PC Drivers & Software

[haznick]

I've just bought a Samsung Odyssey Plus after upgrading my graphics card to a Sapphire Nitro RX 580 8GB. I bought this card because it has 2 HDMI ports, one for my TV (LG 4K OLED) and one for the VR headset.

As soon as I connect the headset the screen flickers off/on a couple of times and then the screen stays dim. The Mixed Reality Portal says "check your display cable". (The headset has connected ok looking at the Samsung HMD app, and reports it all connected and working). As soon as that's all happened the AMD software has crashed, and clicking on the icon in taskbar gives the message "No AMD graphics driver is installed". I checked in Device Manager and the card had been stopped by Windows (Code 43) and it had reverted back to the standard Microsoft driver. Unplugging the headset doesn't get things back working either. I have to reboot the PC for it to reload the drivers and get the card working again.

I've uninstalled the drivers using the AMD Cleanup Utility and tried both the latest drivers (20.4.2 and 20.5.1) using the Adrenalin 2020 installer and that hasn't worked either. I'm kind of pulling my hair out at this point..

Any ideas? I know the RX580 works fine with WMR headsets as I've searched before posting. I've tried swapping the HDMIs over on the back of the card and tried all my USB3 ports but the same thing happens each time.

I don't have any old monitors I can try so I can disconnect the TV HDMI, and I don't have another VR headset to try either. Last resort would be to go back to my old NVIDIA GTX 650Ti card and see if the headset works (even though it isn't good enough spec for WMR)

I've attached a few relevant screen shots. I've included the events log for the card stopping.

Oh and my PC spec is:

Win 10 Home 1909 (64 bit)

i5-4430 3.00ghz

16GB RAM

Asus Z87-A mobo (latest BIOS)

Western Digital 500GB Nvme (via PCIe)

Thanks for any help you can give.

Nick.

[haznick]

Just an update but I have it working now. 

I did a number of things so not sure which worked. 

Uninstalled SteamVR

Used DDU to completely remove any trace of both NVIDIA and AMD drivers. 

Upped the PCH voltage in my BIOS (just in case plugging two HDMIs caused the PCIe to pull too much power from the PSU and cause the card to fail. 

Changed power management to HIGH for silimar reasons. 

Uninstalled LAV Filters and Kazaa Lite codec pack. 

Changed my display setting to 60hz instead of the 59hz it was set at. 

Anyway, after all that I plugged the headset in and it worked first time. I'm guessing either completely removing traces of all drivers (my old NVIDIA likely the main culprit) or changing the refresh rate to 60hz to match the headset, might have been the most likely things that fixed it.

Thanks any way, and maybe it might help someone else out in the future. 

Regards. 

[haznick]

Just a further note on this.

I have now narrowed it down to the exact thing causing the GPU driver failure. It's the "HDR for games and apps" setting under Windows HD Colour in Display Settings. I've had that turned on for ages but must have turned it off with all my extensive changes earlier. I switched it back on again not long ago and I had the same crash when connecting the headset. Switched it back off again and rebooted, the headset works fine again.

Just thought I'd mention it as a possible fix in case anyone else has this similar issue. Obviously the Odyssey+ and the Windows 10 HDR setting don't like each other.

[dilettanti]

THANK YOU so much for coming back to post this follow-up. I registered just to say thanks - you saved me a lot of time and frustration. I had this exact problem. Windows 10, Radeon RX 580, Samsung HMD Odyssey+, LG 4K HDR monitor.

I bought a new HDR monitor to make teleworking easier (so I could attach my non-HDR Ultrawide monitor to my work laptop); when I plugged in the HDR monitor, my previously working-just-fine system went haywire - the new monitor itself was washed out and looked horrible, presumably because the AMD display drivers were crashing (error 43). At first I was terrified that I had purchased a non-returnable monitor that had horrible picture quality, but after a ton of debugging, I found that that the Adrenaline software would install fine once I unplugged my Odyssey+ - but as soon as I plugged that back in, the display drivers would crash. I was worried that I would not be able to use my Odyssey+ without having to reinstall the AMD drivers afterward every time. Your post solved my problems, though - I turned off the HDR games and apps option in the Windows 10 settings app (which had presumably been turned on automatically when I plugged in my new HDR monitor), and everything is back to working perfectly. And my new monitor looks amazing with working display drivers. So... I really appreciate you coming back to post your findings. Thanks!

[dilettanti]

UPDATE: The May 2020 Windows 10 Feature Update seems to have collapsed the former HDR Games and Apps option into the single, all-encompassing "Use HDR" option - which, when turned on, is apparently incompatible with the Samsung HMD Odyssey+ in the same way described above. So it looks like, for now, AMD graphics card users can't use HDR in Windows 10 at all without disconnecting the Odyssey+, and remembering to disable the "Use HDR" option before reconnecting it. Great job, Microsoft. SMH.

[haznick]

You're welcome, glad it helped. Thanks for taking the time to make the message.

I actually got rid of that card and changed to a Nvidia GTX 1660 Super (sorry AMD guys!). Purely for the ability to hardware decode at higher resolutions than 4K H.264 so the headset can play them without stuttering/freezing.

P. S. Don't forget to download the "Windows Mixed Reality for Steam" app if you're playing games through that.