If you tried using your Oculus Rift headset today and found it to be bricked for no good reason, well now there’s clarity on the matter. Every single Oculus Rift headset stopped working today because of an issue that appears to have been caused by an expired certificate in the Oculus Runtime Service.
Windows Central reports that an expired certificate in the Oculus Runtime Service appears to have bricked all Rift headsets. The particular file is called OculusAppFramework.dll and unless its updated the headset will remain bricked.
Some users have found a workaround which simply involves setting your PC’s time back about a day or so, basically earlier than March 7, because that’s likely when this certificate expires. However, it’s not like this workaround won’t cause issues with other apps that require the correct date, like the Windows Update service so it’s far from ideal.
It’s unclear right now how soon Oculus will be able to get an update out that takes care of this issue. Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell has acknowledged the issue in a post on Reddit and has asked users to keep watching the thread for more information. He said that the company is aware of the issue that’s affecting Rift on PC and that it’s working on resolving the matter.
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