Skip to main content
Nalin
Up and Coming
November 19, 2019
Solved

No audio when using Oculus Link

I have no audio on my Quest headset when using Oculus Link.  These are all the things I have tried to resolve the issue:
  • Reboot PC and/or Quest and plugged things back in in many different orders.
  • Restarted the Oculus service.
  • Tried different USB ports.
  • Tried different USB cables.
  • Tried both an active and a passive extender.
  • Tried throwing a USB 3 hub into the mix just because, both as the first part of the chain and as the second part.
  • Tried with headphones plugged into the Quest and with them removed.
  • Tried toggling all the options related to sound that I could find within the software (Devices > Quest and Touch, all those sound options).
  • Repaired / reinstalled Oculus software.
  • Uninstalled Virtual Desktop Streamer app and its audio driver.
  • Changed my desktop speakers from 5.1 to stereo.
  • Attempted setting every single audio output device as default in Windows.
  • Plugged in my CV1, went through the setup, and then tried piping audio through the Oculus Rift Headphones audio output adapter.
  • Reinstalled oculus-driver.exe.
  • Opened a ticket with Oculus Support (they told me they won't support beta software, lol)
Is there anybody with the same issue who found a solution?  Or at this point is my only bet to wait a year until it stops being beta and Oculus Support actually tries to help?
EDIT: I finally got it working after uninstalling the NVIDIA HD Audio driver.
  1. On your keyboard, press Win+X > Select "Device Manager"
  2. Open up the "Sound, video and game controllers" node.
  3. Right click the NVIDIA High Definition Audio driver and choose "Uninstall device".

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    TheLegend271265668
    TheLegend271265668Answer
    Honored Contributor
    February 14, 2024

    Hey everyone! It looks like this thread is still getting some traffic from the occasional user, so I'm going to go ahead and lock it. This looks like an issue that was present in the early days—dating back to V13. To avoid floating old threads with outdated information, I highly recommend creating a new thread detailing the new issue, so that our teams can monitor new emerging issues caused by recent releases—or other leading causes. I also recommend taking a look with the native search function to find a more recent existing thread with the same issue.

    Technology, at a certain level of sophistication, is indistinguishable from magic. - some wise guy or something probably
    View in thread

    116 replies

    Show previous replies
    mushymess
    New Participant
    November 19, 2019
    Same issue here I have managed to get audio working from the quest only a couple of times by restarting both computer and quest. Otherwise it just comes out the default computer speakers.

    Hopefully a software issue?
    Anonymous
    November 19, 2019
    It's a shame Oculus did not have their new cable for the Link available when the beta software became available.
    I expect going to be a lot of folks getting very frustrated trying different cables to find one that will work for them - some likely will just give up.
    Necaro
    Participant
    November 19, 2019

    dburne said:

    It's a shame Oculus did not have their new cable for the Link available when the beta software became available.
    I expect going to be a lot of folks getting very frustrated trying different cables to find one that will work for them - some likely will just give up.


    Well or they just need to wait 1 or 2 days. There are already tons of working suggestions in the forum :)
    kenf1071
    Up and Coming
    November 19, 2019
    hi,ive got sound but through both my quest and coming from my monitor speakers,wife is moaning saying she can hear it and cant seem to get it coming from quest headphones only ? anyone know what that would be

    its only when i use link 
    TomCgcmfc
    Honored Contributor
    November 19, 2019
    Anyone tried using Oculus Tray Tool (OTT) with their Quest/link yet?  It's audio/mic switcher works great with my Rift cv1.
    i9 13900K water cooled, RTX4090, Z790 MB w/wifi6e, 64Gb 6400 ram, 2x2TB SSD, 1000W PSU, Win 11, QPro, Q3, w/Link and Air Link, Vive Pro1 with 2x2.0 base stations, Etsy lens mod and Index Controllers
    NalinAuthor
    Up and Coming
    November 20, 2019
    I got it working finally!  I did a couple things at the same time:
    1. Turned off exclusive mode on my speakers.
    2. Disabled my Yeti microphone "output" (why this is even a thing I don't understand).
    3. Removed the NVIDIA HD Audio driver.
    Once it was working, I turned exclusive mode back on and enabled my Yeti microphone "output" and the sound still works.  My only conclusion is that it was the NVIDIA audio driver, although I can't say with 100% certainty because I did a bunch of things at the same time.
    1. Win+X > Device Manager
    2. Open up the "Sound, video and game controllers" node.
    3. Right click the NVIDIA HD audio driver and choose "Uninstall device".
    Hopefully this works for somebody else.
    jim2011
    New Participant
    November 20, 2019
    I also found it was related to the audio device but don't think i would want to uninstall the driver since I output to HDMI to my TV.  After completely uninstalling and reinstalling Oculus software for it not to work, I remembered a trick I had to do once to get audio to my rift in certain situations:

    1) Switch the audio output from 5.1 to Stereo in Windows
    2) Unplug and replug in the Quest, I now had audio.

    I think this definitely needs to be resolved by Oculus but it seems to be working for now.  I don't want to have to manually change it every time I switch from Quest to Non-VR games.
    falo209
    New Participant
    November 20, 2019
    Still no luck.  I've tried the speaker configuration change, removing the NVIDIA audio drivers, and all sorts of other switching, reinstalls, cable changes and the like.  What's interesting for me is that when I'm connected to Link, changing the sound device in Windows using the speaker icon doesn't actually do anything - still leaves the audio coming through my PC speakers.
    Anonymous
    November 20, 2019
    Same audio issue as above, different cables combos, etc.  Video and tracking works fantastic, no audio...

    However, I have three VR Machines, all with Rifts that work flawlessly, varying specs but all Nvidia GTX 1070 or better.  Lack of audio issue on Quest Link is across all PCs, regardless of audio settings.  Rifts operate fine.
    falo209
    New Participant
    November 20, 2019
    OK, it's definitely a choice being made by the Oculus software for output device.  If I have some audio playing on my desktop (say another game in the background) and activate the link, I hear both the link audio and the other audio playing through speakers.  If I then switch the audio output in Windows to my headset, the other audio goes to my headset and the Oculus output stays on my speakers.  Is it maybe making a guess about what device to use and getting it wrong?
    Show more replies
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement