Screen goes blank a few minutes after starting a game
Not sure if this is still an issue but basically it’s due to the controller and screen timeout issue – I’ve not seen this for awhile but if you get this, check under developer settings that timeouts for controllers and screen are off.
PCI 3.0 – pixelating and other issues
First a primer – the way this works is the image is rendered on the graphics card, then sent to the CPU via PCI 3.0 to be compressed and then sent to the wi-gig card again by PCI 3.0 to be transmitted.
This means that both graphics card and wi-gig card need to be running in PCI 3.0. Sometimes just how the card is placed into the motherboard can be an issue, I’ve had a graphics card not quite in running PCI 3.0 - 1x. Wiggled it a bit and now it’s ran at PCI 3.0 - 16x. You can tell when you’re not running a full bandwidth as you’ll get a pixelated screen. You can use GPUz to confirm the speed of your graphics card.
You might also find the motherboard is incorrectly choosing the wrong speed – setting the bios to force PCI 3.0 can help – note, some motherboards have 2 settings for forcing PCI 3.0. 1st for all PCI and 2nd specific to the graphics card – you’ll have to explore your bios to confirm and be careful to look for all options. Note of course this is assume that you only have 2 devices running on PCI.
Finally, the particular PCI slot in the motherboard can affect things if the slot is sharing speed with other devices, such as the 2nd PCI slot sharing speed with say a PCI NVM ssd. You need to check what is plugged into what against your motherboard manual to confirm you don’t have say the wi-gig card sharing with an SSD
Battery – black screens (suspected)
I suspect the battery provided by HTC is in fact under powered – the clue being that the vive cosmos wireless adapter comes with a new battery with higher wattage. I’ve found since swapping to a third party battery that I’ve had less black screens. This is the battery I’m using https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01JIYWUBA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 – currently unavailable however if you can get it – it has the nice advantage of fitting in the original battery holder – which I’ve personnel got strapped to the headunit to make it a nice one piece on and off unit.
Temperature – grey screen and comfort
Using the wireless adapter for any amount of time you’ll know it gets really hot – sensor logs (C:\ProgramData\VIVE Wireless\ConnectionUtility\Log) showed mine to be touching 90c! I suspected running this hot is also a reason for the grey screens and other random issues seen. For this reason + generally not running with a heater on your head – I installed a fan on the wifi adapter – see here for examples here - - I highly recommend this!
Not sure if this is still an issue but basically it’s due to the controller and screen timeout issue – I’ve not seen this for awhile but if you get this, check under developer settings that timeouts for controllers and screen are off.
PCI 3.0 – pixelating and other issues
First a primer – the way this works is the image is rendered on the graphics card, then sent to the CPU via PCI 3.0 to be compressed and then sent to the wi-gig card again by PCI 3.0 to be transmitted.
This means that both graphics card and wi-gig card need to be running in PCI 3.0. Sometimes just how the card is placed into the motherboard can be an issue, I’ve had a graphics card not quite in running PCI 3.0 - 1x. Wiggled it a bit and now it’s ran at PCI 3.0 - 16x. You can tell when you’re not running a full bandwidth as you’ll get a pixelated screen. You can use GPUz to confirm the speed of your graphics card.
You might also find the motherboard is incorrectly choosing the wrong speed – setting the bios to force PCI 3.0 can help – note, some motherboards have 2 settings for forcing PCI 3.0. 1st for all PCI and 2nd specific to the graphics card – you’ll have to explore your bios to confirm and be careful to look for all options. Note of course this is assume that you only have 2 devices running on PCI.
Finally, the particular PCI slot in the motherboard can affect things if the slot is sharing speed with other devices, such as the 2nd PCI slot sharing speed with say a PCI NVM ssd. You need to check what is plugged into what against your motherboard manual to confirm you don’t have say the wi-gig card sharing with an SSD
Battery – black screens (suspected)
I suspect the battery provided by HTC is in fact under powered – the clue being that the vive cosmos wireless adapter comes with a new battery with higher wattage. I’ve found since swapping to a third party battery that I’ve had less black screens. This is the battery I’m using https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01JIYWUBA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 – currently unavailable however if you can get it – it has the nice advantage of fitting in the original battery holder – which I’ve personnel got strapped to the headunit to make it a nice one piece on and off unit.
Temperature – grey screen and comfort
Using the wireless adapter for any amount of time you’ll know it gets really hot – sensor logs (C:\ProgramData\VIVE Wireless\ConnectionUtility\Log) showed mine to be touching 90c! I suspected running this hot is also a reason for the grey screens and other random issues seen. For this reason + generally not running with a heater on your head – I installed a fan on the wifi adapter – see here for examples here - - I highly recommend this!