Quest 2 Audio Crackling and Buzzing

[Chim-Cham]

For the longest while i have been using Quest 2 with the oculus link and then run my VR games through steam no problem. But when i run it directly through Steam Link the only Audio that comes through is crackling and buzzing.

I've tried everything but reinstalling steam but im not sure that would help. So any idea what could cause this would be appreciated.

Everything runs on recommended specs and everything is connected through 5 GHz wifi. As said no audio issues have ever come up when i use the headset through oculus link.

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Edit 2023/12/25:

Gonna post this here just incase anyone still have this issue. But the way i have fixed this is to follow the following steps:

Uninstall current drivers for "Steam Streaming Device":

- Go to "More Sound settings" in System -> Sound settings menu
- Find "Steam Streaming Speaker" under playback tab and "Stream Streaming Microphone" under recording tab (if doesnt show up right click any device and select "show disabled devices"
- Right click and go to properties
- click properties again in the general tab
- click the "change settings"button (windows will ask for permission, just hit yes)
-go to driver tab and click "uninstal drivers"

After this step is done you need to manually reinstal the drivers:

- go to device manager
- make sure no device is selected and then click Action -> Add legacy hardware
- just click next till you get to a window with a list called "common hardware types"
- scroll down and select "Sound, video and game controllers" and click next
- in the next window scroll down in the manufacturer menu till you find "valve corporation audio ddk", select that
- in the model menu select Steam "Streaming Speakers" and install the drivers
- repeat the steps above for the microphone aswell

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I wanna note this worked on my machine and a few friends machine but not guaranteed to work for everyone.

Hope it helps!

[runtime]

I'm also experiencing audio crackle on SteamVR beta client with a new Quest Pro running firmware v65. Audio popping will gradually intensify over time, until eventually the audio becomes extremely distorted and static-y. The issue occurs somewhat consistently after around 5-20 minutes of use. I haven't been able to discern any patterns to explain why sometimes the problem occurs sooner vs later.

Reinstalling the Steam Streaming Speakers/Microphone drivers as outlined by the OP didn't seem to have an effect. The only mitigation I've found is to hold the Quest Pro's power button to bring up the shutdown screen, then canceling out of it after a few seconds. This seems to temporarily interrupt the Steam Link connection, and when it's reestablished I can go another 5-20 minutes before the issue reoccurs.

Possibly related is that the Meta Quest Pro VR Earphones don't work with Steam Link at all on firmware v65. If the earphones are plugged in to the Quest Pro at any point the Steam Link app will lose the ability to play audio from the Steam Streaming Speakers device. The only workaround I've found is to reboot the Quest Pro and never plug the earphones in on the clean boot. There's a thread on the Meta support forums regarding this problem: https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Steam-Link-Audio-not-working-with-latest-update/td-p/1194166

From my reading it seems like this issue was introduced with Quest firmware v65.

[runtime]

I've updated to the PTC (public test channel) firmware v66 and immediately noticed it's significantly less prone to the crackling audio. In a 6 hour play session it only happened on its own once, and the power button trick to interrupt Steam Link still fixes it. However, it appears that in firmware v66 interrupting Steam Link has also gained a chance of starting the audio crackle issue, so I just had to keep repeating the power button trick until I got lucky.

This could be coincidence, but the only thing I changed was the firmware version and it was a pretty big change in how frequently the audio crackle occurs.

If anyone else wants to try the PTC firmware there are instructions here: https://www.meta.com/help/quest/articles/headsets-and-accessories/using-your-headset/quest-ptc/

[ElevenA]

Thank you for this solution, holding the power button and then cancel the shutdown helped.

I have the exact same problem with my Quest 2. after 10-15 minutes a few clicks and pops, then gradually (and suddenly) more and more static reverb/echo.

I also have tried re-/uninstalling the audio drivers and updating to Steam beta-branch, but it does not help, and I suspect it is something on the Quests side, as at least 2 times (of maybe 40-50 times) the static distortion stayed after I exited Steam Link and went back to the headsets interface.

引用自 runtime：

The only mitigation I've found is to hold the Quest Pro's power button to bring up the shutdown screen, then canceling out of it after a few seconds. This seems to temporarily interrupt the Steam Link connection, and when it's reestablished I can go another 5-20 minutes before the issue reoccurs.

[charlesl]

Meta reports that they have pushed a configuration fix. I recommend checking for updates (won't actually get an update), then rebooting your device and seeing if this issue persists.

[Cherry]

I'm having a similar issue where the sound Is only gliching out on Q2 link, I played other games on Q2 standalone and as well as on my pc and the audios just fine. Before this, or until two weeks ago my sound and audio was perfect, just randomly started gliching out and has been doing that ever since and I can't get to the bottom of the issue.