How to Fix Steam Deck Won’t Turn On

The reason it wouldn't turn on might be from a power sequence on the Steam Deck, screen, buttons, or an issue within the software-more so if this happens immediately after some sort of update. Or perhaps your Deck simply cannot hold a charge.

At Valve's Steam Deck, In some cases, the cause of the problem is the same or different, depending on the seriousness of the issue. Perhaps you've only just taken your Deck out of its box and it refuses to turn on, or it crashed in the middle of playing a game. If your device is in trouble, this article will show you what to look for and how to fix it.

The Reason Your "New" Deck Isn't Booting?

Steam Decks have a pre-defined means of powering on for the very first time. So when you open your shiny new Deck, it wont necessarily power on.

You will most likely not need to charge the OLED model but merely hold down the power button down for seven seconds in order for this thing to boot up.

The LCD version only goes into power save mode after the battery has charged to a certain point. You need to charge it first with the provided power adapter and cable before being able to turn the Deck on. If, after 15–20 minutes of charging, the "new" Deck still won't power on, reach out to Valve's support team.

1. Get the Most Out of Your Deck

Make sure you have enough juice in your battery to turn it on. Your Deck's battery life will naturally drain while it's in sleep mode, and in extreme cases, it may die completely. Therefore, it is a good idea to plug in your Deck before moving on to more critical procedures.

Make sure the batteries in your Deck are fully charged.

Plug in one end of the Type-C cable from your charger to the Steam Deck and the other end into an electrical outlet. If the LED adjacent to the charging port lights up when plugged in, it means the gadget is charging.

2.Allow Some Cooling Time for Your Deck

A Steam Deck is like any other portable in that it can become too hot to handle if the rear heat vents are blocked. Though there is a lot of thermal headroom, a Steam Deck will turn on its auto-shutoff at 105°C.

If you can, use your Deck in cooler weather.

If it overheats and switches off and fails to power back on, let it cool down before attempting to power on your Steam Deck again.

Attempt With an Other Charger 3.

Your charger or charging port may have an issue, which prevents the charging indicator of your device from lighting up. Change the charger or power source to identify whether it was the reason or not.

Use a different charger if it's slow-charging.

If you're willing to get a third-party charger, it should definitely be able to handle wattage as the 45W adapter for Valve chargers. You can eliminate the possibility of a charge-related problem by trying using other wires.

4. Restarting your Steam Deck Manually

After you have tried the above basic steps, it could be that the problem is from the program. This might be the time you will have to perform a hard reset. Just press and hold the power button for roughly 12 seconds to achieve this.

If you cannot get to the Power menu, you can forcibly restart your Deck with the physical button.

By forcing your Deck to power down, you'll be forcing a restart; it will then apply any pending or new system upgrades. This should resolve any problems you've been experiencing with your Deck's software.

5. Rollback via SteamOS.

With BIOS recovery, you can boot your Deck even if the boot sequence isn't working. Press and hold the Power and Volume Up buttons until you hear a chime to boot into recovery mode. Let go of the Volume Up button to get to the BIOS.

You can see the menu so your Deck is on, but it's failing to load SteamOS. In this case, it might be worth trying an earlier version of SteamOS.

Force Hold down the Power button on your Deck until it powers off.

Press and hold the Power button with one hand and the menu button with the three dots with the other. Power off the Steam Deck.

Let go of the three-dot menu button when you hear the boot sound.

Here you can find a list of SteamOS versions that have been previously available for rollback.Forget about SteamOS 1.0 and go back to 1.

Pick the one that works best with your problem.

This solution is meant to be a temporary workaround, but it will restore the most recent version of Deck when you restart it.

6. Connect to an External Monitor

You can try connecting your Deck to an external monitor in order to rule out the screen problems. You can do this via an adapter cable or a Steam Deck Dock, both sold separately.

To connect an external monitor, you'll simply need the Steam Deck Dock.

There is a high probability that your Deck is having a hardware problem if the external display shows a picture but its screen stays blank. For help with this, get in touch with Valve.

7. Look for Damage on Your Deck

Comments about the Steam Deck's power button have been all over the map since it shipped. Some people have little trouble seeing the boot screen logo; others have more trouble than others. Some have complained that the Deck's power button doesn't last long enough and can eventually become stuck or unresponsive. Valve has taken heat for this.

Search various internet forums for any fixes involving improvisation for stuck power buttons. It may be wiser to start the replacement or RMA process on your gadget while it's still in its warranty period.

That's all for today, and we hope we've helped you with your question; good luck until next time.