A place to discuss and support all things Steam Deck.
Replacement for r/steamdeck_linux.
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Rules:
I noticed the back of my steam deck feeling uneven yesterday. Opened it up to find a spicy pillow inside.
Replacement is underway, but I'm gonna remove this one now, already. Wish me luck...
operation seems to have been successful, Follow up pictures of the removed battery
”Bomb has been defused”
Now find a lot of sand and a metal bucket
Or a cup of water and a pellet gun. PLAY WITH IT!
It wants to be free
This, is a bucket. (and sand)
Dear god...
Gentlemen synchronize your death watches (and sand)
"the bomb has been planted"
"Get outta there, it's gonna blow."
You won't need luck if you go slowly and methodically, and follow the iFixIt guide:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+Battery+Replacement/149070
those guides are great - had to swap out my display because i cracked it, was done in under 1 hour. the repairability of this thing is insane
I've installed two SSDs now, so fuckin' easy
Isn’t battery adhesive the worst thing ever?
I remember fixing a few macbooks that had batteries like this. The batteries were gigantic and the adhesive was crazy strong. Dumping acetone behind them with a syringe, heat, and gently prying eventually got them out but it was quite nerve wracking. I guess you can’t dump solvents in a steam deck though
It’s so dumb. Adhesives make assembly easier but fuck over repairability. The only advantages are even distribution of pressure and vibration dampening, which are notable, but are not worth making the main wear item completely inaccessible and a nightmare to replace for the majority of people who don’t have experience with heat guns and sliding cards/thin metal to cut the stupid fucking adhesive that could’ve been replaced by a screw making the product 0.5mm thicker and 0.1g heavier (if that)
This was a chore to remove. I had to heat up the battery so much, I was really worried.
I remember batteries that had a pull tab, why can't they use those anymore
I am considering not using the adhesive that comes with the new battery, but using something a lot less adhesive.
The problem is the adhesive does serve a purpose (mainly vibration/keeping the battery in place). Depends on how much you travel with it and the design overall (I’m not familiar with the steam deck but looking at the ifixit it appears ribbons are fixed to it so having the battery bounce around could be a problem)
That said you can buy those pull tab strips and could probably use them here. I hate those things but why not? Better than what was there, I guess. Especially bc the off brand ones can be fairly weak adhesive
Few drop of 91% isopropyl alcohol all around the edges of the battery and waiting a few minutes helps a lot if you're afraid of too much heat.
I thought about that, but checking the ifixit guide revealed there are holes spread around the battery tray, I was worried that any isopropyl alcohol I tried to get underneath the battery would just drain through those holes onto other hardware, potentially causing damage.
In hindsight, tough, maybe putting some IPA onto the plastic card I used to insert underneath the battery to cut through the adhesive would have worked well.
FYI, it would almost certainly cause no damage. 91% isopropyl alcohol evaporates extremely fast and with no electricity flowing it couldn't short anything.
Actually less worried about shorting something, note worried about it damaging some adhesive or protective film, or anything on the screen, really :)
IPA (of enough concentration) is the same thing you'd use to clean the circuitry/hardware so it shouldn't cause any damage unless it dissolves with the glue and somehow that's damaging (it shouldn't be).
That's one of my go to's when fixing phones. FYI, the plastic playing cards work great for that.
Depends on the adhesive, every electronics iv ever taken apart that had adhesive where literally non issues.
Expect apple products... Then it's an exercise in not putting a hole though a wall in frustration
Apple just enjoys making things hard.
Ehhh I’ve had some nightmare experiences with Samsung, LG (back when they made phones), ~~Xiaomi~~ (edit not Xiaomi, huawei), etc. a lot use pull tabs and when they work they’re perfect but when they’re old or you go just a bit too fast and they break you’re fucked and have to either heat it a ton, drown it in solvent, or slide a thin wire to cut it, all options suck
Funny enough the new apple phones actually have this weird electro conductive adhesive that’s crazy simple to remove. The pull tabs are now terminals, you connect those to a standard 9v battery with alligator clips or whatever, and after a short bit of time (30 seconds iirc) the adhesive just releases and you can lift the battery out
There are videos of it on youtube, it’s pretty cool and the one adhesive I can potentially get behind. though I would want to see what people say about it after a few years of actual use. The initial teardown videos when the 16 came out made it look impressive but who knows if it holds up after 5-7 years
They also don’t use it for laptops so far. They didn’t even use it for all versions of the iphone 16 so it’s not exactly applaud apple time but if they roll that out to replace the nasty adhesives they were using for batteries across their product line it would be a great step in the right direction
I hate lithium batteries. Every so often I see one of these type of posts and have to go through every single electronic in the house to check for spicy pillows.
Now, OP, please tell me you the let battery fully drain a bunch and recharged it full and left it there but not plugged in and when you did again you played until it powered off.
Because I know battery management systems, and battery management systems still need electricity to work correctly. If the battery gets fully discharged they can't work correctly and occasionally the pillows get spicy.
If youre talking about before the operation: I let the battery discharge completely (fired up a game and played until the system shut off on its own). I haven't charged it afterwards, but imidiatelly removed it.
If youre talking about general usage: it was plugged into the outlet whenever I was not gaming, It barely drained below 40% when I used it.
Dang. You understand batteries. I was really hoping that it wasnt chance that the battery went poofy.
Time to do my paranoid check again
Dang. You understand batteries.
eh, apparently, not really. When it comes to battery health, it feels to me like the wisdom changes every few years. It probably wasn't very healthy for the battery to be on the charger for dozens of hours on end, despite battery management.
If he understood batteries he probably wouldn't have left it plugged in all the time. That wouldn't be an issue unless he always left it in sleep mode, so it would short charge cycle every other day.
the steam deck bypasses the battery if it's fully charged, and powers itself directly from the charger. Unlike a phone.
That’s not the point. It’s bad for lithium batteries to be full all the time. That’s why iPhones wait to charge the last 20% until right before you wake up, and why Samsung phones have the option to limit charging to 80%. However, the most ideal charge for battery health is between 50-60%, so if you leave your Deck plugged in all the time, you should limit the charging to that for maximum battery life, and only charge it higher when you know you’re going to be needing it.
FYI the latest SteamOS release (just a couple of days ago) added an option to only charge to 80%.
It doesn't do that in sleep mode, though. Only while screen is on. In sleep mode it will cycle.
I thought the Deck would discharge it to like 80% if it detected a long charge period. Maybe I'm just really lucky
I thought it was 90%, but baybe it is 80. If you leave it plugged in while asleep all the time you may still be charge cycling to max capacity a lot, which is bad for the battery, though.
Regardless, having to replace the battery every few years isn't terrible, except for the price of like $85 is damned expensive for it.
I don't mind the replacing thing. It's the unexpected spicy pillow I don't like.
the latest beta update for the steam deck offers an new option to limit charging to 80/85/90% btw!
Oh, sweet! It's about damned time.
Best of luck champ
Okay but how did you order a replacement??? Every time I've checked Ifixit they've been out of stock and I've signed up for an email telling me when they're in stock... Its been like a month...m
I just went to ifixit's website and ordered the battery. Ordered it on sunday night, according to my tracking app it has just been delivered, so no long waiting times.
Maybe it depends on your region? It's in stock on the german website.
Must be regional then. I noticed that my shell isn't completely flat after seeing your post and now I'm obviously very concerned.
I've reached out to Steam Support atleast, hopefully they can directly sell me one, or point me somewhere that I'm not buying one off Amazon but this should likely be replaced asap...
When did you get your steam deck? Mines an original Q3 an curious if this is something common for our 2 year old devices?
I noticed that my shell isn’t completely flat
Probably a good idea to quickly pop it open and have a look at the battery. Opening the steam deck is quite easy (remember to remove the SD card!), It only takes 3 minutes to check :)
I’ve reached out to Steam Support atleast, hopefully they can directly sell me one, or point me somewhere that I’m not buying one off Amazon
From what I understand, iFixit is their official partner, valves support website directed me towards that as well.
When did you get your steam deck? Mines an original Q3 an curious if this is something common for our 2 year old devices?
August 2022, close to three years old now.
Better poke it with a needle to let the excitement out
Lick it!