Countless issues with my Rift

[MentalParadox]

I see you deleted my post, so I'll just repost. You'll have to ban me if you want me to shut up.

My Rift used to work mostly fine. Then, I wiped my PC and reinstalled Windows 7, and did not use VR for over a year. Now, I tried to come back. And what a bitter disappointment it is. I'll list the issues I'm having. 
 
The first issue, I've had the last time I used VR. Annoying microstuttering in tracking. Regardless of how many times I reinstall software or what USB 3.0 socket I use, it always stutters and makes me nauseous. But this, if you can believe it, I have gotten used to. There are much worse problems now...

Complete loss of tracking. The tracking regularly fails now. First the positional tracking, then the directional tracking stars failing. Occasionally it comes back briefly, only to fail again. This is vomit-inducing. It happens so frequently, I just can't use it anymore. I tried changing USB socket. I tried rebooting the PC. Nothing works. The tracker is in the same place it's always been, and back then it worked. Mostly...

The Oculus program is unstable and crashes. Apps will suddenly slow down and become unresponsive. It starts getting so slow and unstable, I can't even quit the app without doing control+alt+delete and killing the process from there. Also, my entire computer is noticably slower (bordering on unusable) since installing the Oculus software. Just turning the app off doesn't fix this, only a reboot briefly does. I've had this issue before last time I used the Rift. I reported the problem here, and was called 'crazy' for daring to suggest the Oculus software negatively affected Windows. Well guess what, it happened again. On a clean PC, with a clean install of both Windows and Oculus. 

So yeah... suggestions, anyone? I really don't have the money for another tracker. My enthusiasm for VR dissipated along with my bank account some time in 2016.

[Sneakygloworm]

What are your GPU, CPU and Memory specs? Have you tried going to Windows 10?

[Sax-a-boom]

I think the trouble with declaring Oculus software broken, is that you're in an Oculus forum full of people who are using the exact same software with none of the issues you are experiencing. Makes no sense. So you either have a problem with how your PC is performing, or there's a problem with the Rift hardware. Contact support and work through it with them. I suspect that it going to be quite a ping pong and patience will be a virtue. For my own piece of mind, if I wanted to discount my PC hardware, I'd find a friend with a Rift ready PC and ask if I could set up on their system just to check how it ran. If you have exactly the same problems, it's Rift hardware, if it works ok it's your PC.

[MentalParadox]

Sneakygloworm said:

What are your GPU, CPU and Memory specs? Have you tried going to Windows 10?

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601

Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z97

System Type: x64-based PC

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

BIOS Version/Date: American Megatrends Inc. F7, 21/04/2015, SMBIOS Version 2.7

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16,0 GB

I did not downgrade to Windows 10 because all my games worked fine with 7, I loved 7, and 10 was kind of rubbish in the beginning. I didn't want to experience sudden compatibility issues with games I already owned.

Now, I can't afford to downgrade to 10. I'm in serious money trouble.

[MentalParadox]

Storm_Cloud said:

I think the trouble with declaring Oculus software broken, is that you're in an Oculus forum full of people who are using the exact same software with none of the issues you are experiencing. Makes no sense. So you either have a problem with how your PC is performing, or there's a problem with the Rift hardware. Contact support and work through it with them. I suspect that it going to be quite a ping pong and patience will be a virtue. For my own piece of mind, if I wanted to discount my PC hardware, I'd find a friend with a Rift ready PC and ask if I could set up on their system just to check how it ran. If you have exactly the same problems, it's Rift hardware, if it works ok it's your PC.

No one on this forum has ever had tracking issues? Oooookay, then. Sadly, I'm one of those weirdos with no friends. There's a reason I have to hide in the virtual.

[Sax-a-boom]

MentalParadox said:

Storm_Cloud said:

I think the trouble with declaring Oculus software broken, is that you're in an Oculus forum full of people who are using the exact same software with none of the issues you are experiencing. Makes no sense. So you either have a problem with how your PC is performing, or there's a problem with the Rift hardware. Contact support and work through it with them. I suspect that it going to be quite a ping pong and patience will be a virtue. For my own piece of mind, if I wanted to discount my PC hardware, I'd find a friend with a Rift ready PC and ask if I could set up on their system just to check how it ran. If you have exactly the same problems, it's Rift hardware, if it works ok it's your PC.

No one on this forum has ever had tracking issues? Oooookay, then. Sadly, I'm one of those weirdos with no friends. There's a reason I have to hide in the virtual.

Don't think I mentioned that nobody had had tracking issues before, I said that you claiming the Oculus software was solely responsible for your problems (which seems to go way beyond tracking) makes no sense, or we'd all be experiencing it. I'm not currently seeing the forum full of posts about not being able to use their rifts. 

It's ok if you want to be arsey with me, I was actual just trying to help with suggestions, which is what you shouted out for.

[Sneakygloworm]

Win 10 is still free as far as I know. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
If you want to try it over Win7 is dependant on your own personal issues with MS. I have had zero issues with win10 and find it pretty efficient with only one blue screen since it went live. You will have to jump through a few hoops but I recommend doing a clean install. Otherwise just install over win7 from desktop. 

You have a GTX 980 which is at the very limits of VR use. I get stuttering on an overclocked GTX 1080 and the absolute only solution is to back the graphic settings off, quit the app and restart it again. Knock every setting down to low. I initially blamed stuttering on tracking, OS, Nvidia drivers but it was a graphic settings. Plain and simple. 

I've also managed to clock my CPU (AMD FX 8350) up to 4.8Ghz so if you can, try to get as much safe headroom from your hardware as you can, VR is a very power hungry beast.

[MentalParadox]

Sneakygloworm said:

Win 10 is still free as far as I know. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
If you want to try it over Win7 is dependant on your own personal issues with MS. I have had zero issues with win10 and find it pretty efficient with only one blue screen since it went live. You will have to jump through a few hoops but I recommend doing a clean install. Otherwise just install over win7 from desktop. 

You have a GTX 980 which is at the very limits of VR use. I get stuttering on an overclocked GTX 1080 and the absolute only solution is to back the graphic settings off, quit the app and restart it again. Knock every setting down to low. I initially blamed stuttering on tracking, OS, Nvidia drivers but it was a graphic settings. Plain and simple. 

I've also managed to clock my CPU (AMD FX 8350) up to 4.8Ghz so if you can, try to get as much safe headroom from your hardware as you can, VR is a very power hungry beast.

Windows 10 is not free. The link you provided says you need to purchase a license.

 The stutter is tracking stutter, not low FPS. And it wasn't like this in the very beginning (the first week or so). If my hardware was inadequate (I've seen people with more laughable PCs than mine use VR), it wouldn't suddenly start out of nowhere.

What I would like to know is, how can I manually update the drivers of the headset or tracker?

And is it possible that the latest update is really catering mainly to Windows 10, mine is 7 and that's why there are so few people complaining?

[Sneakygloworm]

ooh, by the way.If you haven't already, get the oculus tray tool - https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/5okoju/oculus_tray_tool/

Install it, set Power plan to high performance in the tool. Set adaptive performance in the Nvidia desktop software (high performance pushes GPU temps up) and set ASW to Auto in the tool. ASW will help smooth out lost frames but will also cause a rippling effect if the GPU is being pushed too hard ( a dead giveaway if graphic settings are too high). You can also manually stop and start the Oculus app from the tool.

None of these things may be the issue but its worth a try.

[MentalParadox]

I'll try that. A part of me is silently resigned that this is never going to be fixed, though.