USB-C Debris in Charging Port - My findings and solutions (in progress)

[TheTjeezY]

This stream is for the PCVR users experiencing a screen blackout with the popup saying roughly "USB-C Charging Disabled, please clean charging port".

I have been Meta for about a week at this point. I have been following their every advice and spending my own money to try to resolve this.

The root cause of this issue is with how the device charges. Once the Q3 (any smart phones, basically anything new) gets to 70-80% charged, it lowers the current to better charge the battery and reduce heat. For some reason, Meta is using this current drop as a signal for when a "short" is occurring (I would imagine to protect against the risk of thermal events or overheating to the port) it disables the port and throws the popup.

The first issue is that its detecting something that IS NOT there. This is a "better safe than sorry" solution and they value preventing a lawsuit over customer experience. The headset works fine after acknowledging the popup usually, or just a removal/insertion of the cord resolves it temporarily.

The second issue is that the popup blocks out the ENTIRE SCREEN and its not just a small popup that goes away after 5 seconds, you have to manually acknowledge it (again, covering their butts). It says the USB is disabled, but my Link still works just fine, so its not the entire cable, just the power. If I didn't have to drive blind when Simracing when this popup appeared, I wouldn't even care. I can ignore a small popup, but not a black screen.

I have been using a 3rd party USB A to USB C cable with a PD input on the side, which works wonderfully by itself other than slowly dying over time. If i connect the cable PD port to a power brick, it will also would amazingly, and for eternity as it holds a charge, but this introduces the random popups that ruin my online races every day. 

As stated above, I have been working with support and blindly following their directions, and even purchased the Official Link cable for 100 dollars just so they couldn't say that the cable was the issue. With the new cable, it works for Link amazingly well, yes, but it doesn't provide a charge. This is due to most onboard PC USB voltages being 3.3V limited so now playtime is 2.5 hours approximately, assuming I have a full charge at the start, rather than infinite on whatever charge I want. 

This is what leads me to believe it has something to do with charging. Even if you use an external battery pack, once the pack is depleted, you will get this issue. If you plug a cable in with nothing on the other end, you might get this issue. Its not a debris issue, its a charging issue and poorly written software that detects this charging change as a hardware failure.

Now with the Meta cable, my issue is that the charging is non-existent, and I need to have a 30W PD as well as data on my USB C cable. My next attempt is to try a USB C pci-e card that has PD capabilities (up to 12V, 2 port at 2.4A (30W) and 2 ports at 3A (45W)) for another $40. I will be installing later this week to see if that fixes the issue or causes more issues. I suspect it will cause the debris issue just like my other cable when the charging current gets to that threshold, although I have been following their suggestions, so maybe this will help to find a more permanent solution. All in with new cables and parts, sitting at around $130 dollars for this.

[Pegasus1000]

Ok well your trials have helped me with the problem, so thanks.

Your talk of the computer's USB-C slot got me to try instead of using second part of the cable to go directly to the mains charger, to try instead plugging it into the USB-C slot in the computer. So basically one end of the cable is going to the quest and at the other end one part goes into a USB-3 slot and the other goes into the USB-C slot.

I drove for two hours tonight and also a good bit yesterday with no issues. The battery does go down this way, but slowly. It went from 100% to 81% in the two hours which is totally fine for me. I'll try again tomorrow and see if anything happens as it trickles down past the 80% mark, but for now all is working great, so thanks very much, and hope you sort something out for yourself.

[OUberLord]

I'm very curious how your testing goes with the card you mentioned once you get the replacement.

I'm having the exact same problems with the INIU cable now, and I didn't used to since prior to the v62 update that changed the debris/liquid detection logic. There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason as to when I get the error, but when I do that race is ruined.

I did add a PCI card previously but it just adds ports, and only does 5V2A. If your replacement card works I'd be curious which one you got.

[TheTjeezY · Accepted solution]

Second card didn’t work either. So PD and USB is still not possible (on my build).

I now added a 3 port USB C and 2 port USB A 3.2 card to my pcie slot. This is the first time I have had a USB C port to use. Used alongside the Meta cable, I started at 60%, raced for four hours, no issues, and ended at 68%. This was seamless once I got the card installed and restarted my computer a few times to get the card to recognize. After testing it a few reboot cycles, it now comes up every time right away and works without question. 

I still am upset that the fix was to get an 80 dollar cable and 40 dollar card. So I am also investigating the INIU cable as well. They are sending me a replacement and a label to ship my current one back for testing. 

[OUberLord]

Ah, are you using the official C-to-C link cable? I was previously assuming you were using the C-to-B one that it comes with. At this point I'm wondering if the C-to-C can simply carry more power and the PCI card I have now might be enough.

Which card in particular did you get? I was trying to find something similar earlier on Amazon and couldn't find one that seemed a match. Appreciate the help; been maddening trying to make this stable.

[TheTjeezY]

Yeah, right now I am. The standard USB C to C that comes with the headset won’t be enough, those are for sure going to be too small for the higher charging powers. USB C ports allow for a wider range of voltages for charging (PD or QC are two of the high speed standards). USB is usually 3A limited in current, and USB A is a 5V.  USB C can be 5, 9, 12, 15, 20V at that same amperage so that’s where the increased power and charging speed comes from. 

Unsure what my card is running at but it works a hell of a lot better. 

PCIe to USB 3.2/USB 3.1 Gen 2... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097TDK5M3?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

[itsGreg]

I've got usb c ports on my pc. 

I tried it plugged into one of the 20gbps usb c ports on my motherboard and it was fine for a day, (although still discharging but slowly) but today at 40% battery during a race I got the dreaded liquid or debris pop up. 

[MetaQuestSupport]

Hello @itsGreg !

We understand you have a situation with your headset that it shows error message USB C Liquid or debris detected; We'll help you sort this out as soon as possible.

To address your concern, kindly confirm with me that you tried the following steps. 

• Clean the charging port through the steps outlined in the following article:
  • Clean your Meta Quest device

If you have tried this already, please contact us through private message. Please select our name to get to our profile page, or click here: https://metaque.st/CommunitySupport. Next, click "Send a Message" to privately message us! Please remember, you must be signed into the community first to send us a private message.

[TheTjeezY]

Go to “Device List” and go to your usb ports. right click -> properties and turn off “disable to conserve power” or something like that. 

Otherwise it may be that your motherboard has divided its power up between all the other ports as well, and doesn’t have enough juice.

Having a PCIe card with additional ports will basically have its own bus for power and might help keep it powered. 

Otherwise it’s something in the cord causing it to not work well possibly? I’d suspect a port issue. and make sure it’s a “thick” PD or QC cable, not a standard usb c cable. 

[NorbertPlays]

I have the INUI cable and this has been driving me crazy - I figured the issue was some sort of conflict between the cable dropping the current as the battery charges (something that's specifically listed as a feature by INUI) and the software assuming that the reduced current was due to a short, and while I understand the reasoning behind it I'm sure there's a smarter way of either detecting the drop or presenting the error; a current drop due to a short is going to present itself very differently to a power brick easing off the current, and blanking out the display completely feels like overkill. Out of curiosity I plugged the INUI cable into my phone to see what happens and it managed to deal with the current drop without having a tantrum so it's obviously doable.

The USB-C ports on my PC don't provide anywhere near enough juice so a cable with an injector seemed a reasonable option (or at least the most reasonable option that wasn't going to add almost 50% more cost; PCIe cards that can provide enough current to keep the headset topped up are not cheap, and neither is the official link cable), but such is life.

(As a general informational point "dumb" USB-C PD extension cables do not exist for obvious safety reasons.)

[TheTjeezY]

Yeah I dont agree thats its the best solution to handling that error. I would suggest reaching out to INIU customer service (although after my first interaction, they havent responded yet) but I am hoping they send a replacement that solves this. 

If I get mine in, Ill test it and report back but for now, I have abandoned that cable. I just wrote the PCI card off as a "PC Upgrade" since my USB-A ports were outdated anyways. The cable from Meta for $80 bucks? Honestly, there are other ones out there that are cheaper and would work the same (Anker has a really nice cable) but the ends are all straight, which might help cut some costs, but I dont want to have all the cable weight pulling my port down. Maybe a 90 degree adapter and leave that strapped to my headset and plug the anker cable in when I need it, but then I am just introducing more connections that can go haywire.