

I keep reading about people getting around these USB issues by using a USB 2.0 port instead of 3.X. The only 2.0 ports my computer has are at the front of my case. They're too far away from the video card so I can't connect HDMI and USB simultaneously.

This is very frustrating.

This would work with HTC Vive (I mean, connecting to 2.0)

The Valve Index should be 3.0-native. But 3.1 might cause issues (not sure about that, might be compatible).
Don't you have some weird power-saving utilities from the motherboard vendor or something that might interfere with Index hardware?

Edit:
Another question: what exactly are your PC specifications?

[Damsteri]

Originally posted by RaV Mahov:

The Valve Index should be 3.0-native. But 3.1 might cause issues (not sure about that, might be compatible).

USB naming is little bit confusing, but there is no real difference between USB 3.0 and 3.1 specification other than speed. And both of those doesn't actually even exists anymore. USB group makes the USB specification and they change the naming in few year intervals. Its enough to speak about USB 3 or USB 3.x or USB 3.2 (see below) unless you have a device that requires certain data transfer speed that is higher than slowest specification offers.

First in 2013 they changed USB 3.0 to be USB 3.1 Gen 1 and the new faster speed was named USB 3.1 Gen 2. USB 3.0 was no more, it has been dead for over 8 years now.

Then in 2017 they introduced USB 3.2 and the slowest speed is now USB 3.2 Gen 1x1 (ex USB 3.0 / USB 3.1 Gen 1), second lowest speed is USB 3.2 Gen 1x2, third slowest speed is USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 (ex USB 3.1 Gen 2) and the new fourth slowest/fastest speed is USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. And now the USB 3.1 is no more. This is the current situation, we have USB 3.2 on four different speeds, nothing else.

What a mess! Now millions of users have their computers full of USB 3.2 ports without even knowing it. Speed is the only difference between mentioned USB specifications. On the other hand USB-C is just a connector, it can be used with any of those four USB 3.2 specifications or with VirtualLink for example.

[epmode]

Originally posted by RaV Mahov:

Don't you have some weird power-saving utilities from the motherboard vendor or something that might interfere with Index hardware?

Edit:
Another question: what exactly are your PC specifications?

I built the computer myself and I didn't install any weird power-saving utilities. I don't see anything from ASUS in my programs list, nor anything that looks like it's related to power.

I have an ASUS ROG Maximux XI Code motherboard with an Intel i7 9700K processor and an EVGA 2080 Ti. Keyboard, wired mouse, Xbox controller... I can only think of two non-standard USB devices: I have a third party Wiimote sensor and a wired SteelSeries headset.

Nothing is overclocked.

[Username]

Interesting new development, I now am able to get sound to come out of the Index HMD by manually switching to it and making it the default audio device. This didn't work before, but now it does.

Coincidentally, my actual microphone (SM7B through Roland VT-4) won't work on anything, discord, Windows test mic; its all broken. If I click the checkbox to listen to myself I can hear myself, but nobody else can here me on any applications. This worked fine before, for at least a year with no problems, so now its broken. Thanks Valve, really having fun with this one.

Also, there was nothing notable in any logs. I have no overclocks.