Joy-cons no longer connect after 3.5.5 update or cause deck to crash/reboot

[bigstatik]

After updating to 3.5.5 joy-cons do not connect or they connect and do not pair with each other as one controller, and when the second joycon connects the deck crashes and reboots.

I rolled back my deck to 3.4.11 which has fixed the issue.

Please post here if you have the same issue with joy-cons after the 3.5.5 deck OS update.

[ЧЕЛИОС]

Bro, I also had this problem after upgrading to version 3.5.5. If you connect two or more original Joy-Con's, the SteamDeck goes into reboot. I checked on different SteamDeck, they go into reboot.

[devin]

I'm also having this problem.

Steps:
(0: Forget any paired Joy-cons. Connect them to a Switch and check for updates, just in case)
1: Pair a Nintendo Joy-con.
2: Attempt to pair the other Joy-con.

Result:
Steam Deck crashes and reboots, showing an update progress/verifying installation screen. The first joy-con powers down, remaining paired to the deck as a single controller. The second joy-con STAYS ON and shows 2 indicator lights, as when used as a second controller on Switch, but cannot control anything. ETA: Further testing shows this to be less consistent than I thought. Upon crashing, the controllers can do any number of things, but most common appears to be going back to the "attempting to connect" light pattern.

[devin]

Same issue reported here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/7529517132618078339/

And this NES Classic Controller issue seems similar, potentially identical:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/7529517456178957154/

[ЧЕЛИОС]

Originally posted by devin:

I'm also having this problem.

Steps:
(0: Forget any paired Joy-cons. Connect them to a Switch and check for updates, just in case)
1: Pair a Nintendo Joy-con.
2: Attempt to pair the other Joy-con.

Result:
Steam Deck crashes and reboots, showing an update progress/verifying installation screen. The first joy-con powers down, remaining paired to the deck as a single controller. The second joy-con STAYS ON and shows 2 indicator lights, as when used as a second controller on Switch, but cannot control anything. ETA: Further testing shows this to be less consistent than I thought. Upon crashing, the controllers can do any number of things, but most common appears to be going back to the "attempting to connect" light pattern.

Everything is identical for me. The problem exists both in game mode and in desktop mode. Today I tried to install my old SSD on which the old version of SteamOS was installed, the problem was not detected. Then I upgraded to 3.5.5, the problem appeared...

[olegr]

same issue on 3.5.5 and 3.5.7

[Bedlam]

Same issue, using 3.5.5. When connecting two Nintendo joy-cons (in either order), my Steam Deck suddenly reboots a moment or two after the second joy-con is connected.

The only time that it didn't reboot was when I connected to them and they didn't get configured together as one controller. I'm guessing the bug is somewhere in the code that treats two joy-cons as a single controller.

[Bedlam]

Just updated to 3.5.7 and the problem persists. Reboot every time I connect the second joy-con.

Does Valve not do regression testing before sending out new releases? This is extremely shoddy that it doesn't just fail, but the whole system resets.

[ЧЕЛИОС]

Originally posted by Bedlam:

Same issue, using 3.5.5. When connecting two Nintendo joy-cons (in either order), my Steam Deck suddenly reboots a moment or two after the second joy-con is connected.

The only time that it didn't reboot was when I connected to them and they didn't get configured together as one controller. I'm guessing the bug is somewhere in the code that treats two joy-cons as a single controller.

You can connect several left or several right ones at the same time.

[Matou008]

I also have the same issue both on 3.5.5 and 3.5.7. I hope this will soon get fixed.

[Butter]

Just putting my comment here that I'm having the same issue on stable 3.5.7. I'm able to connect one joycon side just fine via Bluetooth. But, the moment the other joycon connects, the Deck reboots.

[nyghtly]

Same here on 3.5.5.

It seems to crash on the second joycon.

[JunjiBurrito]

I tried to connect my NES Online controllers. It always would crash as soon as I connected the left one. I'm guessing something in that left Joycon is what is causing the crash.

[deaddoof]

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1070

If you want to help test patches, you can. Joycons issue seems like a kernel bug.