3.5.5 external display issues

[Daft.Eng]

Everything was working fine before this update, official dock over HDMI and 30, 40, 60 fps all worked fine.

40fps no longer functions for me at all, I get 40hz at 30fps.

And at 60hz, all the framerate limits are completely wrong.

60=30fps
30=20fps
15=12fps
12=10fps
10=9fps

Worth noting my screen seems to hate interacting with VRR on the deck. If I turn that on I get a black screen and have to unplug and plug in again to get an image every time I start the game.
VRR enabled seems to make the 60hz framerates function as they are labelled, but 40fps is still totally broken.

EDIT: on further inspection, changing my display to 120hz has resolved the issue. All framerates now tie to what they are supposed to.
It does seem to have forgotten my framerate settings for every game though.
Still worth Valve looking in to the issue though, as it used to work fine at 60hz on the previous stable version.

[deaddoof]

Send your edid files to valve.

[Feri a kemény]

I'm having similar issues. When Docked, it wont produce more than 30fps no matter what resolution/fps i set, and even the menu screen are locked to 30fps. Never had problems like that before and another issue is when switching to windows(official steam updates installed) the screen ain't aligned to center and having a black bar on the bottom of the screen(i had this issue when used the preview 3.5 channel and the dock got a firmware update so i managed to downgrade the dock's firmware version via desktop mode konsole but eversince 3.5.5 is on stable channel the dock's firmware version is set by default (0.13.15.121). I did report the following problems to Valve weeks before the stable channel update but they didn't wanted to listen to me and now here we are. Common troubleshooting wont fix anyones problems with Docked mode unless Valve does something about it

[ttv/cheesecakefgc]

Agreed; docked framerates are completely broken after latest updates and some games are unplayable because of it

[DankWestern]

My external monitor won't even work any more post update. I've checked all the cables, tested the monitor with different devices, and everything is working perfectly, but since the update, the external monitor doesn't work. I've plugged it in during various stages of booting up, and it will display the boot logo eye thing, but then it goes black.

Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is also non-functional, although that thing has been near impossible to use since day 1.

*edit - I was able to find some "solution" which involved holding the volume down button and the menu button while powering on, but despite many attempts, it never once hinted that it was even a thing. Maybe they removed it.

[GrizzledOldGamer]

Originally posted by DankWestern:

My external monitor won't even work any more post update. I've checked all the cables, tested the monitor with different devices, and everything is working perfectly, but since the update, the external monitor doesn't work. I've plugged it in during various stages of booting up, and it will display the boot logo eye thing, but then it goes black.

Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is also non-functional, although that thing has been near impossible to use since day 1.

*edit - I was able to find some "solution" which involved holding the volume down button and the menu button while powering on, but despite many attempts, it never once hinted that it was even a thing. Maybe they removed it.

I was exactly the same, I've managed to somewhat fix it though its still temperamental, check your monitor settings, the one that semi fixed mine was gsynq, now it works but only if you turn the deck on, wait until booted up and then plug it in. If you switch it on while docked it won't work, same if you switch from desktop to game mode, hopefully this helps you.

[DankWestern]

I'll give that a shot, thanks. It's really bad that they introduced more problems with this update than fixes though... I'm wondering if they're doing it intentionally to push Oled sales maybe...

[Woodchips]

Same here. Our dock is connected via HDMI to an older model Samsung 1080p television and now when docked both of our Steam decks have the same image flicker issue where it goes black for 2-4 seconds and then flickers on for half a second in rhythm. No image is sent to the TV.

[DankWestern]

This is absolutely ridiculous, I have a feeling I overthought my issue of my external monitor not working, but going into the normal settings, then Display, and putting it into safe mode re-enabled my external monitor....

I would encourage everyone else to try this before anything else. I feel like such a fool, but Steam OS really shouldn't have just screwed itself the way it did post-update.

[Daft.Eng]

Just coming back to say although my issue is largely resolved, the 3.5.5 docked experience has been significantly worse than ever before, this update should not have been pushed to stable.

All of the below issues have only started since 3.5.5 came along.
The screen sometimes randomly flickers black, I sometimes can’t get an image and have to unplug and re plug the USB C cable and sometimes the deck just refuses to detect that I’ve plugged the USB C in, at which point only a restart of the deck will get the deck to display externally again.

[loc7791]

Same here, the screen goes black when I'm plugged on the dock and only by waiting for a long moment do I have an image displayed. But without any audio and every function of the deck is slowed down. I have to go on desktop mode to switch back the audio mode. Every time i try to put my steam deck on charge, the display returns to no image at all, making simultaneous charge and use impossible. All because I've tried to activate Hdr mode.

[Daft.Eng]

It gets worse.
Since 3.5.5, some games seem to suffer from a regular stutter when displayed on my external monitor.
If I switch back to the deck’s display I get totally smooth frametimes.

[Daft.Eng]

After trying a few things, I seem to have fixed the stutter that I was getting (3.5.7 didn’t fix the issue)

It seems that on 3.5.5 / 3.5.7, playing in 1080p on my monitor results in poor frame times in some games. Having switched the deck to the native 1440p in settings, those stutters seem to have been eliminated now.

[Firehawke]

This sure still seems to be a thing. I've got two displays, one a 4K HDR TV and one that's a 1440p computer monitor, and both are hitting this issue still even with the 3.6.0 preview build.

Running La Mulana (which isn't very intensive) at 4K60 gives 20-30 FPS. 1080p60 fives 20-30 FPS. 1080p120 gives 50-63 FPS. 1440p60 gives 20-30 FPS. 144p120 gives 50-63 FPS. All are unsteady with really wacky frame pacing.