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Like many others my 5K+ also has flashing rgb pixels. It also has some black screen flicker from a once or twice per minute up to 3 times/15 minutes and 7 minutes without a black screen (just a measured example, it’s random). Video, black flicker around 0:13 (the bands are because of 24fps camera which is out of sync).
I have tried:
Removing all extra devices with and without power (usb hubs etc).
Wrapping aluminum foil around the Pimax power input box
Trying different gpu displayports
Trying different USB ports
Trying different wall power sockets
Reseating the cable of the HMD.
Playing around with pimax and steamvr settings
The flashing pixels do not occur when the hmd powers on (gray screen) but start when the pimax logo shows up. No difference really after few minutes of use (hmd is cold) vs. few hours (warm).
I can’t try a different power adapter yet but this really seems like the cable is from a bad batch. Otherwise the HMD is perfect! Vive has no issues with the hardware I’m using.
The trouble often with QA checks. Frequency is often based on x/hr. The more parts made per hour the greater number may slip past. Add a change ie spool of wire & the next hour checks might not catch the end of the spool defect as the next check passes.
I got my headset yesterday and have the same problem (5k+ if your asking @Heliosurge)
@Doman.Chen
I’m not entirely convinced this is a cable issue (although I’m happy to be proved wrong cause that would be an easy fix) or that its not seated properly.
If I turn off the headset using the button and restart it I get a different ‘level’ of issue.
i.e. I was using it yesterday and it was all RGB flashes randomly everywhere and picture dropouts.
I started it this morning and perfect picture until I had to reboot the machine and then I got a little bit (a tiny number of white flickering rather than RGB and much less picture dropouts).
Each time I turn off the headset and on again I’ll get a different severeness of flashing dots, even without restarting the machine. Sometimes almost perfect, sometimes a few (constant but random) white flashes, sometimes a small amount of RGB, sometimes a lot of random RGB flashes. It’s constant at that level until I restart.
Because of the colours of flashing pixels its only noticeable in dark scenes, or dark areas of scenes, like the Pimax logo screen or Elite Dangerous (apart from the complete screen dropouts which are always noticeable). Its always the same on both screens.
I’ve unplugged all my wireless dongles (and then all other USB devices that were plugged in) and moved the wireless keyboard/mouse to another room but it didn’t make any difference.
The headset had been off for a while and when I first turned it on I struggled (like initially this morning) to get the worst of the behaviour - only very minor white pixels. Maybe its related to when the headset warms up?
Having said that the behaviour doesn’t change until the headset is restarted from what I’ve seen. i.e. if its behaving a certain way then it will continue to behave that way until the headset is restarted.
I’m leaving the computer on this time and leaving the headset off for an hour or so to see if there if that is the trigger.
OK - I left it off for an hour or so (plug in , headset off) and it was still giving the sparkly pixels when I turned it on. I think that the Pimax logo has so many coloured stars in the background that it can be easy to miss then when its not at its worst. I’ll leave it to cool down for longer now with the power turned off, and change the background to pure black to make it more obvious…
I don’t think there is a way to get rid of the pixel noise without wrapping the entire cable in aluminum shielding tape and maybe using a power adapter with a bit more power. It’s not like I can tell neighbours to turn of their WLANs and mobiles and anything that emits EM signals.
But there is some way to really reduce the black screen or dropout issue because I have waited for the flicker up to 10 minutes. What seems to work for me is to plugin the power after starting the computer and booting into Windows, and maybe only after starting the pimax software (if something doesn’t work, reboot). But again, it could be a random issue elsewhere…
Just adding my voice here; have got the same issue with my 5K+ and Kevin (PImaxUSA) said that 9/10 this is a bad cable, if unplugging & replugging into the HMD doesn’t help.
I hope so cause that would be an easy fix. We seem to have had a flurry of these problems just recently.
Does anyone know how to take the cable out properly and put it back in again. I’ve pulled at it so it disconnected and pushed it back in again without removing the rubber cover. I assume though if we need to replace it there must be a way of taking it out completely.
OK - so I had the computer and headset off for around 3 hours and powered them on showing just a blank black background. This shows the problem very clearly.
Initially there was nothing and then slowly over about 5 minutes a started getting more and more of the random sparkling pixels until I also started getting whole screen dropouts too where both screens would turn off for a fraction of a second.
The computer is not under any load, just pitool running shown the black .jpg (instead of the default pitool image)
As before, restarting the headset from the buttons, or rebooting form PiTool will cause it randomly restart at any intermediate flashing state (i.e. heavy flashing, sparse flashing) but if you leave it for a few minutes it may increase in intensity a little (not always)
Received a replacement cable and now everything works perfectly. Flashing pixels and black screens are completely gone and I have used the headset for many hours. Took about 3 weeks and got tracking info only a couple of days before delivery, not bad at all
