A Video About My Broken Steam Deck 💔

I originally had a much different video planned, going through the Valve's Steam Decks paces, trying out games, and comparing it to both the Switch and the iPad mini. Both of which I consider to be its closest rivals, within this form factor and price range of course. Alas, things turned out differently, and I had to say goodbye to my broken Deck for now.

Things shown in the video 🛍️
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Other cool stuff shown 🛍️
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Gear used 🎬
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Chapters 📋
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00:00 - Intro
00:27 - The Wait Is Over (Prologue)
01:16 - Plan B (Synopsis)
02:31 - While It Lasted (Software & Games)
08:21 - Tinker Me Interested (Versatility)
11:33 - This Feels Different (Hardware)
16:12 - Nothing, Nothing, and Nothing? (Debugging The Steam Deck)
26:32 - Open Heart Surgery (Hot-Plugging Display)
28:41 - The Afterlife (Wrapping Up)
32:01 - Thank You

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[CheeseTurbulence]

Hi everyone!

I realized that I owe you all an update regarding the Steam Deck RMA. It has safely returned or I should say a new Steam Deck safely arrived 🙂

The Deck arrived back on August 9th 2022, meaning it took a little over 2 months from the initial contact to receiving. Regarding costs, I did have to pay for the shipment as well as import taxes again which were around $40 to ship it to the US and $88.90 USD return incl. taxes.

Also, it is noticeably quieter, definitely have a different fan in this one. So far it hasn't died on me yet and it's looking pretty great!

Thanks for being interested in this, I don't know yet when and if I will make an update video about this, I had it originally planned but my schedule has been a bit full tbh and I am sorry about not following up on this.

Hope this clears it up for anyone wondering what happened though.

[CheeseTurbulence]

Since there have been a few questions/comments regarding the warranty and why I didn’t just RMA it.

Opening up the Steam Deck and poking around in it does not (as far as I understand it) void the warranty. If Valve would deem that I had broken something during my meddling, it would not be covered by the 1-Year limited warranty, but I don’t think that I messed something up.

However, I don’t live in a country where the Steam Deck is officially sold (Switzerland), thus, sending it back is quite costly if I declare it properly (if I don’t, they might confiscate it). Then comes the part where I don’t know what Valve would do if they find out this thing went into an unsupported home. But even if up to that point everything would go fine, there would be additional costs of shipping it back through forwarding it a second time, which may lead to me having to pay import tax again.

A lot of speculation I know, but iFixit sells parts in Europe and ships to Switzerland, I already ordered the screen replacement which cost me $94.95. Which I believe is far less than what I would have had to pay for shipping and tax, but most importantly, I don’t have to wait weeks, possibly months before I can play it again.

Finally, I thought it would be a cool video, of me rambling about my broken Deck, I had a lot of fun trying to fix it ;)

TL;DR
I don’t live in a Steam Deck supported country, replacing the screen is the fastest way of getting it up and running again.

Also, I can make a video about replacing screens, which I think might be interesting for some folks, so yes, I also did it for content reasons.

[ImJustThatGamer]

I guess you can say that your steam deck, ran out of steam.

[Cyberslasher]

Pretty angry at my steam deck too. Paid $700 (including taxes) in September for it. Now, it will crash about every 5 minutes and I've tried everything, including factory resetting it and everything on youtube.

[MFSGamePlay]

This literally can be a short film about a man frustrated over his deck. This video was very well made, and I can't believe I've watch the whole thing without getting bored. Lol

[MrSternkraft]

I’m honestly a bit confused that you are not making a warranty claim. Why spend money on repairing something that valve “broke”. Great video as always

[stephenbarraclough]

the quality of this video was amazing, and i watched every second, thanks !

[joeschmoe]

Mine just broke. I feel like a loved one died. 😢

[AnimByBmXu]

Amazing video, sad to see it couldn't be fixed. Looking forward to your future content

[justMeJustBri]

Your content quality is superb!
Can't wait for more people to take notice of you.

I've already sent some of your videos to friends and I'm hoping you continue to succeed!

[AndersMikkelsen]

Going through the EXACT same things! Honestly, it's scary to see you go through the exact scenario that I'm experiencing right now.
Can't for the life of me get it working.
Hoping Valve Support pulls through, as this was meant to be a christmas present for myself, for when I'm travelling for work. Leaving on Tuesday, and it seems like I'll spend a lot of nights in empty hotels, with absolutely NO means of entertainment.

[Utoobyourself]

@2:48 your fan started to whizz around is because you opened the Deck and playing around with the fan. You musta screwed the screw to the fan too much which probably causing pressure on the fan blades which is why you hearing whizzing sound. Every screw on the deck during assembly is torque specific. I hope you are enjoying your system. I am patiently waiting for mine this July.

[bng]

So how's the latest update of this video? Mine only 4 days use. And now my steam deck is officially bricked. Just fan and haptic turns on. Screen is dead wont boot to bios or bootloader. Even using external display dont show anything. And where you can find deck main board on ifixit website? I cant find they sell it anymore. Warranty is just a joke. Valve just avoid their responsibility by said my damage not covered by warranty and cant help because I live in country where steam deck not being sold here.

[Baahnamae]

"eDP" stands for "embedded DisplayPort", there are even some adapters from the embedded connector to the regular one, so you could test whether the problems is caused by the Deck or the display. Good luck with your further repair attempts!

[Ricky-SC]

Mine broke in a similar way after 3 days of use, it was a birthday present from my wife. I loved it so much for how amazing the device was but I hate it so much now for how fragile it is.

[ivaneusebio]

I have a similar issue, in my case I replaced 64 for a 512GB, unplugged battery before start, changed the ssd, plug the battery back, put all together again and nothing happened, I tried to switch back to the original ssd but same result. I didn't had any burned smell, but I do notice that after connecting the ssd it starts to warmup a little bit. I tried different reboot/reset strategies but no luck, any suggestions?

[WyvernDotRed]

Truly a shame that your Deck broke like this.
Can fully agree with your remarks in the end, it's an amazing device.
Mine serves as a laptop/PC replacement for personal use, I watched this video on it and typed this comment with it's onscreen keyboard.

As a "Penguin rider" SteamOS has been amazing, seeing the recent improvements in general usability come together in a way where both normal users find their way in it and I can use it as-is too is something special for me.
Initially I used Linux because I got an old laptop that struggled with Windows, so I installed some distro on it and learned to use it.
When I got a new machine with Windows, I missed features I had come accustomed to so much, that I installed Linux alongside it and used that instead.
And here is SteamOS, which has these things out of the box in it's KDE Plasma Desktop.
With my familiarity with the underlying OS, I have even succesfully changed the video driver.

I don't know why I only saw this video half a year late but it was worth the watch.
Looking forward to when you finally have a working Deck and can tinker with it.
It is everything you hypothesised it to be... if it works.

[lanedj]

Alway sucks when your main thing breaks. It’s like having a car break down.

[PoweredByStuff]

Cant wait for part two (yeah im 6 months late to this video). My deck recently had a "magic smoke" incident and im currently waiting for my RMA to be finished. Hopefully youve managed to get the screen for yours.

[binyamindarshanhcohen]

I am looking forward for an update on this!