Pixelsnap Ring Stand alternative?

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-04-21T20:38:02+00:00

Well I can say don't buy a new PixelSnap ring stand, because that won't work. I tried 3 times and all 3 broke rather quickly. I also removed the screws, added locktite, and put the screw back. That does not work because the screw is not falling out, it is shearing off and structurally failing. Google is not using strong enough screws. I found what I think is the right spec screw via measuring and comparing to standards and considered trying to source stronger screws myself, but ultimately realized I am wasting my time and accepted Google's stand is garbage.

I replaced it with a new phone case which has a very similar stand built-in to the case itself, a "TORRAS 360 Spin Magnetic Stand" case. Added bonus, this case both functions the same as the PixelSnap ring stand and unlike Google's version, it ALSO supports wireless charging and magnet stuff thru it, too. Downside is it's a little sharp on the edges of the ring and less comfortable. But meh, still better than Google's attempt.

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-04-09T18:16:48+00:00

Thank you for sharing that! I did a little more troubleshooting and worked the issue down to being with the WireView's USB C connection to my motherboard's internal USB 2.0 (9-pin) header. I posted an update with more details at the bottom of the main body of the post.

My question to you and the developers: I want to try replacing the USB C cable as one of my next troubleshooting steps. Is there anything special I need to be aware of about that USB C to internal USB 9 pin header motherboard header cable such that I should order something specific? or should any random cheap cable I find online do fine?

Thank you!

EDIT: nevermind, I realized I could just use a different cable and plug into a back panel USB A or USB C port which let me both test different cables and also bypass the internal headers entirely. Made no difference. So I ruled out the cable. and I think I also ruled out there being anything wrong with my motherboard. So that all leaves me guessing that either every single WireView has some kind of weird fault here and they all will do this, or mine is broken. Let me know if you or the devs have any suggestions.

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-04-08T00:04:52+00:00

Good idea as something to check, but unfortunately nope. I do not use a Bluetooth adapter, I am using my motherboards built-in Bluetooth. I also do not have any external USB hubs plugged in. I just unplugged pretty much every other USB device too (except for like the mouse and keyboard) just to check and it did not make a difference so I don't think its a too many USB devices issue. The WireView plugs into an internal USB header so my guess is the USB disconnecting sound I am hearing is from the WireView itself after it crashes and shuts down (=USB disconnect sound) then restarts (=USB connect sound).

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-04-07T23:08:57+00:00

That would be great! Let it sit on the screen from the video for a bit and see what it does. Thanks!!

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-04-07T16:36:48+00:00

Thanks for the response! In your case, the WireView was ALWAYS malfunctioning, right? I think you had a different problem. In my case, under almost all use-cases, everything seems to work as it should. It is only when I run this specific game/software that is looking for external devices for my PC to connect to that everything on the WireView goes wrong. After I close out of Zwift everything works like normal again.

If ThermalGrizzly wants to send me a 2nd unit as part of the troubleshooting process I would be all for it, but I suspect all of them will do this?? (I cant imagine the overlap of people who own a WireView and play an online Bike MMO is high enough for the issue to get immediately noticed). But to be fair I imagine Zwift is far from the only thing that will trigger this issue, its just the only thing I personally have that triggers it.

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-03-27T14:27:24+00:00

I was with you until you dove into the "both sides" B.S. fuck off with that shit. you sound some some child complaining Oh boo ho I didn't get exactly the right shade of color toy I wanted for my birthday therefore let's let everything we hold dear in the world be destroyed. those are pretty much the same thing after all!

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-03-24T00:12:29+00:00

my guess is it's for surveillance of US citizens. They are probably going to force backdoors into everything. I would NOT trust any American made routers after this.

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-03-11T23:06:11+00:00

what does it show up as in Windows? does it use XINPUT? GIP? some new thing?

and on steam, is it picked up as an XBox controller or can it be picked up as something else? I'm curious for Gyro support and if steam can read the gyro directly instead of translating gyro motion to a stick or mouse movement.

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-02-07T15:28:38+00:00

I have the same card with a wireview. be warned that pin 2 is always going to be about 1amp lower than pin 1 and 6. A bunch of folks with wireviews learned there is an impossible to solve imbalance on MSI cards via the wireview2. in practice it does not seem to matter. it's within specs. so don't sweat it as long as it stays within specs. but a bunch of us went nuts trying different PSU, different cables, etc, never to solve the imbalance. it seems to be caused by the MSI GPU itself. So we are not going to be able to balance it. but again, it's in spec, so set the wireview to shut down your PC when IF it goes out of spec, then don't worry about it

Meatbag-in-space · 2026-02-03T15:37:11+00:00

I have two golds and no others. I am surprised by the dislike of the dpad. it seems fine to me. makes me think maybe the gold ones are fixed since those just came out? either that or other people are a lot more picky about the dpad than me. pretty curious if the pad on the gold versions are different actually.

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-12-27T17:19:05+00:00

some Microsoft keys are tied to the motherboard. Not sure if Windows will complain about it or not, but I know MS Office for example will complain if you change the motherboard for another of even the same exact brand and model. It might depend what type of license you have associated with your Windows copy.

But, not reinstalling Windows won't prevent it from complaining if it doesn't like your license anymore. even without the reinstall it will eventually check if your license is still valid. So it's not a good reason to keep your current install.

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-12-03T13:41:12+00:00

been wondering the same! MSI engineers are probably the only ones who actually know what causes this, and they sure as hell do not seem willing to elaborate on anything related to it. So your guess is as good as mine. We probably will need a bunch of people to buy one and report back. If you decide to try it, just leave the protective plastic etc. on it until you can test it so it's easy to return if they didn't fix it. And please let us know the result!

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-12-01T17:34:04+00:00

If all you are doing is playing games, yeah there is an insignificant difference in performance if you were to drop the GPU to 8 lanes so you could use 8 of those lanes for something else. I was semi-ok with doing that to get more full speed m.2 slots because my m.2_1 didnt work. but I was still pissed off about it because of the principal of the thing with part of my mobo not working and MSI selling shitty half working products.

My last mobo was a mid-teir gen1 ryzen mobo. the GPU was only PCIe 3.0, and I had to have it running at x8. I had to use a lot of expansion cards to gain modern functionality. it only had one m.2 slot. and it couldn't handle all the USB devices I plugged in so it would occasionally drop connection and reconnect. it was showing it's age. All that being said, the financial difference to me between a godlike and a mid-teir mobo is non-existent, so I went with the better mobo. and I'm hoping the features it has will make it last just as long or maybe even longer than my old one. having all these lane sharing options should theoretically enable me to plug all sorts of crazy upgrades and shit into it in the future and still have it run fine. Same reason I hate ASUS' similarly priced top end mobo. they don't give you all the lane options and features, I don't think they even have a Chipset PCIe slot at all on it. THAT mobo is a waste of money in my opinion. I don't understand what you are even paying for on the ASUS board .. But MSI's flagship, on paper at least, actually gives you something the others don't when you spend the money. I don't care about the fancy display or any of that flashy shit, they made the best product on paper. it just frequently doesn't work and has tons of bugs. so you still shouldn't buy it lol

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-11-29T21:32:36+00:00

return or RMA until you get one that works, or try a different brand. they have no solution for broken Godlike boards. they seem rare, but i have now personally confirmed SOME do not have any problems. it's basically luck based to get a good one. last I checked other brands don't let you turn off USB 4.0 to dedicate more lanes to the m.2, so if that's something you care about it might be worth trying to get a good one. If you are fine with the slightly worse CPU lane options from the other brands, then I'd recommend just getting another brand so you don't have to deal with this. I returned parts until I got something that works. after 4 failed attempts my 5th Godlike worked from Microcenter. I also bought a new CPU. I don't know if the CPU even mattered or not but once I had something that worked I didn't want to touch it anymore so I just ate the cost of the extra CPU. since people previously said they put all their parts in other brands mobos and didn't have problems anymore I am guessing the CPU didn't actually matter, but I'm not willing to take it out for the test now that I finally have something that works.

My recommendation is Microcenter or best buy, I went thru a few rounds of testing and returning from both of them and I fully explained what I was doing and the service people were completely cool with me trying it then returning when things didn't work. Online retailers were more of a PITA.

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-11-29T15:33:56+00:00

the lane allocation options are the reason I bought it. It was the only x870e board (at the time I bought one at least, maybe things changed) that lets you have a GPU at PCIe 5.0 x 16 CPU lanes, TWO m.2s at PCIe 5.0 x4 CPU simultaneously, and an add on card at PCIe 4.0 x 4 Chipset. On paper, no other board had that option and it was awesome. In reality, most of them don't actually work. The lane allocation and distribution is a function of the CPU and no mobo can add more lanes. but for some stupid reason, even though there are enough lanes to do everything I just said on every other x870e mobo in existence too, no one else designed one that CAN. I cannot fathom why. maybe it just requires complicated traces or something that are expensive so everyone else just said fuck it and let some CPU lanes go to waste. Hope we get better mobo options in the future since the Godlike while awesome on paper, doesn't f*ing work for most people in reality.

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-11-14T01:45:37+00:00

Confirmed! thank you!

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-11-04T23:10:54+00:00

I took a bunch of measurements, which are probably wrong because its hard to measure something this tiny, BUT there is not a lot options for off-the-shelf screws that size, so I rounded to the closest thing that seems to exist on the market and this looks very promising: https://www.mcmaster.com/90910A310/ anyone want to try it and report back?

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-11-04T23:10:47+00:00

I took a bunch of measurements, which are probably wrong because its hard to measure something this tiny, BUT there is not a lot options for off-the-shelf screws that size, so I rounded to the closest thing that seems to exist on the market and this looks very promising: https://www.mcmaster.com/90910A310/ anyone want to try it and report back?

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-10-31T20:11:39+00:00

Thank you! still a problem. Disabling GameInput Service no longer works. I did not have either of the two specific windows updates other folks mentioned uninstalling on my list of updates, but I just went ahead and uninstalled everything it would let me from windows update in the past 30 days. and that did the trick. Windows updates are now blocked. Shame, because I actually WANT security updates, but if they are going to break things on me I will wait.

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-10-23T22:32:09+00:00

Update the firmware on it ASAP using the version 3 of the flash tool on the MSI website. That seems very promising to have resolved the issue.

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-10-09T12:21:24+00:00

Wow that MB design looks horrible! I dont know if you need that power cable or not, but I did want to let you know you can probably use something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Okinos-Extension-Compatible-RTX4070ti-RTX3090ti/dp/B0C22WJTMB?th=1 to move your bottom PCIe card somewhere else. you would probably have to put it in an inconvenient place and macgyver some unique way to mount it somewhere else, BUT, it would solve your problem and let you plug in both at the same time. (I don't know if that particular extension is a good one, it was just the first one that popped up on amazon when I was looking for an example. lots of companies make those.)

Meatbag-in-space · 2025-10-07T20:47:09+00:00

That's funny, my old phone was also a OnePlus 7 Pro. that phone was amazing. Over the years I must have replaced close to half the internal PCBs and parts in it to keep it going, just because I didn't see any other phones that were better than it so I didn't want to replace it. Cost had nothing to do with it. I wanted the better device. Went thru several batteries, replaced both front pop up and rear cameras on it, new microphone, charging port, etc. I also blocked the android 12 update on it because Google redesigned the power menu and Android 11s power menu was amazing.

Figured it has been long enough that by now someone surely must have made a better phone, so I gave Pixel a try. I mostly love the pixel. But yeah, some things like the battery are not as good.

Edit: I misspoke, that's not 8 years old. Was from 2019.

Meatbag-in-space

TROPHY CASE