Vive controller won't turn off

[Stormalong]

So I got my Vive a few weeks ago and everything has been working great. Then, all of a sudden last night one of the controllers powers itself on and I don't even have the HMD plugged in. That's weird I thought, and I try to power it down but it wont shut off. It then starts to power cycle, over and over and over again. Just so happens I updated the firmware on it the night before. Maybe it was a bad update.

So I hook up my HMD, and it pairs and stops rebooting. Ok cool. Steam VR then tells me there is another firmware update for this controller. Great maybe that will fix it. I apply the firmware update and it says it's successful. So far so good.

I then quit Steam VR and not 1 second after it shuts down, it starts back up again. What the heck. Now only the problem controller is on, the other one is still off. Turns out the controller isn't fixed, and when it turns on, it's starting Steam VR if the HMD is connected.

I tried right clicking the controller in Steam VR and selecting power off, but it immediately comes back on.

I tried disconnecting the HMD and shutting down Steam VR and then holding the system button down on the controller.

I tried unpairing and re-pairing the controller.

I tried resetting it by holding down all the buttons except system and plugging it in to my PC then waiting 5 seconds and letting them go, see the new drive dialog and then unplug it from the PC.

I saw a post somewhere where it was stated you could force a firmware update by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER on the firmware screen to force it to give you the update option, but the option never appeared for me.

I'm not sure what else to try so I guess I will be contacting support. This thing is going to be rebooting until the battery dies because I left it unplugged and stuffed it in a drawer so I don't have to hear the chime every 30 seconds.

I scoured the internets and I haven't found mention of this particular issue anywhere so I figured I would post. If I ultimately find a solution I will update it.

Has anyone else come across this?

Do I use Steam or HTC support?

I also posted this on reddit here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4vz691/vive_controller_wont_turn_off/

Thanks!

[Vaporkitty]

2 things come to mind. First, I would try tapping the System button 10 or 20 times on the affected controller just to make sure it's not stuck down. I think if the System button was stuck down it could cause the problem you're describing. It's also possible the button could be defective.

Also, you can do some type of restore by holding down all the buttons except System (Menu, Trackpad, Trigger and Grip) and plugging the controller into USB on your computer. Of course that won't work if it's a defective System button. Since you've already tried that, I'm going with defective System button.

[Stormalong]

Originally posted by cmargaux:

2 things come to mind. First, I would try tapping the System button 10 or 20 times on the affected controller just to make sure it's not stuck down. I think if the System button was stuck down it could cause the problem you're describing. It's also possible the button could be defective.

Also, you can do some type of restore by holding down all the buttons except System (Menu, Trackpad, Trigger and Grip) and plugging the controller into USB on your computer. Of course that won't work if it's a defective System button. Since you've already tried that, I'm going with defective System button.

I did try the reset (holding all the buttons down except the system button) but that didn't help. I agree that it could indeed be a bad system button, in fact that seems like a likely cause. I plan on hitting HTC up when I get home from work. If I can get them to agree, I hope they will get me a new one quickly.

[Stormalong]

So it seems to have been resolved with another reset, but the whole thing was kind of flaky so I will be keeping an eye on it. Full update posted on reddit.