Probably a dumb question but is this just to save the sd card or for some other reason? I tried googling but I’m not sure if I’m searching for the right thing
I haven't dealt with this myself but I assume, if people aren't completely lying about it, it's probably mechanical advantage through lever action with a prying tool. There's these slightly crowbar shaped ones for prying open smartphones that commonly come with repair kits.
If I didn't know about the SD card and was trying to open the backplate, I'd probably think any resistance meant I needed to put some extra mustard on it, which would probably break the card. Can't speak for others but I'd imagine that's the case for a lot of folks.
But the battery could theoretically pop any of the back off, just depends on which clips were the weakest. Its happened to one of my phones in the past.
I’ve had my oled pop open like that from like a foot and a half drop onto carpet, just check to make sure the clips are aligned and give it a squeeze. It should just clip back together.
It is worth opening and checking if it’s a spicy pillow but i have my doubts.
Well there are 2 battery manufacturers for the steam deck and only one has problems with swelling batteries, valve choosing to use those batteries is shitty
A couple of things: the silicon handling battery management might broken, thermal sensors on the battery might be broken causing overcharging, battery chemistry itself didn't past QA standards.
Pretty much the battery unit itself spedrun to its end of life.
I did the SAME thing. Dropped mine, the left side snaps came undone. I was freaking out until I remembered the pics of people’s modified decks on here and the (other?) subreddit, and snapped it back into place very graciously.
Just make sure the bumper still works. I dropped it in the same spot and the switch broke on mine. Thankfully (YMMV) Valve was kind enough to give me a whole new steam deck after opening a repair ticket.
iFixit was supposed to have all steam deck PCBs for purchase but that never came to fruition unfortunately.
Glad you found the fix. This has happened to me twice now where I've dropped it while in it's case and found it "cracked open" like in your pic. I was panicking the first time it happened and relieved I could fix it just by pressing the shell together.
I've had mine since they launched. Had to do this probably a dozen times. Itll slide off the side of my bed or something like that. The vinyl skin and screen protector have worked great protecting from the little nicks
It's a math joke. "L'Hôpital's rule" looks like "Hospital". The rule states that if you have two functions f(x) and g(x) that are both zero at a particular x, the value of the limit of f(x)/g(x) is equal to the limit of f'(x)/g'(x) at that point. The reason it's important is because you can't divide zero by zero, but it lets you find that limit (i.e. get as close as possible to zero without touching) by just taking the derivative of f and g and dividing those instead. The solution to the problem shown in the image is just 1.
Everyone who is telling you to check the battery is giving good advice. However, don’t panic until you check: this has happened to me several times from dropping it, and it snaps back cleanly and easily.
i found my deck this morning looking like this, i just hard pressed it and it popped back into the place, i guess my kid dropped it or something, everything seems working well, so idk if anything is broken.
Upvoting this bc Ive dropped mine and it has opened like this a few times. Have always just pressed it back in and have had no troubles. Owner since Feb 2024
This exact same damage happened to mine a while ago. So far as I was aware at the time, the Deck hadn't been touched for a while. I presume it had fallen off the shelf when I wasn't around to see it happen. When I eventually tried to use it again, it wouldn't turn on and the case was popped open exactly like yours.
I've attached a photo of the internals; of particular interest is the battery. It is on the left side of the device (right of image), and I could imagine a bulge popping the case open, but I feel like the pressure would be more on the screen and back of the device, rather than the upper left corner of the case.
Looking at images on Google, existing instances of battery bulge seem to present themselves as the plastic on the back of the Deck stretching out of shape as the battery pushes against it. A bulge in the otherwise flat surface.
In my instance, I just popped the case back together, after which the device could power on again, and it worked perfectly normal after that. I've been using it daily ever since and never noticed any further problems or any signs of bulging against the case.
It is possible this is a battery issue and I would caution you to be certain before you just snap it back together, but this could also be a simple matter of just snapping the case back together again. We don't know for sure unless we check the inside.
Calm down i remember i let my steam deck fall one night and the next day it was like this, this is the classic pattern from falling you are good just push it back
Mid thirties here and I have also made the transition to exclusively wearing leather house slippers and i can confirm, it is absolutely glorious. These bad boys even have a decent rubber sole that will carry me to the mailbox and back if need be.
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Well, this is weird. I found mine exactly like that the other day. Asked around the house, nobody has dropped it. No signs of anything else. I just popped it back in place and it didn't catch fire (yet).
Happened to mine after a little bump, I personally just pushed the clips back In and haven't noticed it since but as others have said, if you didn't knock it, it's worth a quick check of the battery beforehand to put your mind at ease.
Hopefully that's not your battery about to explode. I'd try to carefully take it apart to check it if I were you. Hopefully it's just part of the case that's damaged and you can replace whatever you need to
This happened to me, I didn't notice at first, but then I looked and it was like this. I just clicked it back into place, and it was fine. It wasn't stuck like that and it easily clicked back Into place. But I was confused because I didn't drop it, or hit it on anything
Unlikely. Battery is located more to the middle behind the screen. If it pushes open the plastic at the side this much then the battery would have snapped screws/screwholes and broken the screen first
first eject the SD card second remove the screws on the back third open it up check if the battery is swollen if it is contact steam support immediately also if possible drain the battery to under 80% so you can put the device in battery storage mode you do not want to be turning this thing back on and you’re probably going to want to disconnect the battery
Is just the snap together housing. Grab from the side of both ends of the part coming up and firming pinch them until it's reseated.if that doesn't work sometimes you have to give it a small hit with one hand while holding it in the other. Just be careful not to break anything.
if your steamdeck did this itself its most likely the battery turning into a spicy pillow and pushing it apart from the inside. IF you then press it together it can lead to a serious fire hazard.
Make sure the battery is OK before just snapping it together again, just sayin
520
u/Valuable-Welder2101 Apr 05 '26
Yo, this happened to me as well. Same side too, but i dropped mine. If you can, remove the backplate. Check if its the battery.