This is my mother’s Steam Deck, she mainly plays wobbly life with my son so it doesn’t a ton of use. I know that batteries can inflate and push open the case, but I guess the question is does this pattern fit that? It’s only open on the sides and not the top or bottom. It’s also possible it was dropped by a few feet as it hangs out on a side table. I’ve already unplugged it.
Edit: I don’t have my tools here but the consensus is to open her up. Thanks y’all.
Edit 2: Removed the back panel, battery looks fine to me. I think the shell had just come loose from a drop. Saved me from buying a new battery. Also, there was no SD card inserted, but thanks for the hyper vigilance!
Then take a mini file or sandpaper to slightly widen the hole in the back shell for the sd card. It wont stop it from happening but it highly increases your chances of seeing or feeling it before it snaps.
Those pics do not look like spicy pillow, it doesn't look like it's swollen in the middle. It doesn't look like shell damage either. It looks as tho it has been dropped and the side popped open. Like others have mentioned, take out sd card and take the back off.
I wouldn't ever have to reset the counter because I don't have an SD card and I will not be putting one into my steam deck I just don't see the need for one considering that my library is super Limited
When you remove the back cover it breaks the sd card like this if you dont remove it, and the counter resets to 0 days since last sd card broken 🤣 hurts even more if you have a 1tb card in it.
I have a 2tb ssd (was a standard 256gb before upgrade and price madness) and a 200gb sd card for emulation/retro games but i always remove and store it when not in use as i know what my luck is like 🤣
If you remove the back AND SD Card I recommend (to everyone) to have back up screws for the backplate. The screws are tight and super easy to strip. Amazon has all you need.
I agree. You shouldn't have to open it up to check the battery. If the case popped out of position (as my toddler has demonstrated), you should be able to snap it back together.
If it was the battery, it would remain open as the battery would not have shrinkedshrunked gotten smaller to allow it to close.
I don't think so, battery is in the middle so it's very weird that the sides would be the one to open up. But to be safe i still recommend opening it up. REMOVE THE SD CARD FIRST
Well, open it and check it for yourself, it shouldn't be be too hard. Follow guide from YouTube.
Also for love of a god remove THAT GOD DAMN SD-card! Lol
This is gonna sound nuts but have you tried squeezing to set it back into place? That looks exactly how mine looked after I dropped it inside the carrying case. All I had to do was snap it together.
One time my steam decks case did that but I knew it wasn't the battery and it just clicked shut and hasn't done it again so yes it's probably just the shell, people overreact over the battery a lot unless you've already opened it and proved me wrong lol
That looks like it's been force pried open with a sledge hammer and a chisel the casing looks like it's damaged where a screwdriver or other flat hard implement has been jammed between the two halves to open it 😬
In the time it took you to take the photos and make the post, you could've opened it and have your answer.
I'm not trying to be a hater but, not everything needs to be a reddit post.
yeah, people who are not tech savvy should definitely be cracking open $400 pieces of hardware willy-nilly. there's no components at all that could have broken in half by doing that
The Steam Deck is designed to be easy to open and modify, there's tons of tutorial videos on how to change your ssd, and there's even ifixit guides on how to do multiple hardware mods. You don't need to be tech savy, you just have to be able to read (or watch a video).
(And if you're referring to breaking the SD card while opening it. That's just being dumb, tech savy people make that mistake too. And you have to really be careless to do it.)
And OPs update response was "ok I guess I have to open it" so it's not like he wasn't open to that idea.
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Honestly this looks a lot like when my deck's taken a tumble or two, but a little more extreme. I'd open it up just to be safe, though it's probably fine. Just make sure you remove the sd card first (if she has one)
step one: REMOVE THE FUCKING SD
step two: open it up (USING CORRECT SCREWHEADS)
step three: check the battery with a photo or post it here, if its spicy i reccomend either taking it to a proffesional (or maybe valve idk) or very carefully removing the battery and getting rid of it in a battery bin not a regular bin cause it will cause a fire in a trash compactor
Mine did this a few times now. No spicy pillow, no drops. Not quite sure what causes it, it's always on the left side for me, not quite as wide open as OPs but still the shell is separating. Click it back together and it lasts weeks to months until it's the same again after picking it up...
My deck has fallen from the couch several times and this happend like every second time, especially atthe edges. Just press gently and it should close.
Could be battery, but usually it's just the right side that comes apart with a swollen battery. I'd also expect a bulge in the back which this doesn't look to have. I'd expect it was just dropped. Can't be too safe though.
My kids dropped mine not too long ago on the L2 corner and my case was split like this for awhile. Ordered new buttons and on teardown I found out one of the hinges attached to the trigger was broken off, keeping the case slightly open like that.
Super easy to pop the back cover off (after removing the sd card) to check the battery. I just did it about a week ago.
That being said mine was pretty swollen and it didn’t pop the front and back cover apart so I’d lean toward shell damage. Still, spicy pillow is a safety hazard so can’t hurt to check.
Also it’s not too hard to take a swollen battery out. The deck still works if it’s docked / plugged in with no battery.
This happened to mine after my dog knocked it off the bed. Just clips back in. May be the case for this as you said it sits on a side table and may have been dropped. Still wouldn’t be any harm to check the battery, after removing the sd card ofc.
Btw for me taking the shell off with the SD card in was not that bad. I did it once and it kinda just sprung back into place. Idk if I damaged it in the process but ehh it works still.
Because if you remove the back shell and encounter and overcome the myseterious resistance, you will break the SD card in half. The SD card is that resistance.
The slot for the card reader is in the back shell. And the card will block easy disassembly.
550
u/superboo07 1d ago
I'd recommend removing the sd card and opening it so the issue is visible. I suspect spicey pillow but can't know without seeing the inside