Bad display on Vive Pro 2 - buy parts, or another Steam VR headset?

[jfreund]

I picked up my Vive Pro 2 after a couple weeks of neglect and the left eye display is messed up. Difficult to describe - kind of a pixel rainbow grid over the whole image. It's like I can see the electronic layout behind the pixels. Did multiple system restarts, replugged all cables, etc. I broke the whole thing down short of removing the PCBs on the off chance an internal cable came loose. Got it successfully reassembled, but no improvement.

iFixit has Vive Pro parts listed (mostly out of stock), but nothing specific to the Pro 2. Is there anywhere I can buy a left display panel or display/lens assembly?

Failing that, I'm looking for a "reasonably" priced replacement.

Despite the high resolution, I still can notice pixels on light screen areas with the Pro 2 but don't find it too distracting. The only other PC VR set I had was an Oculus DK2, and the screen door effect was a big drawback. My 2 other (pretty minor) gripes with the Pro 2 are halos from the fresnel lenses and lack of contrast in dark scenes (spoiled by OLED TVs).

If Valve had the Index headset ($500) in stock I'd get one, but they're only selling the whole kit for $1000. I can get a refurb Index kit for $750 and have spare base stations and controllers.

I can't find a decently priced Vive Pro (1) - only the kit with base stations and HTC controllers for over $1200.

There are used Pimax headsets, but I haven't found great feedback on their quality control.

I could cave to the zuckerborg and get a Quest 2. My wifi 6 router is in the same room so I could try Air Link or get a PC Link cable. I don't know about using the Quest 2 with Index controllers.

The boring, fairly expensive option would be to get another Pro 2.

 

[Skarth]

I tried using a quest 2 with index controllers. It mostly works, but it's really janky and constantly lost tracking all the time. Wouldn't recommend it.

 

[jfreund]

The difference a day makes...

No, the Pro 2 isn't fixed.

But, Steam has the Index headset today. Gonna give it a try.

 

[reaper12]

The difference a day makes...

No, the Pro 2 isn't fixed.

But, Steam has the Index headset today. Gonna give it a try.

I will be shocked if you can go back to using the Index. It's a low res headset these days with really bad glare. I can't even go back to using the Index after the Quest 2.

 

[jfreund]

I will be shocked if you can go back to using the Index. It's a low res headset these days with really bad glare. I can't even go back to using the Index after the Quest 2.

Consider yourself shocked!

I can tell the Index is lower res than the VP2, but its still "good enough" for my eyes at this time. The big difference is the lenses. I can't believe HTC got the VP2 lenses so wrong. The higher resolution only helps in the center sweet spot because the lenses distort so much of the image. The sweet spot of the Index is much bigger - halos are only at the edges (often not noticed), where the VP2 has halos in about the outer half of the radius.

The other failing of the VP2 is HTC's software. It's garbage. It compromises stability and does nothing that could not have been done in SteamVR. I've had fewer crashes with the Index. I prefer to turn off my OLED when using VR to take care of the screen. That was fine with my 6800 XT. With the 4090/VP2 it results in an instant crash. 4090/Index is no problem - a hitch in the VR image, then back to normal. Switching audio devices is more consistent without the Vive software getting in the way, too.

The current state of the market is that every headset is a compromise. I'd love to have the time and money to buy and test each one. If the Quest 2 is better than Index, that's impressive. I would have been OK with the VP2 if the display hadn't gotten borked. I'd love to see the PSVR2 get hacked to work completely on PC.