Steam Deck won't boot up properly; Black Screen

[G.I.Joe Joe]

So my Steam Deck won't fully boot up now. I hear the chime, see the power light up when I push the power button and the touchpads have haptic feedback. The fans also spin up but the screen remains turned off. I've tried multiple things; volume up with power on, volume down with power on, holding power button down 15s and press again, depleted battery all the way down, charged all night, run with charger connected, opened it up, disconnected and reconnected battery, connected to usbc hub to hdmi, created recovery flash driver to try and boot off of... none of this stuff works. If anyone has found some other method, please enlighten me. I'm afraid I might have to RMA my Steam Deck after only about a month of having it.

[directorguy7]

NeoKazuya님이 먼저 게시:

My Steam Deck seems to be in the exact same state as OP, opened a support ticket yesterday, hopefully a solution can be found

I just ran into this after upgrading thermal paste (after putting battery in storage mode.) Can you power it on and wait like 30 seconds? If nothing happens then hold power button down for 10 seconds (12 maybe if you count fast.) Then wait a few seconds and try powering on. Leave it on after this for a few minutes. My experience is the Deck knows it wasn't shut down or started up properly, and is starting slower this time because of it.

[Marlock]

if Storage Mode is the same Valve uses for preventing accidental power-on during shipping new Decks, then you should try powering it on while plugged to an USB-C charger... this is the most common solution to the frequent "just received my Deck and it won't switch on" threads

[ζ͜͡λ|ÐarkMøðns]

Lyon님이 먼저 게시:

This has just happened to me as well. Pressing power makes the boot up noise, I can feel haptic on the track pads and I can hear the fan, but that's all my Deck can do now. It doesn't output anything over hdmi and I cannot access bios. Sad times.

You have to Time it Correctly to enter the BIOS.
FOR ME;Since i Tryed Windows on my Unit and didnt remove the 'Windows 10 Boot Entry.efi' The First time i'm booting For COMPLETLY OFF(ColdEFI Boot); It Works everytime after 1x Windows BootLoader error ; Hold power Until Screen is turned ON ; AND OFF Again, So to make sure you are Booting From a COLD Boot Proceedure;
Contreary to a NOT HALF Slept-Still Booting BLACK Screen.

Once Device is OFF completly ;
'Press Power + Volume DOWN' as SOON as you hear the CHIME(Might wanna Approache you're hear to the RIGHT Speaker)

; Wait Until you see the STEAM BootLOGO appear(Usually 1-2 Sec with a *WORKING* OS ; Might Take up to 10 SEC whitout a BOOTING OS ; as it never finds the "BootEntry.efi"

Press Power + Volume Down as Described, Keep Pressing Volume Down For up to 10-30 sec and you should Still be able to BOOT into the BIOS if The device is working properly.

:OF COURSE: once you Have the Device BOOTED, even from a Live-USB; You can then have like me a Broken Win10 Bootloader Entry as DEFAULT
(For Sanity, if the Screen Displays the BootError, then its safe to Assume Everything is Working properly) + (This is my way of Getting into the BIOS/BOOT Menu; EVERYTIME, whitout Having to Deal with ANY potential Breaking Boot procedure, As if it >ReProbes> For Existing .efi Files From my /boot Folder

[G.I.Joe Joe]

I hope y’all get it to work. The device is amazing.

[sfriedman7410]

This fixed my problem. Thank you for posting it up!

[kotokrabs]

I got the same issue and i fixed it by holding the power button for about 30 sec until the indicator light turns white. The deck wasn't plugged in (just in case)

[G.I.Joe Joe]

khar4er님이 먼저 게시:

I got the same issue and i fixed it by holding the power button for about 30 sec until the indicator light turns white. The deck wasn't plugged in (just in case)

I’m glad it worked for you. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me. I did these steps prior to and with Valve Support.

[Super Ninja]

G.I.Joe Joe님이 먼저 게시:

So my Steam Deck won't fully boot up now. I hear the chime, see the power light up when I push the power button and the touchpads have haptic feedback. The fans also spin up but the screen remains turned off. I've tried multiple things; volume up with power on, volume down with power on, holding power button down 15s and press again, depleted battery all the way down, charged all night, run with charger connected, opened it up, disconnected and reconnected battery, connected to usbc hub to hdmi, created recovery flash driver to try and boot off of... none of this stuff works. If anyone has found some other method, please enlighten me. I'm afraid I might have to RMA my Steam Deck after only about a month of having it.

Yup... this problem still exists.... I've not tried reconnecting the battery yet, but I've done everything else, and my screen just won't turn on. I'm thinking it has something to do with the battery though.

[Super Ninja]

Here are the steps that I had to take in order to restore use of my Steam Deck.

I could not get the screen to turn back on after the Steam Deck's battery had died one time. I could feel the haptics response and I could hear the chime of the deck turning on, but nothing on the screen. The Volume button + the power button to get into the BIOS wouldn't work either. That's when I put in a ticket to the support site and nearly had to send it back. They replied with the following steps.

1. Make sure the unit is shut down by holding the power button for 10 seconds.
2. Check that the unit is off, there should be no haptic response when touching the trackpads and no fan noise.
3. Plug in the provided power supply into the unit, you should see a solid white LED.
4. Hold the "Volume +" button and the "..." button at the same time for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds while still holding the buttons, unplug the power supply.
5. When preformed correctly you should see the power LED blink 3 times and after that the unit should not respond to using the power button.
6. Next, plug the power supply back into your unit. This will exit storage mode.
7. Retest the issue.

At first these troubleshooting steps did not work...

When I got to step 3, even though I had noted that haptic feedback being turned off, the moment I plugged in the cable I would hear the chime and the haptics response would startup again. That's when I decided to hold the power button AGAIN, while moving tracing on the touchpad until the haptics response stopped. At which point, I proceeded forward as normal to using the Volume + and "..." buttons, and then BAM... Things worked!

Hope this helps others out there!

[G.I.Joe Joe]

Super Ninja님이 먼저 게시:

Here are the steps that I had to take in order to restore use of my Steam Deck.

I could not get the screen to turn back on after the Steam Deck's battery had died one time. I could feel the haptics response and I could hear the chime of the deck turning on, but nothing on the screen. The Volume button + the power button to get into the BIOS wouldn't work either. That's when I put in a ticket to the support site and nearly had to send it back. They replied with the following steps.

1. Make sure the unit is shut down by holding the power button for 10 seconds.
2. Check that the unit is off, there should be no haptic response when touching the trackpads and no fan noise.
3. Plug in the provided power supply into the unit, you should see a solid white LED.
4. Hold the "Volume +" button and the "..." button at the same time for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds while still holding the buttons, unplug the power supply.
5. When preformed correctly you should see the power LED blink 3 times and after that the unit should not respond to using the power button.
6. Next, plug the power supply back into your unit. This will exit storage mode.
7. Retest the issue.

At first these troubleshooting steps did not work...

When I got to step 3, even though I had noted that haptic feedback being turned off, the moment I plugged in the cable I would hear the chime and the haptics response would startup again. That's when I decided to hold the power button AGAIN, while moving tracing on the touchpad until the haptics response stopped. At which point, I proceeded forward as normal to using the Volume + and "..." buttons, and then BAM... Things worked!

Hope this helps others out there!

I'm glad you got yours to work mate. Cheers

[turbovomit]

Super Ninja님이 먼저 게시:

Here are the steps that I had to take in order to restore use of my Steam Deck.

I could not get the screen to turn back on after the Steam Deck's battery had died one time. I could feel the haptics response and I could hear the chime of the deck turning on, but nothing on the screen. The Volume button + the power button to get into the BIOS wouldn't work either. That's when I put in a ticket to the support site and nearly had to send it back. They replied with the following steps.

1. Make sure the unit is shut down by holding the power button for 10 seconds.
2. Check that the unit is off, there should be no haptic response when touching the trackpads and no fan noise.
3. Plug in the provided power supply into the unit, you should see a solid white LED.
4. Hold the "Volume +" button and the "..." button at the same time for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds while still holding the buttons, unplug the power supply.
5. When preformed correctly you should see the power LED blink 3 times and after that the unit should not respond to using the power button.
6. Next, plug the power supply back into your unit. This will exit storage mode.
7. Retest the issue.

At first these troubleshooting steps did not work...

When I got to step 3, even though I had noted that haptic feedback being turned off, the moment I plugged in the cable I would hear the chime and the haptics response would startup again. That's when I decided to hold the power button AGAIN, while moving tracing on the touchpad until the haptics response stopped. At which point, I proceeded forward as normal to using the Volume + and "..." buttons, and then BAM... Things worked!

Hope this helps others out there!

It’s physically impossible to unplug the cable when holding volume + & …

Ok, so that trick worked for me...
After removing the cable with my teeth...

[ClassicGOD]

turbovomit님이 먼저 게시:

It’s physically impossible to unplug the cable when holding volume + & …

Use your teeth, lol.

[Marlock]

Feet are also a classic...

[Vornag]

Super Ninja님이 먼저 게시:

Here are the steps that I had to take in order to restore use of my Steam Deck.

I could not get the screen to turn back on after the Steam Deck's battery had died one time. I could feel the haptics response and I could hear the chime of the deck turning on, but nothing on the screen. The Volume button + the power button to get into the BIOS wouldn't work either. That's when I put in a ticket to the support site and nearly had to send it back. They replied with the following steps.

1. Make sure the unit is shut down by holding the power button for 10 seconds.
2. Check that the unit is off, there should be no haptic response when touching the trackpads and no fan noise.
3. Plug in the provided power supply into the unit, you should see a solid white LED.
4. Hold the "Volume +" button and the "..." button at the same time for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds while still holding the buttons, unplug the power supply.
5. When preformed correctly you should see the power LED blink 3 times and after that the unit should not respond to using the power button.
6. Next, plug the power supply back into your unit. This will exit storage mode.
7. Retest the issue.

At first these troubleshooting steps did not work...

When I got to step 3, even though I had noted that haptic feedback being turned off, the moment I plugged in the cable I would hear the chime and the haptics response would startup again. That's when I decided to hold the power button AGAIN, while moving tracing on the touchpad until the haptics response stopped. At which point, I proceeded forward as normal to using the Volume + and "..." buttons, and then BAM... Things worked!

Hope this helps others out there!

When I try these steps, I'm unplugging the power cable while also pressing Vol+ and "..." but the power LED isn't blinking 3 times. When I plug the power cable back in I'm back to no display and fans running. Any other ideas? Waiting on Steam Support to respond..

[Marlock]

Here is the USB reset procedure I mentioned above:

deschi님이 먼저 게시:

I had the same problem. Support gave me the following advise, which solved the problem:

1. Power on the steam deck
2. Reset the PD Controller: Hold the "-" volume button and the "..." button together for 5-8 seconds until you can hear a beep sound.
3. Disconnect all cabels (power, usb, hdmi, etc.)
4. Reconnect everything

HDMI worked again for me after that.

Hopefully it helps without needing to reset the entire device, or other lengthier procedures like putting it in Shipping Mode