Need to get your Steam Deck fixed up? Well, you no longer have to do it yourself as Valve have officially opened up some repair centers. If you need to send off your Steam Deck for any reason, it will now go to one of their specialized repair shops.
If your issue is under warranty, Valve will continue fixing free of charge. However, you now have the option of getting out of warranty repairs done professionally with a charge depending on what the problem is, instead of having to wait for iFixit to have parts and doing it yourself.
As they explained:
- If your unit begins to develop an intermittent button input issue (rare, but it sometimes happens), contact support, who will help get your Steam Deck shipped to one of our repair centers. Our team will diagnose it, replace the button, test and calibrate the unit, then send the fixed unit back to you, free of charge – as this is covered by warranty.
- If your dog gnaws on your thumbstick and breaks it, this is not covered by warranty. Previously your only option was DIY repair, but now you'll now be able to contact support, who will supply instructions to ship your Steam Deck to one of our repair centers. Our team will take a look and offer to replace and calibrate your thumbstick for a fee. This process will also be available once your warranty expires.
This just continues to show how all-in Valve are on the future of the Steam Deck, like the recent confirmation that there will be future Steam Decks (like a Steam Deck 2?).
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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17 comments
Nice! 
I can see this being useful for people who want to replace their worn out batteries!
Particularly since the batteries are glued down and taking it out risks damaging the unit, at least if Valve does it any damage done while removing the battery can be fixed immediately!
I can see this being useful for people who want to replace their worn out batteries!
Particularly since the batteries are glued down and taking it out risks damaging the unit, at least if Valve does it any damage done while removing the battery can be fixed immediately!
8 Likes, Who?
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I think answer to that is easy: You can just tell them " you have a drifting problem" while you actually don't have ( btw " you " here is an example, anyone can do it ) such problem, get the parts, sell them somewhere or just stock them in case if they go drifty.
As a verification process for such thing would be messy - user has a problem but wants to do repairing themselves, should we send the parts now? - i totally understand that approach. Like you can't get a camera module from Samsung, Sony, Apple etc with saying " i have warranty, give me part, i will change it" .
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 September 2022 at 8:23 pm UTC
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I think answer to that is easy: You can just tell them " you have a drifting problem" while you actually don't have ( btw " you " here is an example, anyone can do it ) such problem, get the parts, sell them somewhere or just stock them in case if they go drifty.
As a verification process for such thing would be messy - user has a problem but wants to do repairing themselves, should we send the parts now? - i totally understand that approach. Like you can't get a camera module from Samsung, Sony, Apple etc with saying " i have warranty, give me part, i will change it" .
well, there will always bee black sheep. The question is how much you trust the customer (and of course how expensive the parts are). For example Fractal recently just sent me a replacement fan after i asked if it is a known issue with a possible workaround that a fan started ticking sometimes, despite my case being out of warranty for a year already.
Additionally, shipping, diagnosing and repairing isn't free, so if the money saved on that outweighs the money lost on dicks abusing the system, it even makes sense from a pure economy-standpoint.
So while your point is perfectly valid, it is not set in stone that sending in the whole unit to be repaired by the RMA team is the only viable course of action.
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If shelling out money for replacing it yourself is still more appealing to you then the RMA, you might consider to upgrade to those magnetic stick replacements. Heard they are a little superior because they need way less deadzone and are pretty much immune to drifting.
Edit: They are from gulikit, cost $30, too
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 September 2022 at 8:23 pm UTC
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I think answer to that is easy: You can just tell them " you have a drifting problem" while you actually don't have ( btw " you " here is an example, anyone can do it ) such problem, get the parts, sell them somewhere or just stock them in case if they go drifty.
As a verification process for such thing would be messy - user has a problem but wants to do repairing themselves, should we send the parts now? - i totally understand that approach. Like you can't get a camera module from Samsung, Sony, Apple etc with saying " i have warranty, give me part, i will change it" .
well, there will always bee black sheep. The question is how much you trust the customer (and of course how expensive the parts are). For example Fractal recently just sent me a replacement fan after i asked if it is a known issue with a possible workaround that a fan started ticking sometimes, despite my case being out of warranty for a year already.
Additionally, shipping, diagnosing and repairing isn't free, so if the money saved on that outweighs the money lost on dicks abusing the system, it even makes sense from a pure economy-standpoint.
So while your point is perfectly valid, it is not set in stone that sending in the whole unit to be repaired by the RMA team is the only viable course of action.
You comparing PC case fan replacement with modular pcb replacement in small and cramped device. Those fans (likely) are cheep than any one ribbon cable, connector or switch/stick. Who and how many times someone FOBAR'ed case by replacing fan in past few decades and how many broke something extra on steam deck past 6 mouths? Steam Deck not designed for casual or bit more advance servicing. Self-tapping screw, glue-in batter, replacements of internal storage few mills bigger f-up things. Telling a lot IMHO, give it who knows better or will give new replacement, no questions asked, if THEY screw something up.
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Even now, far too many Decks are shipping with defects that should be detected and rectified in the factory.People only think there is because of confirmation bias. The community is still overall relatively small and so voices about defects can easily cut through the noise. I can guarantee you the rate of failures are pretty normal for mass production.
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Where are these repair centers located?
They haven't said. All they say is to open a support ticket and they'll arrange to have your unit shipped to one of their centres.
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Sorry but isn't this just normal ? The ifixit thing where you can get parts, that is cool and let's hope more companies go that route, either because new laws force them or they simply see the light :)
But you know, your still under warranty device breaks then its nothing more then normal that you can ship it back and it gets fixed. This has nothing to do with "This just continues to show how all-in Valve are on the future of the Steam Deck" but is normal consumer law/rules. And even out of warranty fixing for a price is not that unheard off.
Last edited by Bumadar on 10 September 2022 at 6:58 pm UTC
But you know, your still under warranty device breaks then its nothing more then normal that you can ship it back and it gets fixed. This has nothing to do with "This just continues to show how all-in Valve are on the future of the Steam Deck" but is normal consumer law/rules. And even out of warranty fixing for a price is not that unheard off.
Last edited by Bumadar on 10 September 2022 at 6:58 pm UTC
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I understand where you're coming from that it would be easier to just send you the sticks and you swap them yourself.You comparing PC case fan replacement with modular pcb replacement in small and cramped device. Those fans (likely) are cheep than any one ribbon cable, connector or switch/stick. Who and how many times someone FOBAR'ed case by replacing fan in past few decades and how many broke something extra on steam deck past 6 mouths? Steam Deck not designed for casual or bit more advance servicing. Self-tapping screw, glue-in batter, replacements of internal storage few mills bigger f-up things. Telling a lot IMHO, give it who knows better or will give new replacement, no questions asked, if THEY screw something up.
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However, for this to work you'd have to send them your faulty sticks back, since that's generally how RMA/Warranties work.
Would you be willing to do that? If not then they simply could not process the return, since they have no way of verifying the product is/was faulty.
Usually your warranty claims will also become a part of their statistics and in some instances they will use a report/notes of a faulty unit to improve further units (to stop it happening to another batch for example).
It's not so much about being anti-consumer at this point, it's about making sure that the faults don't occur on the next model by investigating failed components and/or by checking build quality. For example, they might think that perhaps your stick is drifting because of how the unit was put together, maybe someone was too heavy handed in the factory? Were they sent a bad batch of sticks? If so do they need to do a recall? etc. They'd want to know/check these things.
In any case, for a warranty/rma to work the following needs to happen one way or another:
- Manufacturer takes faulty part/component/device
- Customer gets their unit repaired/and or replaced.
Lastly, as per the terms of most warranties and laws, when a manufacturer accepts responsibility for a fault and accepts a warranty claim then the onus is on them to fix the fault, by law. Which means it's on them to replace and/or fix the whole device, for free.
Legally speaking sending a customer a new set of thumb sticks for a device like this is not "fixing the fault". It's leaving the customer with a broken device and telling them to fix it themselves.
Additionally Valve cannot know for sure that the customer really knows how to repair their unit correctly (they don't work for valve / or a qualified repair centre) and cannot be sure that it will be fixed correctly.
Many people will claim they know how to handle hardware repairs, where in fact, they don't. For example a common one is handing heat-sinks and thermal paste with their bare hands, neglecting skin oils may interfere and in some instances cause corrosion. Another example, how does Valve verify the customer knows to ground themselves correctly? Does the customer follow safety protocol? etc? Valve have no way of verifying if a customer understands these things or not, therefor they cannot force the customer to do their own repair in an instance of warranty.
If a customer is repairing a unit and hurts themselves after Valve has sent the parts and instructed them to do the repair, in some countries, like USA, Valve could probably get sued by the customer for "causing harm through neglect" or something (Americans full-on love contacting lawyers for the smallest of things).
This is because it's a warranty claim, valve has accepted all responsibility to ensure the item is repaired or replaced correctly.
The conditions for Valve are very different should you decide to buy the parts separately and fit them yourself, in that case if anything happens, legally speaking, that's not valve's problem.
In any case, Valve are handling this pretty well overall. It's quite rare for a manufacturer to allow you to buy parts and repair it yourself and keep your warranty in the first place. Sometimes manufacturers will try to "get out" of a warranty claim by coming up with extensive excuses which they will try to put the blame on the customer so they don't have to pay/fix it. (Lenovo, Dell, HP for example)
Anyway, just my 2c.
Where are these repair centers located?I heard a rumour, they will be on planet dirt
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 September 2022 at 8:24 pm UTC
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In the end, I think the reason for Valve is simple to grasp. While they don't stop us from opening the device, they don't want to encourage us either. There are probably also not enough people with ee diplomas reaching out to them to create a separate process, including the verification of these. Support hours are also resources to manage.
Last edited by const on 11 September 2022 at 9:55 am UTC
Last edited by const on 11 September 2022 at 9:55 am UTC
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Putting aside how condescending you are in this entire reply, I find it pretty ironic that you attack someone for claiming to be a legal expert (which they didn't), then go on to try to appear to be an expert in European law (by "researching" whatever the hell that means). And the comment you're replying to was mainly talking about America anyway. Sheesh.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 September 2022 at 8:25 pm UTC
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Apropos killing the planet: Apparently, as one of their employees told me when I had to send in mine, Valve's RMA process consists of throwing away bad units and sending brand new ones.
I can't fully confirm this, but I can tell you the one I got back after RMA had a different serial number. And the problem I had could've been easily solved by swapping out the hard drive which is not even soldered in.
Although this is super wasteful, good news is you'll get a new deck sooner than expected if you send it in for repair. What's a little e-waste sitting on a dumpster between friends? /s
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 September 2022 at 8:25 pm UTC
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Imagine if you had to send your car back to Japan every time it needed a tire change. That's really stupid.Japan, no, but if you want the tire replaced for free because warranty, you have to go to that car company's dealership.
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Presumably that's one more reason they are now making repair centres. If they didn't have repair centres until now, it's not a huge surprise that they went with a quick-and-dirty approach that didn't require any actual, you know, repairs. Hopefully that will now change.It sucks that Valve can't send me replacement parts under warranty. My sticks are drifting badly and support says I can't get sticks sent to me, even though I'm an EE and can replace them myself. Why are my only two choices either losing my deck for weeks, or shelling out $30, if my Steam Deck is practically new and is still under warranty? Why do I need to ship 2 kilos around the world instead of a few grams, killing the planet that tiny bit more?
Apropos killing the planet: Apparently, as one of their employees told me when I had to send in mine, Valve's RMA process consists of throwing away bad units and sending brand new ones.
I can't fully confirm this, but I can tell you the one I got back after RMA had a different serial number. And the problem I had could've been easily solved by swapping out the hard drive which is not even soldered in.
Although this is super wasteful, good news is you'll get a new deck sooner than expected if you send it in for repair. What's a little e-waste sitting on a dumpster between friends? /s
2 Likes, Who?
I think we can all agree with cheater that there are probably better, more flexible and innovative ways that repairs could be carried out. And I think we can all agree with various other voices in this thread that in the real world, putting these into practice can be challenging and carries some risks.
I'm just glad that Valve are actually taking the first baby step towards that more flexible model, by devolving the repairs to global centres that can turn around devices more effectively. Fingers crossed it's the first improvement of many.
As for me, cheater, even if your model was available to me right now, today, free of charge and with my warranty intact after I carried out my own repairs... I wouldn't use it. I'm not comfortable opening up my device to do those repairs and honestly even I was, doing so is a waste of my time. This is as true of my steam deck as it is of my washing machine.
I actually remember opening up my three-year-old GBA to fit a front light many years ago. It worked, but it took me hours, it was stressful, and I managed to get some dust under the display that I never managed to get rid of. Never again!
Last edited by scaine on 12 September 2022 at 3:36 pm UTC
I'm just glad that Valve are actually taking the first baby step towards that more flexible model, by devolving the repairs to global centres that can turn around devices more effectively. Fingers crossed it's the first improvement of many.
As for me, cheater, even if your model was available to me right now, today, free of charge and with my warranty intact after I carried out my own repairs... I wouldn't use it. I'm not comfortable opening up my device to do those repairs and honestly even I was, doing so is a waste of my time. This is as true of my steam deck as it is of my washing machine.
I actually remember opening up my three-year-old GBA to fit a front light many years ago. It worked, but it took me hours, it was stressful, and I managed to get some dust under the display that I never managed to get rid of. Never again!
Last edited by scaine on 12 September 2022 at 3:36 pm UTC
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Your sources? :DEven now, far too many Decks are shipping with defects that should be detected and rectified in the factory.People only think there is because of confirmation bias. The community is still overall relatively small and so voices about defects can easily cut through the noise. I can guarantee you the rate of failures are pretty normal for mass production.
According to my sources, the rate of manufacturing defects for Steam Deck is far higher than it should be, which could simply because Valve have only shipped less than 150,000.
Hopefully the manufacturing process continues to improve.
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