OLED Slow charging (orange LED) with multiple dock setups

[Mikeyy]

Been testing my OLED with different setups

Dock 1: Shezi [www.amazon.com]

Dock 2: Sabrent [www.amazon.com]

Charger 1: Original charger

Charger 2: AmazonBasics 68w PD [www.amazon.com]

Charger 3: Anker 100w PD [www.amazon.com]

Cables: INIU 100w PD [www.amazon.com]

In all setups, the only way to get full 45w and the white LED is to directly connect to the original charger or the 2 chargers with the 100w cable.

As soon as I use either dock with any of the 3 chargers, I get the orange LED for slower charging at ~35w with Shezi and ~40w with Sabrent (2.33A and 2.66A)

https://imgur.com/a/mJxPrkR

At this point I have to assume the docks are the issue, and I'm starting to lean towards getting the official dock. All the reviews for aftermarket docks seems to be from the Deck LCD so it's been hard to find reliable reviews for the OLED.

Anyone notice they always get <45w charging using docks? Any good experience with the official dock?

[xSOSxHawkens]

I just made a post about what I suspect might be causing this actually. It seems the deck only detects two input types from my testing:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/4029096129890234257/

5V which gets capped to 1.5a
15v which gets 5a (45w stock charger).

The problem is that some chargers get the watts differently. I am looking at a special purposed travel unit @ 45w that outputs 5v at up to 9a which *should* work comparable to the deck's main brick, but wont be anywhere near usable if the dock wont negotiate beyond or accept above 1.5a on a 5v input.

Use the "Watch Sensors" command in desktop mode to see which profile is negotiated for which docks, and if you dont mind cross post it into the thread I made on power profiles if you run across any new ones beyond the two mentioned!!

[Albee]

I'm using this USB-C dock (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXDSPSPW) and the same Anker 100w PD charger you linked in your original post, and having the same experience, where it only charges with the amber/low light.

The dock specifically says it handles 100W in but uses up to 15W for peripherals. I specifically got that one because it also supports the Nintendo Switch, which it does.

I upgraded to the Anker 100W charger, thinking it would provide full charging power to the Steam Deck even if with a 15 W loss for the dock itself, but it appears to behave exactly the same way whether I use the Anker/100W or the Steam Deck/45W charger (amber light).

Plugging either one directly gives me the white charging light.

Granted, it's currently at close to 100% charge, so maybe it's not ramping up to higher power charging, and I'm not playing a game while testing it, so maybe when it's below 90% it would behave differently?

Does the official dock somehow get away with using only a 45W charger and not using any power for peripherals? I mostly got the non-official dock so that I could also use it for Nintendo Switch, which I understand is NOT supported on the official dock.

[Albee]

A little update that might explain things:

I switched to desktop mode and ran "watch sensors" while running a couple tests. Here's what I found:

1) With the aforementioned 100w Anker charger directly plugged into the Steam Deck OLED, the console output reported:
- 15V and 3.0A configuration (45 W max) and the LED was White.

2) Plugging the 100w Anker charger into the Ugreen dock and then plugging the Steam Deck into the dock reported:
- 15V and 2.6A configuration (39 W max) and the LED was Orange

Even though this indicates "slow charging", I think that's close the max rate needed by the Steam Deck, so I'm not convinced it's actually slow charging and/or will discharge during gameplay.

Interestingly, this dock supports Nintendo Switch, which is known to require 15V at... drumroll please.... 2.6A for 39W max draw in docked mode.

I suspect the dock is somehow forcing this lower power draw mode to support Nintendo Switch, but thereby limiting the Steam Deck to 39W instead of allowing the full 45W configuration. I repeated this test with the official Steam Deck 45W power supply and had the same result.

Maybe this means it's not really an issue, and just a reporting issue with the orange LED. I read here (https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/ub0ai4/a_few_important_things_about_charging_the_deck/) that the Steam Deck OLED tries to draw only 39W when charging, which likely means other than the LED color being off, it will charge fine through the dock while playing.

[ymo1965]

I just got myself the Benazcap 100w dock and I'm seeing the same thing when using the official deck psu. I get a yellow charging light.

Benazcap do a 65w dock as well, but I chose this because I read lower wattage docks give the 'slow charge' message. The only thing I have plugged in the back of the dock at the moment is a wireless controller dongle. I was thinking a higher delivery PSU would fix this, but you guys seem to say otherwise. Not sure what to do.. return the dock or see how it behaves when using it docked.

Bit naughty though saying 'fast charger' on the box. Not exactly is it.