Freezing in every game, occasionally causing total system lockup

[DivideTheZero]

Hello, I've been having this problem ever since I got the Deck. Every game at some point, will lockup and I'll be forced to either quit the game, or occasionally force shut down the system. Possibly hardware issue?

The freezing occurs at seemingly random times, but *usually* within the first 15 minutes of launching a game. The game will freeze, the screen will go black for a sec, then when it comes back the game will be completely unresponsive. Audio still plays, and I can usually use the overlay and exit the game. Sometimes the overlay will also be unresponsive, and I have to force shut down the system. (Note: In these scenarios, I can still hear the overlay, I just can't see it)

This freeze occurs in *every single game I have tested*. H:ZD, Control, Hitman 3, No Man's Sky, Half Life 2, ME: Legendary, etc.

It appears like the GPU is crashing or resetting. Graphics settings and intensity appear to have zero impact on the issue. Happens just as often on low presets as on high presets.

So far I have tried re-imaging the deck, and opted into the beta branch. No change.

[DONKEY GONK]

Alright guys, little bit of an update.

I feel like a bit of an idiot. I think I was maxing out the RAM of my steam deck by setting the graphics too high on the games I was playing. I was so frustrated over the crashes I was having in the games I wanted to play and was so convinced that it was all hardware problems that I ordered another steam deck. Upon getting it and trying it out, I started playing AC Mirage again and it crashed almost immediately in the same way as my past one - freezes, screen blanks out for a second, then comes back with the backlight on but with a black screen and unresponsive. Well as it turns out, all I needed to do was turn down the texture quality in the games that were crashing and everything I tried worked perfectly - zero crashes. I don't know if this is a bug or I was simply pushing the deck too hard, but I'm happy it's working fine now. I think only my first deck had the crashing problem that has been reported in this sub. The ram being the culprit would additionally make sense as pulling up the Steam overlay or waking from sleep often seemed to trigger a crash.

I'm returning the new deck I ordered, obviously.

[Kosmo零]

Properly working device shouldn't freeze no matter what graphical settings you set in game, like PC. If graphics settings was the cause of your crashes, maybe some Deck's components can't provide enough power for GPU under high load or temperature, so it freeze. The problem is that they MUST provide enough power no matter what.

[Rodomar705]

引用自 Scoot：

Alright guys, little bit of an update.

I feel like a bit of an idiot. I think I was maxing out the RAM of my steam deck by setting the graphics too high on the games I was playing. I was so frustrated over the crashes I was having in the games I wanted to play and was so convinced that it was all hardware problems that I ordered another steam deck. Upon getting it and trying it out, I started playing AC Mirage again and it crashed almost immediately in the same way as my past one - freezes, screen blanks out for a second, then comes back with the backlight on but with a black screen and unresponsive. Well as it turns out, all I needed to do was turn down the texture quality in the games that were crashing and everything I tried worked perfectly - zero crashes. I don't know if this is a bug or I was simply pushing the deck too hard, but I'm happy it's working fine now. I think only my first deck had the crashing problem that has been reported in this sub. The ram being the culprit would additionally make sense as pulling up the Steam overlay or waking from sleep often seemed to trigger a crash.

I'm returning the new deck I ordered, obviously.

This seems like a RDNA2 GPU bug I've already encountered recently. Might be MESA/kernel related, not sure yet. Already reported, not really sure if they have already narrowed it down.

[Spart]

Welp, I just got the same issue too, checked the logs by running "journal ctl -g gfx_0.0.0" in bash, and there are instances of "*ERROR* ring gfx_0.0.0. timeout"

Guess I'll start looking into RMA

[punjig]

I found out I have the same issue. I have had my Deck for a little over a year and I never had a problem playing before. BUT I only played Morrowind and Oblivion. When I started to play Skyrim the problem showed itself. I contacted Steam, got the Old do this, do that. Then I get the old

"Upon checking, the warranty period on your hardware has expired. We will not be able to accommodate a replacement for this one."

Steam knows they have this HUGE problem on their hands and they refused to offer any real help at all. Unbelievable I spent $550 on a Brick!!!
I Begged and pleaded with them to do the right thing. I won't stand for this. They just pissed of a Pitt Bull off of his Leash.
I hope they enjoy the Class-action Lawsuit that will be coming their way.

[Vinacious G]

引用自 punjig：

I found out I have the same issue. I have had my Deck for a little over a year and I never had a problem playing before. BUT I only played Morrowind and Oblivion. When I started to play Skyrim the problem showed itself. I contacted Steam, got the Old do this, do that. Then I get the old

"Upon checking, the warranty period on your hardware has expired. We will not be able to accommodate a replacement for this one."

Steam knows they have this HUGE problem on their hands and they refused to offer any real help at all. Unbelievable I spent $550 on a Brick!!!
I Begged and pleaded with them to do the right thing. I won't stand for this. They just pissed of a Pitt Bull off of his Leash.
I hope they enjoy the Class-action Lawsuit that will be coming their way.

I fully support you and your anger, but..... There's NO WAY you had this amazing device for a whole year and -only- played 2 games?? There's no way

The fact they're trying not to do anything to help is terrible wtf

[Ratsplat]

Mine was a few months out of warranty, but they still went ahead with the RMA. Likely lots of background variables that they look at, since many others have reported the same thing. But even so, I'd think they'd be lenient for anyone with actual issues, especially when it sounds like they also oftentimes do RMA for things that were user error.

This is why this time I'm going to use my new Deck as much as possible during this next year. If there's a time bomb of sorts inside these things, I need it to happen as soon as possible. Rather than barely touch it for 6 months like I did the first time.

[Vthyarilops]

Well maybe I spoke too soon in my earlier comments, my deck has just had a freeze as described in the original post with CODE VEIN when I closed the game the UI was responsive until I undocked it and didn't switch displays, had to put it in sleep mode and it was fine after. I've also noticed that my keyboard has always worked kind of like described on page 5, where I have to tap the keys sometimes 10 times for it to register and it sometimes hold keys down, i've always assumed it was a software problem. I guess I'm gonna have to message support, I wish I had a game that would actually consistently crash since I've only had 1 crash and haven't experienced again

[Kosmo零]

引用自 Vthyarilops：

I wish I had a game that would actually consistently crash since I've only had 1 crash and haven't experienced again

Since you have Code Vein, maybe you also have Scarlet Nexus. For me it was 100% accurate test for freezes. I just stand AFK in city, so two streets visible (that makes higher load) and wait for freeze that happens in 1-5 minutes. I did upload the video to demonstrate you where to stand: https://youtu.be/GEITBy7xh9g

P.S. My Deck was freezing in Code Vein too, but it was too random to be a 100% solid test. However, the most freezing game for me was Detroit: Become Human, it was literally unplayable becauce of them.

[Vthyarilops]

引用自 Kosmo零：

引用自 Vthyarilops：

I wish I had a game that would actually consistently crash since I've only had 1 crash and haven't experienced again

Since you have Code Vein, maybe you also have Scarlet Nexus. For me it was 100% accurate test for freezes. I just stand AFK in city, so two streets visible (that makes higher load) and wait for freeze that happens in 1-5 minutes. I did upload the video to demonstrate you where to stand: https://youtu.be/GEITBy7xh9g

P.S. My Deck was freezing in Code Vein too, but it was too random to be a 100% solid test. However, the most freezing game for me was Detroit: Become Human, it was literally unplayable becauce of them.

Thank you for the reply, unfortunately I don't have either of those games, but I was going to buy Scarlet Nexus at some point so I'll try and pick it up next sale

[Ratsplat]

Well, just like some others in this thread, I've had my new Deck after RMA for just a few days now, and it decided to just randomly GPU reset the moment I switched from Game Mode to Desktop Mode. I've barely done anything with my latest deck, loading maybe 3 games and barely even looked at desk top mode. Just a worthless $700 paperweight.

[Ratsplat]

Okay, so a little bit more about my thing. It happened within 10 seconds of going to desktop mode. Unsure if being docked had anything to do with it. I currently believe that while the issue always did seem to be much rarer for me than for most everyone else, it also hits me harder due to having to force a power down. I believe I've figured out why, and it is because when the GPU Reset bug hits you, the Desktop of Desktop Mode (I think is Xorg, while Game Mode is Wayland) is not able to recover from it. But if you're in gaming mode, it simply exits the game and you're fine.

I spent all day playing Death Stranding on my Deck, and nothing has happened again. I currently feel that the reset I got likely was not random, and was probably just a 'normal' occurrence.

[Rodomar705]

引用自 Ratsplat：

Okay, so a little bit more about my thing. It happened within 10 seconds of going to desktop mode. Unsure if being docked had anything to do with it. I currently believe that while the issue always did seem to be much rarer for me than for most everyone else, it also hits me harder due to having to force a power down. I believe I've figured out why, and it is because when the GPU Reset bug hits you, the Desktop of Desktop Mode (I think is Xorg, while Game Mode is Wayland) is not able to recover from it. But if you're in gaming mode, it simply exits the game and you're fine.

I spent all day playing Death Stranding on my Deck, and nothing has happened again. I currently feel that the reset I got likely was not random, and was probably just a 'normal' occurrence.

If you have a dock and can try to use the Deck as a normal PC (browsing and stuff), try to stay onto the desktop and watch youtube/browse the internet and see if it triggers again. I have the same issue and it seems to be a glitch in the power management stuff from AMDGPUs on RDNA2 architectures. IIRC it's a sdma0 AMDGPU timeout if it's the same issues. Just additional PM issues if it's the case.

[punjig]

引用自 Vinacious G：

引用自 punjig：

I found out I have the same issue. I have had my Deck for a little over a year and I never had a problem playing before. BUT I only played Morrowind and Oblivion. When I started to play Skyrim the problem showed itself. I contacted Steam, got the Old do this, do that. Then I get the old

"Upon checking, the warranty period on your hardware has expired. We will not be able to accommodate a replacement for this one."

Steam knows they have this HUGE problem on their hands and they refused to offer any real help at all. Unbelievable I spent $550 on a Brick!!!
I Begged and pleaded with them to do the right thing. I won't stand for this. They just pissed of a Pitt Bull off of his Leash.
I hope they enjoy the Class-action Lawsuit that will be coming their way.

I fully support you and your anger, but..... There's NO WAY you had this amazing device for a whole year and -only- played 2 games?? There's no way

The fact they're trying not to do anything to help is terrible wtf

LOL, For real. I'm a older man and have very little time to game. PLUS, Modding Morrowind manually the OpenMW way with little time on my hands took 3 months in itself. Trust me, I wish I had nothing but time. LOL;)

But in my case, at the same time as being told by support they were going to charge me $200+ I happen to stumble on a possible solution for mine. I am still testing but my crashes have gone away for the past 3 sessions. It is weird, but it seems if I boot it while docked, then just let it go to sleep, then wake it, reboot and play I have no crashes. I haven't tried handheld/undocked yet, but I was getting crashes both ways. I found this completely by coincident. It is very strange, but I have been able to play 3+3+4 hours. In the past I was lucky to get 20min. I know it sounds very strange, but I tried to run the game 1 time in between test with out doing the above and it crashed within 10min.

I know that this could all just be a coincidence, and I do find it very strange. I'm not counting on anything but I am going to give it a lot of testing this next week and re-post.

[亚里士阙德]

Does anyone tried “BATTERY STORAGE MODE” from BIOS.
After the operation, the steam deck returned to normal and only crashed twice during several days.
However, when the battery level was low (below 40%), the screen freezed very frequently. After recharging, the crash problem is alleviated.
That is to say, when the battery level is low, it is easy to crash. When the battery level is high, the crash phenomenon occurs less (occasionally).
So I think it may have something to do with power management or battery voltage.