Fix Your Stuff Community Store

Repair, disassembly, and troubleshooting information for the Steam Deck with LCD display, a handheld gaming console made by Valve, released on February 25, 2022. Identified by model number 1010.

252 Questions View all

Options

Steam deck won't boot if it's not connected to Monitor/tv

Hello, i got faulty 64GB steam deck from ebay for $40, the seller said that the device won't boot if it's not connected to external monitor/tv, i'm assuming it's a bad LCD, replacing it with the new one it's still the same, when connected to tv/monitor the touch seems to work but in the wrong orientation what could possibly wrong?

FYI:The replacement LCD from ifixit is normal when connected to my other steam deck.

Answer this question I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 4
2 Comments

When you say the device doesn’t boot, it doesn’t power on at all? Or it seems like it works properly other than the fact that it doesn’t give you a display?

by

@flannelist It is power on, i can feel the haptic from the trackpads but the screen is blank no backlight when i hook up to my tv and monitor it boot normally and the screen remains blank, it's just won't boot to the OS without ext. display. in desktop mode under display settings it only detect my ext. Display but the touch works flawlessly

by

Add a comment

3 Answers

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Most Helpful Answer

Options

Based on your additional details, this sounds like a board level issue. It’s probably booting to the OS just fine without the dock, you just can’t tell because there’s nothing on screen. Probably the touch functions are being detected, but not your display (even if it seems like the same thing, it’s two different systems).

Check and see if there is anything on screen when you shine a flashlight at it. It could be just the backlight is not working.

Ultimately this would probably be due to a previous repair attempt, but it’s hard to know since you are not the original owner. Either the connector was damaged, or something related to image power is not working. I haven’t done any board level work on these to know typical places to look, but give the board a good once over, especially in the area of the screen connector. And the cable too, to see if anything look amiss, or damaged.

Add some pictures to your original post if you want a second opinion!

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 1

11 Comments:

I thought so a backlight issue, but completely blank without picture at all tried under the sun and pointing my cree flash light, nothing, swapping the display and the display connector still the same.

by

@jdclck Here's where this gets tricky. I don't know of too many people doing board work on Steam Deck yet. There aren't any schematics or documentation that I know of available to the public about board operations. It would require experimentation to figure out how the circuitry might work enough to help. Pictures here are going to be our best clues.

by

I have the same symptom... I changed the LCD, but the screen did not come out. I think it was a PCB problem before the screen. I contacted Steam, but they said they had no way to help, which makes no sense.

by

Steam tells me to reformat Windows because it's an OS problem, but the backlight itself doesn't come on, so I don't understand Steam's policy as to why it keeps asking me to reset the program. Where can I get a PCB?

by

Same exact issue. I see that it was mentioned that it’s probably booting without the external monitor connected. That is not true in my case because if I unplug my external display the steam deck shuts down and when I plug it back in the steam deck logo appears as if it’s rebooting. Very strange. I messaged steam deck support and they suggested reimage which I did but it didn’t change anything. Also my touchscreen functions correctly. I can interact with my external monitor by touching the screen in the deck. Leads me to believe the screen is not damaged. I looked over the display connector and reseated it and it looks perfect and no damage as far as I could tell. I’m thinking it’s mobo failure at this point cause what else could it be. This is super weird and I’m honestly disappointed as I’m 2 months out of warranty.

by

Show 6 more comments

Add a comment

Options

Hello everyone, today my steam deck started doing the same, no backlight, no image on screen, everything works ok if I connect to external display.

It all started after leaving my Steam Deck logged into Windows 11 but in standby (sleeping) until it ran out of power.

As I stated, I have Windows and SteamOS and both exhibit the same problem. Under Windows, touchscreen is landscape orientation but TouchPad works OK.

Device Manager on both OSes don't show an internal display component driver, just the external monitor.

I'm thinking it's in fact a software problem, not a hardware issue.

I refuse to reimage to start over, I rather wait for a possible solution via CLI.

EDIT#1: After thinking it over, I don't think it's an OS problem, because what are the chances of having it failed on both Windows 11 and SteamOS at the same time?

It's more like a BIOS problem possibly, because the video problem is present on both Bios settings screen and Bios Booting Utilities (booting by pressing Vol - and Vol+).

Is there a separate Bios flash file?

Oh and I rememberI updated the Steam Deck to the latest firmware version while I was using it with the external monitor thinking it could fix it, but no.

Fingers crossed 🤞

Update (03/01/24)

Guys, I fixed my Steam Deck as follows:

I simply connected an external monitor and then i pressed the power button for 20 seconds. Then powered my Steam Deck and let it boot. I noticed a Steam Deck logo on the external monitor so I simply waited. There was no progress bar but just the logo.

I believe the Bios/UEFI was being upgraded when the logo was displaying, but I was blindly interrupting the process.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity on the logo screen, but then the device powered cycled itself and then boom, it booted back but this time on both, external and internal displays!

Maybe this helps somebody out there having the same issue.

Good luck!

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 1
Add a comment

Options

I was able to fix mine by flashing latest bios and doing reset (vol - and ...)
I had done resets in past and tried bios rollbacks with no luck.
Maybe this bios 121 fixed something

Info here https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comme...

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 0
Add a comment

Add your answer

Judieclck will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 1

Past 7 Days: 31

Past 30 Days: 133

All Time: 915