Black screen on Oculus Rift CV1

[SirDRSpiderpig]

So I started out in the DK2 and pre-ordered the CV1 when it started.  Got my around April 20th and have enjoyed using it since.  I flight DCS flight simulator and make videos about flying with the rift.  Overall, I love the CV1 and really want to get it working again. Last time it worked was on May 21.

I have a i7-4700k cpu, 16 gb 1866 ram, EVGA geoForce 980 video card, ssd hard drives.  My motherboard only has 2 usb 3.0 slots, so I got the card Oculus recommend with 5 USB 3.0 slots.  I keep all my usb connections on my motherboard, and leave the PCIe card for oculus only.  I've used the HDMI input on the video card for the oculus rift.

So last sunday my online squad had a flight and I wanted to record it and use the Oculus rift.  When I went to use it, I noticed audio was working, but no image on screen.  Figuring minor thing, I rebooted machine and tried again - same results.  So I went into the preferences and looked at the devices and both where connected, but it gave me a USB 3.0 warning.  So I went and grabbed latest USB 3.0 from website, installed it, rebooted, tested again - black screen.  The devices screen shows both sensor and headset connected ok.  

So I tried changing the USB from all my devices using the PCIe card and the rift and sensor using my motherboard USB 3.0 connection - same thing, both connected, black screen.  So I emailed support.  He got back initially very quick and told me to check video card to see if there is a driver update.  I checked, there was, I applied it, rebooted, tried again - black screen.  Also had me unplug the connector from headset and plug it back in...did that with same results.  Went back and forth with support for a little, and after last check he hasn't responded back since Sunday.

So went to forums and noticed a lot of 980 ti users were having similar issues and though maybe it was related to the 980 family of cards.  Some people had success with HMDI to DVI....but since I have 3 display ports I figured lets try that too.  So ordered about 50 dollars worth of cables and adapters and just got them in today.  

Tried the DisplayPort to HDMI first and made sure it was able to send signal to another monitor I have and it worked.  So I tried with the rift, and still black screen.  So unplugged my main monitor from DVI, moved it to a displayPort and used the DVI-HDMI adapter to plug in the rift.  Same results - black screen.  

So sensors seem to work ok because when I reboot and hold my finger against headset sensor, Oculus home comes up on computer.  So next I uninstalled the Oculus application via control panel, killed all oculus folders in my home drive and re-installed everything again.  During the setup when you need to put the headset on to configure it - black screen...so can't go any further.

So per the stick up top I got the logs and ran the diagnostic.  I'm attaching it here since I'm hoping one of you can see what's wrong with my Rift and why it won't work.

diagnostic files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dwdmdm09hzr3c6r/OculusLogGatherer_BOD_20160602_052800.zip?dl=0
log files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4kdmgubb5yvohwf/Testing.zip?dl=0

Video of me doing setup again...also showing all parameters are green:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbhj2orbaA

So at this point I'm not sure how to fix it.  I'm hoping someone can help get me back up and running since it's been very frustrating.  Never had any issues with the DK2 like this and it's one of the main reasons I invested a lot in the CV1 and in upgrading my machine.

[ColinB]

Well. If you'd bought it from a retailer you could have taken it back for an exchange or a refund.
Probably the very reason no retail shops are stocking them at the moment.
Developer kits are not very welcome in retail and that's what you guys have got.
Unfortunately you must now deal with the supplier.
All the very best.

[benalden2007]

check your display settings. I had the same problem. I looked in my display settings and saw 2 additional displays that were added at some point. I removed the 2 displays, leaving only my monitor active and the rift worked after that. 

[walterleekurz]

Hello everyone. I can't understand why my oculus doesn't make me start some games and some.

adrift, dreamdeck, abe, etc.. 

work perfectly

Lucky's tale, apollo 11 vr and almost all entertainment apps just started I have only a black screen with only the sound from the headset.

I have an i7 windows 10 and the gtx 980ti connected via hdmi to my tv. When I plug in the cable tv and just leave out-point oculus hdmi cable of the Viewer on my computer.

I apologize for the mistakes but I use a translator.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Came here to post my experience, EXACT SAME PROBLEM. i contacted support, it took them about 3 weeks to send HDMI cable replacement as the first one had pin issues like others reported. Well guess what, i tried new cable and this is what happened after putting it into my GTX 980 Ti:

No other cables ever got this bent on my card before, they're using some cheap cables here...this is redicilous!!


Right now i have no idea what to do, i've had Oculus for 2 months now and have yet to get it working 😞

[nilnullzip]

I'm seeing exact same problem as SirDRSpiderpig. I am stuck in the setup where it asks you to put the headset on. All I see is black.

The Oculus software recognizes the headset, sensor and remote without problem. If I unplug the headset from HDMI it complains that the headset is unplugged. Everything looks good, except that the headset is black.

I am running the recommended ASUS CD11 system with GTX970 graphics and Windows 10. I am using a DP to HDMI adapter as the GTX970 has only a single HDMI port, and that one is required for the main system screen. This system including adapter worked without problem with the DK2 I used previously.

I have tried removing the Oculus software, reinstalling it and the Nvidia drivers. I've tried unplugging things, using all three DP ports on the GTX970, power cycling the whole system and oculus, and even rapping on the side of the headset with my knuckles. Nothing changes.

One thing I have noticed is that the headset will light up occasionally for a fraction of a second when it's sitting next to me. So this really smells like a hardware problem with the screen illumination/power.

[nilnullzip]

Problem appears solved. It seems to be an issue with passive vs active display port to HDMI adaptors. Read on.

Plugging the Oculus directly into the single HDMI output on the GTX970, and moving my monitor to a display port output worked. Here is the problem, I suspect:

> https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/danchar/2014/10/07/displayport-hdmi-dongles-active-vs-passive-re-visited/

The HDMI connector has a 5V power pin. Some of the DP to HDMI adaptors don’t supply that 5V power because additional circuitry would be required. Apparently the CV1 requires that 5V to work (curiously the DK2 did not.)

It would be really helpful if the Oculus documentation mentioned this. The website suggests using a DP adaptor with the Oculus, which I did. However it does not mention that you need to get an “active” DP to HDMI adaptor. A lot of other people are having similar problems and this is likely the reason. Perhaps a future revision of the CV1 could avoid this problem by taking the required 5V from the USB instead of the DP.

Edit: Actually, I'm starting to think there are multiple things going on here and suspect that some active DP to HDMI converters won't work either. So my advice here at the moment is to plug the Oculus directly into the graphics card HDMI output.

[Mr_Armageddon]

I am experiencing the same issue as many here.  Everything looks to be connected correctly, I get audio to the headset, but black screen during the "Continue in Your Headset" portion of the setup.  This is a brand new system, and everything else works flawlessly. 

I am leaning towards some sort for Display Driver issue being that when I plug in the Rift's HDMI connector, my EVGA GTX 1080 SC produces a horrible coil whine.  If I unplug the rift, the whine goes away.  I haven't experienced this noise with any other games or even benchmarking software.  May try some BETA Nvidia drivers to see if it helps.

EVGA GTX 1080 SC - Coil Whine Using Oculus Rift

[bluenose1875]

Anyone know what the issue is with this yet ?

[GND95]

I'm not sure if this will help anyone but I had the issue of my Rift being stuck at a black screen and the amber light never turning white. I could never get past the "adjust your lenses" part of the setup until I uninstalled my "DisplayLink" software/drivers. I used a usb to VGA adapter to power one of my monitors and this device required the DisplayLink drivers to work and apparently this software caused issues with the Rift screen never turning on. Here is the exact post that saved me and I'll link to the entire thread at the end of the quote:

"*SOLVED* the issue was due to lingering DisplayLink drivers. Uninstalling DisplayLink is *NOT* enough. After uninstall, I had to use a cleaner program (http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/file?d=64 ) to get rid of any vestiges of the drivers.

After I did this, my Rift magically started working with no BSOD.

This is frustrating to me as my case has a built-in USB display that requires DisplayLink to work!

Anyway, hopefully OP can get his system to work with this tool. REMEMBER to use the uninstaller tool first, *then* run the cleaner. Instructions are athttp://support.displaylink.com/knowledg ... software-o" 

That is the post that fixed my Rift. I used CCleaner to uninstall the two pieces of DisplayLink software and then I ran the cleaner program from the DisplayLink site as mentioned in the steps in the above quote. I would urge you to check your computer for this "DisplayLink" software as well just in case.

On Windows 7 the display driver would not cause a BSOD for some reason but I ended up upgrading to Windows 10 just to see if it would fix my Rift black screen issue. Upgrading to Win 10 in and of itself didn't fix my issues but what it did do was throw me a blue screen of death error code "APC_INDEX_MISMATCH" and that allowed me to track down my issues to this thread and finally solve my black screen/amber light issues with my Rift. So even if you aren't getting a blue screen and do have the DisplayLink driver for some reason, follow these above steps and you may just get lucky like I and a few others have.

Here is a link to the thread in question in its entirety:

https://forums.oculus.com/vip/discussion/23534/repeatable-bsod-apc-index-mismatch-in-windows-8-0

[ClairA]

DocTwinkie said:

Okay so big thanks to Larry at LPC digital for getting with Clevo/sager.



They were unaware of the issue but have confirmed that indeed the HDMI port on the laptop 980 cards are not working. As oculus and Vive say the headsets need plugged directly into the video card HDMI, it should be known that these cards DO NOT HAVE HDMI PORTS!



So the HDMI port is connected to the card via the motherboard which at the moment is causing issues. They are working on a more permanent fix and making NVIDIA aware of the issue.



In the meantime sager/clevo will send a 4K Mini DisplayPort to you if you contact your seller and this will fix the issue in the meantime.

Thank you very much DocTwinkie, you really helped me. I also have a Clevo laptop with a GTX 980 card. The Rift is not working if I plug it to the HDMI port. So I bought a (passive) 4K mini display port to HDMI adapter and now it is working fine.