Steam Deck turns off for no reason. EDIT: Wifi turns it off.

[Mechanical guardian]

I have strange problem and I don't know what causes it. When I turn it on from sleep mode it runs normal, but then 15 seconds later it decides to turn off even though the battery was fully charged. I have to use the charger to get to turn it back on. It happened again when I tried to install a game on steam. Please fix this issue Valve. I don't know if this is a software issue or the battery itself. EDIT: We now discovered that it is the Wifi that is causing it to shut down. It only happens if the cloud is syncing or if you try to install a game. Further more is that it needs to have a stable bandwidth and it cannot be below 2.4 GHz. Right now we need to know how stable the bandwidth needs to be for the Steam Deck.

[DawdlingDan]

I'm having the same issue.

Steam Deck will shut down even though battery has charge. Requires charger to be plugged in to turn back on.

I've noticed however that it seems to do it ONLY when downloading games in Steam and ONLY when the download speed is above 1MB/s ish. If download speed is in hundreds KB/s, it's fine. Playing games is also fine. I can run the battery down to 0% without the Deck shutting off randomly.

I'm thinking this could be a dodgy wifi chip in the deck overheating or something. Hoping it's a software issue but if it was, more people would be having this problem I would suspect.

I'll also note here:
The wifi my Deck connects to is an iPhone hotspot.
The Battery Health (not charge) is 100% according to the battery panel in desktop mode.

[Wimplos]

i have the exact problem. shuts off when downloading games. then cant turn back on without plugging the charger

[Prezidentas]

contact steam support

[somoiogul]

Having the same issue. On the 29 April beta build. Steam deck shuts down completely and and power led flashes 3 times (like in battery storage mode) and I can only turn it back one with a charger. Will try to recalibrate the battery to see if it helps.

[Vukasin23]

issue ever get resolved?

[LionWalker]

Originally posted by somoiogul:

Having the same issue. On the 29 April beta build. Steam deck shuts down completely and and power led flashes 3 times (like in battery storage mode) and I can only turn it back one with a charger. Will try to recalibrate the battery to see if it helps.

I have the same problem. How can i recalibrate the battery?

[Marlock]

the standard procedure on almost any battery device (to be confirmed if applicable to the deck):
discharge until it dies
recharge while off (yes, that part hurts)
switch on again

[Mechanical guardian]

Originally posted by Vukasin23:

issue ever get resolved?

Nope. Still have this problem when it downloads something. Idk if the SD card could cause this problem because all the games are stored in there.

[Marlock]

Originally posted by Mechanical guardian:

Originally posted by Vukasin23:

issue ever get resolved?

Nope. Still have this problem when it downloads something. Idk if the SD card could cause this problem because all the games are stored in there.

try one on internal storage just for testing purposes

[LionWalker]

Originally posted by Mechanical guardian:

Originally posted by Vukasin23:

issue ever get resolved?

Nope. Still have this problem when it downloads something. Idk if the SD card could cause this problem because all the games are stored in there.

I have the same problem without any SD card

[austinp_valve]

We may need to take a look at the unit you have. Please make a support ticket so they can help you troubleshoot and possibly start an RMA.

[Mechanical guardian]

Originally posted by LionWalker:

Originally posted by Mechanical guardian:

Nope. Still have this problem when it downloads something. Idk if the SD card could cause this problem because all the games are stored in there.

I have the same problem without any SD card

That's interesting. So it may be the software itself. I haven't taken apart my Steam Deck or accidentally dropped it. I also didn't program anything behind the software either.

[justjonesss]

I also have noted this issue with my steam deck and its actually happening more frequently. I have tried a number of troubleshooting fixes such as reimaging the steam deck, bios reset, factory reset, disabling wifi power saving, etc.

Its more frustrating because the steam deck works ok otherwise but the second a download starts it shuts off and needs to be plugged in briefly to restart.

Note: My battery health in desktop mode says 99%

If anyone has had any success in fixing this let me know. I have reached out to steam support but haven't received a response yet.

[somoiogul]

Did you guys test if this happens in offline mode or on an unsecured wifi? After more testing, the thing that triggers mine is using the network (eg. downloading something large) on my WPA2-secured wifi.

[LionWalker]

Originally posted by somoiogul:

Did you guys test if this happens in offline mode or on an unsecured wifi? After more testing, the thing that triggers mine is using the network (eg. downloading something large) on my WPA2-secured wifi.

But I cannot test downloading in offline mode ;)