SteamVR VRmonitor UI worked fine last night (Aug 31) but today (Sep 1) is blank and hangs

[whitav8r]

ISSUE
The SteamVR UI is blank and hangs - fine August 31st, blank on Sep 1 first time

OS
Windows 10 1903 with all KB updates
HMD = Odyssey+ along with three monitors on Display Ports
Nvidia RTX2070 - driver = 431.60
Steam VR = 1.7.12 (same thing with 1.7.15 on Sep 7th )

STEPS
1. Start WMR Portal - OK (shows Cliffhouse)
2. Start SteamVR Mixed Reality Portal - OK, get transition to SteamVR Home room with normal VR app selection lists - however, Steam VR GUI never shows up - just a blank small square

RESULTS
After waiting several minutes and then after seeing the WIn10 blue spinning circle and clicking, I get the Popup stating SteamVR not responding. If I select to wait instead of closing, I can start my game apps OK - but I never see the SteamVR UI - I usually run with Settings open so I can see the graph of basic frametime performance. - NOTE: having trouble trying 1.7.11 (select optout of beta but just get "download waiting" )

EXPECTED
Steam VR UI from vrmonitor.exe

Attached is link to vrmonitor dumpfile:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AB-GN1pAHAEHjnc

link to all xxx.previous.txt files in ZIP format:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AB-GN1pAHAEHjzY

link to Aug31 (OK) vrmonitor.txt excerpt:
https://1drv.ms/t/s!AB-GN1pAHAEHjng

link to Sep1 (notOK) vrmonitor.txt excerpt:
https://1drv.ms/t/s!AB-GN1pAHAEHjnk

link to entire vrmonitor.txt before and after - OK then notOK
https://1drv.ms/t/s!AB-GN1pAHAEHjno
Dave W.

[whitav8r]

Should I just uninstall SteamVR and reinstall - will all my pertinent user files be removed as well as all registry enties?

[Dragon]

I have this same issue, I actually posted here:

https://old.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/d0aa6b/anyone_having_trouble_starting_steamvr_beta/

I didn't bother to test if the games ran or not, but after reading this I can actually still play, but the SteamVR UI just hangs like you say. It only happened recently, maybe the new Windows update? It looks like this when running in Task Monitor:

https://imgur.com/a/0nXZJUI

And the SteamVR window looks like:

https://imgur.com/a/poS0bsr

Looks like a similar issue posted here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/250820/discussions/3/1678063648163854245/

There's a large number of dump files being created:

https://imgur.com/a/YOM8g2w

It appears they all started happening around Sept 1st.

Link to dump file created by right clicking on vrmonitor process and creating dump:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Akp8TBafIyRCufFZShAgQJc90y4cSw?e=NVQb6r

Link to latest crash dump from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\dumps:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Akp8TBafIyRCufFavCXmcmHcmcJ9DA?e=jrjz1W

There was a major Windows 10 update on August 30th, it was running OK before this:

https://imgur.com/a/pF3rqUW

[Dragon]

Originally posted by whitav8r:

Should I just uninstall SteamVR and reinstall - will all my pertinent user files be removed as well as all registry enties?

I tried multiple re-installs, it's something to do with the beta. If I opt out of beta it starts up normally.

[whitav8r]

I know that there is a recent SteamVR update over the last two days so I wonder which one is not beta. Should I uninstall first anyway and then opt for nonBeta?

Thanks for your response - we are always wondering if we are alone in a given problem.
Also, I wonder if there is anyway to text edit a config file that has all of our settings - like what SuperSampling value to use? I bet it's not a textfile.

On my PC, KB4506991 was installed on 7/9/2019 so maybe that's not it. Since for me, it started on September 1, I was wondering if they had some sort of license expire? Obviously though, it's happening on just a few systems.

[Dragon]

Well if you roll back the beta it will run but you won;t have the updates for the Index. The games are running but you just can't use the UI as far as I can tell. You can edit the steamvr settings file in Notepad++, located here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\config\steamvr.vrsettings

[whitav8r]

Thanks for your response and expertise. I'll let you know if I find anything.

I don't see any of the SuperSampling settings for the Video "global" setting or the individual app settings in that steamvr.settings file.

Also, I didn't do an uninstall but I opted for no beta in Properties, waited for it to download, and then started it up with the same result - blank UI. Maybe I should totally uninstall.

Also, I noticed that I got a steamtours.exe dump before maybe the first vrmonitor.exe dmp. What is steamtours??

[Dragon]

I think it is related to SteamVR Home beta

[Programmer Joe]

@whitav8r: Your dumps seem to not be available for download anymore, so I'm not sure if what I wrote below is exactly the same issue or not.

@dragon: Thanks for all the dumps. Those are helpful.


Both the vrdashboard crash and the vrmonitor hang are in the Asus Phoebus driver. Have you tried updating the the latest version of that driver? The DLL doesn't have a version number, but the timestamp is from January, 2017 so there might be a newer version. A little googling seems to indicate that the last release of those drivers is actually from 2016, though, so maybe not...

nhAsusPhoebusOSD.dll is the specific DLL that's hanging/crashing. The "OSD" in the name makes me think this is some sort of on-screen display that Asus enables. Have you tried disabling that?

1.7.15 moved the VR View window to vrmonitor. That may have changed the way Monitor is using the driver enough to hit this existing issue in the driver.

Are you certain the the vrdashboard crash doesn't also happen in 1.6.10? Little to nothing has changed in that process, and certainly nothing related to how it interacts with graphics drivers. (Until you try to interact with the Dashboard, it isn't always obvious when that process has crashed.)


Joe

[whitav8r]

Programmer Joe,
Thanks for working this important issue!

Sorry that the dump isn't still available - here is a current link:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AB-GN1pAHAEHjzc


I have no idea about the ASUS dll - but I would think that SteamVR should NOT be using any DLL that is not self contained in your release. I noticed that you are using QT5 for example - are you sure you are providing every single DLL locally that is needed - you certainly should not be trying to execute "nhAsusPhoebusOSD.dll" . I don't have the Phoebus sound card anyway but I can see that the ASUS package called "AI suite" which is a small app to monitor MOBO temps (I have the ASUS Maximus XI Hero mobo ) and it uses Qt5. I don't if they are related though. Anyway, vrmonitor or vrdashboard shouldn't be running any outside DLLs. BTW, I have no such DLL on my system.

Let me know what I could do to troubleshoot - I haven't seen the SteamVR UI for 8 days now. As I said, and you can see it in the vrmonitor.txt file that it started hanging around noon September 1st. I think I put the PC to sleep mode (instead of shutdown ) that night before(Aug 31 )and then woke it up around noon (Sep 1) and vrmonitor no longer worked (the vrmonitor hang ). I had been running 1.7.12 for two days and it was fine on Aug 31st - on Aug 29th I was still running 1.7.11.

I have the WIndows 10 Process Explorer if you want me to look there.

Dave W.

[Programmer Joe]

Originally posted by whitav8r:

I have no idea about the ASUS dll - but I would think that SteamVR should NOT be using any DLL that is not self contained in your release.

This is a system DLL that lets SteamVR talk to your specific audio hardware. They're unavoidable.

In your case, NahimicOSD.dll is the DLL that's causing the hang. That's also and audio-related on-screen display that hooks into other processes. Can you see if disabling it makes the hang go away?


Joe

[Dragon]

Originally posted by Programmer Joe:

Originally posted by whitav8r:

I have no idea about the ASUS dll - but I would think that SteamVR should NOT be using any DLL that is not self contained in your release.

This is a system DLL that lets SteamVR talk to your specific audio hardware. They're unavoidable.

In your case, NahimicOSD.dll is the DLL that's causing the hang. That's also and audio-related on-screen display that hooks into other processes. Can you see if disabling it makes the hang go away?


Joe

Joe - resolved! I can confirm it was the ASUS ROG Phoebus application like you said. I shut that down and SteamVR comes right up. It is started by nhAsusPhoebusUILauncher.exe. I will check for updates and post back if there are any fixes, but shutting it down works.

This is what it looks like for anyone that finds this:

https://imgur.com/a/6K4lGf3

It's the "Sonic Studio" Phoebis app.

Thanks Joe, keep up the good work.

[whitav8r]

@Programmer Joe,
Yes, that's the problem - Nahimic - but then why was it OK up until 1.7.12? Why does SteamVR have to cause us to remove it? What was recently added functionally that caused this and why wasn't it in the Release Notes? we both have spent a lot of time on this.

Thanks

[whitav8r]

@Programmer Joe,
Sorry for the venting - I really do appreciate your time in finding my problem!

Dave W.

[SiEgE]

Woah! I was just about to make a thread on this matter. I have a Phoebus myself, and it does cause the problem. Closing the driver app actually lets the SteamVR launch properly.