All portable consoles in the last ten years have found a similar problem in a very curious component. This problem is called drift and it occurs in the sticks of these devices, normally in the analog ones, as we say, very frequently even in desktop consoles, but does Steam Deck suffer from it? Well, it seems that yes, according to numerous users, and that Valve released an explanatory statement on this subject. There’s a solution?
Go ahead that no product is totally perfect as standard and that in many cases there are major or minor failures in the assembly lines. But when it comes to a component of the most popular console of the moment, everything is magnified and if it is due to drift, then criticism comes. What does Valve say about it?
Steam Deck and the drift on the analog sticks: an uncalculated error
It was last year due to the fear that this would happen today that Valve was asked about the drift problems that they could have given the configuration of their console and especially seen what was seen with Nintendo Switch. At that time Valve stated the following:
We’ve done a lot of reliability testing, on all fronts really, and all the inputs and different environmental factors and all that kind of stuff. I think we feel like this will work very well. And I think people will be super happy with that. I think it will be a great purchase. I mean, obviously all parts will fail at some point, but we think people will be very satisfied and happy with this.
Given this, several branches of complaints have arisen on Reddit in this regard where the errors are more than evident and logically the now owners of this console are angry and rightly so, since the slipping of the stick is in some cases alarming.
Valve responds and tries to calm users
The problem can be seen in the video above and it perfectly describes what happens in seconds. Given these problems and the evidence of them, as well as the number of them, Valve has had to release a statement that says:
“The team analyzed these reports and determined that a dead zone calibration issue was introduced in a recent firmware update. We just submitted a fix to fix the issue, and the team will continue to monitor for reports related to this issue.”
That is, it is a simple bad calibration which we understand will be solved by software and pertinent update in the next few days. Likewise, if the problem persists and the new calibration does not work, that is, it is a physical problem with the stick, remember that there are spare parts that are officially sold from iFixit.
The problem is that disassembling the console, although it is allowed, is not really easy, nor is it impossible, far from it, but it requires patience, organization in screws and order of disassembly and, above all, a certain amount of time until we can remove the stick. If you want to check the accuracy of your stick on the console, you can go to the gamepad-tester website and see if you actually suffer from the problem.
