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Radiolint 4 Nov @ 10:12am
Dead OLED Trackpad Help
My left trackpad died a few months ago in my OLED deck. I'm well out of warranty, which is fine. Well, it "sort of" died. If I go into controller settings & do a button test, it isn't recognized, but if I try to adjust the vibration intensity it will work. It will adjust the vibration going from 1 to 15. The trackpad just won't recognize touch or pressure. It's weird.

I've taken my deck apart a bunch of times, I'm a fairly competent modder. There's no physical hardware damage I can see on any of the boards, connectors or ribbon cables. Everything's snug, it all looks good. I'm thinking it might be a software issue? I don't want to send the Deck in to Valve, they want $125-175 just to look at it. I want to do it myself. The problem is, the part isn't available anywhere. NOWHERE. ZERO. Not on ifixit. I can't find these stupid trackpads anywhere. No "parts only" decks on eBay, just one random eBay listing from china that's a complete gamble. It's also almost $100 after shipping, so it doesn't make much sense to do that either. I just don't want to send my Deck into Valve & have them send me back a refurb, or have the stupid $30 part become available 6 months from now.

Has anyone else had the same problem & managed to fix it themselves? NOT send their Deck into Valve? Or, do you know where to get a trackpad for the OLED model Deck? They're different than the LCD model, it's an F7G not an F7A unit assembly.

Valve, Steam, PLEASE! MAKE MORE PARTS AVAILABLE FOR THE DECK! Stick to your stance on repairability & sustainability, on RIGHT TO REPAIR! I don't want to scrap time, money, or perfectly working gear because you won't make a $20-30 part available. COME ON, don't be a micro$oft or a $ony or a Dell or so many other companies that make disposable hardware!


Thanks for any help, at all, genuinely 🫠
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
Scary Potato 9 Nov @ 7:05am 
Sorry for your situation. I am on the same boat like you. No pressure or touch could be sensed on the right trackpad. But haptics works just fine. Also looking for those replacement parts.
#1
da1writer1985 28 Nov @ 8:48am 
Would like to mention this happened to me on my Steamdeck OLED, left trackpad vibrates but using it for any swiping function or as a "touch pad" itself is non existent. This happened in recent firmware updates from what I can tell as I didn't have this issue before. I baby my device too, no drops or damages (like falls or liquids) like some people tend to secretly not mention. I've tried doing a firmware/bios reset as mentioned in discord - nope. Firmware rollback (you can only go back by one) but the only option is the November releases which is when this issue started happening, so it's pretty worthless in don't (I tried though, no improvement). I'm told I should uninstall Decky plugins or Decky itself but I really don't think that's the problem. I'm past warranty as well, so my only option is to hope Valve finds our what the issue is and does a firmware update, or just deal with the faulty issue and maybe buy the Steam Controller as a backup if I need to use the left trackpad in a game, kinda sucks that an 8th of the device is non functional though.

Told I should do a complete factory reset or flash to Recovery menu items to go even further back in firmware which sounds awful to do. The Steamdeck is my only PC, so anything requiring another computer is out of the question.
#2
da1writer1985 28 Nov @ 8:50am 
Originally posted by Scary Potato:
Sorry for your situation. I am on the same boat like you. No pressure or touch could be sensed on the right trackpad. But haptics works just fine. Also looking for those replacement parts.
Right touchpads are easy to fix. Be sure to be plugged into the og plug that came with the device and have it plugged into the wall, not a cord extender or surge protector. Turn device completely off, but after hold volume down and the on button for a few seconds. A new menu should pop up but you can now see a mouse icon for the right trackpad usable one touched. Turn off the device and turn it back on, Right Trackpad should work now.

You'll find a TON of info on how to fix the Right Trackpad but nearly nothing about the Left Trackpad...
Last edited by da1writer1985; 28 Nov @ 8:59am
#3
Airvanz 28 Nov @ 11:13am 
Originally posted by da1writer1985:
Would like to mention this happened to me on my Steamdeck OLED, left trackpad vibrates but using it for any swiping function or as a "touch pad" itself is non existent. This happened in recent firmware updates from what I can tell as I didn't have this issue before. I baby my device too, no drops or damages (like falls or liquids) like some people tend to secretly not mention. I've tried doing a firmware/bios reset as mentioned in discord - nope. Firmware rollback (you can only go back by one) but the only option is the November releases which is when this issue started happening, so it's pretty worthless in don't (I tried though, no improvement). I'm told I should uninstall Decky plugins or Decky itself but I really don't think that's the problem. I'm past warranty as well, so my only option is to hope Valve finds our what the issue is and does a firmware update, or just deal with the faulty issue and maybe buy the Steam Controller as a backup if I need to use the left trackpad in a game, kinda sucks that an 8th of the device is non functional though.

Told I should do a complete factory reset or flash to Recovery menu items to go even further back in firmware which sounds awful to do. The Steamdeck is my only PC, so anything requiring another computer is out of the question.
if you Sure its Software issue and Not Hardware maybe try install other Operating System Like Bazzite or god forbid windows? at your local PC Service Center? for me i have 2 PC a 2013 Dell latitude Chonky Laptop I5 Gen 4 and intel HD Graphic 4000 Dual Boot Windows 10 LTSC and Linux Mint and Steam Deck
#4
Radiolint 29 Nov @ 6:19pm 
I broke down & ordered the questionable Chinese trackpad assembly kit. It has two options available (I wasn't sure which part might be faulty so I got both), the haptic touchpad itself & the small daughterboard that sits on top of it. Worryingly, it doesn't come with any 6-pin ribbon cables in case one of mine are bad. Both together was $70, plus $30 shipping from China. Ugh.

As much as I like Valve & trust them more than any other console manufacturer, I just can't risk having random expensive parts swapped out or getting sent a refurb Deck back. On top of the $125-175 charge (which didn't even guarantee they'd fix anything). That's just diagnostics AFAIK, so I might have needed to spend more on the parts anyway.

I will update this thread with the results of this experiment, since this seems to be a problem that's frequent enough to happen to many people, but not frequent enough to have a viable alternative repair solution figured out online yet. Hopefully this contributes to that. The parts should be here early December.


I plead again to Valve, PLEASE MAKE MORE PARTS FOR THE OLED DECK AVAILABLE from places like ifixit. Especially high wear/fragile parts like the trackpad assemblies. There's no reason they shouldn't be made available for repair. Keep Right To Repair alive & active!
#5
Radiolint 3 Dec @ 8:32pm 
Just wanted to update this, the Chinese pad & replacement daughterboard came today & I installed them in the Deck.

Good news, it works.

Bad news...only kind of.

The pad & board work, and is recognized by the Deck in controller settings/calibration/games. However, the new one I got did not have what appears to be the haptic motor in the center of the pad, or a two pin cable on it that is likely the power & ground for the haptic feedback. If they're bootlegging these after work hours to sell on eBay, it makes sense they'd bypass the most expensive, difficult part.

However

It technically works - the touch works now - but now there's no haptics or rumble on the left side. That really sucks. Especially considering how much it cost. Seems you can have one or the other with the random Chinese eBay one.


I have started to see a few more F7G OLED replacements pop up on eBay, so I will likely try another one that's off an official Valve Deck instead & try again. I'd still rather fix this myself.

Still sucks that if the part was available from ifixit or somewhere new, it'd likely be cheaper, & brand new. Oh well.



*edit*

If anyone is hunting eBay for these parts & is curious what seller this pad/board combo came from, I won't link them directly, but I will say their store username starts with a "sha" & ends with an "ouk". I messaged them saying basically "hey, the obvious bootleg part you made didn't include the haptic motor, you didn't mention that, what do you want to do? etc" We'll see if they offer a refund on the part since returning it all the way to China is silly. I won't hold my breath.
Last edited by Radiolint; 6 Dec @ 2:55am
#6
Radiolint 14 hours ago 
Ok, final update:

After ordering & receiving a different trackpad assembly for the OLED Deck, a used one out of a salvaged Deck, I'm happy to say it now works just fine again. At $70 it was still overpriced, but it's still far cheaper than sending the deck into Valve. Plus you don't lose any time, & most important, you don't risk them losing any of your custom buttons/SSD/skins/shells/etc.

The Chinese eBay seller is trying to get me to agree to being sent another pad, but I think it's just because it'll take over a month to get here from Mainland, & by then I won't be able to do anything through eBay or PayPal anymore. I've asked for a refund, but I'm not feeling very confident they'll agree. I chalked this up to a trial & learning experience.


So I guess my final post here about it is;

A) If it's too good to be true, it probably is
B) Make sure to check & read the descriptions of ads VERY carefully (& look at pictures closely)
C) Take screenshots of an ad before buying, that way if they change it after you buy, you have proof
D) Try to buy locally wherever you are, & from reputable electronics salvage/refurbish stores or from private sellers
E) Keep bothering Valve to release more new parts for the OLED Deck through official resellers like ifixit


I hope this helps anyone who's had the same problem I have, looking for information. Thanks!
#7
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Steam Deck > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: 4 Nov @ 10:12am
Posts: 7

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