Steam Deck Black Screen Fix / Fixed (For anyone that needs it)

[Spock]

Recently my Steam Deck sat without being played for a few weeks. I assume battery was completely dead. I charged it up, went to turn it on to play it, only to find the screen was completely black. No backlight, nothing. I scoured the internet looking for information and possible fixes. Tried everything I found with no luck. Got in touch with Steam Support and was able to get the issue resolved without sending my deck in for repair. Figured I'd share here for anyone else looking for possible solutions.

To be clear, the screen on the device was black, no backlight. But otherwise the device was fine. You could hear sound effects when you pressed buttons, the thumb/touch pads gave haptics feedback.. If I docked it or used an external monitor, I did get a picture on the external monitor/TV.

Since I cant really post the entire chat here, I'm going to leave out some of the more obvious fixes/suggestions such as making sure your power supply is plugged in all the way and things of that nature.
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Some things Steam Support had me try/rule out:

Make sure your charger is charging your device. Indicator LED should be a solid white when plugged in. Make sure you're only using the supplied charger, as the Steam Deck can act funky with others.

Try to reset the BIOS/Firmware: Shut down the device by holding the power button for 15 seconds. Press and hold the Volume down( - ) key + the "..." key and then press the power button once and let off. You should see the indicator LED start blinking to indicate it has started the process of resetting the BIOS. Put your deck down and wait for it to finish the process. Give it about 15 minutes.

Try entering the BIOS.. Shut down the device by holding the power button for 15 seconds. Then press and hold the Volume Up (+) key and press the power button. Keep holding the Volume up key til you hear a chime. If the screen comes on, just hit continue to boot your device.
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None of that worked for me, this is the response they gave that got mine back up and running:

Based on what is happening, we would like to rule out a potential issue that has been fixed in our new BIOS update.


To update to that BIOS you will need to opt into the 'Main' OS update channel:
1. Turn on Developer settings (steam button > settings > system > 'Enable Developer Mode')
2. Turn on 'Show Advanced update Channels' in developer settings (steam button > settings > developer settings)
3. Set Deck to 'Main' in OS Update Channel (steam button > settings > system)
4. Select Apply under 'Software Updates' above and then select the 'Restart' once it is done.
5. Once the Deck restarts and has loaded to the OS, unplug the external monitor to test if the Deck's internal screen is now displaying correctly.

Important:
While the system is applying the new update during restart, this process could take up to 15 minutes to complete. During that time you may see the LED blink a few times and the system appear to not respond or continue to have a black display, make sure to avoid interrupting the device in this state as it is repairing/updating the BIOS and firmware for the device.

If that did not work, please do the following with the Deck plugged into the external display:
1. Go to System in the settings (steam button > settings > system)
2. Scroll down on the System page until you see the 'BIOS Version' entry
3. Check that this version is F7A0121 or higher.


If the BIOS version is lower than that, reply back to this ticket to let us know the BIOS version you are seeing.


If the BIOS version is F7A0121 or higher, then try the following steps:
1. Fully shutdown the unit. To do so, hold down the power button for a full 15 seconds to shut the system off. The screen will shut off before the full 15 seconds has elapsed, do not release the power button until the full 15 seconds has elapsed (this is because the unit will may not be shutdown fully even though the display is off).
2. Unplug the external display/monitor from the Deck (so once the fix is done it will display to the Deck's internal screen instead)
3. Hold the volume (-) button and QAM (...) button down at the same time. Keep holding those two buttons while you tap the power button once. If done correctly and registered correctly by the system, you should hear the normal chime sound and see the power LED on top start blinking (this will let you know the process started). You can then let go of the volume (-) and QAM (..) button.
4. Allow for the unit to fully boot, this process may take up to 15 minutes again as it is repairing the firmware. If after this it does not work still, please plug your external display in again to check what is there. Let us know what you find in this case.

For me, after updating the BIOS I still had a black screen, I had to do that very last step of resetting the BIOS, thats when mine finally decided to come on.

Hope this helps!

[blackknoght82]

Thank you for posting this

[Uber Manijon]

Hi everyone, i have version F7G0112...i tried all the options with no luck :( how i can update the bios to a higher version?

[Sariell]

İlk olarak Solitario Gamer tarafından gönderildi:

Hi everyone, i have version F7G0112...i tried all the options with no luck :( how i can update the bios to a higher version?

1. Connect to external display
2. Go to developer options and enable "Show advanced update channels"
3. Go back to system and update to the branch called Main

[Sariell]

I also want to report that this method finally worked on my steam deck (or perhaps it worked from the first time I tried it) but there was another, compound problem, that I would like to inform about.

For some reason that I cannot understand, the update from F7A0121 to F7A0131 was what initially caused the problem on my deck which already had the DeckHD upgraded LCD panel, using the DeckHD provided flat cable. From that point on nothing seemed to remedy the issue.

After months of trying and waiting, on a whim, I decided to change the flat cable to the original that came with the Deck and the display was working again.

So, to sum up:
- F7A0121: both original and DeckHD flat cables work
- F7A0131: DeckHD flat cable stops working, it will not start working if you downgrade or swap back to the original display. ONLY the original flat cable works (for both displays)

The flat cables look pretty much identical too.

[Chainmail4skinMonster]

Good to hear some people solved their issue, our deck just BSOD'd.
No video, internal or external. Chime, fanspin and haptics work. Volume Up+...+Power trick causes LED to blink as it should - forever.
No modifications and recently factory reset due to random crashes.
Out of warranty period, of course.
Any ideas? From what I gather the last thing to do is reseat cables?

[Canary JOY EASY]

İlk olarak Pathos tarafından gönderildi:

Good to hear some people solved their issue, our deck just BSOD'd.
No video, internal or external. Chime, fanspin and haptics work. Volume Up+...+Power trick causes LED to blink as it should - forever.
No modifications and recently factory reset due to random crashes.
Out of warranty period, of course.
Any ideas? From what I gather the last thing to do is reseat cables?

You can try force rebooting the Steam Deck if the LED already blinking for over 2 hours. I also experienced the same issue with my Deck hours ago, the LED just keep blinking after performed the BIOS reset. After 2 hours I decided to give it a shot and force rebooting my Deck despite the LED is still blinking, and boom the Deck indeed booted up.

[Sariell]

İlk olarak Pathos tarafından gönderildi:

Good to hear some people solved their issue, our deck just BSOD'd.
No video, internal or external. Chime, fanspin and haptics work. Volume Up+...+Power trick causes LED to blink as it should - forever.
No modifications and recently factory reset due to random crashes.
Out of warranty period, of course.
Any ideas? From what I gather the last thing to do is reseat cables?

The USB plug is on the main board. There is no cable to reseat when we are talking external video.
Do you remember what BIOS version you were on?
Did you try the Volume Minus + QAM yet?

[Ol' Bananas Johnson]

Also dealing with this issue with my LED from last year, worked fine til I gave it to my dad who had it sitting in its case and the battery full discharged. Plugged it up to my dock to charge overnight to format to give to my mom, now its BSOD. Have tried every fix, tried the dots and minus which put it in blinking LED mode, for an hour, before I hard reset, to the same problem.

Not sure if its hardware, but im struggling to see a hardware issue when the device wasnt touched for a month or two.

[planescaped]

İlk olarak 🙈🧬👨‍💻🥽Jerry ✡️ VRcia⛐🏁✈️🏓 tarafından gönderildi:

my oled steam deck is the only device i've ever owned where i have to baby sit it to ensure the battery is topped up or deal with random issues like this. it has happened to me twice. the first time holding a combo of buttons brought it back, the last time it didn't work so i let it sit plugged in, and it worked when i tried again the next day.

huge, huge, yuge screw up on valves part. this has been an issue since day 1 for the oled at least, there's no way it wasn't caught in testing. something as simple as a dead battery requiring intervention as described in the OP is insane.

This... seriously. I do love my Steam Deck, but the amount of just random issues, glitches and problems I have with it is absurd. Feels like every other week the screen starts bugging out and not coming on, or the controls somehow become broken, or the battery inexplicably drains.
Just today I got a new issue where when I turn it on the screen flashes for a half a second, then goes to a black screen, I then press the power button again and nothing happens. However pressing the Steam button and navigating to Library makes the image come back, though messes with the brightness setting.

It makes the 4th issue the thing has thrown at me. It's not as if I've been using it for 6 years like my Switch, it's only 2 months old!
The things are temperamental af and it is kinda concerning... I do get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but that is tempered with the fear of fully expecting the thing to break on me in the near future.

[Daddy]

Mine started to do all this but unfortunately I can't get it to connect to a monitor to even try and fix :(

[Rac2nd]

I had to leave a reply. THANK YOU!! I almost gave up and tried exactly all the instructions and it worked. I also read other people’s comments for suggestions 👍🏼

[snailwaste]

Thankyou for your service sir 🙏🏻

[JesusDanny]

My deck worked with an external monitor but wouldn't display anything in its own screen. Taking it apart and trying different firmware didn't change a thing.

What fixed it was going into Desktop mode and configuring the displays in the KDE desktop settings. For some reason the internal display had been turned off. Turning it back on was all I needed to do.

[Avinscratch]

Perpetual BSOD club here as well with version F7A0131. I tried everything from reflashing BIOS, factory reset, the Vol- + QAM + Power button trick and nothing.

It actually won't boot without an external monitor. Whenever I unplug the HDMI cable and plug it back in, it's like it did a reboot and is on the "Verifying Installation" screen. It's as if the external monitor is the power supply.

Been redoing some of the steps people mentioned to see if anything sticks but so far I'm just stuck here with it plugged in without an external monitor and the LED is just constantly blinking. Contacted steam support and after a few back and forths they suggested having it serviced. But with it being out of warranty and me shipping it from out of my country, I might as well just buy a new one.

Also to add to that, whenever I do the Vol- + QAM + Power button combo when it's unplugged, the LED blinks 3 times, pauses, blinks 3 times again, and finally blinks once and nothing else happens. No fans, no haptics, not even the chime it's just the LED blinking.

[numb3r23]

Brilliant! After almost a year I was able to reactivate my SteamDeck's Display. The trick was indeed the BIOS reset - something which I think potentially should happen with a BIOS update. Or Valve, please add at least an option in the developer menu to reset the BIOS as the process is indeed quite fidgety...