Meta Quest 2 doesn't boot up anymore but goes straight to sleep mode

[domaris17]

My Meta Quest 2 (about 2 years old, only occassionally used and always treated very kindly) doesn't boot up anymore. It shows the blue spinning meta logo, sounds the startup chime, shows the 5 horizontal dots, then shows a black screen (but with turned on leds, "glowing black") and then switches off the screen to "leds off-black". It apparently only goes to sleep mode, for pressing the power button makes the glowing black screen come on again. I can then force it to shut down by pressing the power button for long enough and the same cycle repeats over and over again. When the problem started I could occassionally see the power management dialogue, but couldn't use it as the controllers wouldn't move (but highlight blue when I pushed the trigger button, so the controllers were recognized in some way). But I haven't seen this dialogue for at least two days now.

I have had this problem in a similar fashion for a couple of weeks. Whenever I tried to use the headset, it wouldn't start up at first but switch to sleep. Several (> 15) tries and waiting for a bit while it charged made this issue disappear, so I thought it was somehow related to the (admittedly substantial) amount of pending updates. But this past weekend, it just completely gave up. I had been playing for about 1.5 h, when it started complaining about low battery, so I plugged the charging cable in and left the headset for about 5 min. It switched to sleep and since then, the behaviour described above persists despite all my efforts. Here is what I have tried:

- Letting the device charge for a while (which works, sometimes it shows the battery state, which is now somewhere between 85% and fully charged).

- Letting the cycle run its course, which resulted in the device switching on and off for more than one night (making itself known to me by the incessant audible startup und shutdown chimes all through the night).

- Forcing the device to restart by holding down the power button long enough.

- Holding down the power button for substantially longer than one minute.

- Using the boot menu to power off.

- Using the boot menu to (try to) boot.

- Doing a factory reset from the boot menu.

- Doing a factory reset from my meta horizon account. 

- Tried to check on the meta page if my device was one of those afflicted by the software-unresponsive boot up-problem described on meta.com, but the dialogue always returned my serial number (as checked in the boot menu of the device itself) as invalid.

The only thing all this has achieved so far is the loss of my data, the device is still stuck in its bootup-to-sleep-routine. I'd really appreciate any ideas or pointers anyone could give me!

[oculusness]

@domaris17  If you are able to use your phone to get it to cast, are you able to see anything, as it may be the proximity sensor that may have an issue. You can disable  the proximity sensor using the meta quest developer hub tool. 

Some people have recovered a Quest 2 headset stuck in the boot logo loop of death by removing the inner faceplate and the outer faceplate and disconnecting the battery from the PCB.

[domaris17]

Thank you! But no, unfortunately, my phone couldn't connect to the headset in the loop, I tried several times. By now, the headset isn't listed in my account anymore due to the factory reset from the account. It's need to be newly connected to the account/phone via bluetooth for which I'd need to see the code it theoretically displays on its black display. I don't exactly feel confident with interfering with the hardware, but I know someone who would - I'll ask him to try the battery disconnect with me!

[oculusness]

@domaris17   you still have the option to try the MDQH which allows you to disable the proximity sensor which may indicate the sensor problem without taking it apart.

Meta Quest Developer Hub | Meta Horizon OS Developers

[domaris17]

I took me a while, but I've finally managed to try the things you've suggested. Unfortunately, I didn't get lucky. I've disconnected the battery after adequate disassembly, which in itself worked surprisingly smoothly. I didn't do the trick, however. After putting everything back together, I still see exactly the same fault. 

I have then tried to disable the proximity sensor, but I didn't get very far with this. I have successfully managed to install the MDQH and my Meta Horizon App can connect to my headset again - at least that's what it claims. But I can't enable the developer mode. I can find the switch, but whenever I push it, it just states that there has been a mistake (without further explanation) and the switch turns off again. Consequentially, I don't even get to connect to my headset from MDQH. I suspect, this doesn't work because the headset isn't set up properly (because of the factory reset), but I don't know.

On the other hand I could connect the headset to my wifi (using the app) and can now successfully stream my headset, so there seems to be at least some sort of setup. Unfortunately, this amounts to the same glowing black screen I see in the headset itself. So it's not a screen issue, I suppose. Does this rule out the proximity sensor?

[oculusness]

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On the other hand I could connect the headset to my wifi (using the app) and can now successfully stream my headset, so there seems to be at least some sort of setup. Unfortunately, this amounts to the same glowing black screen I see in the headset itself. So it's not a screen issue, I suppose. Does this rule out the proximity sensor?

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It would be great to confirm the proximity sensor, as that also turns the screen off much like the meta log boot loop of death. Are you able to install the latest version of the OS onto the headset using the update tool?

Meta Quest software update | Meta Store

[domaris17]

Thank you for your suggestion! As it turned out there was literally nothing I could do as the headset didn‘t really connect to the app (and the headset itself kept switching off). Having run out of options to interact with the headset, I contacted the meta support team and the headset is now on its way to the support center. I will post the what problem was/the solution here for reference for others facing the same problem if this actually comes to something!