(Resolved) Known Issue - V62/63 USB-C Debris/Water Warning

[Star.Knight]

v62 has a big problem with USB port sensor (found the very same issue on my Q3 and the one of my wife)... when used with an extension cable (even if it is a quality cable) from time to time star showing the debris-water warning message. Of course there is no debris or water, just a nasty software false alarm.

[TheLegend27 · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone! It looks like a majority of users no longer seem to have the Debris/Water Warning error popping up, so that's awesome to see!

For those of you still encountering the issue, I reached out to engineering, who recommended that you all submit a bug report and reach out to our support team to look into what options might be available to you.

Thanks again for your patience and for cooperating with the team to help squash the bug!

Update 5/30/2024:

Hey everyone! It looks like this issue resurfaced after the fix that resolved most users issue in V64, and another thread was created by @LaserDisk to help keep track of reports V65 onwards. To help keep these two versions separated, I'm going to go ahead with locking this one. If you're still experiencing the issue on V65+, please check out the thread here!

[Severem]

They say this has been resolved...NO IT HASN'T, people are still having issues, including myself.  As long as there are people still having moisture/debris issues, regardless to how few, it is NOT RESOLVED!!  This is just a smoke and mirrors reply to keep people off Meta's back about actually fixing the **bleep** problem, they closed the post and said 1 "Accepted Solution."  This company sucks all the way around.

[Severem]

They say this has been resolved...NO IT HASN'T, people are still having issues, including myself.  As long as there are people still having moisture/debris issues, regardless to how few, it is NOT RESOLVED!!  This is just a smoke and mirrors reply to keep people off Meta's back about actually fixing the **bleep** problem, they closed the post and said 1 "Accepted Solution."  This company sucks all the way around.

[niallobr]

What a ridiculous post…

[Rolldabeatz]

Hei, still no fix here. Been bug reporting after every test. From link pc app, and inside headset. This and Airlink stutter bug has made PCVR totally unusable. In May it will be 3 months. For some reason I see the Replies number go down for the amount of emails I get from people posting and what I read from their posts they should be going up. Not a good look. And funny to top it off is that I cant delete my own posts. Maybe I am just paranoid. But something suspicious is going on. 

Only good news has been Horizon OS, that feels like there is more overall connectivity going on. Hopefully soon Quest can harness more performance from PC, mobile, TV and even from other headsets.

[Severem]

So, let's look at this from a smaller scale.  Let us assume you have a deck of cards.  Each card represents say, 100 people who spent good money on the meta quest 3, but are having problems with it, in this case the moisture/debris false alarm aspect.  Now, every time someone posts a complaint that the alarm is going off and making the headset unusable, take a card out and put it in a discard pile.  Now, keep doing that until you begin to run out of cards.  This is what is happening to community.  The reason that there are fewer and fewer complaints is because the majority of the people (the entire deck) has already made this remark. It hasn't slowed down or a fix has been implemented, it hasn't.  People have made their voice heard and shouldn't have to repost stating that it hasn't been fixed, though I applaud those the do.  I check on this every week hoping that a final fix has been created (it has back in v60, so why not see what has been changed there, eh?)  My issue isn't because I am using it on a PC, it can't handle VR, hence I got the headset, but using a separate (longer cord) to power my headset keeps showing this irritating moisture/debris alarm that shouldn't be going off in the first place.  Sounds to me that Meta just recognizes that the power cord isn't one of it's own and trying to make a consumer buy the absolutely outrageous price for a Meta Quest Link Cable is also outrageous.  Sell the cord at a cost where someone would be willing to buy it (around $30-40 is reasonable, not $80-100) rather than a 3rd party cord that can do the same job.  Sounds to me like Meta is only out to make as much money as possible, as quickly as possible and doubling, if not tripling costs for name brand products (Link cable, charging stations, etc) and calling them 'official.'  Want proof that this is true, look now at how much they are reducing the costs of the Quest 2, probably down to almost factory costs in hopes to make back their money.  I am sure the Quest 3 didn't cost $650 (512 GB version) to make, more like $120-200 and the rest is pure profit of 50% or more.  The very least Meta could do, to keep their consumers happy, and thus sales, is to take on the Walmart approach... sell at lower than competition costs and that is where your consumer base will go. 

IN retrospect... fix the moisture/debris problem by either eliminating the alarm altogether or find the code in v60 that kept it in check and implement that into a future update.  Would seem simple, yes?  Gosh, maybe I should apply as a diagnostics tech for Meta... Nah... I wouldn't be making them money hand over fist if that was the case, cause I would actually try to fix my customer's problems. 

'Nough Said!

[DreadHeadFred]

I do appreciate your theory about this but I'm here once again to tell you all (from my perspective) that this issue has absolutely nothing to do with the cable.

I'll explain again that I started getting the popup literally 1 minute after installing v62. Sometimes it seemed to get less frequent but the truth is, I received the popup at least 4 times an hour consistently, sometimes more. This happened all the way through v63 barring one fine day where I didn't receive it at all, then came right back. It finally stopped altogether when I got v64 PTC. I have now been on v64 for at least 3 weeks (lost count now) and I haven't seen the popup even once since.

BUT, back to my first point. I got this error in every scenario. Stock cable with charger, stock cable with higher watt charger, 3rd party cable with both chargers, stock cable plugged in to PC, 3rd party cable plugged into PC, BOBO battery. And here's the proof it's not cable related for me: NO CABLE PLUGGED IN!

[er0s3nnin]

@DreadHeadFred @Severem 

100% not cable related or general setup related and 100% headset related.  Either a dodgy batch of headsets or damage caused by the v62 update firmware.  see my post here where I tested extensively with 13 different cables and a bunch of different computers hubs and chargers and most importantly TWO headsets.  One a few months old that had the v62 update and one new one that went straight to v64 and never had v62.

Long story short - both on same version now with factory resets, old headset does not work with nearly every cable/computer/hub combinations and the new headset has zero issues with them all.  Been using the new one for about 8 hours a day since and not had one message, dropped connection or failure to charge - all things happening on the older headset with the same equipment - therefore... malfunctioning headsets! 

Post with details here - https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/Get-Help/Resolved-Known-Issue-V62-63-USB-C-Debris-Water-Warnin...

I even tagged @TheLegend27 in it before he intentionally ignored it and posted that tripe above about it being resolved.  And I will keep posting if I have to. 

[tomhorn123]

@DreadHeadFred @Severem @er0s3nnin 

Well written guys and thank you for your exhaustive efforts!

This leaves a lot of us with a dilemma.....are the affected headsets 'fixable' with an update that manages to target and solve the problem universally (whether the cause is due to an inherently defective headset or damage caused by a previous update)?

I have an RMA and shipping label (soon to expire) in order to send my affected headset back for replacement....but I really don't want to because....

a> will the replacement have the same problem and hence we go on the dreaded merry-go-round, and

b> despite reassurance to the contrary from Meta, will I receive a refurbished unit from them!

Really don't like this situation 😞

[EdLuva72]

My replacement is arriving this afternoon.  They are sending a refurbished unit.  I will provide an update once I receive it and fully update it to v64 or v65, whichever is the latest that's available.