RGB static on Valve Index

[Kizu]

I've had my Index over a year now and recently it started doing this small, weird colored pixel flickering inside the headset. Occasionally it even black screens and cuts the audio or only cuts the audio for a moment before going back to "normal" with the pixels.

Sometimes it even cuts the audio completely and only restarting seems to fix it.

Could this be a sign that the headset is dying or something?

[BOLL]

I have a release day Index and I've had what seems like white pixels sparkle across my field of view from time to time. Of course more visible in dark scenes, seems invisible or actually gone in brighter scenes.

If my observations is correct, the sparkling pixels will increase until I get a pop in mostly the left head-speaker, and then the white sparkly pixels are gone. Almost like some static build-up and discharge.

Lately I've also had the headset black out twice, like you describe, and what I assume is soft-rebooting, having me re-pick my audio devices in VoiceMeeter again.

So yeah, I'm... also interested in this.

[--ranXerox--]

Sounds like a cable issue. I would unplug and re-plug them in. If it persists, consider steam support.

[Cheezus Crisp]

Originally posted by Refellen:

Has anyone found a solution for this problem? I have the exact same issue. Thinking about doing a RMA, but I also don't want to go that long without my index

Ask Valve to try sending you a replacement cable first. That should typically fix the issue but if it doesn't then you can consider sending the headset in for RMA

[Kizu]

Originally posted by Refellen:

Has anyone found a solution for this problem? I have the exact same issue. Thinking about doing a RMA, but I also don't want to go that long without my index

Sadly sometimes that has to be the case.
If it's a cable then you dont have to do anything
I did a RMA for my headset and had to wait for a month before i could get back into VR because i had to send the old headset back before the new one could be processed.

It sucks yeah but at least i didn't have to pay 600 bucks for a new one so Valve is very generous with it's RMA process.

Edit: Oh and the issue is pretty much with the cable connecting to the headset. If a new cable fixes it. No problem.
But i think that eventually it starts cutting off audio and stuff which by then the issue is with the headset.

[CiberX15]

So I'm getting this too but I am 75% sure it's not a cable issue?

What I am seeing is the longer I use the headset, the more RGB static builds up. As it gets worse I may also here popping in the audio. Then there is often a big pop, and the headset goes dark and disconnects.

At that point the headset will not re-connect again correctly. I can sometimes get it to connect but the static will be _really_ bad.

HOWEVER, If I reboot my PC, the problem goes away (or at least resets as it will slowly start getting worse again as I continue to use the device). So to me that suggests the issue cannot be the cable, as a cable fault would not be affected by a reboot.

With purely anecdotal evidence this almost feels like static electricity buildup? Except grounding myself on metal objects doesn't seem to help. And also wouldn't really make sense for it to go away with a reboot.

Still it seems like _something_ is building up on either the headset, or the PC that causes this issue.

[CiberX15]

FWIW, I'll also add that with experimentation I've found that closing Steam VR, then unplugging the headset (the single connection between the headset and the rest of the hub), and leaving it for an hour or two also reduces the RBG static.

[FireFox]

I don't mean to necro-post but I had the same problem and it turned out that 2 of the 3 Displayport's on my GPU aren't as good as the first Displayport for VR. So I had to swap my Monitor and the Index's connections so that the Index is on DP1 and the monitor is on DP2.

[CiberX15]

Welp... in spite of all evidence to the contrary, replacing the cable did make the issue go away... No idea how that was causing the symptoms I was seeing.

['El' Jungle~[Latvia]]

I own Index for like 3 years and I have changed,

1. house where I play,
2. completely changed the PC twice, GPU's, ram, processor, cables and tried different ports etc. - nothing helps so far,
3. played on Laptop and various other Desktop PC's and
4. changed Index headset twice so, presently it is my third Index headset!

Doesn't matter what I do - the RBG of static electricity mentioned in previous posts always comes back with extensive use of the headset....even worse, in last few times when I wanted to plug in my USB cords coming from Index to my PC - the endings are giving me small shock!

So, I'm highly convinced that there is something wrong with Index build.

Valve, I hope you are seeing this post.....

[76561199281265327]

This is a old thread but yikes

at the small shock, first off if you start expericening any system crashing or freeze ups, i recommend replacing your motherboard, as it sounds like you might have a broken usb port.

Secondly, a broken usb port would be a common issue if you have a large room and move frequently around the room to the limit of the cord and or are pulling the on cord while its in the usb socket.

it will lead to data lose an broken pc parts.

other then that, the white pixels users see on the head sets are just "dead" pixels from time to time, they all die out , Vr headsets seem to die out faster, i have a few on mine as well. you can see them in dark settings, but in bright you won't notice

as for the RBG static, this is common with over heating graphic processors they will often RBG or start to streak down the screen. the fact that the recent posted user has gone through 3 valve index helms is a real issue, quality of life of hardware is important, however many people put stock into over clocking things, which is most likely the case with valve, they want to preform better so i could imagine that valve over clocks the hardware they sell , it works better but it burns out after, which sounds like the major issues of overheating and short life use, that current steam hardware seems to get.

['El' Jungle~[Latvia]]

Hey, thanks for answering!

Regards the things you mentioned:

1. Broken usb port - can't be related to my case as I have changed several mother boards and switched gameplay from laptop to desktop PC's etc. so, obviously I have changed connections and tried to use various ports etc. - this didn't helped. RGB is still there.

2. Dead Pixels - I have checked - the display is perfect - no dead pixels at all.

3. All this leads to the last thing that I can't argue with - Valves hardware overclocking. This is heavy topic and without insider's info we can't really be sure.

Let's assume that the Index has been build on 10 various hardware components and each of them can fail. So, in short - if one of those components is week or just ''wearing out'' - the RGB is starting to show.

I personally, would be ok if I would experience it once with those headsets. But man.... absolutely the same trouble with three Index headsets and NO other troubles at all, leads me to think, that some hardware component is overlooked in the Index build for sure and definitely needs to be replaced with more relayable one.

In general I start to see RGB's after 200/250 hours of use and then it never goes away in dark backgrounds. (I mostly play Pavlov)

And once again:

Unplugging, changing PC's, touching me to various metal things in order to make environment/pc/headset ''un-static'', change various other ports, physically and gently trying to pull and press the cord connections to headset and pc, leave the headset unplugged for day's etc. - doesn't help - there are no changes at all - almighty RGB is still there! :)

It is not really visible or bothering me in the games, but as soon as visually there is something darker - RGB gives me visual trouble for sure.
.......................................
Please, let me know what you guys think what else I can test or experiment on.

Thanks in advance!

[Herne]

For me, I had this similar issue, my Valve Index headgear would have constant static visual and static noises popping on audio. I furiously looked over the settings to figure out if I could somehow make it stop.
Then there was a settings in SteamVR that somehow stopped my statics entirely. It happened when I had constant audio issues, HMD couldn't be detected in audio settings. I had to conclude in audio settings of SteamVR to have audio and microphone settings on certain plugins (in this case, it was with HMD audio and microphone of Valve), the audio and microphone worked very well but it began to slowly give out static issues. I thought my Valve was somehow broken after a year or so.

I returned SteamVR audio/microphone settings to default route, and this stopped ALL statics. It seems that audio and microphone settings if set differently in SteamVR can somehow cause traffic in systems, thus making slight static on headgear itself. If this doesn't work on someone else, then I can't really say much. This was my solution for static problem I had on my Valve Index headset.

Edit: The audio and statics seem to return back, but when using for some period of time, it sometimes blacks out temporarily and stops statics. I wonder how it functions like that.

['El' Jungle~[Latvia]]

Ok, I will try to do the same as as you suggested! Let's see if that will help!

[Red_Claws]

so I've had a index for 2 or so years, I'm on a laptop so no replacing anything....
I've had static for only about a month. I don't think I can RMA the headset since I think its out of warranty but valve has been known to RMA outside of warranty. i am a bit at a loss on if i should RMA the headset, get a new cable, or get a new mini display to display port adaptor because laptops dont have display port out.

['El' Jungle~[Latvia]]

Try to contact Valve help with this. They will walk you out for all possible solutions. If everything will fail - they might replace the headset. Good Luck!