I have been having those crashes on my Steam Deck, and for a moment I though I had a faulty hardware, but contacting Valve for support illuminated me.

This kind of crash / freeze accurres usually after 15 / 30 min of gameplay, but it can also happen right when you start your game. The game freeze; black screen; then the last frame of the game is back, and the audio stills playing.

Since I moved overseas, I am using an adapter + power strip to charge my Steam Deck, and because it was charging correctly, I would have never though of it being a problem.

Anyway, the power strip was faulty, so pluging the charger in the wall fixed all my problems (the adapter is working fine).

So if anyone has this problem:

  • Try and see if your Steam Deck crashes while not charging (battery mode).
  • Try different chargers and power outlets (in my case it was just the power strip, but it could also be other things).
  • Try not use extension cords or power strips

If after this you still have the problem, or if that also happens when you are not charging, than it may be because an hardware issue (perhaps the battery?).

I hope your Steam Decks are working fine, but I figured this could help someone down the line.

I also want to thank Valve’s Support, absolutely brilliant. Don’t hesitate to contact them for any issue, they are the best.

Take care everybody and have fun!

  • NightFantom
    3•1 year ago

    Really strange and specific, I hope to never encounter this :D

    Thanks for sharing!

    • SterbenOP
      1•1 year ago

      And if you do, it may be just your power supply. I was going insane, because sometimes I could play for a full session (1h+), and other times it would crash within minutes. I could not figure out what was the variable, fortunately, Steam support came in aid. 🤣

  • @[email protected]
    2•1 year ago

    I’ve had computer crashes from a bad outlet, glitching the power going into a USB-C dock. I suppose that the complicated protocol between my laptop and the hub leaves a lot of room for bad state to spill into the PC.

    I’m surprised that it’s also a problem coming directly off of the power brick too. The power circuitry already has to deal with instantly cutting back to running from the battery at any time anyway, so what’s the difference if it happens a millisecond after switching to wall power?

    • SterbenOP
      1•1 year ago

      Good question. I believe when you manually cut off the power supply (ex: unplug the usb-c) the Steam Deck can handle it fine, but if there are inconsistenty in the wattage it may cause problem.

      As far as I understand, the Steam Deck, while in charge, it takes all the power from the outlet to operate (GPU, CPU), and a faulty charger (or power stick) can make the system very unstable while gaming.

      Perhaps, those crashes are just a security switch to avoid permanent damage in case of faulty power supply.

      I must say, Steam Deck is a complicate machine, Valve did great on building it.

  • @AnonLordo
    2•1 year ago

    I must confirm, Valve support is excellent, especially with the Steam Deck. I had to RMA my SD but was very happy with the feedback and the result after all.

    • SterbenOP
      2•1 year ago

      Ye, they are great, I was sceptical at the beginning, as all research online lead to only one thing: hardware problem.

      But then they reply to me, saying something about the power supply, and right there I just noticed that the crash happened right after a start charging it.

      It was inimaginable for me, because I used the same charger for my phone and nothing problematic accurred.

      Anyway, all good now. Thank you for commenting.