Anyone Else's Board Fry at the Display's Ribbon Cable

thenexusvr

Hey guys! This is a new one for us! We got a headset that fried and might have started an electrical fire if we hadn't unplugged it quickly. The image I provided shows the aftermath. It shows the place where the ribbon cable for one of the displays meets the board.

I have heard the theory that it might have been moisture or sweat. I am not ruling that out, but it had been a WHILE since anyone had that headset on, so I am not entirely convinced that it's the only possibility. I wanted to bring it to the community to see if there are any other thoughts on this matter.

EdgeVRArcade

I've repaired many Vive headsets due to sweat damage. I see A LOT of corrosion there on the copper. Most likely that corrosion increased resistance and allowed a lot of heat to build up. I'm surprised your headset screens weren't going black before this.

thenexusvr

EdgeVRArcade

It had gone black and we were trying to troubleshoot it from the software side of things. We have had issues with firmware and drivers in the past that had caused the screens to go dark while the green light on the side of the headset was still on, so we assumed this was another one of those instances until I noticed the hissing sound coming from the headset.

NickFSVR

My guess would be sweat damage, they should be gold connections on them and you can see the green around the connection which would be a sign of corrosion that has built up. That area is one of the first places I usually find sweat damage when using the HMDs as well but usually I find it at the front near the senors not that far in on the board.

solberg

We clean our headsets around the edges with antibac. Could this possibly damage the headsets? Does anyone have in depth experience or knowlege to say something on this matter?

thenexusvr

solberg

I am about to start looking at prices with Cleanbox to see if we can get their dry cleaning systems installed at The Nexus.