Computer

The Steam Deck will be difficult to repair: deficiencies in the design?

If the expectation Steam Deck is high, the two new videos of his analysis that have been published have left many more lights than shadows, but the latter have been quite important. And it is that as Valve itself said, its console will not be easy to disassemble, but from there to what has been seen there is a step, since there are parts that could be damaged if we try to extract them, which suggests that there could be deficiencies in its design for different reasons.

There are just over two weeks left and everything is becoming clearer. Steam Deck is not only going to take the handheld console market by storm, it’s going to do it sufficiently to the point that in 2022 it may not even have a rival. But although there are many good things, like we have a problem with the console…

Right to repair, but Steam Deck disassembly is not easy

Valve wants a user to be able to repair their Steam Deck just like on PC, so it is more than likely that they will make many parts of the console available to users as replacements, if not all. The problem is that repairing it will not be an easy task.

Although the videos of Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus are instructive on the matter, the reality they show is quite worrying. In the first place, the disassembly itself is not suitable for the faint of heart, it is complicated, it has different levels and except for certain easy-to-remove parts such as the heatsink or the controls, the rest is an amalgamation of patience and tenacity coupled with high technical knowledge. as well as intuition in the order of hardware removal.

But even if we do it with the necessary materials and tools, the expertise of each one will be the best weapon for said disassembly, and that is that we can render our Steam Deck inoperative.

Be careful with the battery and the Micro SD

Two have been the main points to be discussed in this disassembly, which at the same time are fundamental parts of the console: Battery and storage. The first one is L-shaped, it is quite large and it is attached in such a way to the chassis that it supports it that seeing how it is removed is shocking, mainly because of the force we have to use to extract it.

So much so that it makes no sense to use so much sealing glue on it, since we could damage it when removing it. The other delicate point is curiously the Micro SD. If we do not carry out the correct order of disassembly, we could literally break it in two. As can be seen in the videos, when removing the back of the display, the reader is also removed, but it must be done in a specific order because otherwise we would end up removing it at once and applying a minimum of force we could break it.

What we have here is an attempt by Valve that may well be linked to two reasons: a deficiency in the design that needs the maximum amount of space inside the console so that the battery does not move even a millimeter from its place. Or that Valve tries not to replace the battery as such, perhaps because of the risk of explosion or fire, perhaps because they consider that it is something that should not be removed.

On the other hand, that the card reader is in that position with that disassembly does not help either and can become unusable if we apply too much pressure. So when you receive your Steam Deck be careful when disassembling it, because in certain cases you could have a nice paperweight.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *