Absurd WiFi connection issues on Steam Deck OLED 1TB LE

[DoomTheRobot]

EDIT 7/9/2024: A new developer option in the 3.6 Beta (and now in the latest stable) seems to have fixed my connectivity issues. I can now connect to my Nighthawk RAX35. Here's the process if you want to give it a try:

1. Update your Steam Deck to the latest version
   
2. Enable Developer Mode in System tab
   
3. Go to new Developer settings tab at the bottom
   
4. Enable "Force WPA Supplicant WiFi backend" option
   
5. Reboot

This is what worked for me.

EDIT 5/4/2024: I should've done this way earlier but here is a list of routers that seem to be having issues:

• NETGEAR Nighthawk RAX35 (v1.0.5.104_1.0.1)
  
• NETGEAR Nighthawk RAX30 (v1.0.10.94)
  
• ASUS RT-AX86U Pro
  
• ASUS RT-AX88U
  
• ASUS Rapture GT-AX6000
  
• TP-Link Deco M4
  
• TP-Link AX50
  
• TP-Link AX6000
  
• Telekom's "Speedport Pro Plus"
  
• Sagemcom CS50001

If you're still having issues even after updating to the latest stable, post your router info and firmware version here so I can include it in this list.

EDIT 3/30/2024: If you are still having connection issues, try finding a way to update to 3.5.17 stable, as it contains various WiFi fixes which may fix the problems you could be facing. If not, head over to this GitHub issue[github.com] and leave a comment about the issue you're having.

Just got mine yesterday and have been having off-and-on issues with WiFi connectivity that never happened at all with my previous Steam Deck LCD 512GB model. This is not an issue with my connection as none of this has ever happened over the two or so years of using my original Steam Deck.

During the initial setup process, it refused to connect to my WPA2 secured WiFi network with nothing other than "Failed to connect" when attempting to connect to it. I'd enter my password and it'd sit for a while until it eventually fails. Despite this, I connected to my mobile hotspot perfectly fine to finish the setup process.

Here's what I've done so far:

• Rebooted the Router (obviously)
  
• Re-imaged SteamOS
  
• Disabled WiFi Power Saving
  
• Tried switching between 2.4GHz and 5GHz connections

I even went into Desktop mode and tried messing with the settings there. No luck.

For whatever reason though, and this is the confusing part: After multiple restarts it automatically connects to the WiFi network with no issues. It's almost completely random whether or not it wants to connect on boot. After connecting it works perfectly fine. No "Failed to connect", no loss of speed, works just as it did like the previous Steam Deck.

But once I eventually shutdown, it just happens again until I restart the system multiple times until it works again. Absolutely no clue why. I didn't mind it at first as I assumed it was just a software bug that would eventually go away, but now it's becoming extremely frustrating.

So what's the deal here? Is this a hardware issue or is my network just messed up somewhere? Where do I even start?

[Gilligan]

I too seem to be having problems with the wifi on my oled deck. It connects fine, it just seems like the signal is not as stable. When I hold it in my lap like with my lcd model, the download rate drops down to the 20's, if I hold it up it then goes over 100. It seems very directional. My lcd model didn't have this problem. I'm using an Engenius ac ap. I don't have a wifi 6 ap. But I am simply comparing to my lcd model and it doesn't seem as stable.
It seems like it very directional so maybe the way the insides are layed out?
Also my official dock doesn't work at all, just gives me a blank screen, so I can't use a wired connection.

[hazmat]

My OLED deck can't connect to any wifi, doesn't even see new networks. Can't even get past setup

[Kevin]

hello all, got my OLED deck today and its my fist SD and ran into this issue. I have tried everything online including

- reset to factory
- connecting to 2.4 vs 5ghz
- turning off wifi power management
- restarted router
- set up a complete new wireless network (this was painful as i had to reconnect on all my devices, just to try to make Sd work so I can download a few games)

it's been a horrible experience so far. I tried going into the desktop mode to mess with the wifi, but apparently if you don't have internet, the keyboard doesn't show up?? lol

i have an asus gs-ax5400 router, and nothing else in my house is having an issue connecting except the SD. hoping a dev can see this ASAP before i send it back, i feel like theres too many of us having this issue for it to be hardware issue unless there was just a bad batch of lemon decks

[Mahjik]

Kevin님이 먼저 게시:

hello all, got my OLED deck today and its my fist SD and ran into this issue. I have tried everything online including

- reset to factory
- connecting to 2.4 vs 5ghz
- turning off wifi power management
- restarted router
- set up a complete new wireless network (this was painful as i had to reconnect on all my devices, just to try to make Sd work so I can download a few games)

it's been a horrible experience so far. I tried going into the desktop mode to mess with the wifi, but apparently if you don't have internet, the keyboard doesn't show up?? lol

i have an asus gs-ax5400 router, and nothing else in my house is having an issue connecting except the SD. hoping a dev can see this ASAP before i send it back, i feel like theres too many of us having this issue for it to be hardware issue unless there was just a bad batch of lemon decks

Try disabling the 160 MHz channel on your router as a test.

[Ravenesque]

For me only 2.4ghz worked, but I am going to try to disable 160 MHz and DFS soon for 5Ghz.

[Rodomar705]

For people with dock issues, try to disable DRD is the bios. The most recent kernel changes from Valve messed up USB communications with the Deck, but reverting back to XHCI should fix most of them for now.

[KainLok]

Rodomar705님이 먼저 게시:

For people with dock issues, try to disable DRD is the bios. The most recent kernel changes from Valve messed up USB communications with the Deck, but reverting back to XHCI should fix most of them for nofw.

It seems to me like a reason why boot of my other system from USB stick (open-SUSE Tumbleweed) cannot find USB devices and goes to emergency mode (I'm using dock when dual booting). I will try changing mode to XHCI and see if this will be able to boot to it later today.

[Rodomar705]

Tymose님이 먼저 게시:

Rodomar705님이 먼저 게시:

For people with dock issues, try to disable DRD is the bios. The most recent kernel changes from Valve messed up USB communications with the Deck, but reverting back to XHCI should fix most of them for nofw.

It seems to me like a reason why boot of my other system from USB stick (open-SUSE Tumbleweed) cannot find USB devices and goes to emergency mode (I'm using dock when dual booting). I will try changing mode to XHCI and see if this will be able to boot to it later today.

Yeah, they reverted it recently after I made them notice on the AMD bugtracker that on mainline I couldn't get USB comms on a 6.5 stock Linux kernel and even worse under 6.6 when even switching to XHCI made them unbootable. Revert is referenced below, but it's extremely recent, so it will take a while to trickle down to other distributions. Revert on SteamOS is here[gitlab.com].

[KainLok]

Rodomar705님이 먼저 게시:

Tymose님이 먼저 게시:

It seems to me like a reason why boot of my other system from USB stick (open-SUSE Tumbleweed) cannot find USB devices and goes to emergency mode (I'm using dock when dual booting). I will try changing mode to XHCI and see if this will be able to boot to it later today.

Yeah, they reverted it recently after I made them notice on the AMD bugtracker that on mainline I couldn't get USB comms on a 6.5 stock Linux kernel and even worse under 6.6 when even switching to XHCI made them unbootable. Revert is referenced below, but it's extremely recent, so it will take a while to trickle down to other distributions. Revert on SteamOS is here[gitlab.com].

So was able to boot OpenSUSE Live in XHCI mode but it did not detected WiFi card... Seems there are no drivers in kernel yet?

[Kevin]

Mahjik님이 먼저 게시:

Kevin님이 먼저 게시:

Try disabling the 160 MHz channel on your router as a test.

This worked for me! wow! connects to 5gh flawlessly now! thank you so much!

[Rodomar705]

Tymose님이 먼저 게시:

Rodomar705님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah, they reverted it recently after I made them notice on the AMD bugtracker that on mainline I couldn't get USB comms on a 6.5 stock Linux kernel and even worse under 6.6 when even switching to XHCI made them unbootable. Revert is referenced below, but it's extremely recent, so it will take a while to trickle down to other distributions. Revert on SteamOS is here[gitlab.com].

So was able to boot OpenSUSE Live in XHCI mode but it did not detected WiFi card... Seems there are no drivers in kernel yet?

It's more an issue of firmware rather than drivers. You can copy them manually from here[gitlab.com]. The path should be something like /usr/firmware/ath11k/QCA206X/hw2.1 or /usr/lib/firmware/etc..

[KainLok]

Rodomar705님이 먼저 게시:

Tymose님이 먼저 게시:

So was able to boot OpenSUSE Live in XHCI mode but it did not detected WiFi card... Seems there are no drivers in kernel yet?

It's more an issue of firmware rather than drivers. You can copy them manually from here[gitlab.com]. The path should be something like /usr/firmware/ath11k/QCA206X/hw2.1 or /usr/lib/firmware/etc..

Makes sense. Not sure though if I will be able to do it on Live image or (in case of installing it) if will not need to do manual push of firmware after each kernel update... Will do some tests and reading,

[Rodomar705]

Tymose님이 먼저 게시:

Rodomar705님이 먼저 게시:

It's more an issue of firmware rather than drivers. You can copy them manually from here[gitlab.com]. The path should be something like /usr/firmware/ath11k/QCA206X/hw2.1 or /usr/lib/firmware/etc..

Makes sense. Not sure though if I will be able to do it on Live image or (in case of installing it) if will not need to do manual push of firmware after each kernel update... Will do some tests and reading,

Not on a live image, and yeah, it will probably be overridden each time linux-firmware updates. Until Valve will commit this to the firmware mainline repo, this issue will remain.

[DoomTheRobot]

Got a response from Steam Support about two or so hours ago so I thought I'd share:

Russ (Steam Support)님이 먼저 게시:

Hello,

I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your Steam Deck.

We are investigating this issue further. As soon as we have more information, we will update your ticket.

Catching up with the thread now, I was really worried that the actual hardware WiFi component was just faulty for a lot of people but it seems like something that could be fixed with an update. Guess I'll wait for that, hopefully.

[RaffiBaffi]

THX, disable 160MHz in my Router solved the Problem! But still a Bug in the Wifi Module of the Steamdeck OLED. Should be fixed…. i payed for the 160MHz in the Router…

Router: Asus AX-68U
Firmware: Merlin WRT

Superi0rJake님이 먼저 게시:

One user claims disabling 160MHz allows them to use 5GHz

160MHz is WiFi 6 frequency, so it's safe to assume it is a WiFi 6 issue?