Just in time to support my household of... /checks notes/... adult children away at college with their own growing game collections. /shakes fist at sky/
(Don't get this wrong, I'm glad they're finally making these changes. Selfishly, I just wish they'd done it 5+ years ago.)
So then when I put the Steam Deck to sleep and he picks it up and hits power to wake it - it will ask which account to use? Or when starting a game?
That is what happens in the first case when I start the PS5 - it asks for the profile, and the second case on the Switch - when launching a game it asks which profile to play under.
You can already add multiple accounts to the Steam Deck and switch between them. Have you already set that up?
Nope. That is what I will need to look at.
So then when I put the Steam Deck to sleep and he picks it up and hits power to wake it - it will ask which account to use? Or when starting a game?
That is what happens in the first case when I start the PS5 - it asks for the profile, and the second case on the Switch - when launching a game it asks which profile to play under.
It does not ask when launching a game. You log into the device as a specific user. Only one user can be logged in at once but it supports easy switching between any accounts you’ve added to the device.
The Deck will show the last logged in account by default when waking from sleep or restarting. It will be at the PIN code screen if you have that configured or auto login if you don’t. From either screen just hold the power button for a couple seconds until it pops up the power menu. Select the “change account” option. If a game is currently running it will be closed when you change accounts.
You can configure whether it requires your PIN to be entered to get to the desktop or account switcher if you want to lock things down a bit more.
I'll just be glad that there's finally a way for my 7yo to play Satisfactory on my computer at the same time I'm playing something on the Steam Deck. I hate having to remember to turn off wifi on the Deck before I let him start the game on my PC if I think I might want to use it before he's done. Every time I forget, within a few minutes of waking up the Deck, I hear him yelling from downstairs that the game kicked him out, and I have to go down and log back into Steam.
Anyone have any suggestions for a steam deck with a blank screen? It's not a battery or boot issue. When plugged in to an external monitor it works fine. Touch screen works. Up to date with updates. It's not used much but the last time we went to use it the screen just wouldn't come on. I've gone through the standard stuff (hold down power, boot to bios, etc).
I assume it's going to need a new screen/digitizer. Anyone put one of these in? ifixit says it's a 2-3 hour process which seems like a long time.
Further research makes it sound like it may not be a hardware issue but software.
Black Screen of Death
Anyone have any suggestions for a steam deck with a blank screen? It's not a battery or boot issue. When plugged in to an external monitor it works fine. Touch screen works. Up to date with updates. It's not used much but the last time we went to use it the screen just wouldn't come on. I've gone through the standard stuff (hold down power, boot to bios, etc).
I assume it's going to need a new screen/digitizer. Anyone put one of these in? ifixit says it's a 2-3 hour process which seems like a long time.
Further research makes it sound like it may not be a hardware issue but software.
Black Screen of Death
Perhaps backup anything you need and reset to factory settings?
Good idea, I just tried that (without the backup part so hopefully my son doesn't have anything he needs on the deck) and reset to factory settings. I also did some updates from developer mode as someone on the linked video said that worked for them. Some people said desktop mode fixed it for them but no luck there either. It sounds like the severity of the issue (assuming it's the BSOD) is related to how long it is at 0% battery and this deck only gets used for vacations so it's likely that it has been at 0% for quite a while now (possibly months).
Finally got it working. Found a reddit post that has this response from support:
If the BIOS version is F7A0121 or higher, then try the following steps: Fully shutdown the unit. To do so, hold down the power button for a full 15 seconds to shut the system off. The screen will shut off before the full 15 seconds has elapsed, do not release the power button until the full 15 seconds has elapsed (this is because the unit will may not be shutdown fully even though the display is off). Unplug the external display/monitor from the Deck (so once the fix is done it will display to the Deck's internal screen instead) Hold the volume (-) button and QAM (...) button down at the same time. Keep holding those two buttons while you tap the power button once. If done correctly and registered correctly by the system, you should hear the normal chime sound and see the power LED on top start blinking (this will let you know the process started). You can then let go of the volume (-) and QAM (..) button. Allow for the unit to fully boot, this process may take up to 15 minutes again as it is repairing the firmware. If after this it does not work still, please plug your external display in again to check what is there. Let us know what you find in this case.
I was able to do that and it worked. My son will be quite happy.
Thanks. That post worked. I was already at the right bios level so I just needed the other instructions.
For posterity, here's a post of someone who was on BIOS version 120, so they detailed using a tool to force a BIOS update to get themselves to 121, before then using the same recovery steps as above to get their device back up and running.
Based on the 3 LED blink, it sounds like the Volume/QAM button combo is a shortcut to enabling Storage Mode without being able to access the BIOS and do it from there, and that the "fix" is simply toggling into and then back out of Storage Mode.
I had a similar issue with a Deck I bought refurbished. I was forced to get it started by hook and crook, update the OS to bleeding edge to force a BIOS update, and then I reverted it back to stale.
I also finally wised up and ordered a much slimmer hard case for the Deck, after suffering the original case being such a space-eater in my backpack when traveling. Wish I had thought of it a couple months ago.
I just bought this case to travel with the Deck and it's great. Much slimmer but still pretty sturdy.
I bought a Satisfye Stylthgrip for my Steam Deck back at the start of the year, and not once since then have my hands hurt like they used to (i think it was mainly the palms), so I thought I would anyone else that might be feeling that side effect about it. It's not perfect (wish it was a tad softer), but I do enjoy it, and I don't really travel with it so case fit has yet to be a concern (and I didn't splurge for the bundle).
Because I wanted to play Outerworlds which is free from Epic games now I finally got around to setting up the Deck to access the Epic store and play its games.
I used this guide from Polygon. Not too tough but not a simple click.
But it works and so does Outerworlds! Now I just hope Epic has a few more freebies that I am interested in.
Because I wanted to play Outerworlds which is free from Epic games now I finally got around to setting up the Deck to access the Epic store and play its games.
I used this guide from Polygon. Not too tough but not a simple click.
But it works and so does Outerworlds! Now I just hope Epic has a few more freebies that I am interested in.
I'd recommend Hero Launcher vs that method. Much less a PITA day to day. You don't have to go into the Epic Launcher very much, Hero Launcher replaces it with the Hero Launcher interface. While not perfect, it works much better and also allows you to use Amazon and GOG games. And it can make the games installed show up at the regular Steam Big Picture interface without having to go into anything if you set it up right.
I went Heroic and other than being unable to install linux-native versions of games from GOG (Windows versions install without issue), it's worked great.
Edit: And I continue to love my Steam Deck. I'm pretty much getting some gaming time in nightly with it. It'll be interesting to see my Steam stats at the end of the year and compare them to the past few years where I've played games much more sporadically and for very little time overall.
I may give Heroic another try. For now though I have Epic installed, can launch from game mode and play the game so I am happy.
I may give Heroic another try. For now though I have Epic installed, can launch from game mode and play the game so I am happy.
Are you set up to enable launching directly into the game from the Steam carousel, or do you have to go to Epic then the game? That's what got me. I think there are other ways to get it done like Heroic can be set to auto-configure, but when I originally started messing with it, Heroic made it much easier to have the game appear directly into the Steam launcher.
And don't get me started on the EA Launcher. It's not supported by Heroic and it's the worst of the lot.
I do go into the Epic launcher rather than straight into the game but I have a couple other Epic games I forgot I even got when they were free so I don't have a huge problem with that
farley3k wrote:I may give Heroic another try. For now though I have Epic installed, can launch from game mode and play the game so I am happy.
Are you set up to enable launching directly into the game from the Steam carousel, or do you have to go to Epic then the game? That's what got me. I think there are other ways to get it done like Heroic can be set to auto-configure, but when I originally started messing with it, Heroic made it much easier to have the game appear directly into the Steam launcher.
And don't get me started on the EA Launcher. It's not supported by Heroic and it's the worst of the lot.
I had to install the EA launcher to play Jedi Survivor on the deck. It sucked, but it worked.
MannishBoy wrote:farley3k wrote:I may give Heroic another try. For now though I have Epic installed, can launch from game mode and play the game so I am happy.
Are you set up to enable launching directly into the game from the Steam carousel, or do you have to go to Epic then the game? That's what got me. I think there are other ways to get it done like Heroic can be set to auto-configure, but when I originally started messing with it, Heroic made it much easier to have the game appear directly into the Steam launcher.
And don't get me started on the EA Launcher. It's not supported by Heroic and it's the worst of the lot.
I had to install the EA launcher to play Jedi Survivor on the deck. It sucked, but it worked.
Same. I haven't finished it. I started to buy it on Steam recently when it was on sale for $4. Should have.
I had to check but you mean Jedi Fallen Order - the first game. If the newest one had been on sale for $4 I would be delighted to install the EA Launcer.
I had to check but you mean Jedi Fallen Order - the first game. If the newest one had been on sale for $4 I would be delighted to install the EA Launcer.
My bad, I totally read through that. Reportedly Survivor doesn't run well on the Deck IIRC.
Yep, I meant Fallen Order as well. I haven’t tried the second game yet. Still haven’t finished the first.
My Steam Library
Thinking about subscribing to GeForce now again...
GeForce NOW — Steam Deck Tutorial & Gameplay Demo
Sorry to butt into the Deck-thread but I just can't help it, Geforce Now is just that good. I'm using it on the Ally and it's nothing short of transformative of the whole portable system paradigm.
It just works, looks amazing and I can play for hours on the 10W setting. Now if somebody only would put 5G into these things then I'd be set for good.
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