Broken META QUEST 2 VR Headset - Can I FIX it?

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In this video I attempt to fix a broken Meta Quest 2 (Oculus Quest 2) virtual reality headset that was sent over to me by a viewer/Patreon named Alex. It has a flashing red light. The battery has been changed and it STILL has a flashing red light.
Can it work again? Let's find out.
Remember that this is just for entertainment and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in these videos.
Many thanks, Vince.

[@gavo386]

Hi Vince, I have a quest 2 here with a broken screen, I think everything else works on it (can’t remember) drop us a message if you want it for connectors and replacement parts. (It’s Gavin with the ps5 from Hell 😂)

[@TattooDallas]

Why you breaking all your stuff

[@Jessespresso]

@@TattooDallas 😂

[@gavo386]

@@TattooDallas to send them Vince haha

[@CautionusJay]

I would love to see Vince revisit this headset so I hope Vince responds to this

[@pallsmortion4750]

This is why you can't have nice things

[@mikeb1013]

Your perseverence on this was unbelievable. That ribbon cable micro soldering is really amazing. Just look how far you have come in the past few years. I love watching your repairs on random things. Keep up the great work.

[@BuyitFixit]

Great Effort Vince👍. Sometimes I think you have a lot more patience than me! Shame it was all so badly corroded on a plus side though you have a lot of spare parts now to repair another one. I had seen a few of these on eBay and had thought about getting one myself to have a mess with. Keep up the great work!

[@CaptainRex332]

You are a master of your craft. it’s admirable that you also post your videos even if you can fix it

[@DonmenDragon]

Thank you Vince for persevering making this video. It always amazes me how incredibly tiny these connections are, you holding your finger next to it doesn't even do it justice.

[@Jessespresso]

Not an expert by any means but I have a Quest 2 which I've used for a long time. The 1,2 and 3 settings are settings to determine the space between your pupils so that the screen will be in focus whilst in use. I'd guess that the cable that connects the two is for relaying the information to allow the focal point of the screens to move where necessary

[@zdxrkxeno]

Hey Vince! You can use an application called Sidequest on your PC to disable the proximity sensor through ADB automatically. If you can set it up through the app, enable developer mode and then youre good to go!

[@miro_trendafilov]

Hi Vince, I've been catching up with the Rolls Royce playlist as of late (the last 3-4 days) and I'm on part 52 right now. I don't know anything about cars and you've sparked my interest. Loved all the ups and downs during all the videos, the car is coming along sooo nicely! Sorry, I'll come back to this at a later time, just wanted to drop some love for the car! 🚗❤

[@Mymatevince]

Thank you so much 👍👍👍👍👍

[@SirSmilie]

the amount of folks that are super careless with liquids around expensive electronics blows my mind.

[@zJericho101z]

Playing VR can be pretty hard work and makes you sweat alot, witch i reckon is what caused this particular water damage.

[@gamehulk]

What a testament to Vince's abilities now that he can make such progress soldering these tiny connectors. This and anytime he reflows surface mount parts blows my mind. Well done Vince! You've come a long way!!!!

[@RetroFix]

I wonder if it’s possible to jump certain pads on the connector so the proximity sensor will always think there’s a face there.

[@bovabova8992]

Cheers Vince, right impressed you went to all that trouble to fix the headset. The video's a right good watch.

[@VRReviews11]

Looking forward to watching this one, thanks Vince!

[@jimfarrell4635]

Your point about planned obsolescence is spot on. I have been trying to repair vintage hifi recently. Firstly it's astonishing that a lot of these 50, even 60 year old bits of gear still work, and if they don't are eminently repairable providing parts are available. There is a lot to be said for Right To Repair legislation.

[@jshoe1986]

Anything from my mate Vince is well worth a watch ! 👍

[@gabrilapin]

This one was quite the ride ! Really enjoyed it 👌

[@mand_oh]

Well done! Your microsoldering was fantastic and I learned a ton!

[@theatheisthammer]

@my mate Vince. I will try and explain how to fix this in a short time.strip it down. Now at the connector get a reading from the pins on the proximity connector one by one. By turning it on connected to multi or oscilscope and wait for it to turn off eventually you will find the pin, then solder a wire to short it and now it will stay on. I can not remember the pin it was that does this. But had a similar problem and this worked. It just basically tells the system it's on your head. Downside is it won't go into standby when you take it off, just remember to turn it off. This will work for other systems that use this feature.

[@Mymatevince]

Great idea 👍 Thank you

[@Dsbarrynl]

Wow vince what an effort did you make for this video, thank you , i like your videos and ofcourse i'd rather see you succeed, it was very interesting!❤

[@alexanderj7220]

Amazing , wish I had those skills to do that. Can not wait until we get more videos , especially the car!

[@123simion1989]

Nice video. Definitely interested to see more of these VR head sets in your videos!

[@andersmmvfc.8376]

Ooh I really like this one! I never tryed a vr headset since nintendo virtual boy, it would be nice to try but i use only one eye at a time and I'm abit sceptical , alot of nice Waffeling and a huge amount of entertainment thank you!❤

[@hellooohowareudoing]

I've been dreaming of the day one these turned up on your channel!

[@coolissimo69]

Hey Vince today I tried for the first time great hardware.

[@DEmma1972]

Loved it. Good fault finding also

[@slaphead2965]

BOG! ...now there's a word I haven't heard in many years or 'yonks' as they used to say in Blighty! Great video Vince 👍🙂🇬🇧

[@Boogie_the_cat]

Vince, if you read this, please know i found this video extremely interesting. I have no interest in the Meta world, but the tech side is vastly more interesting. I'd love to see more. Happy holidays to you and your family.

[@shadoudirges]

As a current Quest 3 user myself I found this fix fascinating. I was sure there was no hope but it looks like you got it to show the set boundary screen. Too bad you don't have any controllers and the proximity sensor is pretty much trashed.

[@CLC-1000]

Never had one of these or been in VR, but hopefully that will change this year. 🤞

[@wisher21uk]

Great Vince shame it was water damaged, you did very well great attention to detail and great soldering skills 😊

[@neddy1287]

You have to jump start the battery using the correct charger and put the probes on the plus and minus all depends on the voltage on the battery as I done this a few times to revive battery from a deep state meaning too low to charge As for example if the battery is 3.6v and max charge is 4.2v you can use a 18650 battery charger with the wires attached from the terminals then to the digital multimeter to monitor the charge and jump start the battery this way but you have to trinkle charge the battery till it gets above 3v this is bringing the battery out of the deep sleep when it below 2.5v or less due to the bms having the voltage cutoff too low therefore refusing to charge the battery but if one cell or more are dead it not ideal to jumpstart the battery running the battery to swell or burst so warning is given

[@TheM0nkeyBomb]

9:35 nice cut mate

[@Msound500]

Amazing video like always, the sensors are on Aliexpress, for the connector might be FFC smd one something similar

[@maximusg0075]

Awesome work Vince ! Can't believe the progress you made. Could you tell me the artist you play during the credits?

[@chex6121]

I feel putting what part of the headset you're trying to fix in the title and/or thumbnail will yield more viewers. :)

[@cinlung]

That connector you are wire-bridging can actually be salvaged from most cell phones connector. Somewhere around its data line, power line, Screen Line, or touch control line. Just need to find something that has 3 pins in the middle. To me it looks like the connector for battery.

[@brainbuginfestation8548]

I don't understand why they put a high current connection next to ground on such a fine pitch connector. Interesting video and nice work, Vince!!

[@tonibonbonii]

I missed my blue hoodie man, one hour video too? got my popcorn ready.

[@fabiodomingues7896]

Maybe you can short the pins in the proximity sensor connector and make it believe that it’s always on?

[@Xtrafix2015]

Nice soldering skills!! Even though the little bits don’t look important 😢 they are. Too bad the postage is too expensive to send you the parts, I fixed two of them watching your videos 😅

[@HavingFunRepairs]

Massive perseverance!

[@beavis6363]

Can, crapper, john, or head, and sometimes throne, here in New York State U.S. anyhow. But I knew what you meant by bog instantly, that's a pretty fitting and humorous expression.

[@andreaskarlsson7954]

Really fun video. Love that you don't give up 👍

[@birdfish86]

I got a Quest 2 works great love it. 👍

[@patmiller7045]

Remember when our parents told us not to sitt so close to the TV?Now you just wear it in your head 😂😂

[@njakts]

That was when TVs had electron cannons that blasted electrons into our eyeballs just to be stopped by a glass with (phosphorus?) Coating that emited light when the electron was stopped 😂

[@lukedavis436]

We had an LCD and my parents were the same

[@AltCutTV]

Those early VR headsets with CRTs in them would have been something then. ;) I think the reason for the alarmists is that early malfunctioning TVs actually could turn into light X-ray machines. Though it was more "common" back on B&W apparently.

[@anthonydenn4345]

@@njakts They used thick leaded glass in the front of the CRT. Which I guess helped with that.

[@stevenc5227]

@@njakts Yes that's correct i think🤣🤣

[@zJericho101z]

Tons of spare parts for future quests!

[@TheSkaldenmettrunk]

Very interesting one.

[@tomthebadasscat]

You will be receiving "The Legendary Gold Soldering Iron Awards" in the mail. 😆 Umm, just checked delivery status "Please don't hold your breath".

[@elsombero1747]

I had similar damalge on a Quest2 which I got for 20Euro. However I didn't seen any liquid damage but rather burned traces. Kinda reminds me of MacBooks and lucky for me, I repaired many MacBooks (except for my 2012 Pro Retina since it still works to this very day). I discovered that there was a short on the SoC which caused this. I just 3d printed a stencil which showed the connector paths, used little balls which I used for the PS3 APU and then I meldet them a little bit, then I took away the stencil and then soldered the SoC back on the board and replaced the burned flex cable and connector. After this VR Unit was working without any problems.

[@ThomasWinders]

Be careful when things get into "liquid damage". Once a guy handed me over his laptop saying "it suffered from liquid damage". I took the laptop in my hands and asked insinctively "what happened?" and he went "Well I puked over it" - and I immediately dropped it. The lens separation gauge is the "IPD" - "Inter Pupillar Distance", and plays a fundamental role because it tells the software how much separation must be applied to the two images that are projected (one for each eye). On older version it was just a mechanical feature on the vistor and you had to set that number manually in the software.

[@eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Vince, what soldering iron (make/model) do you use for the smaller stuff? I've tried smaller tips on my normal soldering iron, but they don't work well, if at all. Trying to find one similar to yours so that I can replace HDMI ports and the likes.. Thanks!!

[@nikitaoake123]

Bog 😂😂. 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Phenomenal job! Love your videos

[@damondash1163]

Can you not buy surface mount ribbon connectors with the correct number of pins? I would have thought they were fairly generic.

[@jlbendtsen]

Hey vince, greatings from Denmark. Big fan of you videos. Just bought my self a blue mat because of you 😂 had a battery charger with a fan that had not worked for years , have been taking it apart a couple of times and checked various components without luck, tried again today, a good oppertunety to try out my new mat. Still could not find anything wrong. So put it back together , and needed to charge my batteries , and the fan was running again , so the blue mat fixed it 😂😂😂 or i might have scraped some corrosion away while testing. Btw will you soon be returning to the rolls royce ?

[@njakts]

Batteries usually have their own protection boards, and when voltage drops below 2.5v, it disconnects output to stop it from being discharged further to protect the cells. When voltage is applied to pins, it wakes up the protection, and it connects cells to output. Id say original battery was dischaged completely, and replacement was barely above 2.5v. Maybe it got some charge while you were connecting them to the board, and while wiggling the connector, it made a connection for a second to wake up the battery.

[@eekeek433]

we are learning and thats a win in my book :}

[@TheLastPhoen1x]

is there a way to short out the lines that go to proximity sensor to make it read always on?

[@THEMASTER10121]

I Believe 2G is still around because quite a few things still use it, like for an example the Bus time board on a london bus stop, that uses 2G, thats only one thing that i know there is lots more i believe like maybe baby monitors and things.

[@simonhardwick1168]

Hey Vince .I'm pretty sure it just needs a hard reset now if stuck on meta symbol. Power on and hold power button and I think volume minus if not it's volume plus wait to power on and let go of buttons. It will take you to android system menu where you can erase and restart the system .it should then boot properly.

[@joeshmoe5286]

vince, mate ... 30:48 - 5hours of you meticulously soldering some tiny wires? YES PLEASE!

[@skyll4141]

lots of hard work but at least you got something to work. maybe one day you'll get another one to nick parts from

[@DanielMosey]

30:28 Your Nokia should still work as most of the 2g is still around, however I do know a few networks have crippled their 2g networks. 2g was used heavily for house alarms, car trackers, GPS, medical alarms for the elderly, weather stations and many more. 2g even increased in usage during 3g as customers demanded more connectivity during 3g days and 2g was still around, so it became cheaper to use 2g for the signals and the chips. So alot of back ends today still need 2g. Just like how a lot of things in your home may still need a phone tone.

[@matp8493]

You might be able to change settings using the meta app on a pc or with a third party app called sidequest

[@smikee]

Good work Vince, you truly have the patience of a saint!!

[@Mymatevince]

Thank you Mike😎

[@wiredwrong8]

I'm glad you're dipping your toes in the Quest. Fascinating machine. Hoping you are curious enough to jump in with us mature Quest users :)

[@ironeye19]

So i want to say I had issues with my own quest not taking a charge, nothing like the issues vince had, but had to use a nintendo switch charger to get it to charge again. Im guessing it went flat for so long it was having an issue changing. But after using the nintendo switch charger for a night it has worked just fine after

[@wendybodenham561]

Hi Vince - could you not find the signal that tells the headset its being worn? That way, you could fool it to think its on your face all the time. Ok, not good for the battery - but definitely better than scrap?

[@IDKTECHSPERTS]

happy easter everyone

[@speedydanny4624]

are the lens glass or plastic? (maybe i have missed in the video...)

[@janschmidt2138]

i have a meta quest 2 myself is it not possible for you to use your hands to control this shutdown screen this is also supported by the quest 2 in some situations???

[@NoSleepKid1]

40 minutes in i herd about that proximity sensor you can make a new one using PCB way!

[@christianlunderman6034]

it might have been mentioned already but there is a distance meter/ gage between the eyes.. if its not being worn or not put on you wont get anything in the lenses

[@zaydakbla]

What's is that laptop you have called? Cheers

[@harrisondarts]

Hi Vince, I have a MQ2 stuck in boot loop, I would be happy to send this to you which you could use for parts.

[@markshellard5894]

Bank Holiday Fix ‼️ Happy Easter 🐣

[@EthanGreen617]

You rarely do any ‘How To’ or ‘Random Vince Stuff’ anymore!

[@OldMan_PJ]

You wouldn't be able to do anything with it without controllers, when it does boot you're prompted to set up a Guardian Boundary which requires the controllers.

[@codypenton4236]

Quick question I was googling something and one of your videos came up but came from a channel called what happens when. Are you aware of them they have a ton of your videos on there.

[@Box223]

I think it is his channel. He just doesn't talk about it.

[@Rob1972Gem]

White vinegar is better for cleaning up corrosion than IPA. IPA for cleaning up afterwards.

[@shooter3267]

probably sweat could have caused the board damage, would get pretty warm in there if it's worn for a while.

[@CreeBreej]

Cable Sensor Flat Cable for Oculus Quest 2 plus other parts on aliexpress

[@rengstrom]

The water damage is 100% sweat 😅 And because it’s salty it corrodes much faster.

[@ralphj4012]

Congrats for being conscientious. That's what happens when you run Swim VR! A bog is where Pete is from, sorry Pete.

[@nicholas790]

Hey Vince!, I hope somebody (with money) sends you an Apple Vision Pro, at least then when you get it fixed, you'll have something worth while! This Google thing is already a dead product.

[@Merescat]

anyone know that outtro song?

[@dudemiester75]

Vince boi. I think you are around my age. Get yhe face plate and controllers from somewhere. There are wicked. I bought one last year😂

[@retro_black421]

I just use my Popeye Nokia to play Snake II and as an ok torch there's no real point in me getting the batteries for the rest of my Nokia's except for one model I just remembered about it thank you

[@thegees]

i think it's 2g they're turning off. the original nissan leafs network thing works around that and every owner is mad about it

[@UnCoolDad]

2g is still on and should be around for the rest of the decade. 3G - yes, going off this year. At least in the U.K.

[@ray73864]

2G was switched off here in Australia years ago (2017). 3G is being switched off over this year by our big 3 (Telstra, Optus, TPG Vodafone). That leaves us with 4G and 5G.

[@AltCutTV]

2G is maintained longer than 3G in some places due to various reasons. Like in sparsely populated areas or for special legacy services, such as medical emergency alarms.

[@UnCoolDad]

@@AltCutTV many embedded devices use 2G - I think that is part of the reason. They would love to reuse that spectrum for new services though.

[@WorldOfCountryballs17]

What was that “haha” at 7:15

[@bradmarthafocker4285]

40:55 we call it the can over here. And that was a damn fine piece of soldering on that connector, tip top. 🤌 Great video as always, maybe I'll have to get one of those VR headsets and give it a go.

[@tonyupham354]

Replacebase have spares... also fixmyoculus have spare proximity cables

[@benthebossjackson4388]

The flashing red light indicates that is NOT charging and there is a problem. Solid red light - charging Solid Green - charged. Orange - Very low battery Flashing Orange - Problem - with charging/battery When plugged in. Touch the front of the headset. If its extreme hot. Its meaning the headset is over charging and that its battery life is pretty much toast. When plugged in. If stone cold it means the battery protection has kicked in and will not charge at all. Also. Make sure you only charge with a quest 2 / meta charger and charging cable. wrong cables can short the headsets port. Even meta them selves wont sell replacement batteries. Or even fix these internally. They say its not safe to do so. And hence its hindering there value etc. Any issue with them. They tell u to repair them. then there scrapped and u get a refurb sent out.. And with the quest 2 age now. there gonna start breaking down... there just not a good fix up project unless you can safely remove things etc and use other parts. But meta say you cannot sell on these products after attempting to fix them

[@williamharris8367]

What mechanism does Meta have to prevent the resale of repaired products? This seems like an impossible task. For example, it is "illegal" in my country to use baby's car seats after so many years; they "expire". Thus second hand stores will not sell them. There is no reasonable way to stop private sales, however.

[@UnCoolDad]

Looks shoddily made considering what they cost.

[@rexrodecolt]

Interesting

[@tylerdurden5303]

Unfortunately, the battery connectors on the mainboard are so fragile it's crazy. I managed to destroy mine when I attempted to replace the battery on my Quest 2.

[@petermetro4686]

they are very finicky ,more than a few disconnects and their shot . some have a clamp that attatches ovr then.

[@mark-andrews]

2G has not been retired yet, most of the current generation of electric and gas Smart meters run via a 2G signal.

[@mikec2111]

Correct and I think Tyler is also correct that it is scheduled to be switched off 2033, maybe 2035 or even later as utility WAN uses 2g. I drive an old car (15years plus old) with a built in phone - keypad on the steering wheel. This still works and is 2g. My problem is I can only use one carrier as, though 2G is still there, most mobile networks will not provide the SIM card. It will be sad when this goes as two features of the car is not only having a built in phone but if the accident inertia switch is triggered it automatically calls emergency services and uses mobile gps to give the car’s location. In addition if it breaks down I can call or it will automatically call the local service garage! Amazing technology for a 15 year old car.

[@Gmaahgg]

❤❤Brody

[@yorkshirebikerbitsnbobs]

Voltage from a sticker?

[@LabelsAreMeaningless]

The water damage. People sweat a lot when gaming in them.