I think it’s the HDMI switch that’s the cause of the weak signal. Steam Deck Dock Operation Guide says in a couple of spots if there’s too many splits on an HDMI, or if using a switch, you can have a weak signal. It says to use a cable less than 2 meters long, which just sounds like a made up measurement to me 
3 Likes
What HDMI switch do you use? I’ve tried the Konami code and unplug replug restart voodoo and it only seems to work for a few minutes for me before it just goes back to flickering a lot.
1 Like
Hmm, well I don’t use any HDMI cables that are longer than about 1.5 metres so take that for what it’s worth.
1 Like
Question! How do you guys play emulated DS and Wii games that rely heavily on the stylus and Wii motes? Is there a good stylus that works with the Deck? Is there a way to not have to use Wii motes?
2 Likes
I’ll be honest, I use my New 2DS to play DS games. It’s perfectly suited for the dual screen setup so I don’t really bother emulating them on Steam Deck. However you can likely purchase any passive stylus meant for capacitive screens to use with the Steam Deck.
As for Wiimotes, I believe Dolphin can remap Wiimote directions to traditional key/button input, but I haven’t really played around with that very much. The Dolphin manual includes a section on virtual Wiimote setup.
3 Likes
I haven’t delved into Wii games much, but I know Dolphin has options for remapping Wiimote motion and pointer controls. For DS games, I’ve found that the Deck’s touch screen is usable, but not really the best for games that require a lot of precise touch inputs. I played Phantom Hourglass on the Deck with a capacitive screen stylus, the ones with the fat tips similar to these. One of the OLED model’s new features was an improved touch screen, so I was very excited to check out DS games when I upgraded, but even on the OLED it still didn’t feel quite responsive enough for the finer inputs required in Phantom Hourglass. To give you an idea, movement and tapping all work fine, but writing and the little circles you need to draw to roll did not feel doable. Even writing numbers while playing sudoku in Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training gave me trouble. I think the Deck would be just fine for games that only rely on taps and less precise motions for menu navigation, like in most 3DS games. But I personally won’t be doing more extensive touch screen gaming than that, especially because I don’t want to risk scratching my screen by accident.
One thing that is very nice though is that the Deck supports mouse & keyboard, which actually worked extremely well for Spirit Tracks (With the directional input patch). I’d also explore that if the game you want to play is a good fit for it.
5 Likes
I’ve had my Steam Deck for about two years now, I thought I’d share two recent wear-and-tear notes…
At the start of this year, my left joystick started having issues in the southeast quadrant. They started with some drift-like behavior, then an audible “click” when moving in that direction. Searching for the problem online, most said it was an issue with newer joysticks and would improve with use. Even though mine is two years old, that advice seemed accurate… the problem improved on its own, and now seems to have gone away. No idea. 
I’ve been using the official case this whole time. Last week the zipper started to separate from the seam at the far edge, making it harder to close. So I bought one of the cases that I’ve seen @BMO recommend a few times, and I honestly wish I’d done so a lot sooner. I expected it to be much lower profile (it is), but I was surprised by how much lighter it feels to carry, too.
4 Likes
Has anyone played around with Junk Store? It’s a plugin that can be loaded using Decky plugin loader, and allows you to install Epic and GoG games directly from Steam in console mode. I use Heroic to load Epic and GoG games right now, but Junk Store looks like it has potential to be a nice way to access non-Steam games.
2 Likes
I haven’t, but I’ve bookmarked it to look into sometime. I’ve recently noticed some hit-or-miss behavior with Heroic.
(It came on my radar when they announced they’d be launching the plugin directly through the Steam store, then swiftly walked that back.)
1 Like
I’ve never had 100% success with it.
I recently tried to install the Epic store on my Steam Deck, but the download won’t initiate on Linux. I had to download it on Windows and transfer it. This was not a problem when I bought my original SteamDeck. I wonder if Epic is trying to block downloads on Linux to prevent installing the store on SteamDeck. An odd choice if true, given Sweeny’s desire to get the Epic store on every platform.
1 Like
My desire for the limited edition white Steam Deck is unreasonably strong!
I always wanted a white PS Vita back in the day and now this feels like the surrogate to fulfill that wish.
4 Likes
I’ve been thinking I want an OLED model anyway. I don’t know. I really shouldn’t spend the money but I could spend the money on it.
2 Likes
Oh I know that sentiment very well. That almost always means the money is being spent
1 Like
One of my worst decisions was saving my credit card in Steam so I just need to click one button to buy something.
1 Like
Man, imagine being able to just…afford a purchase like this. I can’t even afford Ramen. Y’all living the high life lmao
I’m going to be honest, I’m tempted to save for the oled but the lcd… the bargains are just too great to ignore in my opinion
You can really go wrong with either one. Unless you really want an OLED screen with a refresh rate of 90hz, the LCD is still a great choice.
1 Like
It’s a bummer that Qualcomm discontinued aptX-LL (low latency) and replaced it with aptX Adaptive. Adaptive isn’t quite as low latency as aptX-LL, and after testing both aptX-LL and aptX Adaptive headsets with the Steam Deck I find the difference significantly noticeable. There is really no perceptible lag with aptX-LL, but quite a bit with Adaptive. Even things like menu navigational beeps are noticeably delayed with Adaptive headsets. I was hopping Adaptive would perform better than this because it’s increasingly difficult to find headsets that still feature the older codec.
best steam deck to get if you are mainly using it inside?
Or in countries that have no sun 
I’d also like to ask (and excuse what will be hugely noon-like questions from me in this thread) what happens with future proofing these? I assume in the regard they are to be treated like consoles; kept for five years and then a new one bought?
It just worries me because computer graphics evolve so fast I don’t want to suddenly find it can’t play game in a year or two’s time.
P.S. Is there a way of seeing which games in your Steam library are Deck comparable?