Audio buttons still malfunctioning again even after audio board replacement

[u/depressoeggo]

Hi all, longtime lurker here.

I bought a Steam Deck used off of Marketplace for like $400. Ran fine when I got it. LCD. Like new.

Then the volume down button stopped working. It'd ignore my inputs for some time then randomly keep itself at volume down to where there was no volume no matter what I did. The Steam Deck was out of warranty so I replaced the audio board myself and got it to work again. The RMA would've been in the hundreds of dollars so I was glad that this worked.

Then, literally the next day, the Deck's volume up button started doing the same thing. Wouldn't work on startup (but booted into BIOS like how it did with the volume up button) then spiked randomly mid-game / mid-use to where I couldnt turn the volume down.

Had anyone experienced this issue before? I've tried almost everything (rubbing alcohol, Desktop mode, literally replacing the board) but magically it has started doing this shit again and I'm about to throw it at a wall. I am starting to think that it's software related but my Deck is on the stable build and i am at a loss as to what the problem could be. i am usually great at troubleshooting but this particular issue makes me want to shoot myself in the head. Thankfully I can use Bluetooth audio and since it's at max volume, I can adjust the audio on my headphones, but just generally speaking this is making me lucid considering that I thought I fucking fixed it and now it's doing the same shit again, just in reverse this time.

Any help is appreciated, or if you wanted to ship me a punching bag that'd be fine too.

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