Tracking, display, boundary issues - Q3
On my third Quest 3 in 2 years 3 months. Replaced by Meta. They’ve all failed similarly in that they are working as expected, put on a charger and show boundary or tracking issues on next use. Software reinstall and factory restore either don’t solve the issue or brick the unit. Meta support is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
Current unit followed same flow except I’ve been able to get it partially working but not usable after multiple restores and software reinstalls.
It will now boot but shows Finding Position in Room. Then without interaction it will show the menu bar at the bottom, then flash back to Finding Position - continues back and forth. Passthrough works intermittently. When it does work the room has waves, jumps between zoomed to unzoomed views, sections of the room to sides flash in front of me, the view has fractures in it, there are what are best described as lightening bolts across the screen with combined views of what’s in front of me and to the sides. Menus, if I can get them to come up, slide in and out of view or change distances and positions, controller functionality is intermittent…the list goes on. I’m sometimes able to get it stable enough or click fast enough to get to some Settings menu choices so have cleared and tried to reset the boundaries although redraw may not have completed. No experimental features are on so “lie down” is not enabled but I’ve been able to reset the experimental features (again, none were enabled)
No external damage to any of the cameras. The device has never been dropped. If i try long enough to work through menus the top front of the device gets very warm/hot which I think is where the heat sink is located. It’s obviously working hard.
Again, Meta support is useless. They could only ask me to do what I’d already told them I’d done. They sent me instructions to manually, locally update the software which didn’t change anything.
Thoughts on most likely candidate- Bad tracking sensor? Bad motherboard? One or more cameras failing? All?
Such crap for USD $500.
Here’s the cause and solution-
It was no longer working to ensure the speaker bars were fully at their lower stops. Even when positioned there the device couldn’t find position in room, there were screen waves and blending of different camera views - all the problems listed in my original post.
I tore down the device to the point of removing the front plate that houses the cameras. I immediately saw what was most likely the problem: the left camera ribbon cable had a deep groove and it appeared it was deep enough to puncture the insulation. I turned on the device while the ribbon was not contacting the metal bracket and it worked as expected - none of the problems I saw before tear down.
How’d the damage happen? When assembled, that camera ribbon presses against a folded piece of metal on the lower Bluetooth antenna bracket. The piece is folded and pressed slightly but the edge isn’t ground smooth. The point of contact and potential issue is clearly known to/ anticipated by Meta because they have done the absolute minimum and placed a piece of electrical tape over the ribbon in that spot as protection.
I removed the Bluetooth antenna and used a fine grinding tip on my Dremel to smooth all the sharp edges of the folded metal bracket where it contacts the camera ribbon. I also pressed the bracket slightly farther back because there is enough room without damaging the ribbon that sits behind it when the antenna is installed. This helps minimize contact with the ribbon. I don’t think it can be pushed back enough to avoid contact completely without then possibly damaging the ribbon cable behind it.
Reassembled everything and all problems are gone. This significant design flaw and resulting damage is certainly the cause of various issues in other devices.
