Valve introduces Steam Deck

[ZMOT]

Not exactly.

at least none of that should affect the software side, besides maybe some emulators that are built towards are certain timing (but I doubt it).

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

I unfortunately had to go through the RMA lottery.
I sent my Deck in for a really miniscule problem (the headphone jack was loose) and instead of repairing it they sent me a replacement. Sadly, the replacement was even worse than the last one, having irregular R1-R2 button action (one is loud and clicky, other is quiet and mushy), horrible plastic shell molding where at certain points along the seam it's misaligned enough where the sharp edge digs into your palm, and worst of all, one of the trackpads was either seated improperly or just plain defective, as it was overly sensitive to pressure and stiff, making things like typing with the trackpads near impossible.

"Well whatever", I thought to myself, and opened a new ticket, describing the problem in hopes of getting it repaired or replaced once again. But this time Steam Support wasn't budging - every response I got was them claiming that the defective trackpad is working "within expectations" and that "the trackpads are not designed the same and are not supposed to act the same". Knowing that all of this is bullshit, considering the trackpads are literally just mirrored circuitboards with the same components (not to mention having a year-long on-hands experience with a perfectly functioning Steam Deck), I was feeling bummed out, but then it hit me - me, being a europoor, I noticed that the responses are always coming at around or past midnight, which would indicate it's probably an amerimutt answering my messages every single damn time, so as a last ditch effort I decided to flex my EU citizenship and our consumer protection laws (which override Steam's hardware policy BTW). It was basically just a slightly edited text that I found on some EU website for businesses to get familiar with what a customer can and cannot demand in regarding to warranty and returns.

And it worked. I did not get a response at midnight this time, but on evening the next day, with them apologizing for the inconvenience and providing an RMA service, the cherry on top was that the Steam Support respondant's name was "Jean-Pierre".

TL;DR If Steam Support's trying to shut your RMA request down just flex EU consumer laws at them until they give in.

 

[zyclonPD]

sent my Deck in for a really miniscule problem (the headphone jack was loose)

I would have attempted the repair myself. I'm not waving good bye to my deck to get it swapped.

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

I would have attempted the repair myself. I'm not waving good bye to my deck to get it swapped.

I would've done so too, but as I did not have the tools, nor could you find the tiny daughterboard anywhere for sale, I was feeling optimistic about Steam Support's fairly good record regarding warranty repairs. I would've second-guessed myself if I knew that they'd end up full-on replacing it instead of repairing it, leaving me stuck in their notorious RMA hell.

That's the main issue with Steam Deck as a whole - the quality control is all over the place and comes in batches. I recently learned from a friend that the Steam Deck he purchased off Steam actually has the exact same issues I had with my replacement unit. The only saving grace is Steam Support's willingness to replace and fix units while still under warranty, it's just that the initiation process might not go as smoothly, depending on which Steam Support technician you'll stumble upon at first.

 

[Toolbox]

I would've done so too, but as I did not have the tools, nor could you find the tiny daughterboard anywhere for sale, I was feeling optimistic about Steam Support's fairly good record regarding warranty repairs. I would've second-guessed myself if I knew that they'd end up full-on replacing it instead of repairing it, leaving me stuck in their notorious RMA hell.

That's the main issue with Steam Deck as a whole - the quality control is all over the place and comes in batches. I recently learned from a friend that the Steam Deck he purchased off Steam actually has the exact same issues I had with my replacement unit. The only saving grace is Steam Support's willingness to replace and fix units while still under warranty, it's just that the initiation process might not go as smoothly, depending on which Steam Support technician you'll stumble upon at first.

The lack of available parts to repair your deck doesn't bode well to me, despite the system being so relatively repairable, if they don't provide shit, how is anything supposed to be done when anything goes wrong? Valve's no longer manufacturing domestically alone anymore, either, newer decks are made in China.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

The lack of available parts to repair your deck doesn't bode well to me, despite the system being so relatively repairable, if they don't provide shit, how is anything supposed to be done when anything goes wrong? Valve's no longer manufacturing domestically alone anymore, either, newer decks are made in China.

Planned obsolescence strikes again? That's disheartening to hear. Guess I'll use it until it dies in some fashion.

 

[Toolbox]

Planned obsolescence strikes again?

I wouldn't say that's necessarily the plan, just Valve didn't want to invest in extra parts because they have a mentality of barely manufacturing for demand, but it seems pretty stupid to put all of the work on their own repair staff. The Valve Index has notoriously had an issue with this, too, and it's been out for longer than the deck. If we don't see any parts coming onto the market from them in 1 - 2 years I would say avoid all of their hardware, even though it's good in itself. That shit does not fly.

 

[Pissmaster]

newer decks are made in China.

I preordered mine day one, and it was made in China.

My Steam Controller says it was assembled in the USA. I think it's the only American-built game controller I own.

 

[Toolbox]

I preordered mine day one, and it was made in China.

Could've sworn they were claiming gen 1 decks were being made domestically, but maybe that's all it was, a claim. Wonder if they actually switched away from this plan during the Index's manufacturing.

 

[ZMOT]

I would've done so too, but as I did not have the tools, nor could you find the tiny daughterboard anywhere for sale

did you check here? https://www.ifixit.com/Parts/Steam_Game_Console
another option is to buy a busted one off ebay and source parts from there.

Could've sworn they were claiming gen 1 decks were being made domestically, but maybe that's all it was, a claim. Wonder if they actually switched away from this plan during the Index's manufacturing.

maybe valve massively increased production by outsourcing it to china (and probably reduce costs) to meet demand.
if valve wanted shit to break they'd just need to ape what most other electronics producers do.

 

[Prj4MW8iPT3vmFM2rzDc]

So far I'm enjoying my steam deck so much that I'm literally not even using my desktop computer any more outside of playing videos on it or for email.
I have it set up with most of the emudeck stuff, got it running nes, snes, gb, gba, ds, 3ds, n64, gc, wii, psp, ps1, ps2 games so far and even got some windows games in as non-steam games using proton and they are running really really well.
The only weird thing so far is some of my ps1 games demands to be ran from the ps2 emulator but like, thats fine lol.
I want to get dreamcast, wii u, and switch set up soon. I tried 1 wii u game but its talking about some keys or some shit and i just haven't spent any time reading up on it.
Over all those, i'm almost to the point where i'm even thinking about getting a blue tooth keyboard controller, and mouse for it then printing a stand for it with the 3d printer so when i'm laying in bed.
The battery life is excellent for older or 2d games.

 

[Baraka Obama]

So far I'm enjoying my steam deck so much that I'm literally not even using my desktop computer any more outside of playing videos on it or for email.

I set up a fairly nice DisplayPort KVM & usb-c dock for use with Steam Deck and my laptop and my Ryzen 9 desktop has been increasingly not-powered-on.

Wasn't really my intention but a sleep mode that actually works in games, even really old ones, is a bit of a killer feature.

 

[zyclonPD]

I want to get dreamcast, wii u, and switch set up soon.

Switch and dream cast will be the easiest. Dreamcast has weird ROM formats but it still works, the Roms are broken up into CD tracks instead of it being a single file so you will have to use subfolders. Wii U is a pain because there is little work in that scene beyond getting the emulator working. Depending on what you are emulating you will be hunting forums for the keys necessary to run your ROM because the main key file kicked around is incomplete and doesn't include everything.

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

The lack of available parts to repair your deck doesn't bode well to me, despite the system being so relatively repairable, if they don't provide shit, how is anything supposed to be done when anything goes wrong?

did you check here? https://www.ifixit.com/Parts/Steam_Game_Console
another option is to buy a busted one off ebay and source parts from there.

That's the kicker - the headphone jack, which I was having troubles with, is on a tiny daughterboard that only houses the jack, the volume buttons and a few other components. It could literally be replaced in 10-20 minutes yourself, but for some reason it's pretty much unobtanium and isn't available for sale anywhere, at least when I was looking for it.

as a last ditch effort I decided to flex my EU citizenship and our consumer protection laws (which override Steam's hardware policy BTW)

Also, for anyone interested on what exactly I wrote regarding EU laws, here's the paragraph in it's entirety - feel free to use it yourself if Steam's giving you a hard time:

As a EU citizen, seeing as my purchase is still covered by warranty and the replacement unit doesn't show the quality normal in products of the same type, I am asking for redress under the legal guarantee provided by EU law. My request is for the item to be repaired, or replaced if repair is not a viable option. If neither option is possible, I am requesting for a price reduction or a full refund.

P.S. Received the (second) replacement Steam Deck today. It doesn't have the R1-R2 problems I had with the last replacement, but I swear the left trackpad is still more sensitive compared to the right one, although not nearly as much as the one from the last replacement - maybe I'm just going crazy. I guess this one's good enough.

Interesting observation: both replacement units had their serial number start with FX1A, while my old one started with FXAA. Probably doesn't mean anything other than serial number changing as more units are produced, though.

UPDATE:
I decided to wing it and take the unit apart to take a close look at the touchpads myself. First thing I noticed is that this newer model has slight revisions compared to the unit I was familiar with, things like completely different EMI shield and cooling fan. After getting to the trackpads I looked up the parts number and I found someone having a similar experience on ResetEra forums, of all places:

Spoiler: Messages tackling a similar situation

So it seems that as Valve was selling the Decks they were also making small unannounced revisions constantly, which explains why I was experiencing issues with stuff working differently compared to my old unit. Also, it seems I managed to fix the issue for the most part while disassembling stuff, as reseating the touchpad into place seems to have stabilized the pressure sensitivity. If you're having similar problems and that didn't work, another thing you can try is making tiny thin washers to put on the screws to widen the gap between the touchpad and the capacitive daughterboard. I tried it to see if it would work and it did indeed, albeit it made the touchpad less sensitive than the good one. For the washers I used blister pack plastic. Depending on the thickness you choose you can potentially fine tune the pressure sensitivity to whatever you desire.

Hopefully this info will be useful to someone in the future.

 

[Soggy Floppa]

Wii U is a pain because there is little work in that scene beyond getting the emulator working. Depending on what you are emulating you will be hunting forums for the keys necessary to run your ROM because the main key file kicked around is incomplete and doesn't include everything.

https://github.com/FailedShack/USBHelperInstaller/releases/tag/1.2

 

[Car Won't Crank]

P.S. Received the (second) replacement Steam Deck today. It doesn't have the R1-R2 problems I had with the last replacement, but I swear the left trackpad is still more sensitive compared to the right one, although not nearly as much as the one from the last replacement - maybe I'm just going crazy. I guess this one's good enough.

My trackpads are also not 100% equal either. I think my right pad is less sensitive than the right when it comes to using the tap to click feature. Pressure readouts seem to confirm this. My deck also has slight backlight bleed in the lower left. However, for $350 it's not the end of the world.

 

[Dixieland Buckaroo]

My trackpads are also not 100% equal either. I think my right pad is less sensitive than the right when it comes to using the tap to click feature. Pressure readouts seem to confirm this. My deck also has slight backlight bleed in the lower left. However, for $350 it's not the end of the world.

My left haptics are pretty lame compared to the right one. I can't be assed to fix it or send it back though, at least one works really nice. Thankfully, the rest of it has been amazing. I do pine for the OLED but just not worth the upgrade for me.

 

[ZMOT]

That's the kicker - the headphone jack, which I was having troubles with, is on a tiny daughterboard that only houses the jack, the volume buttons and a few other components. It could literally be replaced in 10-20 minutes yourself, but for some reason it's pretty much unobtanium and isn't available for sale anywhere, at least when I was looking for it.

they probably expect you to solder in a new jack in that case, not selling the whole thing. but you could always write a mail to ifixit, maybe they know a way to get it (iirc they re are the semi-official parts vendor for valve).

Also, it seems I managed to fix the issue for the most part while disassembling stuff, as reseating the touchpad into place seems to have stabilized the pressure sensitivity.

that's the problem with chinkshit, even if the parts itself are ok, assembly can still be a bitch. does it work? ship it. how it works matters less.

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

I think my right pad is less sensitive than the right when it comes to using the tap to click feature. Pressure readouts seem to confirm this.

Before attempting a disassembly I was getting 11k on left and 4.7k on the right with a control weight. Afterwards it became 6-7k and 5k respectively. As for blister pack washers, they brought it down from 6-7k to 1.4k lol

 

[Spruce Supremacist]

Final trackpad update (sorry for doubleposting): I've actually discovered the intended way of manually adjusting the pressure sensitivity of the trackpads. The trackpads themselves are screwed down with these springs that leave the trackpad suspended in air, in a way. What you're supposed to do is to bend these springs ever so slightly towards or away from the Steam Deck, thus adjusting the resistance the springs provide to press the trackpad down. Do note that bending the springs to the sides might misalign (or help you adjust) the trackpad within the square it sits. Took me around 5-6 times of disassembly, bending and reassembly to get the sensitivity to match the other trackpad just close enough.