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Unable to troubleshoot D-Link VR Air Bridge: Initiation fails immediately

B00ie23
Explorer

Hey all, I've suddenly started having issues trying to get my Air Bridge up and running.

I've had no serious issues since the link meltdown that occurred a long time ago, but this has been an absolutely troublesome experience for the last two hours I spent trying to troubleshoot the device.

Let me take you through everything I've done so far to try and resolve this on my own;

(Before troubleshooting)

  • Launched the PC software, device not plugged in to avoid network interference when booting up my PC
  • Plugged in the device to allow the software to set up and warm up the bridge

(Something goes wrong with the bridge)

  • Acknowledged the red banner and restarted the software as advised

(The red banner instantly reappears)

  • Attempted a factory reset of the device
  • Created a pass to begin setup of the device

(Initiation immediately fails)

  • Ran a software repair and tried again

(Initiation still fails)

  • Uninstalled both the software and the device
  • Rebooted, reinstalled the software and tried again

(Initiation fails again)

(Initiation still failed, device stopped showing up after reinstall)

  • Reinstalled the drivers, following steps from this reddit post

(Initiation failed, this is where I am currently)

At this point, I have already spent two consecutive hours trying to get the device to even initiate.

I looked at another reddit post posted two months ago and now I'm convinced that either that the device simply doesn't work with the latest Windows (despite having it working prior to last week,) or that the device has been completely bricked somehow.

I don't know what else to try, I don't have a way to downgrade my PC because I do not have the media creation tool for the previous Windows build.

9 REPLIES 9

oculusness
Consultant

@B00ie23  if is was working fine and now it's not, it's more likely to be a meta link software update. They are having a few issues at the moment. It's still worth getting in contact with support to let them know of your issue.

Four Rift CV1s, Quest 2, Quest 3, Lenovo Explorer WMR, GearVR

B00ie23
Explorer

Sounds like an idea, this issue might still be fresh. The recent post on this assures me more that something exclusive to Windows 24H2 is causing problems.

@B00ie23  as the meta software has the D-Link drivers embedded. Have you tried completely deleting all of the meta link software, and from hidden folders [guides on-line] and then reinstalling the meta link software in compatibility mode as for windows 10?

Four Rift CV1s, Quest 2, Quest 3, Lenovo Explorer WMR, GearVR

B00ie23
Explorer

I used Revo uninstaller to wipe the link software clean off the system, including hidden folders and registries found after uninstalling, I even went through and cleared out other Oculus-related folders that mainly held my setting configuration for the software.

I never thought of trying to run the software in compatibility mode, though it only lets me run it in Windows 8 compatibility mode at the latest.

explorer_DnLqhiBlWr.png
After installing. Seems like Windows 10 compatibility mode isn't an option just yet.

Running the setup in Windows 8 compatibility mode completed with no issue, but the Air Bridge still won't initialize.

@B00ie23  you've just conclusively proved that it's a link update that has bricked the D-link. The only thing to do now is contact support. 

Perhaps the SteamLink or Virtual Desktop apps could get you connected until meta sort their sheet out.

Would the D-Link Airbridge work with the Steam Link App? : r/OculusQuest

Can you use the D Link Airbridge and Virtual Desktop? : r/OculusQuest

Four Rift CV1s, Quest 2, Quest 3, Lenovo Explorer WMR, GearVR

B00ie23
Explorer

I think I found a possible breakthrough to getting it initialized.

I don't know what I just did to get it going, but maybe something within the steps I did somehow got it working again. Let me give a rundown on everything I did up to the point where the bridge actually started initializing.

I started off by trying to use Virtual Desktop with the device first, since I already had it in my library;

  • I enabled hotspot on the device to try and create a dedicated network for my headset.
  • I configured the settings on both the desktop app and the Quest app.
  • I attempted to run a quick test, only to find out my bitrate settings were being ignored and locked to the lowest setting possible.

According to Virtual Desktop, this was due to me not using a gigabit ethernet cable, which resulted in poor image.

Next, I tried to use Steam Link with the device for the workaround;

  • Getting paired to the desktop app was straightforward, just had to enable Remote Play and make some adjustments to make it work.
  • I attempted to run a quick test, this ended up being worse than VD as it became unstable very quickly.

According to steam, this was due to the bridge's network not running at 5 GHz, not sure how to correct that.

My last attempt was to just use the hotspot and try to run regular link from the software;

  • With the bridge in hotspot mode, and the headset already connected to it, I paired to the PC.
  • Upon starting the link session, it immediately became unstable and took ridiculous time just to get out of link and back to the quest home because of the absurd latency.

To be fair, this was to be expected since I didn't configure the device for the other two experiments due to lack of community instructions.

This is where it gets interesting ...I think;

  • For pretty much no reason, I decided to try and set up the bridge one last time before giving up for the night.
  • I set up the password for the bridge and continue to the next step, expecting it to fail immediately.
  • It doesn't fail immediately and actually starts initializing ..!
  • After the initialization succeeded, I readied my headset and gave it a test run.
  • "We are so back!"

This is all I can quickly update at the moment. I tried factory resetting the device to get back into the "bricked" state, but it still initializes every time. I even tried going into Windows' settings and reverting my ethernet connectivity from Private back to Public (from when I was configuring VD,) and it still initialized.

If I had to take a guess, it would probably be ensuring the device is active, not connected to WIFI, and that mobile hotspot is enabled on it. Use the headset to connect to the bridge, then pair to the PC. Back to the PC software, attempt to set up the Air Bridge.

Please avoid marking this as the solution, it may not work for others having this specific issue.

Eckrecht
Protege

I have the exact same problem and nothing worked.
I only found on the D-Link page the "End of support" for DWA-F18 since December 2024.

https://support.dlink.com/resource/PRODUCTS/DWA-F18/DWA-F18_END_OF_SUPPORT_NOTICE.pdf 

https://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DWA-F18

But Ive got it to run on the Laptop with Windows 10...

Without VR-Bridge its not realy nice to play... It was an game changer. Who knows which rich people decided to cancle it or to make it less supported. This is the future in VR!

mikegeist
Explorer

I have had this issue on two different Windows builds. In both installations, reverting back from 24H2 resolved the issue, and installing it brings it back. I'm trying a new update for 24H2 to see if it fixes the issue, but I'm not very hopeful. Meta support is just ignoring this issue in clear bad faith 

Yes, I feel with you. They arent advertising it anymore in their store...

Just try the Prism XR, buy it over Amazon. If its not enough for you, than you can give it back. But at the moment its the best option I knew. Im playing Blade n Socery with it. Sometimes you have pixel drops but its fluid and makes a lot of fun. Even online PvP in Breachers is possible and I feel no lags.

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