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New Participant
November 12, 2020
Solved

White horizontal stripe across screen while using link

Headset seems to work fine stand-alone.  I use the headset with IRacing, and often (not always) get a translucent horizontal stripe across the screen after about 15 minutes or so.  It doesn't feel like the headset is overheating.  This doesn't show up on the screen mirror on PC, or if I "mirror" with the debug tool.  Is this likely a failing display or is there somewhere else I should look?

PokebertAnswer
Participant
March 20, 2023

UPDATE: POSSIBLE WORKAROUND/FIX USING REGISTRY EDITOR

As I theorized above, this issue does NOT occur for those who use Air Link. Air Link uses HEVC and uses 1 slice for its encoding, whereas wired Link uses H.264 and 5 slices for encoding. Whenever the white bar issue occurs, it is very likely the final 5th slice experiencing an error in the encoding. If you pay close attention when this occurs, you will likely notice it only occurs in the bottom slice of the screen.

To use this workaround, open Command Prompt and use the following:

  • reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Oculus\RemoteHeadset" /v "numSlices" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

I will be experimenting with this for the next few weeks to make sure  I do not get the white bar issue!

Original Post on REVISITED thread:

I have noticed that this is related to the horizontal encoding slices that are visible only through the Link Cable. A very easy stopgap solution would be to offer a toggle in the OculusDebugTool that allows us to turn OFF these encoding slices. Additionally, the encoding slices do not appear with Air Link and thus the issue has almost never occurred wirelessly according to both personal experience and these threads.

1125 replies

Participant
July 23, 2021

I also fixed this issue by replacing thermal paste on my GPU, so overheating is the problem.
Also switching the GPU to the other helped as well. 

Participant
July 23, 2021

I replaced the paste in my 3080 FE months ago. The temps are low and continue to have this issue. It absolutely is not overheating related. 

Participant
July 23, 2021

FE has bad cooling solution that's why your replacement didn't work. BTW what paste did you use? I used thermal grizzly kryonaut

Up and Coming
July 23, 2021

I have monitored both GPU and VRAM temp. They're excellent so definitely not the cause of the issues.

Participant
July 23, 2021

Reducing vram clock speed fixed it for me. Rtx 2060

Participant
July 23, 2021

yeah, it may be overheating of something that we can't see

Participant
July 23, 2021

The reason why many of us believe it's software-related is because the issue doesn't show up when using Virtual Desktop or Air Link. It only shows up when connected with a Link cable. It's possible that the difference in bitrate (200mbps Air Link vs 300+ mbps Link cable) could be causing it, however, I've tried lowering the bitrate while using the cable and the issue still shows up.

Participant
July 23, 2021

My issue was definitely not gpu temp - only happened when playing bigscreen and when moving into a darker movie theatre environment. Would slowly get worse as time went by. TBH I have since moved on from oculus to a different brand pcvr dedicated headset. But I wish everyone best of luck - very frustrating issue with a lot of folks with different scenarios having the same issue. 

New Participant
July 27, 2021

Same issue here... In my case, it happens when playing ACC only. I also think it is something related to Oculus link, but what I'm sure about, it is that it isn't related to temps, as I play other games which stress the GPU even more, and I haven't had any problems with them (I've played DCS for many many hours and never had that problem). If someone thinks this is related to temperature, it could only be related to CPU temps really, but I honestly think it is related to the cable. Oddly enough, if you put the headset in sleep mode, the white stripe goes away, but it reappears within just 1 minute.

 

Seems like many of us are having this issue, they should look at it, I only use the headset with my PC, I have no interest in using it as a standalone device and therefore I would expect it to perform as it should really...

 

Worth mentioning I also play AC and flight simulator. Sometimes I use Steam VR, sometimes I don't, so I don't think it is related to Steam VR, at all. Also, I have to mention that in ACC, I use AWS, while I disable it when playing other titles. Coincidence?

Participant
July 27, 2021

How can you explain that my solution with thermal paste worked?

Participant
July 27, 2021

It is great that worked for you and anyone else that helped out. But folks have reported doing a few different things to fix this issue in this thread - hard to explain why any of those things worked for some and not others. And sometimes it comes back.  Why some were running hot and others don't. Why it affects folks with many different computer setups. The only thing we do know for certain is it only happens when using the oculus link cable. So I do not think anyone is disputing what you did worked for your machine - it just isn't a fix for everyone and oculus needs to address this.

July 27, 2021

It's not temperature as my water cooled 8700k never gets too hot and my 3080 runs at 71°C max. Graphics card isn't overclocked or undervolted. It happens with MSI Afterburner installed or removed. Steam VR installed or removed.

It happens to a lot of us and it's disgusting that it's not even acknowledged after 28 pages. 

Participant
July 27, 2021

I didn't say that it's processor temperature. I said it it GPU. and 71 is only core temp. I'm sure that there is something that overheated and we can't see it. And it causes some artifacts. And it may be driver related + temperature related. I replaced paste on my 3080 and now problem gone.

July 27, 2021

I say it's not temperature related as it's happened within a minute of playing DiRT Rally 2.0. 3 minutes after firing up my PC. How much temperature do you think there is at that point? 

I understand it fixed it for you and I am not trying to disprove that. I'm saying it's not what is causing it for everyone. It used to be fine for a lot of us using our current hardware until a certain version of the software came out and then the issues began. I have been here since 28 pages ago. 

Inspiring
July 28, 2021

A slight change in encode resolution width causes problems in my environment. The border is between 3970 and 3980. 3664 ok... 3700 ok... 3800 ok... 3900 ok... 3960 ok... 3970 ok... 3980... the problem appear within 1 min (even render resoluton is only x0.6 of 72hz, even encode bitrate is only 50Mbps, it happens). The problem depend on encode resolution strongly. No problem after 10 minutes at 3970. There seems to be some problem with the decoding process of Link. In Air Link, this problem don't appear even 3980 or higher. Wired Link's problem.

Participant
July 28, 2021

I had white stripe on any resolution and any bitrate except 50-70.

Inspiring
July 28, 2021

😂

New Participant
July 29, 2021

I have the same issue with a white stripe/lower 3rd of the screen.

In my case it happens just when I play EuroTruckSimulator 2 using Cable Link. It does not happen when playing with air link. It starts as a transparent very faded white and then turns brighter and brighter. It can happen at any time, it does not matter if it's been a few seconds or minutes of playing the game. 

It is not related to the pc temps as it can happen at any temps (seen it happenning at 30 as well as 60). 

It did not happen during other games so far.

Sometimes it disappears if I double tap the side (pass through or whatever it's called). Sometimes it disappears if I press the power button to put it on stand by and back on. Sometimes I have to close the game or do the tap multiple times. Sometimes after appearing during the game it also persists through the virtual desktop. Never appearing on the headsets menu.

Oculus cable test speed - 2.5GB

Rtx 3090 max 50 degrees

Ryzen 5950x max 70 degrees

Participant
July 30, 2021

Omg how much time to tell people that core temperature is not the same as other's components

July 30, 2021

It's not temperature. 

Up and Coming
August 5, 2021

I also have the same issue while playing both Resident Evil Village and Cyberpunk 2077 while using Vorpx in Cinemas 3d mode. I have an Gigabyte RTX-3080, i7-8700k OC 5Ghz, Gigabyte master z390 mobo, 32GB ram.

 

Temperatures are all stable and well maintained. Happens with Link (official cable) after it looks like if frame rates drop to drastically and can't recover? Have to exit link and return. Will monitor tread for solution.