I recently had an issue with my SteamDeck where the touch screen would not respond to any input. Rebooting, even turning off and back on didn’t seem to solve the issue. I was a bit worried. Had my new favorite hand-held console broken? Did one of my kids do something nasty to it? What could it possibly be?
Not to worry, the Internet gave me most of the remedy, at least for this particular failure mode and here is the solution with pictures.
4 Easy Steps
Step 1: Power Down the SteamDeck. Nothing special here, just be sure it is powering it down, not going to sleep.
Step 2: Hold down The Volume Up + Power Buttons. Release the Power Button when you hear a beep but continue to hold the Volume Up button. That will bring you do the Bios menu.
Using the D-Pad, move down and to the right to select the Setup Utility
Step 3: Navigate down to Power and over to Battery storage mode and select confirm.
The SteamDeck power light will flash a few times and the system will be powered down completely.
Step 4: Plug-in the Steam Deck to external power and press the Power button.
Congratulations the Steam Deck has been restored, assuming that you experienced the same failure I experienced. If this does not solve your issue it may be something more serious.
Final Thoughts
After much reading the speculation about whether the failure is a software or hardware issue is completely mixed. I am leaning towards some sort of bug in the hardware that causes the software to disconnect from the device itself. There seems to be a need for some error trapping. Perhaps some sort of script to power-cycle the device automatically or even manually. I have done something like this before and perhaps I should have investigated further before performing this more extreme form of power=down.
Until it gives me issues again, I at least know what to do to correct the issue.
References
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/3186864655202361138/
Power Cycling PCIe Devices from the Command Line
SteamDeck Resource page on CubicleNate.com
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