I Bought 8 Broken Handheld PCs - ROG Ally, Legion, Steam Deck - Let's Fix Them!

[@Tronicsfix]

Check FlexiSpot C7 Max ergonomic chair at bit.ly/4feyqcJ and use my code ''24BFC7'' to get $50 off on the C7 ergonomic chair.

[@flight_simmer]

FYI, on the ROG Ally, Asus installs an open case sensor that disables all power to the device until after you attach a charger once the device has been reassembled. That's why you weren't seeing the devices power on until after they were plugged in.

[@Tronicsfix]

Yeah, I pointed that out in this video. (Unless I did in in a previous video that I’m remembering)

[@wisdombright9821]

Yeah, it won’t turn on if you connect the charger without the back plate installed.

[@masterace9543]

Kinda of a weird thing to have 😅

[@LadFromWales85]

@@masterace9543 I imagine it's so users can work on the device without first having to unplug the battery. Though I'd still recommend doing that as soon as is possible anyway.

[@Macintosh007]

I still unplugged the battery when upgrading the storage in my rog ally x. Didn't want to risk dropping metal screws or screwdriver on the circuit board, or power doing something to the ssd even when off while unplugging lol

[@kingmonkey5011]

You look healthy! thats nice to see

[@Keplerf-vn2ld]

So glad to see you healthy man. thanks for the videos

[@MBTCxGrouP]

For the second Ally with the superglue and crack: The B button was rotated. Thats normally not possible, because the button have litttle pins so they are fixed in the right position. You should look what is the problem there before you sell it. And somewhere in the BIOS there is a way to re-download the OS...so you dont need to change the SSD.

[@iainh]

14:20 - On the second ROG Ally, some of the face buttons are turned, especially the "B". Seems like someone was previously poking around that area too!

[@nsos28]

Was about to mention this as well

[@jamiewallace9647]

@@nsos28 yeah me too!!!

[@CaptainRex332]

It boggles my mind how some people have already annihilated these things when some of them aren’t even a YEAR OLD and that is if they bought it AT LAUNCH

[@geenaxion]

Some people really just don't care or they're kids (probably).

[@proxyhx2075]

And here I am treating my year old Steam Deck like a newborn baby 😂

[@CaptainRex332]

@@proxyhx2075 same bro my Steamdeck has had a silicone case for so long so it has hardly any scratches and it’s pretty much always had a screen protector

[@rodolfoferreira5582]

Steve my man, that Steam Deck is calling you out for a fight you mustn't run away from! We're with you on that one, you got this! REVISIT video incomiiinng, LET'S GOOO!!!

[@MarkR874]

I think Robert found one of his hidden gifts: advertising. Great job, I was definitely impressed by the quality of the sponsor ad!

[@DruidOfTheClaw]

For the ROG Ally and X, you could use the Cloud Recovery which reimages the ROG but ensure the time and date is up to date for it to work. If the Cloud Recovery doesn't want to work for you, you can create a Windows 11 Boot up USB Drive using the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool which is provided by Mircosoft. As for using the SD Card for imagiing, I don't believe the SD Card can be used as a boot up but only for extra storage.

[@SiRTazman1834]

If the Cloud Recovery doesn't work, also check the WiFi to make sure it can see the internet. It could be WiFi issue.

[@tootone]

This is the answer

[@smashpro1]

The Legion Go was oriented like that during the Windows reinstall because it is a portrait-native display, but going into the settings and rotating it 90 degrees is easy enough.

[@Madblaster6]

14:00 There's a light sensor on the motherboard that puts it in storage mode when the Ally is taken apart. You need to plug in the charger to turn it back one.

[@Tronicsfix]

Yep, I pointed it out in this video (at least I think I remember doing that in this vid, lol)

[@MapOfEurasia]

Check if the MicroSD slots on the RoG works, they tend to cook the slot

[@volvo09]

Good point, that is a common issue.

[@fujitsubo3323]

its far from common. its almost all of them. i dont think there is a single rog ally with a now working SD slot

[@mrbobo86]

Thats the main reason why I didn't get one

[@UnreaLorenzo]

It's great to see you recover day by day man! Watching your videos keeps me smiling! 🙏🙏

[@blackhorseteck8381]

12:57 Here you can check the support page of the Ally for the latest BIOS version and how to flash it. BIOS issues happen on PCs (which the Ally is) and are most of the time resolved with a BIOS flash.

[@Rhys_Beer]

@blackhorseteck8381 wonder if there are any connectors are person could short to reset the bios like on some atx mother boards

[@HavasiP]

Been waiting for a Legion Go to show up here. I have one and I'm happy with it.

[@dankitch7628]

Thanks for staying positive about the efforts of other repairers. Too much negativity and harsh criticism out there.

[@jams9863]

Good effort on the steam deck, I find using a fine straight tip or razor tip easier to control when fixing really tiny stuff like traces, I use a separate micropen with a .1mm tip, looked like you might've been using a ~1mm one which can make it easy to touch neighboring pins, but its hard to tell for sure. Also great sponsor section, for once I'm actually interested in a sponsorship product. Keep up the great everything!

[@Hawk3r]

I grabbed a broken first gen 512gb steam deck, really cheap. Issue was sticking steam key. Ended up being a bridged ribbon cable behind the mainboard, had one in my parts bin and got it working. Super happy to get one so cheap and the battery test came back at 93% Love your repair videos!

[@Regular_D09]

been looking to get a cheap one to repair myself. hopefully I can find something.

[@StaticVapour590]

@@Regular_D09 Been looking for a faily priced used steam deck quite a while now, no dice, all I can find here is either +/-10% of the price of new or it being stolen or something weird.

[@Regular_D09]

@@StaticVapour590 Yeah I understand people are trying to get some resale value, but you have to go with the market. I was looking for used ps5's and they were looking for 350 and you can get a brand new one for 375 right now.

[@StaticVapour590]

@@Regular_D09 Nah I stopped actively looking for a deck last week, figured out that I might not even use it that much as I have so little free time so it would just sit on my desk collecting dust. I already have beefy PC too and I barely play any games on it

[@Regular_D09]

@@StaticVapour590 Same lol. I can barely get a few games in as it is.

[@mecyanned]

I swear, when i have to do a repair, its always harder for me to fix it - you always get so lucky

[@martoyo237]

I see many people mention it, but yes, cloud recovery on Asus handhelds is the way to go, it's easy and straight forward :)

[@Tronicsfix]

They wouldn’t cloud recover. They both gave me errors. I definitely would have done that if I could have.

[@joeclifford183]

Couldn’t you format and install os on the drive before install? I’ve never worked with them before but if their inbuilt recovery system wasn’t working then I’d try and go manually set it up to bypass the asus recovery method.

[@DruidOfTheClaw]

@@Tronicsfix the time and date is 95% of the problem. Since the Internet wants to be all about security, if the clock is more than 5 or 1 minute away from current time, it won't connect to the server

[@zackw7587]

Yes. Make sure the date matches the server or it won't work.

[@Carlos23-t5u]

@@Tronicsfixhey I dropped my studio beats case into water on accident I dried it with my shirt and did everything I searched up on Google and it was in the water for 1-2 seconds and I am letting it air dry I didn’t use a hair dryer and didn’t charge it and I need to know if I should let it air dry for 12 hours or 1-3 days

[@Zer01neBDTDev]

Finaly someone that understand that these are PC's not Consoles. The person completely broke the Deck, a new motherboard and it will be ready to go.

[@jacksonapplequist6803]

@@Zer01neBDTDev as someone who works in these steam decks, it's very likely the battery management IC blew up and took those traces with it, I've had to rebuild the traces on these a few times and it's a known issue if you charge the steam deck with 5v power. I doubt whoever worked on this made it worse than it originally was, also it's very likely it's still fixable!

[@Tronicsfix]

@@jacksonapplequist6803Any ideas for what might fix it?

[@jacksonapplequist6803]

@@Tronicsfix for many of these I end up separating the two traces you kept combined, I believe they dont actually end up on the same pad, if you remove the coating and follow the traces to their vias they remain separate, also for stability I create a long trace to match the existing on one of the bottom missing traces you worked on, I can send photos over if you'd like of one I worked on that was in a similar state!

[@KingJohnMichael]

That's why they sell worse than consoles I guess 😂

[@theshellderinslowbrostail5422]

​@@KingJohnMichael at least these are flexible unlike consoles.

[@exploradorespacial4073]

I love your videos man! I haven't repaired any electronics in my life but you are the sole reason that makes me wanna give it a try, I have a few proyects around the house that i've been saving for a couple of years to repair myself :P Also, I'm so glad you are doing well with your health! You're freaking inspiring.

[@SteWood]

Great work on these. Love handhelds. Did you notice Steve, Number 5, the X & B buttons? Haha

[@RThielmann03]

I really enjoy watching your videos. I had the confidence (probably false confidence, but it worked!) to solder a pin on the board from my washing machine yesterday. Thanks for doing what you do!

[@Enjoymentboy]

I read the title of the video as "I bought 8 broken handheld PCs legally" and my first thought was 'i should hope so". I think it's time for new glasses.

[@gabrieldias3479]

This reminds me of a funny t-shirt I saw many years ago: I dyslexia ❤

[@mysticaxolotl8215]

I've got near-flawless vision and I read it like that too 😭

[@fadetonoir6152]

Great video, Steve! Although I wish you had spent a bit more time on the Steam Deck - I've fixed quite a few of them, including this exact same issue (MAX IC blown in the exact same way), although I fixed it with pad strips. We saw you check the battery voltage but not any voltages going in or out of the MAX IC - and you had another Steam Deck there to compare it to. The board has been worked on before, but we didn't see you do a complete visual inspection, and I don't know if you noticed but there is a misaligned cap to the far bottom left of the MAX IC, near the QR code, so it would have been interesting to check that area to make sure everything is okay. I think this is worth another look because it might be fixable - perhaps for a future, dedicated video?

[@n4_ku]

There's not much diagnostic. I'm finding his video very low effort.

[@Danroku78]

Hello fadetonic, I have a Steam device that I recently modified to increase the maximum integrated circuit output to 3 volts. While the device initially failed to boot after being left to charge overnight, it eventually booted up. However, I have encountered several issues: 1. The device is charging slowly. 2. There is no output to the HDMI port. 3. The OTG (On-The-Go) function is not working. 4. The battery calibration is not functioning properly. Given your expertise in this area, I would greatly appreciate your assistance in resolving these issues. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Best regards,

[@Joe-wk9ow]

@@n4_ku If he would get a voltage injection tool he could find where that short is at.

[@CaptainRex332]

Honestly if I was a repair technician like you I would probably try steam os on the handhelds that have bad boot drives could be fun to mess around with

[@davedeck1979]

Wow! I had just opened up my Onexplayer 2 to try and fix it. It wen from working, to not sensing SSD, to booting only to bios, to being able to charge but nothing on screen to completely dead... Opened up to repaste, new battery and nothing works. Your video just makes me relive the sad moment (of having an expensive paperweight) but appreciate what you're doing especially with the soldering. Made my day 🎉

[@chasefournier]

22:34 the perfect amount of glorious thermal paste 💪

[@eduardofrances]

With the OG ROG Ally consoles you might want to test the SD card slot, it was positioned in a place that generated tons of heat and fried SD cards.

[@crestofhonor2349]

Heat wasn't the issue with the SD card slot. It was a voltage regulation issue. The Legion Go's SD card slot gets just as hot too when under a heavy load. This is also why it happens so randomly without warning.

[@ajaks7636]

Super Steve to the rescue. 7 out of 8; Awesome! Great Repairs and Video! Thanks for the Entertainment.

[@ilm91]

12:30 You could do Cloud Recovery, it formats the SSD, installs Windows 11 with all Drivers and Software for ROG ALLY

[@TEN89_jburney]

You're skills are truly a marvel to behold.

[@MikeB_UK]

Great work. It would be really good to see you try to diagnose more on that Steam Deck in perhaps a dedicated video? Or maybe send it to another youtuber who specialises in such fixes?

[@philliphaywood1378]

The Coder would be a perfect person to send that Steam Deck to

[@danielhulan3058]

Oh man. I have been waiting for this video. In the live q and a steve i asked if youd considered doing handheld devices. You said just wait. You had something coming up.

[@BowsetteKoopa]

22:31 THANK YOU, STEVE! Oh my god; I was biting my nails like "I hope he does the thing... I mean of course he will right..?" xD 👏

[@biglsells]

Good vid, would love to see p&l after it's all said and done to see how you did! I did this for almost 10 years, wild ride.

[@oPtiMuMpRiCe]

Always a pleasure to see you doing well and making a God-Tier job !!! Wish you good health from Morocco

[@DaiFixer]

Another great vid Steve! I've been wanting to pick a PC handheld for awhile now so its very well timed

[@doodadsdandy]

One of the few things I’m keen for in the future with technology is how the portable consoles / pc / gaming will develop. In a way, these sorta remind me of the early days of PDA’s and their similarities and differences. Chunky but sleek. We’re early days in development and it’s pretty cool to witness this tech bc one day these will seem obsolete just like palm pilots are now aha

[@theawfulgambler]

Glad to see you looking so well again man :)

[@iansanchez6432]

The handheld repair videos are always the best!

[@tspawn35]

I was going to suggest cloning a known working drive and seeing if that fixes the other drives. However, you already mentioned that at 17:50. LOL

[@kevinj3490]

Props on the repairs! I'm looking to tinker around with some repair. Where can I find lots like this?

[@marleensrain]

QUESTION where do you sell them ?

[@RikuXRoxas2514]

The second Rog Ally that's body is cracked and wrecked the B is flipped. I'm going to assume that one was opened at some point or they got mad while using it n the B turned.

[@janzojanzo9059]

Looking good. Hoping for complete recovery

[@gdpiscopo]

Dude you're looking good these days! Glad you're healthy

[@jamesharwood4752]

I got a few tips for the ally If you go to the bios menu on the ally and advanced and cloud recovery you can download and install windows without having to do anything it will run all the software install and drivers. Also, on the back of the allys motherboard, there is a light proximity sensor, which when exposed to light does not allow it to turn on unless there is power and the proximity sensor is covered

[@danellabarnes-penman1118]

Well done, Steve. Also, I hope you’ll be spending time this Thanksgiving celebrating with your family. You’ve much to be celebrating this year, eh?! Blessings to you for good health again. 🙏🏻❣️

[@DoomTay]

1:37 Yeah, if the administrator account is locked, rebooting the machine usually gets you in. I've seen that sometimes when having PCs set up with Sysprep

[@NitrousXProductions]

13:00 You could take out the SSD and use a NVME adapter and wipe it and reformat it. Then go into the bios and run cloud recovery which will redownload the windows os to install windows onto device again

[@Tjoeb123]

You really shouldn't worry about screwing in the back cover until after you test it and see that it works. I think it'll save you some time if something still doesn't work. At least this is what I do when I have to replace components in my Switch Joy-Con controllers, like I just did for the SL/SR/SYNC/LED board/cable. And it's a good thing I did because the buttons weren't pressing; turned out that all of the new buttons were super stiff so I had to use a tool to press down until the button started clicking.

[@andrewarmstrong5266]

4 in the morning here in Northern Ireland, can’t sleep so went looking for something to watch in bed and see a new vid here, who needs sleep anyway lol

[@guitarhero918]

Yess thank you Steve!

[@144megabytes]

Ive had modern devices not see the boot medium when the bios battery was bad. I could manually add the efi boot path and it would work. Now this was a laptop and replacing the cmos battery fixed it but it took it overnight to actually hold the fix. At first I thought it was a failure but nope it worked.

[@mikehorton6433]

Legion Go no. 1, that's exactly what happened to my LH controller mount when I lightly dropped my unit because my leg caught the power cable. I had to tap the mount with its 3 screw fixtures back into the plastic and secure the controller wobble with about 6 loom bands to make it fit tight. So far it's stayed on but I think removable controllers are a weak design.

[@advanceddarkness3]

To reinstall the OS on the Ally its under the Advanced tab: Asus Cloud Recovery.

[@KamenRiderBlackSun]

nice to see that you look a lot better , i hope you’re doing well

[@andrewarmstrong5266]

Heyyyy it’s Robert, it may be for a sponsored ad but still good to see him

[@dopadu]

Your hair is growing back, that is nice to see

[@Randomninja47]

Number 5 needs to have it's buttons re aligned. The B button is almost completely backwards.

[@thegees]

we definitely enjoy more manufacturer-order parts but still love enamel wire fixes 😎

[@astartes7313]

this is my kind of video, im addicted to handheld pcs and handheld gaming consoles in general

[@brunoflausinodasilva7372]

To install Windows on the ROG Ally, if you don't have a usb-c stick, you can use a USB-C docking station with a USB-A port, or a USB-C to USB-A adapter, and a Widows USB stick. You can download a Windows ISO from Microsoft and prepare the USB stick with Rufus. You might need to download the drivers from Asus after installing Windows. You can do the same with Legion go. It's just like installing Windows with a USB key on a computer.

[@ryans600]

I love how this man refuses to look at an ifixit guide when he's taking something apart he's never done before :P like "I think this is only 6 screws holding it. Right? Well let's hope so"

[@Majid_Gadget]

Hello! First of all, I’m really glad to hear that you’re in great health...

[@shugarysubstances]

12:53 my guess is either reflash bios or yeah, it's a corrupted SSD 21:27 this whole segment of you working with the lenovo and the ally can be encompassed by my favorite thing to say in frustration: "ah yes, windows doing windows things"

[@AndyDo]

On the ROGs, you can do a cloud recovery. The image isn't available for direct download as far as I know, so you have to load it via BIOS -> Advanced. It takes FOREVER (or I was doing it during a Cloudflare outage or something...)

[@jlmpc8733]

For the Boot/Bios issue: Usually you want to reset to Setup Mode, then enable user mode, generate/create the key, then enable secure boot. But your Bios could also be corrupt, then you could try to just update it, or flash the same version back on, and if that doesnt work (as sometimes those security stuff is not touched by the integrated bios flash tool) you either have to update bios through DOS or with a eprom flasher. Dont have the experience with the ally, but for normal Mainboards, Asus' Bios/Uefi is the most error prone, due to them trying to make things easy, which just ends up making this harder since it deviates from the norm (from my experience anyways). (everything with the key fails cuz there is no default key in User mode) other solution: The SSDs dont boot, cuz there is a locked bootloader. so for security reason, the win installer does not allow overriding it, just flash it in another system (preferably not windows, to actually get a porper formatted drive)

[@adrianbestboy98]

a revisit on steam deck would be nice, a shortkiller and thermal cam would be useful

[@SegaCDUniverse]

You look great bro! Very healthy!

[@StabStabStabStabby]

You can thank valve for these handhelds being easy to get parts and repair. Valve made the steamdeck repairable and everyone else had to also to be competitive.

[@Oryngton]

you can make J-B Weld any colour you want, just add a drop of food dye into the mix.

[@moongurd20]

I would love to have a Legion go... A bit to expensive... but a pc like switch would be awesome!

[@ReallyRandom-gf3ih]

Great video and I’m glad you’re doing better! Also where do you sell these?

[@dev0xr1]

for the rog ally, you must install a windows install USB and go to the boot manager and boot it, or you could install those ssds into other systems and preimage them.

[@SomeDudeDan]

Another awesome video! I have always wondered, why aren’t you using hot tweezers? I really like to use them for SMD components.

[@jiwik731]

Interesting how little work some shops put into repairing items. A lot of these was fixed with SW fix.

[@vezokpiraka]

For the Steam Deck, those circuits look pretty robust. You can probably take out the chip again and attach the wires first. Or maybe even take out all components and make some frankenstein thing there. I didn't catch if the data line component was a resistor or a capacitor as you called it both ways. If it's a capacitor shorting to ground is expected, it's just a signal dampening capacitor, but if it's a resistor I highly doubt the data line should have anything to do with ground. We also haven't seen you test all the voltages, especially the ones for the wires you fixed, but I assume you did off camera. I also assume to two connected pins to the big pad are actually ground pins so you might even not connect them at all and just focus on the other pin (assuming the board has other ground pins which they usually do)

[@dalxyon]

For the ROG Ally, you have to go to the 'Advanced' tab in the BIOS and select 'ASUS Cloud Recovery' to install the OS.

[@Kla2024-s5t]

I love my ROG ally. It’s nice to see it being taken apart.

[@danielhulan3058]

You can wipe the ssd that you removed from the ally and reinstall windows on it and reuse it. So you dont waist money on ssds. Also the legion go is native portrait screen so when you reset it it flips until it reloads the graphics drivers. Then it goes back to normal

[@QuiqeOrtiz]

You're a genius bro, one question: What do you do with those consoles after repairing them? I'm interested in buying one to give to my son since a new one is out of my budget. Regards.

[@gumbypokey7]

On that steam deck it would be interesting to test for that resistor short with the chip removed since that wasn't a known working chip.

[@rodolfoferreira5582]

Maybe, but only if that chip was handling some mosfet gate to let some voltage in. Otherwise you might want to look elsewhere to get to the root of that problem. The fact that pad is shorted is the symptom of some issue somewhere else. I'd bet on a shorted current-sense resistor, now that one might be worth removing in order to see if the pad is no longer shorted.

[@RedSevenEleven]

Have I been asleep the last few vids? Was that your editor doing an ad for flexispot?

[@Tronicsfix]

Nope, that was Robert from the Restorish channel

[@leandr0elnano]

Hermano usted es increíble lo arregla todo !!!!!!💪💪💪

[@KingJohnMichael]

That steam deck one is tricky 😮

[@kennymorelandiii9406]

While there has been some issues with these handhelds I am excited to see how they are in a generation or two With how powerful, power efficient and how quickly things like A.I upscaling has improved (DLSS/PSSR/FSR, etc etc) and other things I feel like if you're a gamer there are plenty to get excited about with handhelds in the future. The more competition the better as well. I sincerely hope that the rumors of both Sony & Microsoft coming out with handhelds are true as well. Laptops and PCs have their place for sure but if you can get something that is around the power of like a Xbox Series S with some sort of AI upscaling type thing and capable of getting atleast 4-5 hours of demanding gameplay and also capable of video output man the future is exciting. I can't wait to see what the Switch 2, Steamdeck 2, ROG Ally 2, Legion Pro 2, Xbox & Sony Handhelds can do as it's going to be awesome for gamers especially gamers that might be parents or not able to hog the TV or whatever. TLDR: the future of gaming handhelds is shaping up to be exciting

[@thekevingarapo]

UEFI. If there is a broken OS on a drive you have to remove it and format it on another machine. Had a tech telling me that my HDD was broken. Took it out myself. Formatted it on my Linux machine. Put it back in and installed Windows. 0 issues at all.

[@nbaua3454]

For windows os based consoles you can always format the SSD and jump start it again

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

20:05 steve thats normal I have recovered my thinkpad laptop before and always does this when installing windows from Lenovo's website!

[@dodgydruid]

Will be playing that godly sound in me head when I do the upgrade on my PC from AM4 to AM5 this coming week and putting on HP thermal phase changing material which is kinda a thermal paste, also spraunced for some Asus TUF peripherals as fed up buying cheapo nastio Chinese mice and keyboards and them not lasting a few months... been back at it with Diablo IV before going back to old World of Warcraft as my fans have demanded my tanky skills so it seems hehe

[@Kurtea00]

In my experience, booting from SSDs is not something windows likes to do. Not even the installer. The Administrator-Account on the Lenovo Legion is the default Administrator used by the OOBE.

[@Deja117]

I get disconnecting the battery for 4, but that charger should have been the first thing removed imo... Especially if you're taking out screws. No matter your experience, accidents can happen. BTW for the Steam Deck, the light turns on to keep the battery at a good level to maintain its health. I don't know if it was that or displaying an error though. Unlike Nintendo those handhelds are designed with the user in mind.

[@stazeII]

You shouldn’t need to disable secure boot unless someone has messed with windows install. Would definitely turn that back on and make sure it continues to boot.

[@danielhulan3058]

I think you can buy gillistick hall effect joysticks for the ally as an upgrade. I know you can for the legion go. That would be an all around good thing to do fo the ally with the broken stick.

[@stevenalliet6976]

Hi, about the steam deck did you try to push the power and volume down (same time and for over a couple seconds) because sometimes it display nothing and need that reset it and it turns back on normally, love youre videos 🙌

[@MarcStift]

At 15:50 if you look at the B button you will see it's not in there correctly.