Steam Link Black Screen with Cursor

[Loki]

When attempting to stream in-home to my steam link, the link will connect to the host computer without any issues, the host computer goes into big-screen and when you press the power button it shows the "stop streaming" options and all. However, the steam link only shows a black screen with a cursor in the upper left corner.

Nothing I seem to do on the host side matters. I've disabled firewalls both in windows and on the router to ensure that isn't the issue (though since the link connects, this seems unlikely). I've disabled and enabled hardware decoding. I've toggled resolutions, etc.

Frustrating part is, it will randomly connect and work absolutely great for an evening. I just want it to be consistent!


Hardware setup on host:
AMD Athlon X4 3.4Ghz
8Gb DDR3 RAM
NVidia GTX 660
Windows 10
Wired from Router -> PC, Wireless from Router -> Link (I've tried wired, didn't resolve the issue).


I can stream from the host -> MS Surface, so it seems like it may be something link side.

Any ideas?

[henryg]

Thanks for your report - if you launch a fullscreen game from the PC while the Link screen is black, does the game stream properly to the Link? Big Picture mode may not be streaming properly, and this could be independent of game capture working properly. It would help to know if the issue is just with Big Picture or all games.

[Loki]

@henryg - I tried with several games (including a couple that I'd actually played on it while it was working, just to be sure), and in each case I get the same symptom. The screen on the steam link goes black with a cursor in the upper left corner, and the host reacts as if the link connected. A couple seconds later, the link goes back to the screen where you select a host.

When selecting the host for the first time, the link does acknowledge that a game is in progress.

[henryg]

Thanks for following up. Sorry about the black screens :( Could you email me your streaming_log.txt and streaming_log_previous.txt files? You can find them inside the Steam installation folder, in the "logs" subfolder. My address is <removed - thanks!>

[ivanassen]

I have the same issue.
Regardless of whether the PC runs a game or Steam client, when I select it from the Steam link, it enters Big Picture mode; it seems to think the Steam Link is connected, because the menu has entries like "turn off steam link" and "Stop streaming".

Meanwhile, on the Steam Link, I get a black screen with a mouse cursor in the top left corner for a few seconds, then it returns to the machine selection screen.

I'm running Steam build Dec 9 2015
Steam package versions 1449714153
I don't have streaming_* files in the logs folder of the Steam client.
tried both the default and the beta build on the Steam Link, tried factory reset
tried with several PCs running a mix of Windows 7 and 10, and AMD and NVIDIA GPUs.
Wired connection, everyone on the same LAN - PC discovery seems to work fine.

This is in our office, I'm a game developer (wanted to repro a bug our users report with Steam Link), myself and our QA team are available if you want us to try something!

[henryg]

Originally posted by ivanassen:

I have the same issue.
Regardless of whether the PC runs a game or Steam client, when I select it from the Steam link, it enters Big Picture mode; it seems to think the Steam Link is connected, because the menu has entries like "turn off steam link" and "Stop streaming".

Meanwhile, on the Steam Link, I get a black screen with a mouse cursor in the top left corner for a few seconds, then it returns to the machine selection screen.

I'm running Steam build Dec 9 2015
Steam package versions 1449714153
I don't have streaming_* files in the logs folder of the Steam client.
tried both the default and the beta build on the Steam Link, tried factory reset
tried with several PCs running a mix of Windows 7 and 10, and AMD and NVIDIA GPUs.
Wired connection, everyone on the same LAN - PC discovery seems to work fine.

This is in our office, I'm a game developer (wanted to repro a bug our users report with Steam Link), myself and our QA team are available if you want us to try something!

Thanks for the offer! We're still investigating this. Could you try plugging the Link directly into the ethernet port of one of your computers (no switch or hub) and let us know how that goes?

[ivanassen]

Tried direct connection.
The network selection screen on the Steam Link shows the wired connection as "local", but then "Add Computer" spins for a while and says "no computers found".