Steam Deck Durability

[WhiskeyLeach]

 

I'd like to share my experience and thoughts with my steam deck and replacement.

 

These machines are badly build and quickly produced. I had one where the screen won't turn on at all (no fault of my own) after two months of use. Steam replaced it for me and now the replacement has the left handle plastic sticking out. I thought I won't mind it, but when it starts to scratch the skin off, that's not good.

 

Opened a ticket with Steam regarding this. They admitted it was “damaged” but said it was “Minor” and “Cosmetic”, and are refusing to replace it as it doesn't cover the warranty even though it wasn't used. I have now responded, saying I would need to use sandpaper to sand down the edges and that it would probably ruin the side of it. I followed by up saying would it still be under warranty if I do this. Awaiting a response.

 

I'd reckon, give it a year and there are going to be a lot of folks with a lot of problems. It's Probably why they decided to go with ifix it for this reason.

[Bad5ector]

I have torn mine down, replaced the TIM and joysticks with the Gulikit upgrades. Seems pretty sturdy to me thus far. I'm having a hard time picturing your issue though, but it almost sounds like you could probably fix yourself after a quick teardown, re-assembly. 

 

Unfortunately, with anything mass produced, you're going to get some with defects. Sorry to hear you were one of those.

[SpookyCitrus]

I received my 512GB Steam Deck pretty early, I was in one of the first few waves to receive mine. Upon receiving it and taking it out of the box I noticed when moving it around that it had a rattle, like a screw or piece of metal was loose inside. So I did the logical thing any Computer Technician would do and I opened it up, sure enough there was a loosely floating screw, with another problem, there were no empty screw holes, all of the screws were securely in place and none were missing, I hadn't even powered it on yet before I noticed the rattle, so no damage or anything and it worked great after removing the screw. So I opened up a ticket with Steam support and told them what had happened not only did they thank me for not being scared of opening it up but also for figuring out one of their assembly processes had the misfortune of dropping an extra screw into "several of the units". And with my report they were able to fix the issue. 

 

I sold it a short time later and the guy who bought it from me ran into a defective display. Had to send it in to Steam and have it replaced, which was pretty straight forward, as the warranty carried over to him, which to be honest I didn't think it would, but they warrantied it for him all he needed was my account name and original purchase number. Haven't heard from him since he got it back from them and it was working again so I'm hoping it's all good. But these issues tend to be pretty common with early adoption as well as new mass production products in general. Can't really complain, plus there have been plenty of other similar launches of products that were much much worse than the Steam Deck.

[Polish_Chicken]

Has anyone else noticed the left thumb stick rubbing on the edge more than the right thumb stick? The right one glides around the edge perfectly smooth, but the left one rubs the edge with some friction when pushed to the side all the way. I can also see some black residue on the shaft of the stick from the rubbing. I have been wondering if this is an actual manufacturing issue or if I could just open it up and slightly adjust it into the correct position, or maybe I am just crazy and this is normal.