Black Screen of Death is RUINING Steam Decks!

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Steam Deck Black Screen of Death
/ theres_a_very_common_b...
Happens to both OLED and LCD
When battery drops to 0% the screen goes black and never comes back on
You can still use external monitor and the touch screen works so the screen still functions
Nothing fixes it whether you factory reset or change out the screen
The only way to avoid it is to not let your Steam Deck die
So the only way to get it addressed is to contact Valve
By using our affiliate links we may receive compensation for purchases through those links.

[@justintzeng3298]

I found a fix for this!!!!(please like so more people can see) These are the steps to reset bios/firmware. This worked for me when everything else didn't work. If this helps just one person not go through the pain I went through I will be happy. Ensure the device is fully powered down by holding the power button for 10 seconds or if possible select shutdown from the Power menu. Once the device is shutdown, hold down both the volume - button and the "..." button, then press the power button once. Then you can release all the buttons. You will hear a chime and then the white LED light will begin to blink (it may take 5 or more seconds before the blinking begins), which confirms this process is working. Note: This process may take 1-2 minutes to start the unit up again during which the display will remain black.

[@FadedCobe]

This worked for me! Thank you!

[@kodybrooks6162]

Didn't work for me

[@j00bs]

this worked for me as well!! to the top with this comment!!!

[@DasaniChicken]

you should post this on the subreddit

[@topecxipe]

Thank you, this works for me,

[@SPKRFRKRMPLS]

a 1 year manufacturer warranty for an electronic item should be illegal, that is a ludicrously short amount of time to cover such an expensive investment

[@Cakebattered]

1&2 year warranties have been common place for over 20 years, and for products that cost a lot more than the $600 Steam Deck.

[@cyntheticgaming]

@@Cakebattered doesn't make it right!?

[@Soundtracks92]

💯 fuckin percent

[@thomaszinecker1785]

Steam deck owners are so poor they think it's an expensive investment?!?!😂😂😂 Its the CHEAPEST budget handheld ya bimbo

[@blairlohnes8103]

I wouldn't call any electronic device an "investment".

[@jeffreypeters5578]

Valve sent me free of charge a new steam deck after I dropped and cracked my screen without a warranty so who knows what they may do for each individual case.I will forever be grateful for how they did me and never forget it as future purchases are involved

[@BacklogDrifter]

@@LaymanGaminwhat’s the WiFi issue? I’m curious because when I’m in desktop mode my deck oled won’t even get to 1 mbps and I have gig internet.

[@Aelf1239]

​​​​@@BacklogDrifterDon't know if it is the same issue I had (my wifi on the regular Deck disconnected every few minutes for a few seconds), but there is an option that comes activated by default that causes problems with 5G wifi networks. Something along the lines of "Energy optimization for wifi" or something like that. It is hidden under the Developer menu in options. You need to activate the developer mode to find it. Hopefully that helps (it worked for me). Edit: Its called "Enable Wifi Power Management" in the Developer menu in settings.

[@sliver64209]

Thats true.. id give them a chance and contact them…

[@thomasmuzik9502]

Valve was awesome and fixed mine 5 months out of my warranty. Had the black screen of death when battery drained on a road trip. Paperwork said they replaced the motherboard.

[@sneakerculture489]

How did u get them to fix it? I just got a call from United repair and they are saying it's going to be $130 even though I'm only 1 month out of warranty. They said the main board needs repaired

[@thomasmuzik9502]

@@sneakerculture489 United repair never contact me. Never got a phone call from anyone to go ahead with repairs. After sending it off for repair my next contact was email/steam app saying my steam deck had been shipped back to me. The paperwork they sent back detailed what was done and I was never charged for the repair

[@JhessyGames]

Are the files installed all reset? Or been factory reset?

[@JoshJohnson-ii5fz]

just a quick workaround to the 0% battery black screen Useing Decky loader get AutoSuspend plugin and set it up to shutdown your deck at 5 or 10% to never have this happen untill Valve gets us an fix for this Problem untill then this works great and is super easy to get up and running

[@ikonuk]

This is such good advice.

[@blade8424]

Noted.

[@TheKingofparis148]

Good point but steam needs to fix the bottom line issue

[@Technomantics]

The mainboard BIOS needs to have a "device has reached 5% remaining, close apps and shut down system" in both Game Mode and Desktop Mode.

[@AdamTheSlave]

Could be done rather easily with Decky Loader I bet, or perhaps a Cron Job, to check the battery level every minute, and if it sees battery hit less than or equal to 10 percent, shut down.

[@MelodyIV]

Literally SO many options to force your device to turn off when the power is low. use your brain.

[@ClearGalaxies]

@@MelodyIV No, we refuse.

[@Joshua_Bee]

I had a black screen issue a few times where there was a startup chime and I could feel the touch pads vibrate but no display. What ended up working for me was turning it all the way off (dont feel the vibration on the pads anymore) then plugging it in and turning it on.

[@brianfaught5141]

Mine got the Black SOD for about 6 months and all of a sudden one day it started working

[@Chris_Rugby]

So I just fixed mine, had tried shut off restart etc etc, nothing working, just coming on and the screen staying black- this was after having had it in sleep mode and then not using it for a couple weeks. Saw someone else suggesting to let it run flat again, then plugging in and putting it on- so I turned it on and left it unplugged and have just come back a few hours later where its run out of battery, plugged it in, turned it on and it worked straight away, no more black screen and is working like normal! Guessing you'd left yours turned off and it then eventually drained and reset.

[@potatorigs2155]

charging for a broken tab is a robbery

[@DeckReady]

Total BS I was pissed

[@MatthewCenance]

Should have been $50 at most...

[@redscorpion9325]

@@MatthewCenanceNot even its a few bucks,they just wanted to Bank from him

[@DurandalValeth]

The problem is they charge 150 for it this is insane. Modern robbery

[@katherinehackworth]

​@@DeckReadyI would have just had them send it back and bought the ifixit part, why'd you do it through them?

[@Chris_Rugby]

So I just fixed mine, had tried shut off restart etc etc, nothing working, just coming on and the screen staying black- this was after having had it in sleep mode and then not using it for a couple weeks. Saw someone else suggesting to let it run flat again, then plugging in and putting it on- so I turned it on and left it unplugged and have just come back a few hours later where its run out of battery, plugged it in, turned it on and it worked straight away, no more black screen and is working like normal!

[@mikaelrussell1506]

This has been fixed, I went through this with steam support, new bios update fixes it, but is has to be downloaded in developer mode

[@ecmyersvids]

Same here!

[@JaXsOwN]

Upvote this, F7A0121 bios seems to fix, many reports on steam forum and reddit.

[@Flo.891]

Really? Can someone explain how to do this?

[@t.dmattocks6119]

@@Flo.891Seconded! Please elaborate.

[@sneakerculture489]

Mines in for RMA and they just called and said they have to reprogram the main board. They want $130. Is this the bios update your referring to?

[@PapaP86]

That's a bit insane. Guess I'll definitely try to not to ever go below 10-20% or so and once I do, do a hard shut down until it can get to a charger.

[@PhyuckYiu2]

You shouldn’t let any device get to 10% battery life

[@PapaP86]

@@PhyuckYiu2 That's just plain not true. Many devices are engineered to safely do so, and in many cases it's best for the batteries health to do full discharge and recharge cycles.

[@PhyuckYiu2]

@@PapaP86 Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. My process is tried and true and I have no qualms you believing whatever you want but if you have an issue with the battery, remember this comment.

[@PapaP86]

@PhyuckYiu2 Your "process" of not draining to 10% or below (a bit pretentious calling that "your process")? What data do you have to back that up? On most devices, leaving it plugged in all the time is more detrimental to the life of the battery than some full discharge and recharge cycles unless it has some battery management controls built in to prolong the life when plugged in like that. There are far too many variables in terms of the device, software, firmware, the battery itself(including battery type), battery management system etc to just make a blanket statement of "you should never let any device get below 10% battery"

[@PhyuckYiu2]

@@PapaP86 you want it to be pretentious and my anecdotal evidence has worked since 2015 when I chose to not allow my devices not hit single digits in most instances. No one said leave anything on the charge majority of the time. My steam deck has hit single digits once by accident but the majority of the time, I place it to charge at 20% just based on how I’ve used previous tech and their battery life. You can do what you like based on what you were told by reviews or someone that has done the stress testing themselves if available.

[@Vthesamurai]

I've never let any of my electronics get down to zero percent ever. Thank God this won't be an issue for me when I get a steam deck.

[@amit_patel654]

Yup. Once I get that 20% warning, I'm plugging that shit in.

[@h.b.2847]

Same, never let it die 😅

[@christianr.5868]

Still, the fact that thats something that can brick your device is kinda shitty

[@Pesticide7G]

I think it also dies slowly when it’s off not charging

[@SoundToxin]

That's good. Stuff gets sketchy when it's bone dry. You often need to "jump-start" it to get it up to a certain minimum voltage before a charger will recognize it and charge it normally again, and the batteries don't always recover. Plus the parallel charging needed to jump-start them is a bit dangerous. I was able to revive 3/4 rechargeable battery packs for Xbox 360 controllers I had around this way, but one of them didn't make it, just wouldn't hold a charge anymore.

[@myfakeguuglaccount8307]

Oh wow! This happened to me the last time I charged it. I guess I was lucky enough to get it back by power-cycling. Didn't even know about this issue.

[@lloydbond13]

Same.

[@Soundtracks92]

What’s power-recycling mean?

[@LoneAzn]

Power cycling means to just shut the system down fully and then starting it back up. ​@@Soundtracks92

[@myfakeguuglaccount8307]

@@Soundtracks92 Pressing that power button for-seemingly-ever until it finally turns off.

[@HardHitterGaming0372]

Mine zeroed out 2 times so I'm RELLY lucky. I didn't know THIS would happen. Thank you!

[@HikariKnight]

This sleep issue is something that can happen with windows, mac and linux. Have to deal with this sometimes at work with all laptops where a hard reset is required when it happens regardless of OS, but always related to sleep and hibernate. The other variant that i cant say anything about.

[@paprika2280]

Happened to my Macbook Air mostly when trying to turn it on after the battery got drained to 0. Anyway now I'm charging it more often and it hasn't happened ever since.

[@SWOTHDRA]

Never happens with the switch tho

[@YaySyu]

​@SWOTHDRA it happens to *modern hardware

[@pastqr]

Because its a potato ​@SWOTHDRA

[@BrittleScarMusic]

Same here, had this happen on various devices, had it on my steamdeck too just had to do a hard reset and all seemed good

[@PlainUmbrella]

This is making me not want to buy a steam deck. Hope they fix this soon.

[@Flash221]

My Deck OLED has been sitting at 0% for like 3 weeks. Grabbed it right away after watching this video. Thankfully it booted up right away, with no issues. I hope Valve addresses this issue in an update.

[@retroman--]

Sounds like you dont use/like your steam deck. So...why is that?

[@MrKillwibbles]

@@retroman--I use mine like once a month idk I just usually have my ps5 or laptop with me

[@dannyl434]

@@retroman-- mine is sitting the exact same way, its not because I don’t like it. I just run into burnout extremely fast. I played xcom mainly on my limited edition oled (because I love it so much) for like 3 days straight and now I’m on a pokemon kick playing the og blue on my 3ds! Among many other games, pokemon go, legends arceus. My brain just isn’t in mobile pc mode right now 😅

[@NovemberBlade]

@Flash221 you should never do this - if you let the battery drain down to 0% for longer time you risk to send your battery into Abyss very soon.Lithium Batterys hate it to be drain down to under 2.5Volts.

[@Paoabarai]

Forgot about my Steamdeck as I am on PS 5 the past 2 weeks. I'm charging it right now. I hope it will boot up.

[@WedgeStratos]

I've definitely had my Deck hit zero percent and act afool. Never had a blackout screen issue, but an equally bad case of "perpetual validation" where the OS never launches into Steam, and it inexplicably can't connect to a wi-fi network so it can't *get* the update or a confirmation that it's good to just boot. It's why I carry a USB-C network adapter at all times now.

[@KeiGGR]

Not so sure if I want a steam deck now if this is as common as this video points out... Some people might say to just never let the battery get to 0% but when you pay top dollar there is no way you have to worry about stuff like this.

[@FroztYcle4737]

I think the steam deck might still be worth getting. Either that or you get something else such as an ROG ally.

[@user-uo8ny1kj4c]

mine works fine, I couldnt turn it on when I got it, but then I held down the power button for a few seconds and pressed some other buttons and it worked like magic

[@Butterscotch_96]

This has only happened to me like twice ever. Holding the power button fixed it.

[@MegaManNeo]

Holy moly, thanks for the heads up! I didn't know about this issue but noticed that sometimes when trying to power the Deck on, the screen would just stay black. I dunno, maybe I also just associated these two facts now whereas in reality, the SteamDeck is just really slow waking up the screen. Also LCD 2nd batch here.

[@Butterscotch_96]

Kinda weird how I sent my Deck in for a broken bumper after they switched to United Radio. Shipping was free, repair was free, it was out of warranty, and I even told them that I upgraded the SSD. I also goofed up the shell a little bit while doing that but they didn't seem to care.

[@blade8424]

Plz tell me support is friendlier than Nintendo. And Meta. :( At least with Nintendo they sometimes wave the shipping cost on my Switch.

[@Dazdigo]

I had this issue on my steam deck. I ended up hard resetting it to fix it. There was also a time where it wasn't giving me the start up vibration as well so I didn't even know if I was turning it on or being impatient and hard resetting it.

[@wilbertpoole2091]

I had the problem a while back a couple of times I did the same thing and mine was OK

[@sneakerculture489]

I got the severe black screen of death on my 512gb LCD. Ended up buying the OLED while I RMAed mine. Happened when it died. Works while docked. They are taking a look at it right now but said it won't be covered since I'm 1 month out of warranty. Very disappointing.

[@ClearGalaxies]

Oof that's messed up.

[@sneakerculture489]

@@ClearGalaxies yeah. ended up charging me $130 because the motherboard needed reprogrammed. Still don't have it back

[@jks211]

Thanks for covering this Jimmy, I am glad you saw my comments. I hope Valve will officially acknowledge they borked their software some day. Just FYI some people are having some success with force updating the bios (they released a new one a few weeks ago that looks like have firmware healing). I got my screen backlight working again, still no video showing up though. I ordered a screen replacement even though I think it's lame that I even have to. Anywho thanks again!

[@tomje7024]

I’ve just suffered this issue and can’t find any fixes. Low and behold it was drained to 0% while travelling and everything described in this video and the comments has happened to me. Unfortunately waiting for steam to get back to me with support and options. I barely use my steam deck and have used it maybe 10-15 times in the last 2 years and on the one trip I want it for travelling it breaks. I’m really hoping steam doesn’t charge me to fix it.

[@alankavanagh4851]

I think this happened to me after the last update, I left it on sleep and it was on close to 0% battery and it wouldn't turn on when I tried to turn it back on. Left it on charge for like 30 mins and it booted back up after holding down the power button for about a min. It was only on 2% charge when it came back on so maybe it was a power protection/ management error or something like that or maybe I just got lucky.

[@retroman--]

30min charge and when turned on it was only at 2%?

[@Chris_Rugby]

No this is something different. Mine turns on but the screen just remains dark- as explained in the video.

[@kamilquithe3462]

Important thing - when Deck's battery is fully drained you need to use original charger! Without any adapters in between. I had this situation and my Valve charger was plugged into Skull & Co dock. I managed to get Deck working but something broke in the system xD Meaning, the games were running at ridiculously low fps without any good reason, even with charger. After longer discussion with Valve help desk they finally admitted hardware issue and sent me new one. So yeah, it's important to mind battery level in this device. I now also have Legion Go, I wonder now how it will be with it in this matter xD

[@chiquita683]

This!

[@dviaje8]

Had this happen to my first steam deck within the first 3 weeks after launch. Valve RMA was very fast at responding and got me a replacement within 2 weeks.

[@JohnnnyJohn]

Thank you so much for this video. I always leave mine plugged in when no in use and when I hits 10% I turn I off if I can' charge I right away. I have always been like hat with all my devices, but still, knowing this is an issue just means I will be that much more on top of it.

[@JhessyGames]

I can't believe there are tons of people here that had the same issues on the steam deck. I'm seriously panicking when my deck screen won't turn on, but the vent and touch pad vibration are functional for some reason.

[@Notpoop906]

I was using the dock for a while and eventually I just switched to using Steam Link to display the Steam Deck on my monitor. The Dock is just so temperamental. Rarely does it just work. I usually would have to mess around unplugging and plugging it back in and deal with the screen randomly turning on and off. I honestly think it's an issue with the Steam Decks themselves and not the docks. I have noticed even in the BIOS there is a bug that occurs which disables all external inputs from keyboards etc even when plugging directly into the Steam Deck without the use of a dock.

[@slurmp2536]

It happens to my 256 LCD one pretty often even without running out of battery. It mostly only happens when im switching between desktop and gaming modes, or vice versa. However in every instance, a hard reset has fixed it. It also never happens on a charger. Im upgrading to a 1TB OLED so fingers crossed i dont have the same issue there. I feel like im pretty good about preventing the battery from fully dying anyways. Update: I've had the OLED for a couple weeks and I haven't had the issue once. Im not sure if it has something to do with a big fix or hardware or both

[@Morgan423Z]

I haven't hit the black screen of death, I play with it plugged in 99% of the time and when I'm unplugged I rarely go below half battery. But I have had several issues where I've accidentally disabled the main screen when I didn't mean to. I'm sure it's been checked, but if you can dock, go to Desktop mode display settings and verify that the main screen isn't disabled.

[@TwinkyGlitten]

I wish they were still cool about the RMA, but they don't give a fuck now. They want 125 to 185 dollars to fix a problem that I didn't cause.

[@pan0ptix]

Now I don’t feel so bad for having an outdated OG steam deck.

[@Swampert_Tube]

I have the same issue with my deck oled. I fix it by holding my power button and then turning it back on

[@tonyjelken6252]

I just find it stupid that people have to hard reset it to just to get the screen to turn on, it should just work

[@pan0ptix]

@@tonyjelken6252 Yeah, I haven’t really enjoyed my steam deck very much since buying it in the first wave. Very underpowered. And I still hate that you can’t charge it while completely off.

[@tonyjelken6252]

@@pan0ptix and it's sad to say because it's a very powerful system. But in all reality, if I turned my Nintendo switch on right now, it would turn on no problem and the screen would work 😂

[@SolidSnake0]

I dropped my steam deck lcd and broke both bumpers because I didn't realize the case was unzipped when I grabbed I off the table. It did get sent to United Radio, but they didn't charge me and it was repaired properly. I really like how my OLED limited edition has that velcro strap on it. It sounds like a lot of people had the experience with the lcd and I'm not aware of anyone having it with the oled? Hopefully the velcro will save me if I ever do forget to zip up my limited edition.

[@summerwells4693]

My first steam deck had the rough joystick housing issue so I disassembled the entire thing and rebuilt it with a new face plate. Unfortunately after reassembly I had this black screen issue, I could still hear the UI sounds and use the touch screen but no video out. Valve luckily RMA'd the thing so I did get a replacement.

[@Trekeyus]

To me it sounds like a firmware issue. If I had to guess. I'm guessing it's probably the bios not initializing the screen properly. Aka the screen fails the power on self test.

[@nihilriv3r]

I typically play my steam deck connected directly to an LG Ultrafine 4K via USB-C for power and display. I have my accessories like keyboard, mouse, and controller connected via the monitors ports. It works great but crashes at least once daily. My controller will suddenly stop working, then the screen will go black. The steam deck screen won't come on until I do several hard reboots. Now it works in portable mode, but the external monitor won't recognize it as a device anymore until I power cycle the monitor too. Any other devices I use have no issues with my monitor and its exclusive to my steam deck.

[@-dmm]

literally had this issue but was forced to pay almost 200$ to get this fixed because "I opened the little foil tab on the shield inside the steam deck" cause I upgraded the memory and changed the fan. I fking knew I wasn't crazy. Actually so pathetic seeing a company do this. And no I wasn't out of warranty. And I didn't use it as much as I thought either but it didn't die out of battery ever. What I believe caused mine is some software issue (which is what it looks like to be confirmed now) is I put my steam deck into power battery save mode from bios to open the steam deck and then it never wanted to turn back on after plugging it in to "wake it up" from it's batter saving mode. It did However have the fans spin and touchpads working. So I know it wasn't my fault and that it was a software issue. Been a valve user for 15 years and this is how they treat me taking away 200$ from me knowing damn well what's happening

[@ClearGalaxies]

Thank you for sharing your experience. To clarify, was your deck still under warranty?

[@-dmm]

@@ClearGalaxies yes not even 5-6 months in. And you have them repairing Steam decks that people themselves have dropped or something fix for FREE. It's absolutely pathetic. Been on steam for 15 years and never have had issues with steam until that week. Had to pay almost 200$ for a issue that I know wasn't me and was software and also Steam releasing a Steam Deck OLED when they clearly said they weren't going to release something crazy until there's a "generational leap". The Steam deck OLED IS SOOO MUCH more better in every aspect can almost be described as a Steam Deck 2. So that also somewhat made me annoyed because I was a Steam Deck buyer months before with the intention of "a new one not coming out until a couple years at the very least". So yea that month was first time Steam has given me issues since 15 years.

[@ClearGalaxies]

@@-dmm That's illegal. What they did to you is a violation of consumer protection law.

[@stevenmichel2897]

I had to take mine to the shop I had the black screen too. Guy was super cool and knowledgeable about it and he had to reset or restore the bios and low and behold screen lit up after

[@AlePinozzo]

Yeah, I encountered the Black screen problem with my second deck. Nothing could fix it, I just had to send it for RMA

[@tas6967]

I forgot to mention that what if the steam deck's bios might have been somehow damage and so it might have to be re-written with its same bios version or a newer bios version.

[@phoenixrising4995]

Seems odd that the bios damage would happen with regular use. All OS related operations other than overwriting the bios shouldn't do this because they run in a protected memory space. Now if it ran DOS in real or extended modes there is a good chance this could happen as its calling the hardware directly (lower than the kernel level). The really bad variant of this where it doesn't turn on might be shorting the motherboard upon reboot with some kind of voltage burst, seems odd though. Definitely a Vavle manufacturing defect.

[@tas6967]

@@phoenixrising4995 I guess its true, but it can happen if some kind of fault might exist in its motherboard, but its less likely to be like that & the odds that for happening are low. It could be anything though it doesn't hurt to try many ways of fixing it before it is shipped out and wondering if they are going to fix it or not and not sending it back home. The other thing is that my Steam Deck does not have a automatic recovery bios, but my Lenovo Legion Go does have a automatic recovery bios feature in its bios in case its bios gets damage and for it to have that feature, then it does mean that it can get damage and so if other consoles like the Steam Deck or PC don't have this feature, then their bios might get damage and hopefully to fix it by rewriting it.

[@Dark_sparky]

I had this, and it is fixable, my steam deck works fine now. It gave me a TON of trouble, I reinstalled things multiple times, factory reset, reinstalled the os, re-flashed the bios, and it was still giving me trouble. I am inclined to believe that it was the harder version of the issue due to how difficult it was to get it running (i probably reinstalled things 10 times, reset the device 50 or so times)...but it does work now. I feel like it has to be a software or firmware issue so I hope it can get fixed in the future.

[@renwick7267]

what did you do??? it just worked the 50th time you reset it??

[@Dark_sparky]

@@renwick7267 idk i guess i got lucky

[@LoneAzn]

Holy... i thought I was just doing something wrong. I have launch edition. I have to hard reset at times. :(

[@TheDarthChungus]

1:37 I have had that exact experience as the Reddit post. Sometimes my screen won’t turn on but I can still hear me navigating the UI. Repeatedly rebooting the deck with the power button has always fixed it for me like in the post

[@ErxandaleGaming]

This issue is still ongoing, it stopped working a couple days ago after I drained the battery and I wasn’t able to get it fixed. I just took it to service and now i’ll have to wait a few weeks until I can get an update.

[@Hippinn]

The first day I got my Steam Deck, I left the zipper unzipped and forgot. I grabbed the case by the handle, and it fell, luckily, only a couple of inches. After that, swore to always zip up the case no matter what.

[@thepatriotsfan7127]

Steam Deck's answer to the Xbox 360 RROD and PS3 YLOD

[@thesacspajamas]

Just ordered a Steam Deck and out of the box I got a black screen that I’ve tried every fix for. Really inexcusable from Valve, hoping they’ll either refund me or send me a new one

[@roflBeck]

My mom just had an issue like this with her Surface. Screen backlight was on, but all black. Holding power to force it to turn off then powering it up again fixed it. Haven't had that happen to the Deck, fortunately.

[@minisithunknown5568]

I had that on my first Steam Deck. It also had a thumbstick drift so i sent it into Steam for warranty and they sent me a new one. The process took a week only from the Midwest USA.

[@BlakeGameYT]

I've gotten the black screen of death with my OLED steam deck (It's been shipped out to valve for fixing as i type this) and i've done every solution known on the internet and all of them work but only once and each "fix" lasts for 2-3 days before happening again. A particularly memorable "fix" was simply removing the MicroSD Card and it worked flawlessly for 2-3 days.

[@kristjankangsepp4934]

Mine got bsod after wenting to sleep when playing Stray. Battery was little bit more than 30%. 10 min later BSOD. I have had Steam deck 512gb oled only for 3 days and can't get it working. Almost tried everything, now letting it run empty, but it takes long even fans at full speed and hot air exiting.

[@Morgansquad]

1 year warranty feels scummy but 3 years would make more sense that’s like giving a new car a 3 month warranty

[@TheOrangeSunsetGaming]

Hopefully it's fixed soon! Pretty crazy how many issues it has.

[@babylion122]

I have an LCD Steam Deck I bought 3 months ago (512gb) and shortly after watching this video my Steam Decks right bumper started missing inputs! I haven't even dropped it, and I believe that the spring went bad, and now I'm scared to RMA it... what do I even do now man..

[@MelodyIV]

A hard reboot fixes all the black screen issues. The main black screen bug that exists at the moment is switching from gaming mode to desktop mode. Stays black. Insanely annoying.

[@MyNameIsBucket]

I keep my SD docked and in desktop mode most of the time and I've had this problem several times. Occasionally it'll also be red hot with the fan at full blast. If this problem is directly related to charging then that kind of puts a damper on the whole "It's just a PC" angle.

[@inuqi]

It's not a specific a Steam Deck problem but it's problem with all Laptops and related devices. I have seen a lot of laptops having this problem and in yesteryears you could easily solve it by just remove the battery to hard reset the device, but lately with all the fixed batteries it as become a real hassle. Specific to the Steam Deck I have seen now two different situations where the black screen is happening on my Steam Deck. Sometimes it happening while playing and screen turns black while the screen stays on, backlight is still visible, i think this is the graphics driver crashing or something similar, and can easily be solved this with a hard reset by holding the power button for 10 seconds. The second situation happened yesterday while turning on the device I accidentally pressed the power button again and the device turn off. Turning it on again the screen stays black and doesn't turn on, no backlight visible, I did get an image on a external monitor when I connect the device to it. Only way I could get the Steam Deck screen going again was to get to the BIOS boot menu with holding volume up button while turning on.

[@k1anky]

The issues with United Radio are concerning me. Mine got dropped down a carpeted flight of stairs and the only problem was the left bumper stopped working. Valve sent me an RMA even though it was user error, but it’s going to UR. Kinda nervous what is gonna happen now!

[@ClearGalaxies]

Any updates?

[@k1anky]

@@ClearGalaxies supposed to be delivered tmrw, no information on what they did to it yet.

[@drewlawrence80]

Yup, this happened to me. Tried everything from full system restore/reimage. As you say still works fine with external display. In handheld can see faint image and touch screen still works. Frustrating and how ironic it was left uncharged due to getting the new OLED. 🤦🏻‍♂️ I’m in touch with Valve and waiting to see how they will handle this 10 days outside the 1yr warranty.

[@MotownBatman]

Yo, Ubuntu & Linux Laptops have been doing this for years, Never could figure it out, Finally a Newer version just Stopped doing it lol

[@tas6967]

Temporarily disconnecting the steam deck's battery ribbon cable and then to press the steam deck's power button and other buttons to discharge its capacitors and then to reconnect the steam deck's battery ribbon cable, would that fix its black screen of death?

[@zvookaadmin3967]

!!! Get a little smart plug for your devices and create a schedule where you charge for some time in select days - like once a week for devices you don't use regularly but you don't want them screwed or in the case of the deck like some hours during the night to have it in just the right % for you

[@1xsandrax1]

This happened to my husband's Steam Deck and we tried every solution we saw on Reddit and from Valve (when talking to them) to fix it. We had to RMA it since nothing would fix it. Thankfully, it was still in warrenty, but the experience and the experience to get the RMA done, plus how long it took to get the replacement Steam deck back, has left a sour taste in my mouth for Valve. I'm debating on getting an ASUS ROG Ally, or research other portable PC gaming consoles, if this happens again to my husband's new Steam Deck or my Steam Deck.

[@oOignignoktOo1]

"has left a sour taste in my mouth for Valve" Wait until you play CS2 and experience their non-existent anti-cheat.

[@DurandalValeth]

I also had this issue a few times, jeez good to know about it oO. I just resettet it with holding down power and tried it a few times until it ran again and my heart could beat again. Now i will run when i see it at 10% 😂

[@ClearGalaxies]

😊😊

[@Hopalongtom]

I've had a couple of times where it won't boot until I plug it directly into the mains without the dock to boot up, everything is back to normal after that.

[@hotdogmanful]

Not sure if it's the same issue, but I was playing the Doom remake and switched the resolution and it basically bricked the system. Everything went black even the fans stopped working, but I could still hear the boot up jingle.

[@ClearGalaxies]

Like, your deck doesn't work at all now?

[@hotdogmanful]

@ClearGalaxies it didn't. They sent me a new one, though. I tried everything I could find online and what their support recommended, but nothing worked.

[@ClearGalaxies]

@@hotdogmanfulWas it still under warranty?

[@hotdogmanful]

@@ClearGalaxies yeah

[@Louskunt1]

I had a steam deck I got fairly soon after launch. The left bumper button was a bit spongy from new, but due to how long i waited for it and the long lead times still, i didn’t want to send back and wait for whoever knows how long. After 8 months i decided to send in to fix the button. United Radio pulled it apart, totally disabled or disconnected the bumper, then sent it back saying repair was not possible or in warranty as they detected moisture damage when they opened it up. This steam deck is adult owned, always taken care of, kept in case when not used, and not used in a humid climate. They actually took a working steam deck and broke that button on me. I complained to steam and they ended up reluctantly replacing it after a few messages back and forth. Good on them to end up doing that, but united radio seems like a sketchy organization.

[@darknetworld]

They should have trouble shoot why the blank screen. They should have tested as well from their main company to see if they work.

[@grey5626]

This happened to a friend of mine. Valve wouldn't service it either because he lives in Hong Kong (though apparently they had no problem selling him a Steam Deck? wtfh). He eventually found a local person who did a repair.

[@dragnrefr]

I had the black screen of death issue, fans would run and touch pads worked. end result was the harddrive got cooked. I opened it up to check the components and seen a burn mark on the harddrive 😢

[@Hunglo90]

My black screen happens every time I try to switch to deskrop mode. Its a 50/50 when it does work

[@dividedpatriot4138]

Yup.. In The Beginning I've Had This Happen Several Times.. Although, I Don't Just Press The Power Button, In Most Cases.. Sometimes It'll Even Happen While In Gaming Sessions.. And It'll Make The GPU Drivers Crash.. Thus Giving U That BSOD.. So Holding Down Both At The Same Time "Volume Down, Power Button" Will Give It A Force Cold Boot, Thus Shutting It Down, No Matter What Ur Doing On The Deck.. Rather In Gaming Mode Or Not. This Even Comes In Handy When Tinkering Around With Non-Steam Game ISOs That Screw Up Ur Desktop Mode Sessions.

[@jerFACED]

My ex-wife left my steam deck on in a case after it was outside in 45 degree weather. We got home and it refused to turn on and smelled like a car that caught fire. It would work fine and connect to display but black screen. It was an oled her brother got me for Christmas. they luckily sent me a replacement but i was shitting bricks.

[@speedydoggo]

The fix for this came out a couple weeks ago! For the LCD, updating the BIOS to the development mode's F7A0121 has a good chance of fixing it. OLED has an equivalent but I'm not sure what that BIOS number is. It must have been a deep seated bug that took a long time to sort out because I'm sure I would've been asked to RMA shortly before.

[@twingaming9751]

Can anybody confirm??

[@Cherrybrownsmith]

This also happens to the switch, except the switch just won't turn on or charge. You have to reboot it, then charge it without the charge sign in the corner showing. That's how you know it is charging. If the charge sign shows and doesn't disappear then it's not charging.

[@lazyhominid]

I use a Decker Plugin which stops charging at 80%. That way I can leave it plugged in all the time, without it even going to 100%. It's a good compromise to ensure the battery lives longer.

[@arjayUU]

This is a common issue when rebooting from desktop mode with a monitor connected as well. It feels like the seperation of gaming and desktop mode is part of the culprit for various issues.

[@BaradaNels]

I literally had this issue recently. I fixed it by removing many of the Decky Loader modules. Specifically Decky Recorder. This isn't on valve. Decky Loader's modules need updated quicker or simply not be used. Cheers!

[@starsartbar]

I actually replaced my presumably broken screen with a deck HD screen and it's definitely the motherboard that's the issue, no type of power is getting to the screen at all and it's not reading that there's an internal display, the LCD doesn't have any kind of backlight on at all but it still reads touch input

[@starsartbar]

Point of this being that if I try to send my back in for RMA they will want to replace the deck HD screen because it's also not the native model, it'll cost close to a whole new deck

[@Chris_Rugby]

So I just fixed mine, had tried shut off restart etc etc, nothing working, just coming on and the screen staying black- this was after having had it in sleep mode and then not using it for a couple weeks. Saw someone else suggesting to let it run flat again, then plugging in and putting it on- so I turned it on and left it unplugged and have just come back a few hours later where its run out of battery, plugged it in, turned it on and it worked straight away, no more black screen and is working like normal!@@starsartbar

[@warrentutwiler8297]

Thanks for this, I was not aware of the issue, and though I don't do it often, my deck had drained to 0 on several occasions; thankfully, the issue hasn't happened to me (yet!) but I will certainly be much more careful in the future. Generally, if I'm not going to use the deck on a daily basis, I will shut it down, and the battery seems to last just fine (weeks) when powered off, but as you mentioned, regardless of this, I will probably keep it plugged in whenever possible from now on.

[@parallelsmoke7800]

Currently dealing with the black screen of death. I accidentally left it in sleep mode and didnt pick the thing back up for like a month. Opened a ticket and tried the initial '...' and volume - method to reset bios. Didnt work. Next thing they told me to try is volume + and power button. Going to try when I get off of work. If it doesnt work and they dont fix it Ill be pretty pissed, regardless of my warranty having expired (its an early launch veraion of stwam deck so a few years old now). Its a hardware issue and not anything that I specifically broke as a user.

[@thomasdang4296]

I’m going through this now with my 512GB LCD version.. OLED hasn’t done it YET.. Valve support told me the latest update in developer mode would fix it but it didn’t so they RMA’d it even though I was out of warranty range. Sent it to them 2 weeks ago and they confirmed they got it but I haven’t got any updates since.. hopefully it gets fixed or a replacement unit cuz I refuse to pay out of pocket for something that seems to be happening to everyone and they know about it..

[@bas919]

Oof! Glad this didn't happen to me. A few days ago, I left mine (OLED) with a black image on fullscreen to download some games overnight. It was out of battery on the morrow, but gladly this bug didn't happen. I only knew about this today watching this video.

[@mediaman3749]

Hi this fault is due to a chip on the board, basically the chip fails to see the built in screen, I have been diagnossing this fault for some three weeks, also the pads under the chip on the board are very bad, I have now managed to cure the problem every time, so as long as you are able to see the deck on an external monitor I can garuntee it's this chip. I have ordered the chips and i am now waiting to receive them, I will be able to do the repair for anyone in the UK. Thanks

[@Killaidenn]

My first steam deck broke when the battery went to 0% also but in a different way. When I finally managed to get the screen to turn back on (it put itself in some crazy battery saving mode) my steam deck wouldn't run games properly anymore because it would keep massively throttling the GPU and CPU. I master reset it several times and even reinstalled steam os but nothing would work. When I contacted valve about the problem they told me I was 2 months passed the warranty window but they still replaced the entire steam deck for me for no extra charge (thank you valve). Now I have PTSD about letting my replacement steam deck reach 0% battery and this video just made it worse 😅. Thanks for warning the community. DON'T LET THE BATTERY REACH 0%!!

[@ClearGalaxies]

It still needs to be fixed.

[@Cal_03]

Tbf I always have mine docked so it never really goes below 80%, except for the odd handheld session of course

[@nicoloknapp8466]

I am so glad this garnered attention. Because I was having same problem with the Steam Deck lately in February.

[@thegoodsenator2855]

Just happened to me too. Where is quality control these days.

[@billyhatcher643]

ive run into this situation on my steam deck a few times it was super annoying to deal with im shocked valve hasnt fixed this issue yet

[@xenos_n.]

Thanks for the heads up. Fortunately I never let my battery run out, and I'll be making sure not to leave it in sleep mode overnight anymore.

[@jessycruz2465]

Man I own a steam deck and this is what I'm scared off since we don't have any steam deck repairers here in my city.

[@jimgallaher458]

If I had to RMA my SD I'd remove the back and take multiple photos of the motherboard etc before returning.

[@iwalkerwtc06]

Hey Jimmy, I have just now experienced the "Black Screen", but in my case I never use sleep mode and always have a charger plugged in and still have the issue, I have an RMA with valve started so we will see how it goes

[@MansakeLabsOfficial]

I tend to avoid RMA entirely if I can help it. I know more about the insides of Joy-Cons than a consumer should, and a pile of parts with a bag of drifting sticks to prove it.

[@OfficialBaconDev]

I was downloading forza horizon 5 and it suddenly closed and it doesnt turn on anymore

[@EhurtAfy]

I have a drawer where I keep all my Steam Decks, 3DSs, on charge all the time and dust-free. I'm very glad since I mainly use the OLED Deck it'd be bad if was letting the LCD battery die. I had a couple issues in the past where Steam Deck would turn on, but black screen and fans would run and I could hear the system sounds. It always eventually resolved on it's own or with powering on and off

[@Bzduras]

I downgraded my BIOS form 0131 to 0118 (LCD Deck) and then updated it via Game Mode to 0120. All my booting and waking up BSODs are gone now, Steam Deck is working as it should. Something to mention for sure, BIOSes 0121 and 0131 were responsible for all my problems and I hope I won't have to use them ever again.