Steam Deck Power Button

[Barrial]

What fixes have everyone used to get their power button to work on first try? After a year or so mine started acting up. Takes 5-50 times in order to start it up. Power button clicks and seems to work fine, but the deck won’t come on. Sometimes it will after the first click, sometimes it takes me pressing it 30 times.

I’ve tried inserting a piece of something under the top piece of the button, seemed to help some. Some isopropyl alcohol didn’t do anything, I don’t think, unless I didn’t get it in the right spot.

Any advice would be great.

[Kage Goomba]

you talking full power on? or wake from sleep?
To wake from sleep I've learned you hit like any other button like A or something.
Full Power on however is a bit disconcerting in your case.

[Barrial]

Yeah, from just laying on the table off and picking it up and turning it on with the power button. Really tired of having to hit the button a dozen or so times to get it to turn on.

[gareeth]

In case that got worse while I am not a fan of having to return a new item it is a lot of money to pay for issues with the power,

[Shibby]

I had the same issue on my first LCD Deck and had to RMA it. It worked fine the first 6 months then slowly the power button just stopped working on press and I had to press it a few times for it to work. Never dropped it or was rough with it. Played it and went back in the case kind of thing. They fixed it for free and it took about 2 weeks total turnaround.

[Barrial]

But mine didn't happen till about a year after I had it. I can't RMA now it's been so long can I? I thought that was a warranty thing?

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by Barrial:

But mine didn't happen till about a year after I had it. I can't RMA now it's been so long can I? I thought that was a warranty thing?

Log a ticket and see what they say. Worst case they say you are on your own which doesn't make the situation worse.

[Alex]

What happened in the end? I'm having the same problem myself and my steam deck is way past warranty

[Falkentyne]

You can't fix a problem like this. The power button is the same type of button that you see on the middle mouse click button of some mice, if you remove the shell. I think the left and right bumper buttons use a similar kind of activation button under the plastic. It isn't an omron/panasonic or other microswitch (mouse/arcade joystick type) that can be easily replaced with some simple soldering skills (larger microswitch housings can even be opened very easily and cleaned, aka Sanwa pushbutton or Cherry microswitches). I've seen such buttons on digikey but these are a pain to replace. Your only solution is to RMA the deck or buy a new one, as this is part of the mainboard. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.

[Rodomar705]

Disclaimer: all of the below is on your own risk, I'm not taking any responsability from your actions :)

Had the same issue in the past, it was fixed when I finally decided to open up it again and put a small drop of IPA on top of the button with a syringe on it and pressing it for half a minute. Button is new again. To avoid keep waking it up you can put it into battery storage mode first.

Started fine, then after 6 months it requires a couple of presses sometimes (and the power menu sometimes would miss on long press, it would either interpret it as a short press and just sleep or just not get the input at all). Fast forward to one year and a half and it became basically unusable, since it would require literally 30 presses before even one single input would be detected.

Since it's a common issue I'm not sure if they had some contamination on the power buttons batches that they used or if the power button is just prone to oxidizing with time. IPA will dissolve both without much of a problem. Dropping it without opening might not work since there is quite a lot of travel distance between the button and the actual external button, plus IPA can dissolve display lamination glue, so you might risk delaminating your panel if you go too much overboard with it externally.

You don't really need much, and with a syringe you don't even need to disassembly much besides the back cover and the metal shell to see it IIRC (you also might get away on not removing the back aluminum, not sure on how much space you have with it on).

I hope you will be able to fix it,

Marco.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Falkentyne:

You can't fix a problem like this. The power button is the same type of button that you see on the middle mouse click button of some mice, if you remove the shell. I think the left and right bumper buttons use a similar kind of activation button under the plastic. It isn't an omron/panasonic or other microswitch (mouse/arcade joystick type) that can be easily replaced with some simple soldering skills (larger microswitch housings can even be opened very easily and cleaned, aka Sanwa pushbutton or Cherry microswitches). I've seen such buttons on digikey but these are a pain to replace. Your only solution is to RMA the deck or buy a new one, as this is part of the mainboard. Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.

Appreciate the reply mate it turns out I actually wasn't past warranty somehow. I was sure I was, but my deck is currently on its way to Czechia for an RMA so we'll see how things go :)

[Alex]

Originally posted by Rodomar705:

Disclaimer: all of the below is on your own risk, I'm not taking any responsability from your actions :)

Had the same issue in the past, it was fixed when I finally decided to open up it again and put a small drop of IPA on top of the button with a syringe on it and pressing it for half a minute. Button is new again. To avoid keep waking it up you can put it into battery storage mode first.

Started fine, then after 6 months it requires a couple of presses sometimes (and the power menu sometimes would miss on long press, it would either interpret it as a short press and just sleep or just not get the input at all). Fast forward to one year and a half and it became basically unusable, since it would require literally 30 presses before even one single input would be detected.

Since it's a common issue I'm not sure if they had some contamination on the power buttons batches that they used or if the power button is just prone to oxidizing with time. IPA will dissolve both without much of a problem. Dropping it without opening might not work since there is quite a lot of travel distance between the button and the actual external button, plus IPA can dissolve display lamination glue, so you might risk delaminating your panel if you go too much overboard with it externally.

You don't really need much, and with a syringe you don't even need to disassembly much besides the back cover and the metal shell to see it IIRC (you also might get away on not removing the back aluminum, not sure on how much space you have with it on).

I hope you will be able to fix it,

Marco.

I will keep your reply as a screenshot for future reference but the deck is out for RMA now. Thanks so much for the reply mate appreciate it a lot

[SHUT IT DOWN]

Originally posted by Rodomar705:

Disclaimer: all of the below is on your own risk, I'm not taking any responsability from your actions :)

Had the same issue in the past, it was fixed when I finally decided to open up it again and put a small drop of IPA on top of the button with a syringe on it and pressing it for half a minute. Button is new again. To avoid keep waking it up you can put it into battery storage mode first.

Started fine, then after 6 months it requires a couple of presses sometimes (and the power menu sometimes would miss on long press, it would either interpret it as a short press and just sleep or just not get the input at all). Fast forward to one year and a half and it became basically unusable, since it would require literally 30 presses before even one single input would be detected.

Since it's a common issue I'm not sure if they had some contamination on the power buttons batches that they used or if the power button is just prone to oxidizing with time. IPA will dissolve both without much of a problem. Dropping it without opening might not work since there is quite a lot of travel distance between the button and the actual external button, plus IPA can dissolve display lamination glue, so you might risk delaminating your panel if you go too much overboard with it externally.

You don't really need much, and with a syringe you don't even need to disassembly much besides the back cover and the metal shell to see it IIRC (you also might get away on not removing the back aluminum, not sure on how much space you have with it on).

I hope you will be able to fix it,

Marco.

they used bargain bin parts so this makes sense. i've had to push my power button 2-3 times before.

[Barrial]

I noticed dust plays a big role in it. I work at a cement plant and play when I get the chance in slightly dusty office. If I spray a little IA around the button and let it set, it helps a ton. Could be coincidence though I guess. Because I do notice that when I take the back panel off, the button works every time flawlessly. But as soon as I put it back on, bam, back to having to press it a bunch if I haven't used IA in a while. Oh well, still have logged hundreds of hours on it, so I'm not really complaining that hard.

[Rodomar705]

Originally posted by Barrial:

I noticed dust plays a big role in it. I work at a cement plant and play when I get the chance in slightly dusty office. If I spray a little IA around the button and let it set, it helps a ton. Could be coincidence though I guess. Because I do notice that when I take the back panel off, the button works every time flawlessly. But as soon as I put it back on, bam, back to having to press it a bunch if I haven't used IA in a while. Oh well, still have logged hundreds of hours on it, so I'm not really complaining that hard.

Yeah, in your case it might just be the dust preventing the internal button to click since it will wedge in the cracks around the external button, so it makes sense to stop working. In my case the button was clicking 100% fine, it was just not registering any input from a software level.

[Dash Rendar]

I just want to say that I have had the same problem on and off. Button clicks fine but no activity. It can still be a result of dust. Both times simply dabbing it with some rubbing alcohol and letting it dry, or opening the case up and blowing out dust have solved the problem.

In my case it was so bad, I couldn't get the Steam Deck to wake up during my entire flight. I was discouraged and about to give up, but when I got home I decided to open it up and see if I could see the actual mechanism. It appeared to be clicking fine, but figured I would see if it would work better with a small piece of plastic wedged between the plastic exterior button and the board, but I couldn't find a gap. Finally I just blew some air in there, and now it works every time with a single press.

Idk if you already had it RMA'd but just wanted to share my experience