You’ve set up your Oculus and plugged it into your PC to charge, to find that it’s not juicing up. This is usually due to your PC not having enough power in the motherboard to charge your Oculus.
Before getting frustrated, there are some simple troubleshooting tips you can try to get your VR headset working again properly.
In this article, I’ll be going through a few reasons why your Oculus isn’t charging through your PC and a few actionable solutions you can try to resolve its charging capabilities.
Why is Quest 2 Not Charging From PC?
The reason your Oculus is not charging from your PC is either because of a software or hardware issue within your PC.
It’s unlikely that your Oculus is the issue and most likely that the PC doesn’t have the power to charge your Oculus.
Not Enough Power
The main reason your Oculus isn’t charging from your PC is that your PC’s motherboard isn’t able to get enough power to your headset.
This is because the motherboard for regular PCs isn’t designed to charge something as powerful as an Oculus.
A Bug
This specific bug makes your device appear as though it’s charging, however, it isn’t and you usually won’t know this until after some time has passed.
Bugs can usually only be fixed through a software update from either your PC or your Oculus Quest.
The main solution would be just to wait until Oculus fixes the issue on their end and brings out a software update however in the meantime, you can try the solutions below and get the problem solved.
Install a New USB Card
The main solution and the one that is guaranteed to work is installing a PCIe USB card with its own dedicated power connection.
These peripheral component interconnect cards offer more power than the computer bus that comes in your standard PC’s motherboard. This will therefore supply more power to your Oculus while you’re charging it from your PC.
You will have to purchase one of these and replace them with the motherboard that is already inside your PC.
This PCIe USB card will charge past your current state while playing. You can also go for the wired option if that’s what you prefer.
Ensure that the slot on the motherboard matches the interface of the PCIe card. These can be found on the manufacturer’s website, the product manual, or the packaging
Once you have purchased it you can follow a quick tutorial which will help you install it onto your PC and from there, it will provide you enough power to charge your Oculus.
Use a Different PC
In the case that you have multiple computers lying around in your vicinity, it would be wise, to try to achieve better charging capabilities with another PC.
This could be because this PC could have stronger charging capabilities than the one you’re trying to use and therefore will provide your Oculus with enough power.
Connect the cable to another PC and connect your Oculus. From here play a few games on it while it’s charging and see if you’re able to achieve better results with charging.
If this doesn’t seem to work well then I would resort to buying the PCIe board.
Replace Your Charging Cable
If you aren’t using cables provided by Meta then it’s unlikely that they will be able to provide much wattage or power to your headset.
This can be an issue as when there isn’t enough power to your headset, it won’t be able to charge to full power and the battery percentage won’t move up at all while you’re playing on your headset.
Using the provided cable that came with your Oculus will work fine, however, if you don’t have the original cable, then you should get the original charging cable.
3rd party cables don’t do as well as company-provided ones. However, all that matters is that the cable is able to produce enough power so you will need to check if it is at least a USB-C 3.0 Cable.
Use a Battery Pack
A battery pack will provide more power to your headset than what you would get from PCVR Play.
This is because these kinds of battery packs are specifically designed to charge Oculus headsets whereas PCs are usually just to connect both devices which I will get into down below.
This battery pack is specifically designed for Oculs and will provide you with enough power while playing games as opposed to your PC.
The more power processing power your game uses up, the more your Oculus battery will drain. The battery pack will be able to handle whichever game you play which is why it’s a good alternative to your PC.
100% of the power is focused on your Oculus whereas with a PC, only part of the power would be focused on your headset.
Charge it Untouched
If you still haven’t got the Oculus to charge fully with your PC then your best bet would be to just charge it before you’re playing.
Playing with your Oculus while you’re charging it especially with a PC and not with a wall unit will use up a lot more battery power than if you weren’t using it at all while charging.
Because it’s using up a lot of power through providing a display and using up processing power, the charging capabilities will slow down drastically or just plateau altogether.
In some cases, if your PC isn’t powerful enough, you will have the battery power go down on your Oculus.
Once it has charged fully, you are now able to play with it. This is because the cable isn’t necessarily for charging as I will explain down below.
This typically takes around 3-4 hours if you’re charging it from zero.
The Cable Isn’t Necessarily For Charging
Meta has come out and said that the cable they provide isn’t even meant to charge your Oculus. It is just meant to connect your PC and Oculus.
This is the reason your Oculus charges very slowly as it wasn’t designed to charge your headset powerfully while playing. That’s why it may only go up by 1% as you’re using more power while playing.
Essentially what Meta is saying here is that you shouldn’t expect the cable to do much charging since it wasn’t designed for that.
The best thing you can do is try the other solutions within this article or just accept the fact of the matter.
Unplug the Oculus Link Cable From the Headset
One simple fix that has worked for a lot of users is simply unplugging the link cable from the headset and then plugging it back in.
Wait a few seconds so that the headset has time to register that it’s not charging anymore. You don’t need to unplug it from your PC as well when you’re performing this step.
The reason this may work is because the software within your Oculus didn’t register that you plugged in the cable the first time around.
Trying again gives it a second chance to realize that you have plugged in the charging cable. If you don’t have an official Oculus link cable then I would suggest you get one.
Contact Oculus Support
If you are still having trouble with your Oculus not charging then the best thing you can do is contact Oculus support.
The issue could directly be with your PC, however, if the issue is related to the software within your Oculus or your charging port, then Oculus would be the best point of contact.
To reach Oculus, go to the Meta Support page and enter your details.
Put your information in the boxes provided and then click on the “Start Chat with Agent” button. If you aren’t able to click on this button then it means you’re missing critical information.
Once you have been connected to an agent, you will need to explain to them that you aren’t to charge your Oculus, and from here, they’ll be able to advise you on the best thing to do to solve the issue.
Conclusion
The main reason your Oculus isn’t charging is often due to software bugs interfering with power delivery. To reiterate, you need to try restarting your computer and see if that reboots the charging software.
Replugging in all cables connected to the headset usually, did the trick for a lot of people. If that doesn’t do the trick, updating the software on both devices can fix the problem for you.
If all else fails, contacting Oculus support to troubleshoot the issue will be your best call to action.
With some diligence, you should be able to pinpoint the glitch that is preventing your Quest 2 from charging over a PC connection.
Being patient in trying these potential fixes should bring back your Oculus to charging as expected when plugged into your PC.
