Need help for "Headset Plugged Into Wrong Video Card"

[Asriel]

I bought the Oculus Rift in 14th March 2018. First of all I think I can't play VR because I'm using laptop for play, but I can play the oculus game, then I open the steam to play the game it shows me the problem of my video card, it said the headset plugged into the wrong video card. All the steam game I played it always said "Headset Plugged Into Wrong Video Card. This application requires the headset and the main monitor be plugged into the same graphics card" This massage makes me really bad and I really want play the game!!!

[DJ_Ice]

It took me 3 days of searching and piecing posts together, running useless tests with Microsoft support, but I have finally solved the Headset plugged into wrong video card error! Specifically when playing Skyrim VR on Steam.

I have a Surface Book 2 with the NVIDIA 1060 GTX chip. I am also using the Samsung Odyssey Windows Mixed Reality headset. And the OS is Windows 10.

This is a multi-step process and I will try to explain in great detail, since no one else has taken the time as of yet.

First - Log into the NVIDIA Control Panel. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. Typing NVIDIA in the start menu brings up nothing of use. You may be thinking, I have the NVIDIA GeForce Experience... well that will not help you here. First go to the Windows Control Panel, then select Hardware and Sound, then at the bottom you will see NVIDIA Control Panel. That's where you want to be!

Second - On the taskbar to the left you will see 3 items under the only topic, 3D Settings. Select Manage 3D Settings. That opens the main screen (may take a minute) into the Global Settings tab. So I bet you're thinking, let's just change the global settings to use the NVIDIA chip, all my apps will run with super power and we can get this thing started. Well, that's what I thought to, but not so much. It will allow you to play the game, but forget about ever multi-tasking. This setting uses up all your system resourses and will cripple your pc.

What you want to do is go to the Program Settings tab. From here you can select the program you want to use the high end chip, but be careful. I have the regular Skyrim installed as well so I saw Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, Skyrimlauncher, Skyrim Test, a bunch of stuff. I changed them all, but that didn't do it.

What you will likely have to do is click Add and find the game you are looking for, in my case SkyrimVR. It will load with the entire pathname of the file, not pretty, but go ahead and select the high end chip and then exit. For some reason they felt like the 3 options were too overwhelming so there is no save option that I could find, but when you exit it will ask if you want to save.

Last thing to do is plug in and get started. I have read a lot of posts about use this and don't use that. If you have the SB2, you know there are 3 options to plug things in, USB-A, USB-C, and another USB-A. Which means you need a converter plug or a docking station. I have the Surface Dock, and of course, it does not come with an HDMI plug. 2 Mini Display ports and 2 USB-A ports, but no HDMI or even USB-C. I will list the ways that I have connected and I can tell you after hours of playing in each of them, I have not noticed any of them to be better, less latent, higher quality, or whatever than any of the others.

The Surface dock gives you 2 mini-display ports so you can VR and have another monitor plugged in. It does requires an HDMI to Mini Displayport adapter which is about $40 on top of the $200 for the dock. This is by far the most expensive option. It does use the power slot to plug in leaving all your other ports open, but the power is a slight bit lower than the regular charger.

If you don't know this already, when you are pushing your graphics chip and you hear the fans come on, your SB2 laptop is not charging... well, it's charging, but it's using more power than you can give it. Luckily I tend to feel ill and want to take a break before the charge is out and it does charge back up pretty quick when you disconnect the headset. I don't know why they can't just ship 120 watt chargers, but I'm sure there's a reason. Also the 2 bricks on the Surface Dock are pretty heavy compared to the single charging brick, and you have the power to brick one, then the cord from brick one to brick two, then another cord from brick two to the laptop. What I'm saying is it has lots of cords, yes it is better than those oldschool giant docks that the laptop sits on, but still not as travel friendly as I had hoped it would be.

Moving on, next is the Microsoft Surface USB-C to HDMI adapter. This works well, I can leave it on the HDMI on my headset and forget it's there. The only thing that is a pain is that the USB-C is on the opposite side of the USB-A, so even though it comes with a long cord, every inch I can get out of that thing could allow me to get out of the way of something coming at me, and less chance of me pulling the laptop off of the table.

Last thing I tried (and the one I currently use) is a n Insignia USB Type-C Multiport Adapter. I found this in the Apple section of Best Buy, it plugs in using USB-C, and it has an HDMI, USB-A and another USB-C output. This allows my to keep the USB-A and HDMI cables plugged in so when I want to play all I do is plug in the single USB-C adapter and I'm good to go.

Hopefully this helps and saves someone time, even though I know a lot of people will be upset at the length of the post. I just kept getting close, and then kept failing, so I wanted to put it all out there. Plus I never post anything, so I have a lot stored up. Good luck and enjoy!

[hallonsten]

@silentninj249: thank you very much for this post, which solved my problem in a blink, thereby saving me hours of frustrating searches. Thanks!

[Mignon_Belongie]

@silentninj249 Thank you so much for your detailed explanation of the NVIDIA Control Panel! It was exactly what I needed to make hellovr_opengl (a sample openvr program) work.

[Neo]

@silentninj249 - This is the best write up EVER!!! Thank you SO much for taking the time to provide that much detail. Just an FYI for others - I bought a UGREEN USB C to HDMI Adapter 4K 60HZ USB Type C Thunderbolt 3 Converter for 18 bones and it worked great with my SB2. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077FZLRFF

[sws]

too bad that i need to connect the headset to the card...

[Neil]

it doesn't show me a "high end chip" or something like that, just shows me other things

[nekochan AL]

silentninj249 thank you so so so so much for the help! i wanted to play minecraft vr but nothing i tried would work until i tried your solution. you are nothing short of a tech wiz in my eyes

[Devon]

Can someone further explain his post if it works?
because I don't understand all the short forms, what is SB2, USB-C etc.
i just want my vivecraft to work and they kept telling me "please plug your headset into the same graphics card as your primary monitor"

Could someone kindly help please T_T

[marlin]

Originally posted by silentninj249:

It took me 3 days of searching and piecing posts together, running useless tests with Microsoft support, but I have finally solved the Headset plugged into wrong video card error! Specifically when playing Skyrim VR on Steam.

I have a Surface Book 2 with the NVIDIA 1060 GTX chip. I am also using the Samsung Odyssey Windows Mixed Reality headset. And the OS is Windows 10.

This is a multi-step process and I will try to explain in great detail, since no one else has taken the time as of yet.

First - Log into the NVIDIA Control Panel. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. Typing NVIDIA in the start menu brings up nothing of use. You may be thinking, I have the NVIDIA GeForce Experience... well that will not help you here. First go to the Windows Control Panel, then select Hardware and Sound, then at the bottom you will see NVIDIA Control Panel. That's where you want to be!

Second - On the taskbar to the left you will see 3 items under the only topic, 3D Settings. Select Manage 3D Settings. That opens the main screen (may take a minute) into the Global Settings tab. So I bet you're thinking, let's just change the global settings to use the NVIDIA chip, all my apps will run with super power and we can get this thing started. Well, that's what I thought to, but not so much. It will allow you to play the game, but forget about ever multi-tasking. This setting uses up all your system resourses and will cripple your pc.

What you want to do is go to the Program Settings tab. From here you can select the program you want to use the high end chip, but be careful. I have the regular Skyrim installed as well so I saw Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, Skyrimlauncher, Skyrim Test, a bunch of stuff. I changed them all, but that didn't do it.

What you will likely have to do is click Add and find the game you are looking for, in my case SkyrimVR. It will load with the entire pathname of the file, not pretty, but go ahead and select the high end chip and then exit. For some reason they felt like the 3 options were too overwhelming so there is no save option that I could find, but when you exit it will ask if you want to save.

Last thing to do is plug in and get started. I have read a lot of posts about use this and don't use that. If you have the SB2, you know there are 3 options to plug things in, USB-A, USB-C, and another USB-A. Which means you need a converter plug or a docking station. I have the Surface Dock, and of course, it does not come with an HDMI plug. 2 Mini Display ports and 2 USB-A ports, but no HDMI or even USB-C. I will list the ways that I have connected and I can tell you after hours of playing in each of them, I have not noticed any of them to be better, less latent, higher quality, or whatever than any of the others.

The Surface dock gives you 2 mini-display ports so you can VR and have another monitor plugged in. It does requires an HDMI to Mini Displayport adapter which is about $40 on top of the $200 for the dock. This is by far the most expensive option. It does use the power slot to plug in leaving all your other ports open, but the power is a slight bit lower than the regular charger.

If you don't know this already, when you are pushing your graphics chip and you hear the fans come on, your SB2 laptop is not charging... well, it's charging, but it's using more power than you can give it. Luckily I tend to feel ill and want to take a break before the charge is out and it does charge back up pretty quick when you disconnect the headset. I don't know why they can't just ship 120 watt chargers, but I'm sure there's a reason. Also the 2 bricks on the Surface Dock are pretty heavy compared to the single charging brick, and you have the power to brick one, then the cord from brick one to brick two, then another cord from brick two to the laptop. What I'm saying is it has lots of cords, yes it is better than those oldschool giant docks that the laptop sits on, but still not as travel friendly as I had hoped it would be.

Moving on, next is the Microsoft Surface USB-C to HDMI adapter. This works well, I can leave it on the HDMI on my headset and forget it's there. The only thing that is a pain is that the USB-C is on the opposite side of the USB-A, so even though it comes with a long cord, every inch I can get out of that thing could allow me to get out of the way of something coming at me, and less chance of me pulling the laptop off of the table.

Last thing I tried (and the one I currently use) is a n Insignia USB Type-C Multiport Adapter. I found this in the Apple section of Best Buy, it plugs in using USB-C, and it has an HDMI, USB-A and another USB-C output. This allows my to keep the USB-A and HDMI cables plugged in so when I want to play all I do is plug in the single USB-C adapter and I'm good to go.

Hopefully this helps and saves someone time, even though I know a lot of people will be upset at the length of the post. I just kept getting close, and then kept failing, so I wanted to put it all out there. Plus I never post anything, so I have a lot stored up. Good luck and enjoy!

Just wanted to say this solved my issue!! Thanks man

[oversteer]

Originally posted by silentninj249:

It took me 3 days of searching and piecing posts together, running useless tests with Microsoft support, but I have finally solved the Headset plugged into wrong video card error! Specifically when playing Skyrim VR on Steam.

I have a Surface Book 2 with the NVIDIA 1060 GTX chip. I am also using the Samsung Odyssey Windows Mixed Reality headset. And the OS is Windows 10.

This is a multi-step process and I will try to explain in great detail, since no one else has taken the time as of yet.

First - Log into the NVIDIA Control Panel. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. Typing NVIDIA in the start menu brings up nothing of use. You may be thinking, I have the NVIDIA GeForce Experience... well that will not help you here. First go to the Windows Control Panel, then select Hardware and Sound, then at the bottom you will see NVIDIA Control Panel. That's where you want to be!

Second - On the taskbar to the left you will see 3 items under the only topic, 3D Settings. Select Manage 3D Settings. That opens the main screen (may take a minute) into the Global Settings tab. So I bet you're thinking, let's just change the global settings to use the NVIDIA chip, all my apps will run with super power and we can get this thing started. Well, that's what I thought to, but not so much. It will allow you to play the game, but forget about ever multi-tasking. This setting uses up all your system resourses and will cripple your pc.

What you want to do is go to the Program Settings tab. From here you can select the program you want to use the high end chip, but be careful. I have the regular Skyrim installed as well so I saw Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, Skyrimlauncher, Skyrim Test, a bunch of stuff. I changed them all, but that didn't do it.

What you will likely have to do is click Add and find the game you are looking for, in my case SkyrimVR. It will load with the entire pathname of the file, not pretty, but go ahead and select the high end chip and then exit. For some reason they felt like the 3 options were too overwhelming so there is no save option that I could find, but when you exit it will ask if you want to save.

Last thing to do is plug in and get started. I have read a lot of posts about use this and don't use that. If you have the SB2, you know there are 3 options to plug things in, USB-A, USB-C, and another USB-A. Which means you need a converter plug or a docking station. I have the Surface Dock, and of course, it does not come with an HDMI plug. 2 Mini Display ports and 2 USB-A ports, but no HDMI or even USB-C. I will list the ways that I have connected and I can tell you after hours of playing in each of them, I have not noticed any of them to be better, less latent, higher quality, or whatever than any of the others.

The Surface dock gives you 2 mini-display ports so you can VR and have another monitor plugged in. It does requires an HDMI to Mini Displayport adapter which is about $40 on top of the $200 for the dock. This is by far the most expensive option. It does use the power slot to plug in leaving all your other ports open, but the power is a slight bit lower than the regular charger.

If you don't know this already, when you are pushing your graphics chip and you hear the fans come on, your SB2 laptop is not charging... well, it's charging, but it's using more power than you can give it. Luckily I tend to feel ill and want to take a break before the charge is out and it does charge back up pretty quick when you disconnect the headset. I don't know why they can't just ship 120 watt chargers, but I'm sure there's a reason. Also the 2 bricks on the Surface Dock are pretty heavy compared to the single charging brick, and you have the power to brick one, then the cord from brick one to brick two, then another cord from brick two to the laptop. What I'm saying is it has lots of cords, yes it is better than those oldschool giant docks that the laptop sits on, but still not as travel friendly as I had hoped it would be.

Moving on, next is the Microsoft Surface USB-C to HDMI adapter. This works well, I can leave it on the HDMI on my headset and forget it's there. The only thing that is a pain is that the USB-C is on the opposite side of the USB-A, so even though it comes with a long cord, every inch I can get out of that thing could allow me to get out of the way of something coming at me, and less chance of me pulling the laptop off of the table.

Last thing I tried (and the one I currently use) is a n Insignia USB Type-C Multiport Adapter. I found this in the Apple section of Best Buy, it plugs in using USB-C, and it has an HDMI, USB-A and another USB-C output. This allows my to keep the USB-A and HDMI cables plugged in so when I want to play all I do is plug in the single USB-C adapter and I'm good to go.

Hopefully this helps and saves someone time, even though I know a lot of people will be upset at the length of the post. I just kept getting close, and then kept failing, so I wanted to put it all out there. Plus I never post anything, so I have a lot stored up. Good luck and enjoy!

I had this problem with other apps + HTC Vive and your well-researched post solved it for me. Thanks! For others coming here, nVidia Control Panel is also easily accessible by right-clicking on the desktop. Cheers.

[Joe Star]

Ok so we have found a solution for this and here is the explanation and fix for those not having anyluck with the nvidia control panel program using high performance card fix above.
The reason is due to the new nvidia driver automatic update of drivers not matching the nvidia control panel.

FIX
Step 1. Uninstall the nvidia card drivers.
Step 2. Reboot your system. Basic Microsoft Windows drivers will be installed.
Step 3. Go into Device manager find your Nvidia Card and ask windows to update drivers. Windows will then update the correct drivers which will match the nvidia control panel and now your problem is solved.

No more WRONG VIDEO CARD STEAM VR ERROR.

I hope this helps as it definitely helped Weeda who is usings a Dell G7 17 gaming laptop which has an Nvidia 2070 graphics card installed.

[stephenrh7]

I have an Asus 15a tuf gaming laptop already tried out the USB a port and the USB c port with no luck it still says wrong video card please plug headset into the same graphics card as your primary monitor. Everything works whether I use usb-a or usb-c up until I launch the game then it says wrong video card.

[stephenrh7]

https://youtu.be/h30abvkoIZY follow this video for the details but in a nutshell you set the Oculus programs to work off of your graphics card directly and turn off your integrated graphics from your processor to force your PC to read from your dedicated graphics card, after setting the Oculus programs to that then turn it back on then you turn it back on so you can do other things with your pc as well.

I did this and I just needed an ankler type c to type USB three to connect my headset to my laptop and it worked just fine.

[max88]

I will explain simpler and shorter:
1) Go to Settings -> Gaming -> Display -> Graphics and force all VR related apps to High perfomance

2) Connect usb c -> hdmi cable instead of default hdmi -> hdmi cable to VR splitter.

3) I did not need it, but maybe someone will need it:
NVIDIA Control Panel -> Global Settings and set everything to nvidia.