STEAM DECK BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH in 14 months of ownership

[LordMurderDeath]

So, I was in the middle of a session of Persona 5, when my deck alerted me to a 10% battery notification. Before I even had the chance to plug the deck in, it died.

Now it won't charge, there is no LED battery light indicator, and no amount of trying different cords, resetting the BIOS, different outlets, nothing will power it back on.

SO, due to this, I sent a message to steam support. Their response was to troubleshoot (of course) and then, when that didn't work, to let me know that I would need to pay an extra $200 to fix an issue caused by their shoddy product quality. Or, buy a 3rd party kit to fix the device myself.

DISCLAIMER- I've had my deck for a little over a year with normal play time. No outside modifications, no weird software, no drops or dings. Mind you , I bought the 256GB option so I paid almost $600 for the device. I ORDERED it October 2022. I just find it convenient that directly following the warranty expiration, the deck essentially stops working altogether. What a waste of money.

I am so upset. If anyone has any insight or has been through a similar situation I would love to hear it. It's unfortunate that companies like Valve are able to get away with stuff like this.

[shahmatsharar7]

Why do you talk like that

[Preca[Cz]]

Yesterday I was dealing with something similar. Stuck on SteamOS logo. Couldnt enter bios, changed 3 SSDs still no help. So I was searching forums for about 2-3 hours until I found a fix.

Steam Deck suffers from many issues. Some HW stops to work from time to time, or deck refuses to boot. I think its due to poor / unstable BIOS. The hardware is mostly fine.

That is why I´ve created a thread yesterday so some ppl suffering with similar issues can find multiple fixes I´ve found anywhere in one thread.

Take a look here and try the key combos. Maybe you will get it back to life. If not, open it up, try the power drain and try disconnecting the SSD. It might be faulty and prevent system to start. One of many options :-)

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/4148446452672953077/

[roy224]

I bought a steam deck when it launched. Looking at just shy of 2 years of ownership. I have loved the steam deck and have babied keeping it in the case it came with and only charging with the power brick it came with.

Recently the screen will no longer come on. Google the problem apparently its a very common issue. The unit powers on just fine and I can connect it to my television via my dock with HDMI and get a picture and use the device. But I bought the device to use it as a handheld device not a console connected to a tv. None of the steps I followed on reddit forms worked to solve the issue. Looked for help from Value support, they provided the exact same steps as reddit. After all that they tell me that I can send it to them to repair for $185. More than half the cost of a new one and establishing no confidence that the issue would not happen again or have to deal with another issue later down the line. They told me the only other route was to refer to the IFixit forms and attempt the repair myself.

So I risked the chance to follow IFIXIT and replace the screen with a kit + shipping for the screen and tools for ~$80. Unfortunately the same issue persists.

This is a common problem with the device and obviously a production flaw.

In my eyes my device is useless.
I don't care that the warranty was only for 1 year.
I bought their product and treated it with great care and it didn't even last 2 years.
With my only real options being to pay them more than half for a "possible" repair.
This is utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

I will never buy another steam deck or ever recommend it to any friends or family.

I only hope someone else finds this comment useful. I suggest they buy a Nintendo Switch or an ASUS ROG Ally instead.

Valve PISS OFF

[WreckerALeX]

Shouldn't there be a recall, lawsuit or something!?!
Barely played mine!

It just happened today after a long time of not using.
Seems to be a common problem not to let your device reach 0% battery otherwise you'll get black screen.

[Mahjik]

Originally posted by WreckerALeX:

Shouldn't there be a lawsuit!?!

It just happened today after a long time of not using.
Seems to be a common problem not to let your device reach 0% battery otherwise you'll get black screen.

Valve mentions on their page that if you won't be using the device for a while, to put it into Battery Storage mode. I used to do a lot of R/C racing using Lipo batteries so I'm used to putting things into battery storage mode, but that is expectation.

That being said, does the device make any noise when you push the power button?

[MJ711]

Originally posted by WreckerALeX:

Shouldn't there be a recall, lawsuit or something!?!

You can start one.
Report here how it goes.

[xChrisDolmeth]

I had to rma my device last year because my device had an issue where the volume would go down no matter what. I havent used my device in a few months and ran into this black screen of death issue on a trip to florida, tried to contact customer support about this and was told to pay basically half the value of the deck to fix it for something that's an obvious manufacturer error after reading enough people complaining about it online. Outside of what I purchased with steam already I will not give this company another penny due to the fact they sell us, their loyal customers a defective product and tell us to pound sand when the product acts up. I smell a class action in the future.

This company has gone downhill in regards to quality of not just products, but customer service in the last few years and it's disappointing to see a company I used to speak highly of turn out this way

[DemetraSue]

The same thing happened to me a couple days ago, it was at 10% battery, then the screen went black and it's been bricked ever since!! I have only had it for 18 months! Not even two years and since I'm in Canada they're quoting me $300 + for repairs!! That's more the half the price I bought it at. And I have not been rough with it at all. The amount of issues I've heard people having with their steam decks and only having 1 year warranty?? Are you joking?? I've had many other consoles for 7-10 years without issues!! This is insane and I'm not spending hundreds of dollars to fix an issue that steam hasn't addressed or handled properly.

[Qchto]

For anyone experiencing this, before giving up to external repairs, you can try this fix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x82UOZ4bpR4
TL,DW: Press "..." + "Vol -" + "Power" until power led blinks and LEAVE IT BE (no other button press, analog move or touch) for 10-30 minutes.
Hope that helps!

[DemetraSue]

When I contacted steam support they had already suggested that. It didn't work for me. Mines done unless I can find someone local to repair it.

[Snovit321]

Originally posted by DemetraSue:

When I contacted steam support they had already suggested that. It didn't work for me. Mines done unless I can find someone local to repair it.

Hi i had the same problem since a few days ago and tried every solution support gave me without any luck. But i finally fixed it after following this and flashing the BIOS to 121
https://github.com/ryanrudolfoba/SteamDeck-BIOS-Manager?tab=readme-ov-file#how-to-use

[DemetraSue]

I don't know how you think this will help with my situation, my steam deck is bricked. Won't turn on at all, no response, nothing. So I can't put it into desktop mode.

[N]

now would be a good time to play devil's advocate here:

the steam deck is pretty new still. i remember every other piece of new hardware that i bought needed at least 1 redesign after the initial product run.

its going to take a lot of time and mistakes to get something truly amazing, especially if you consider that valve is primarily a software company. they have a lot of brand new internal infrastructure to iron out on top of developing the hardware AND software on the deck.

Everyone has to start somewhere and I think valve has made a better FOSS gaming pc than anyone else I've looked at. they really care about your privacy and user experience quite a bit more than any other tech giant these days and im grateful.

[DemetraSue]

I do agree with you and I would feel alot better if my system lasted longer then 2 years. I paid the price of a console and all my others from other companies still run, even my original Xbox is still going. If I'm paying $600+ for a console, it better last atleast 5 years. 1.5 is not acceptable. And I'm not the only person that has had their steam deck brick before 2 years of use.

[DemetraSue]

And if from our experience every new console needs a redesign after its been running for over a year, because most consoles need that and the companies are able to improve, why doesn't steam extend their warranty to two years??? If all these issues pop up after one year, why don't they take the initiative with everyone who has the first design of the steam deck and give them a two year warranty because they know it has issues! No, because that would take away another stream of income where if your console breaks and it's too expensive to fix, you just buy a new one for 1.5 times the price..they know it has issues in an excessive amount after the one year warranty is already up and they choose to say ♥♥♥♥ you it's your problem now. Like I said I've never had a console brick on me and even if my other consoles had issues, it wasn't anything I couldnt fix. This issue with the steam decks where yours paying more the half it's worth to fix it is not okay.