I’ve lost a Steam Deck to a broken screen before; this is not my first rodeo. Though I’ll add, this second time was not actually my fault. This second Steam Deck has been treated like a newborn, kept in its KillSwitch case at all times, and I’ve even resisted the temptation to crack it open and install hall-effect sticks. It is untouched inside by human hands, and yet, inexplicably, it broke on me.
Guys I’ve lost another Steam Deck. RIP 🙏 — not my fault this time. Havent even dropped it. Just screen wont come on, only works docked. FML 🙃 pic.twitter.com/4H1fOfyuoAJune 15, 2025
As simple as it sounds, my battery died playing copious amounts of Blue Prince one day, and after plugging the Deck back into charge, it would not switch on. Well, the haptic pads responded, and I heard the boot-up sound, but the screen remained black. Not even a backlight.
I plugged the Steam Deck into my external monitor to find it was indeed alive, in its own way, and it was just the screen on the Deck not working. But how? I hadn’t abused it this time at all? I tried multiple fixes I found online via Reddit and YouTube, but nothing worked, including the ‘battery drain’ method so often touted as a fix-all for Steam Deck issues.
Having accepted my fate of probably having to pay for a repair, I reached out to Valve customer service. My Steam Deck is long out of warranty at this point, and I was willing to pay for them to fix it, but we went through some troubleshooting first, and my wallet is thankfully intact, as with Valve’s help, I managed to get the Steam Deck screen back on and functioning.
I wanted to write about the experience mainly because their customer service was so incredibly patient and responsive to my messages, the complete opposite of the experience I’ve had with other tech companies in the past — and great customer service deserves celebrating!
If you also have this problem, some of these suggestions from Valve may help you get your Steam Deck back to its usual self.
How to fix Steam Deck screen not turning on
Just to repeat, my screen had no backlight on at all; it was completely off. Valve support was incredibly helpful and walked me through several rounds of troubleshooting.
- Check you’re using the official charger, and look for a solid white LED light when charging.
Mine passed this check; it was charging fine with a solid white LED.
We then tried a Firmware reset, for which the instructions were:
- Power off the Deck completely (hold power 10 seconds).
- Press and hold Volume (-) + QAM (“…”) button.
- While holding those, tap the Power button once.
- Wait for the white LED to blink (can take 5–10 seconds).
- Let go and give it up to 2 minutes (screen may stay black throughout).
This has worked for some users on social platforms like Reddit, but in my case, it didn’t work. We then tried a BIOS update, so Valve instructed me that the BIOS needed to be F7A0131 or higher. Thankfully, I could verify this via my external monitor, but here’s how to do it:
- Enable Developer Mode:
Steam > Settings > System > Enable Developer Mode - Go to Developer tab > Toggle Show Advanced Update Channels
- In Settings > System, set OS Update Channel to “Main”
- Click Apply under Software Updates
- Let Deck restart fully — this could take 15 minutes and the screen might appear dead. Don’t interrupt it.
- Once booted, unplug the external monitor and see if internal screen is back.
At this point, my Steam Deck updated to BIOS F7A0131, but the screen remained black. What ultimately fixed it was forcing the firmware repair again after the BIOS update.
- Power off fully — hold power for 15 full seconds even after screen goes black.
- Unplug external monitor.
- Press and hold Volume (-) + QAM (“…”)
- Tap Power once while holding both buttons.
- Release when white LED starts blinking or you hear a chime (I didn’t hear a chime, but it still worked).
- Wait up to 15 minutes.
It was tempting to mess with it during this stage as it felt like a lifetime, and my Steam Deck actually restarted itself 3 times during the process and seemed stuck, but it worked. Patience was key!
GUYS ITS ALIVE…… ALIIIIIIIVE GOD BLESS YOU GABE pic.twitter.com/do3I7AbrFpJune 20, 2025
What stuck with me about this experience is that Valve didn’t push me to a paid, out-of-warranty repair straight away; they genuinely seemed to want to help me fix it, even though it took around seven messages going back and forth over the space of 48 hours. They made what could have been a bricked $400 console feel totally salvageable (and I celebrated by buying a new Steam game immediately.)
My Steam Deck lives to see another day!