SOS basestations stopped working after firmware update

[info]

Please help, both HTC Vive basestations stopped working after firmware update ( 13. december 2016). Now they are black, without any light from them. How can it be resolved?

[StayHydratedDrinkWater]

tahnk you very much you saved me! in my case it even got rid of the green flickering

[willty greenz]

worked for me Dec 25, 2018. had the same issue with firmware update of the second basestation bricking the basestation. the instructions here recovered it.

[ROBBERCHIEF]

-Just got the VIVE yesterday spent all night trying to get it to work, found this solution, did not work.-
Scratch that, It worked

[Sophie]

Thank you so much! Feb 2019 and this is still an issue. Thought I'd broke my Vive within a few hrs!

[HULKY]

Just installed my new Vive Pro Starters kit ( controllers 1.0 and basestations 1.0 ).
Followed the whole installation procedure by the letter.
... and yes, SteamVR told me to update the firmware, and as a good boy we performed likewise, with same results as what I read here.
HMD firmware update succesful, controllers update FW succesfull, basestation 1 firmware update succesful, basestation 2 firmware update ....... bang : black, no light, just plain dead. imagine the horror :-)
no You dear user didn't do anything wrong, it is a software glitch.
can't understand that something which is going on since 2016 is NOT SOLVED YET BY FEB 2019 ???????!!!!!!! sorry HTC, but these toys cost us +1000$ premium price, then one might expect also premium software updates ! come on !

one advice for non-PC-pro's like me : follow the rules litteraly step by step as in the original message/post.
it will show itself out, once you hooked up the USB-C, then pressed the key and then put in the powercord, your basestation is recognised by your PC as a USB device and the file which needs to be deleted is clearly there. run the steps and YES, you will be fine. your little basestation comes back alive !!!!!!

many thanks to magician who cracked this case !
you saved the day !

[AuntieMaru]

So ditto to what Hulky just said. I got the system yesterday, played some, updated the firmware before turning everything off. Come back to it today and one of my base stations is completely dead. I'm so happy I found your post. Thank you very much sir. Your instructions worked perfectly. I wouldn't normally just repeat what everyone else has said, but this is a really sucky thing to have happen to a brand new and expensive system and I wanted to express proper gratitude for posting the fix for us. So thanks again.

[Shirangan]

Bro, you saved me. I can’t thank you enough!!!!!!!!!

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von info:

Vive support offered me next solution for my HTC Vive (after yesterdays /13.12. 2016 unfortunate firmware update) but I am afraid that it will not work because Base Stations do not light, have black face nad in SteamVR window are grey and only controllers and googles are green.

But if you are really experienced maybe it will help:

The fix has worked successfully for several users, so we shipped the required files in the latest beta.

You can find the files under your SteamVR install directory.

The easiest way to get there is to right click on SteamVR in Steam, select Properties, click on the Local Files tab and Browse Local Files...

Once there the firmware files live in:

tools\lighthouse\firmware\lighthouse_tx\archive\htc_2.0

You will need two files:

* lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-calibration-rescue-244.bin
* lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-244-2016-03-12.bin



The procedure is much like upgrading manually, but you do it twice, once with the fix-up firmware which will try to fix the base station, then once it has completed the fix, again with the current latest firmware.

1. With the base station unpowered, connect via a micro-B USB cable to your PC.
2. Hold the mode button down and plug in the power lead.
3. You can release the button once it enumerates as a USB mass storage device.
4. The drive will be called “CRP_DISABLED” and contain one file “firmware.bin”, delete that file.
5. Copy over onto the drive the “lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-calibration-rescue-244.bin” file.
6. Once the copy is complete, pull out the power lead.
7. Wait a few seconds then plug in the power again. Be sure not to press the mode button while powering it up this time.
8. In a couple of seconds it should rapidly flash green or red. Green means it succeeded.
9. If it is flashing red that means it couldn’t automatically fix it and I’ll need to look at the unit to work out why.
10. Unplug the power again.
11. Repeat steps 1 thru 7 but using the “lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-244-2016-03-12.bin” firmware file instead of the rescue one.
12. The base should now be working again, confirm by setting its mode to "A" and tracking with it alone (the other base turned off). Once it is confirmed working you can add back the other base.

If you were in the same situation and helped, write it here please. I will not do it, I am 5 year very happy Apple user and have PC with Windows 10 Home (version 1607) only for VR love of things like Tillt Brush, Anyland and Gnomes & Goblins.



Thank you so much man

[rororobin]

Thank you so much!
I bought my Vive second-hand and I was really afraid I'd been scammed, but this fixed it!

[amadan]

*** WARNING ABOUT THIS PROCEDURE ***

The procedure originally posted by info, 15 Dec, 2016 @ 4:07am is not correct for SteamVR tracking 2.0 base stations. It may work for the older version, I can't confirm that.

I tried the procedure last night. It all went well up to the end of step 4. I backed up and then deleted the firmware.bin from the base station and replaced it with "lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-calibration-rescue-244.bin". I continued with Step 5, 6 and 7 and then at step * I got no lights at all. I waited for ages and then tried step 8 again, no luck. So I tried to backtrack to step 3 and 4 but this time these didn't work either.

Turns out I have made a brick.

I contacted HTC Vive Support via email and got the following advice this morning:

"Let me continue by explaining the firmware rescue you performed on the units is not compatible with the VIVE Pro Base Station and the process should have caused internal software damages on the units so a repair process is needed since they are not turning on at all."

It will all be fine, she has assured me that as long as the Base Station is in the warranty period (it is) they will repair them free of charge and I will only be liable shipping the unit to them.

Under Australian Consumer Law, I could in-fact take them back to the place of purchase (Harvey Norman) and make it their problem with no shipping cost, but it took them so long to supply the VR set in the first place after purchase that I think dealing directly with HTC will be faster.

Think twice before trying this procedure. I have also begged HTC to improve the documentation and troubleshooting advice on their website for both versions of base station so we can all live in hope.

[Lupris]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von amadan:

*** WARNING ABOUT THIS PROCEDURE ***

The procedure originally posted by info, 15 Dec, 2016 @ 4:07am is not correct for SteamVR tracking 2.0 base stations. It may work for the older version, I can't confirm that.

I tried the procedure last night. It all went well up to the end of step 4. I backed up and then deleted the firmware.bin from the base station and replaced it with "lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-calibration-rescue-244.bin". I continued with Step 5, 6 and 7 and then at step * I got no lights at all. I waited for ages and then tried step 8 again, no luck. So I tried to backtrack to step 3 and 4 but this time these didn't work either.

Turns out I have made a brick.

I contacted HTC Vive Support via email and got the following advice this morning:

"Let me continue by explaining the firmware rescue you performed on the units is not compatible with the VIVE Pro Base Station and the process should have caused internal software damages on the units so a repair process is needed since they are not turning on at all."

It will all be fine, she has assured me that as long as the Base Station is in the warranty period (it is) they will repair them free of charge and I will only be liable shipping the unit to them.

Under Australian Consumer Law, I could in-fact take them back to the place of purchase (Harvey Norman) and make it their problem with no shipping cost, but it took them so long to supply the VR set in the first place after purchase that I think dealing directly with HTC will be faster.

Think twice before trying this procedure. I have also begged HTC to improve the documentation and troubleshooting advice on their website for both versions of base station so we can all live in hope.

So there is no way to repair the Base Stations 2.0?

[CanivasSound]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von info:

Vive support offered me next solution for my HTC Vive (after yesterdays /13.12. 2016 unfortunate firmware update) but I am afraid that it will not work because Base Stations do not light, have black face nad in SteamVR window are grey and only controllers and googles are green.

But if you are really experienced maybe it will help:

The fix has worked successfully for several users, so we shipped the required files in the latest beta.

You can find the files under your SteamVR install directory.

The easiest way to get there is to right click on SteamVR in Steam, select Properties, click on the Local Files tab and Browse Local Files...

Once there the firmware files live in:

tools\lighthouse\firmware\lighthouse_tx\archive\htc_2.0

You will need two files:

* lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-calibration-rescue-244.bin
* lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-244-2016-03-12.bin



The procedure is much like upgrading manually, but you do it twice, once with the fix-up firmware which will try to fix the base station, then once it has completed the fix, again with the current latest firmware.

1. With the base station unpowered, connect via a micro-B USB cable to your PC.
2. Hold the mode button down and plug in the power lead.
3. You can release the button once it enumerates as a USB mass storage device.
4. The drive will be called “CRP_DISABLED” and contain one file “firmware.bin”, delete that file.
5. Copy over onto the drive the “lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-calibration-rescue-244.bin” file.
6. Once the copy is complete, pull out the power lead.
7. Wait a few seconds then plug in the power again. Be sure not to press the mode button while powering it up this time.
8. In a couple of seconds it should rapidly flash green or red. Green means it succeeded.
9. If it is flashing red that means it couldn’t automatically fix it and I’ll need to look at the unit to work out why.
10. Unplug the power again.
11. Repeat steps 1 thru 7 but using the “lighthouse_tx_htc_2_0-244-2016-03-12.bin” firmware file instead of the rescue one.
12. The base should now be working again, confirm by setting its mode to "A" and tracking with it alone (the other base turned off). Once it is confirmed working you can add back the other base.

If you were in the same situation and helped, write it here please. I will not do it, I am 5 year very happy Apple user and have PC with Windows 10 Home (version 1607) only for VR love of things like Tillt Brush, Anyland and Gnomes & Goblins.

2020 covid-19 pandemic, still a problem, still a working solution. You've saved the quarantine, sir.

[tacsquid]

what the ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ 4/27/20 and it's still auto bricking on update. What a disgrase

[amadan]

"what the ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ 4/27/20 and it's still auto bricking on update. What a disgrase"

In fairness, I now believe that procedure was designed for Base Station 1.0s I tried it on a BaseStation 2.0

I sent the base stations away for repair under warranty.
I would like to say that they came back and everything was great, but I can't.
I got them back in January (Christmas is not a good time to be sending things away for repairs) but when I plugged them in I got an error message saying they were both set to the same channel. I also got the notification saying they were running old firmware.
I tried to change the channel in settings but there it told me it couldn't find any base stations. I figured this was because of the conflict, so I tried turning one off. That didn't work either.

I then contacted support, jumped though all their hoops unplug everything uninstall drivers plug everything back in....that sort of thing; none of that worked so I had to send them back again.

They sent me another couple of new base stations and had exactly the same issue. They made me jump through more hoops and nothing worked so finally the support person said something like "Well we might just have to switch the Base station channel manually.

It turns out that on the back of the Base Station 2.0s there is a little pin hole. If you gently poke a paper clip into that hole (while the base station is on) there is a little button you can push with the paper clip that cycles through base station channels. I changed the channel, restarted everything and it worked. after that procedure I can now even change the channels via the software....and best of all, I then tried the firmware update and it worked too.

It took a long time but finally I have VR again.