my Steam Deck’s arriving soon and I’m kinda afraid about the SSD upgrade and the steps I have to do. Especially after hearing that some sticks/touchpads (I can’t remember what) don’t work immediately after booting into Steam OS with the new SSD.
Make sure you have the right size screw drivers. You can easily strip those screws. Also buy a cheap thin guitar pick which you can use to click the shell open after you’ve unscrewed it.
You can just clone the existing OS on the old SSD to an image onto the sd-card and then clone it back to the new SSD. So the issue of the touchpads will never come up, since it is exactly the same installation as before.
Especially after hearing that some sticks/touchpads (I can’t remember what) don’t work immediately after booting into Steam OS with the new SSD.
No need to worry, this is just because the recovery image installs an older SteamOS version which does not support the updated firmware of the controls.
The touchscreen and especially mice and keyboards connected via USB should always work, then after a system update that gets you back to a recent SteamOS version the controls will work again as well.
Just take your time and it will be fine. Also use something in plastic like a fidelity card to open it, if you use something in metal you will damage the shield.
The only thing I had issue with was the cable to the battery. For the longest time it felt like I had zero progress removing it. I even started doubting I did it right, then it started moving. Take your time. Also the shielding didn’t fit my ssd. So I had to carefully open it up and wrap it arround. I still never felt I was outside of my comfort zone. And I never do this type of thing. Just take it slow.
You’re fine, just follow the iFixit guide. It’s super easy. After removing the screws I pulled it apart with my fingernails, no problem. Remove screw, replace drive, put screw back in. This is like, day one stuff at a computer repair job. Again you’re fine. If you can do a Lego set, you can replace the m.2 on a steam deck. Don’t psych yourself out, my mother could do it.
No one mentioned it because the issue is fixed automatically after updating Steam OS. I had the issue and it fixed it for me. Also, the touchscreen is still working so setting up the Wi-fi is still possible (just don’t open the emoji keyboard, it won’t crash your deck but an annoying error message might appear).
I just bought a USB m.2 adapter and flashed steam OS to the drive before I ever even put it in the deck. First boot was just like booting the original drive.
My friend just did his SSD upgrade. He said that it was a bit harder than what the guides online made it seem, but he eventually completed it, so just be patient and don’t rush. In particular, he said that the tab to pull off the battery connector is pretty brittle.
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