Strange VR audio issue (Samsung Odyssey)

[EsxPaul]

This is a strange one.

I've recently upgraded my Win 10 to 1903 with a clean install so I'm thinking at this early stage that it might be the culprit? After going to 1903 I also took the chance to opt into steam vr beta and wmr for steam beta.

Those are the 3 changes I've made since having no issues at all with 1803 and the non beta versions of the above.

On to the issue... I fire up Steam vr, which starts wmr, then I jump into a game. Out of nowhere (could be after 1 minute, 5 minutes or 20 minutes) my audio blows out massively. It's a really loud, constant hissing, as if a huge tyre has suddenly burst. Along with that, every other sound is also really loud, as if someone has managed to bypass the volume slider and cranked it to 200%.

I have to get out of the game, which sends me back to steam vr home.
The hissing has disappeared but the volume is still massively loud and distorted. I close steam vr, which sends me to the wmr cliff house. Same thing there also so I have to close wmr.

I'm then back to the desktop in pancake mode. Audio has switched back to my soundbar and everything is back to normal.

Go back into vr and the cycle repeats itself.

Anyone else had this happen? I initially thought this was a ACC only problem but it's now happening in all games

 

[RobertR1]

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6944-latencymon.html

Run that. Let it run for 10mins. See if it stays all green or starts telling you where there might be an issue.

If you're clean with nothing running, turn on the odyssey while it's in the windows home screen (or similar) restart the app and see if anything comes up.

 

[EsxPaul]

After some searching, it appears that this is caused when a usb port isn't able to provide enough power to the device: https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsMR/comments/9mrq1h/loud_static_sound_blast_please_report/

Strange thing is, this has only arisen for me after switching Windows versions. All usb devices are in the same ports that they always have been. I have noticed that I have an option in my bios to switch on extra power delivery to selected (Intel) usb ports so I'll give that a shot.

 

[EsxPaul]

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/6944-latencymon.html

Run that. Let it run for 10mins. See if it stays all green or starts telling you where there might be an issue.

If you're clean with nothing running, turn on the odyssey while it's in the windows home screen (or similar) restart the app and see if anything comes up.

Thank you very much, Robert. I will give that a try later on when I'm back home from work.

 

[EsxPaul]

I thought I'd try a one thing at a time approach to try and nail this down.

First off, I've enabled additional usb power in the bios (which has been disabled for the whole 4 years that I've owned the motherboard) and so far I've had 30 minutes of gameplay without any audio issues.

I'll keep on testing and if it happens again I'll run the latency monitor programme that Robert kindly provided

 

[Terry Rock]

I've had this exact issue a few times in the past week.
Generally...in my case anyway, it has been right at the end of the intro video when trying to run ACC.
You get this extremely loud hissing inaudible noise in the VR headphones.
The thing is, I can exit...then restart the sim on the desktop and all audio is normal again.

 

[EsxPaul]

Little update.

I've been running without any audio issues for 4 or 5 days now, until today.

I decided for the first time to untick the "Use Steam VR Home" in the general setting tab as I have never had a need for it. The original problem returned within a minute of driving. I went back in and re ticked the box but the steam vr home environment wouldn't display, even after quitting Steam altogether and rebooting the pc. For whatever reason I just couldn't get it to come back

Decided to uninstall/reinstall steam vr (1.7.3 beta) and I got the home environment back straight away. Since then, no audio blowouts. Not sure if its related but I'll be keeping an eye on it.

 

[EsxPaul]

I'm still being bugged by this problem and it seems really random. I can go for 5 or 6 days without an issue then have it return 10 times in a day.

I've got a feeling its something to do with Steam VR. No evidence, just a gut feeling. The reason I say that is that on those days where it happens repeatedly, if I uninstall and reinstall Steam VR, the issue seems to hold off for a while.

I need some advice though... How can I completely remove Steam VR in a clean way?

I notice that something must be getting left behind as when I remove and reinstall, all of my application ss levels are remembered each time. Sometimes the steam home environment will work as normal whereas other times I lose that environment completely and all I can launch into is that mountain range looking area (the one you see when you are waiting for a game to load up). This is with "use Steam VR home" both checked and unchecked.

I've tried unchecking the "sync data to steam cloud" thingy before an uninstall but it still seems to remember my ss settings.

What I'm aiming for is a really clean reinstall where Steam gives you a pop up box to inform you that it recognises you have a HMD and prompts you to install Steam VR.

Any ideas?

 

[maelstrom]

As it's an audio problem, when you installed Windows, did you also install the latest audio drivers for the motherboard audio chipset rather than just using the default Windows drivers?

 

[EsxPaul]

As it's an audio problem, when you installed Windows, did you also install the latest audio drivers for the motherboard audio chipset rather than just using the default Windows drivers?

I think you might be onto something there. Now I think about it, I did not install the audio driver as the default Windows one seemed as if it was working without any conflicts flagging up.

Thank you very much for pointing that out. I will give the Realtek driver a try.

This has made me think of a related question... Wouldn't the HMD audio be handled by the GPU driver, seeing as the sound is being fed through the hdmi port?

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Odyssey is Realtek USB audio, chip is onboard of HMD.

 

[EsxPaul]

Odyssey is Realtek USB audio, chip is onboatd of HMD.

Thanks, Andrew. I was unaware of that.

I've gone ahead and installed the Realtek audio drivers for my MB, taken directly from the MSI support page.
I don't now need to go and find other Realtek drivers, specifically for the HMD?

 

[Deleted member 197115]

It is "Realtek USB2.0 Audio", try to uninstall that one and let Windows figure out the right one.
You can also uninstall Samsung Mixed Reality 800ZAA, make sure to click remove associated software checkbox. Reboot the comp and let it install itself.
Similar problem on Steam, seems to be USB power related, some had luck running USB into Odyssey off powered USB hub.
Is USB selective suspend sleep disabled in power option?

 

[EsxPaul]

It is "Realtek USB2.0 Audio", try to uninstall that one and let Windows figure out the right one.
You can also uninstall Samsung Mixed Reality 800ZAA, make sure to click remove associated software checkbox. Reboot the comp and let it install itself.
Similar problem on Steam, seems to be USB power related, some had luck running USB into Odyssey off powered USB hub

I'll give those steps a try. Thanks

 

[brown_recluse]

I briefly ran into this problem yesterday with my Odyssey+ headset, surprised to see this thread honestly. At the time I had a Bluetooth headset receiver also plugged into a USB port. Restarting SteamVR without the receiver plugged in seemed to fix the issue just fine.

 

[EsxPaul]

I briefly ran into this problem yesterday with my Odyssey+ headset, surprised to see this thread honestly. At the time I had a Bluetooth headset receiver also plugged into a USB port. Restarting SteamVR without the receiver plugged in seemed to fix the issue just fine.

Thank you for that info. Gives me another avenue to explore if this issue comes back to bite me again.

Like you, I also have a Bluetooth receiver plugged in. I added it when I first bought the HMD just so that I could use the controllers. Turns out that I never really needed one so I don't know why I've always left it plugged in

 

[Deleted member 197115]

EsxPaul, do you have Odyssey+ or original? Only original needed separate BT, Plus has one onboard.

 

[EsxPaul]

EsxPaul, do you have Odyssey+ or original? Only original needed separate BT, Plus has one onboard.

I have the original so had to add in a little dongle to get the controllers working.

 

[Vintagedriver01]

I have the original so had to add in a little dongle to get the controllers working.

I did have the same problem, disable sleeping mode, register changing or whatever did not help, it was related to an USB power or an disturbed connector. This last is caused by using an extended USB cable, so remove this.
Go to your device manager and remove the USB drivers and let Windows install the right ones.
If you do have an MSI “VR ready” board then this is the port you should always use, this port is controlled by an special VR-IC.
For MSI owners, use an special MSI software Xbooster, this will free up your VR-USB hub.

After these I never did face any loud sound problems.

 

[EsxPaul]

@Vintagedriver01 Thanks for the tips.

I'm currently using the Microsoft drivers for all 3 usb controllers (Intel, AsMedia and Via). I have the HMD plugged into 1 of 2 Intel ports as they appear to be the only ones that can have additional power provided by a setting in the bios.

After substituting the Microsoft audio driver with the Realtek HD Audio driver I thought I might have solved the issue. After doing that, I've had close to 10 days without a problem. Until today

During those last 10 days, I haven't been using the Crew Chief app so as to keep things simple. I decided to fire it up for use with ACC and within a minute the problem returned so I'm starting to wonder if running Crew Chief might be causing some kind of conflict.

I'll have to keep trying with and without Crew Chief to see if there is any kind of correlation.