Basestations go grey in steamvr

[#1]

I havent had my vive for long (less than a month) and have noticed an issue I believe shouldnt be happening.
During gameplay, eventually the basestations go grey in steamvr.

It always starts with channel B (doesnt matter which is set to B), then eventually A/C, then both.
The screen would go grey when this began. I since bought the inateck 4 port usb pcie card as recommended which arrived today.

After installation and some testing the problem appeared again, except the screen didnt drop/flick grey, tracking continued to work as expected.
I dont believe the basestations are faulty at this point. Im currently using sync cable.
Stations are in opposite corners of the room. 2.2x1x5m space.
Any thoughts? 

[#2]

@DUST

What other steps have you gone through? I think I'd want to do a reinstall of the USB drivers for Vive and maybe SteamVR as well. Have you tried that yet? I can provide step-by-step instructions if needed.

Thanks,

-John C

[#3]

Also if you are using USB-3 ports for the Vive, try a USB-2 port instead, make sure power management of USB ports in windows is off. The other thing I noticed a couple days ago, is my system did a windows 10 update, I started having problems after that, one controller would stop tracking after a few minutes, the occasional grey screen and the odd time the lighthouses would be greyed out when I started SteamVR. I uninstalled the last 2 updates and everything started working fine again.

I've since DISABLED windows 10 updates!!!!!!
You know Microsoft..... if it works, let's screw it up!
Regards: Jack

[#4]

I should have added this was on a clean install of windows 10, prior to inateck install (using default windows fresco 1.0 driver from ms)
I will reinstall all the vive software/drivers and report back. will hit the reg with CCleaner to make sure no remnants.

@CaTaPulT:
I have tried usb 2.0.
I have a Asus Z97 Maximus VII Gene.
It has 2.0/3.0 ports provided by Intel.
1 set of 3.0 provided by ASmedia.
It happens regardless of which port gen I use. I didnt order the inateck until all the above failed (including the clean win10 install).

My room is rather small, basestations at opposite corners, offset from the wall to avoid shelving.
I have reconfigured their positioning (never while on) to many many positions trying to determine if it was a dead spot. At one point I had B basically right beside me (just above), it still did it.

Playing a cockpit based game, I had them both in front(ish), they did it eventually. Currently testing with American Truck sim but I really want to use it with Iracing. Need to solve the issue first before I can race proper.

I have one big window in this room, I saw mention of sunlight, could that cause what Im seeing?

What tells SteamVR the basestations are tracking?
The headset or the link box?

The only other thing in this room that could be contentious I suppose would be my wifi router. would this interfere with IR?

Ive researched as much as possible before posting

[#5]

Actually yes, a window facing out can cause two main issues. One is that the glass is reflective and thus reflects a distorted laser/IR pattern back at the headset, confusing tracking. Sunlight will also interfere with the IR tracking. If there's a way to put up a curtain or something to cover it, you may have better results.

Thank you,

-John C

[#6]

Already has a curtain. Not thick, lets some light through. I'll test blocking the window entirely as well. Thanks for the replies so far

[#7]

@DUST

Pay attention to if the frequency of tracking losses are reduced. And I forget if someone asked or said, but there's no different between when you're using sync cable or going wireless?

Thanks,

-John C

[#8]

I have tried both optical sync and the cable.

I even used the basestation skin on the workshop that shows the arc's and sight lines to make sure they were lined up perfectly when using optical sync.

In both optical or cable, they sync pretty quickly.

I should point out whenever they drop from steamVR both basestations remain synced (green light). At no point do the 2 stations lose their sync, optical or cable.
I have checked with my phone and both stations have both lasers working (unlike images of faulty stations).

There is a ceiling fan in the centre of the room.

Im about ~6'. If I was to lower them to be "under" the fan, they would be about my head height when standing.

At this point it will be a couple hours before I can resume testing so Im gathering a list to follow.

[#9]

blocked out the window, covered all/most reflective surfaces I could see/think of.

Reinstalled SteamVR entirely along with removing all steam/vive usb drivers.
Used a different usb port on the inateck card.
Didnt reinstall any of the Vive Software.
Didnt reinstall Steam itself.

I caught it drop channel B atleast 3 times for a split second.

Normally this would continue until would start dropping as well, until both would in unison.

Today it didnt (yet) during my testing.
B in this situation is in the bottom left corner (if you were to have a rectangle on screen) I am facing away from it whilst playing seated.

Room is configured room scale (small).

I would like to point out that tracking hasnt dropped (no grey screen flicker) since the inateck card.

Could it now just be slight occlusion?

[#10]

It could be. The other thing I noticed is that you are running a Asus motherboard. If you have Asus Ai Suite installed, try un-installing it and see what happens, Ai Suite is badly written and can cause problems with the Vive.
Regards: Jack

[#11]

I'm also a sim racer, if you have your wheel on and you notice the controllers acting really weird, this seems to be normal with the Vive, it's something that has to do with the throttle, people with flight sticks with throttle controls also have the same problem. I normally don't turn on my Vive controllers when I have my wheel on and am about to race, I just use the mouse and keyboard to get into the game. I use a Thrustmaster T500 wheel and pedals (with a load cell on the brake pedal). Just thought I'd throw that out there in case you have troble with your Vive controllers while your wheel/pedals are turned on.
Regards: Jack

[#12]

Another thing I just remembered, if you have the bluetooth option to turn the base stations off when not being used, maybe try disabling that feature, I had some problems with that and greyed out base stations in SteamVR, I disabled it and everything was fine afterwards. Seems that bluetooth option is touch and go as to how well it works. I have my base stations set to cheap switched power bars, so when I'm done with my Vive, I just hit the switch on the power bar to turn them off, I also have the power brick for the Vive on one of these, I also unplug the USB cable from the computer when I shutdown for the night. This way none of the Vive components get any power when not used.
Regards: Jack

[#13]

I dont have AI suite installed.
Really is just a bare bones install of windows and vive/steam.

I do have a t500RS, which is connected to the intel usb.
Keyboard and mouse run off the asmedia ports.
Only the vive is in the inateck ports.

Not using the bluetooth option this time around, however it happened prior to the reinstall of windows with it both on and off.

Not using the camera.

I also run the basestations/vive from a power board (nothing else plugged into it ) so I can turn off/on all 3 items at once.

[#14]

UPDATE:

Did a 50 minute practice session in iracing and I didnt catch if it dropped or not ( I dont think it did).

At this current point in time I think it could also be ATS at fault.

[#15]

UPDATE:

Played The Lab (longbow/xortex) and Ultrawings on and off yesterday.

Eventually Channel B stopped being recognized as on/tracking (grey in steamvr) although it still had sync with A etc. The entire time during play I was facing B, A behind me.

Restarting SteamVR made it come back alive.

What the hell?
Why is SteamVR just 'losing' one but not the other?

I could hold the headset directly infront of B and nothing.
Restart SteamVR, all good.