Steam Deck Ssd Replacement Repair Guide

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Featured Guide

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

                          20 minutes - 1 hour

Sections

Back Cover
3 steps
Steam Deck Battery Disconnection
4 steps
Steam Deck SSD Removal
2 steps
SSD
1 step

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Introduction

Before you begin, completely power down and unplug all cables from your Steam Deck. Remember to follow general electrostatic discharge (ESD) safety procedures while repairing the device.

These steps only describe how to physically remove and replace your SSD. You will need additional software tools and procedures to install an OS and get the replacement SSD to function as intended.

Follow Valve’s Steam Deck recovery instructions to recover, repair, or re-image your Steam Deck’s SSD with SteamOS. For installing Windows, official resources can be found here.

What you need

Step 1

              Remove the back cover screws

To minimize risk of damage, turn on your Steam Deck and allow the battery to discharge below 25% before starting your repairs. A charged lithium-ion battery can be very dangerous if accidentally punctured.
Before starting this guide, power down your Steam Deck and unplug any cables.
As an extra precaution, Valve recommends putting your Steam Deck into battery storage mode within the BIOS before starting any internal repairs. Read how to do that here.
If you have a microSD card installed, make sure to remove it before opening the Steam Deck.
Use a Phillips driver to remove the eight screws securing the back cover:
Four 9.5 mm screws
Four 5.8 mm screws
Throughout this repair, keep track of each screw and make sure it goes back exactly where it came from to avoid damaging your Steam Deck.

To minimize risk of damage, turn on your Steam Deck and allow the battery to discharge below 25% before starting your repairs. A charged lithium-ion battery can be very dangerous if accidentally punctured.

Before starting this guide, power down your Steam Deck and unplug any cables.

As an extra precaution, Valve recommends putting your Steam Deck into battery storage mode within the BIOS before starting any internal repairs. Read how to do that here.

If you have a microSD card installed, make sure to remove it before opening the Steam Deck.

Use a Phillips driver to remove the eight screws securing the back cover:

Four 9.5 mm screws

Four 5.8 mm screws

Throughout this repair, keep track of each screw and make sure it goes back exactly where it came from to avoid damaging your Steam Deck.

1024

Step 2

              Unclip the back cover

Insert an opening pick into the thin gap between the back cover and the front shell, along the edge of the right grip.
Pry up on the back cover to release it from the locking clips.

Insert an opening pick into the thin gap between the back cover and the front shell, along the edge of the right grip.

Pry up on the back cover to release it from the locking clips.

Step 3

              Remove the back cover

Once the clips are disconnected from one edge, the rest disconnect easily.
Grip the back cover at the opening you just created and pull it up and away from the device to unclip the long edges.
Remove the back cover.

Once the clips are disconnected from one edge, the rest disconnect easily.

Grip the back cover at the opening you just created and pull it up and away from the device to unclip the long edges.

Remove the back cover.

Step 4

              Uncover the hidden shield screw

Use a pair of tweezers to remove the piece of foil tape covering the hidden screw on the board shield.
If possible, try not to rip or tear this tape so it can be reused. If necessary, you can fashion a replacement by cutting a piece of aluminum foil tape to fit.

Use a pair of tweezers to remove the piece of foil tape covering the hidden screw on the board shield.

If possible, try not to rip or tear this tape so it can be reused. If necessary, you can fashion a replacement by cutting a piece of aluminum foil tape to fit.

Step 5

              Remove the shield screws

Use a Phillips driver to remove the three screws securing the board shield:
One 3.4 mm screw
Two 3.7 mm screws

Use a Phillips driver to remove the three screws securing the board shield:

One 3.4 mm screw

Two 3.7 mm screws

Step 6

              Remove the shield

Remove the board shield.
During reassembly, ensure that the fan cable lays on the side of the board shield and isn’t pinched underneath.

Remove the board shield.

During reassembly, ensure that the fan cable lays on the side of the board shield and isn’t pinched underneath.

Step 7

              Disconnect the battery

Grip the battery cable by its pull tab and pull it directly away from the motherboard to disconnect it.
Alternatively, use the flat end of a spudger to gently push the connector out of its socket, then disconnect it completely by hand.

Grip the battery cable by its pull tab and pull it directly away from the motherboard to disconnect it.

Alternatively, use the flat end of a spudger to gently push the connector out of its socket, then disconnect it completely by hand.

Step 8

              Remove the SSD screw

Use a Phillips driver to remove the 3.4 mm screw securing the SSD.

Use a Phillips driver to remove the 3.4 mm screw securing the SSD.

Step 9

              Remove the SSD

With the SSD screw removed, the SSD will pop up at a shallow angle.
Grip the end of the SSD and pull it away from its M.2 board connector to remove it.
During reassembly, insert the SSD at a shallow angle into its board connector, and secure it back into its horizontal position with the SSD screw.

With the SSD screw removed, the SSD will pop up at a shallow angle.

Grip the end of the SSD and pull it away from its M.2 board connector to remove it.

During reassembly, insert the SSD at a shallow angle into its board connector, and secure it back into its horizontal position with the SSD screw.

Step 10

              Remove the SSD shielding

The SSD is wrapped in ESD shielding that will need to be transferred to the replacement SSD.
Use a pair of tweezers to slide the shielding off of the SSD.
If the shielding feels stuck, use a pair of tweezers to peel off and remove the shielding instead, taking care to keep it in the best condition possible.
Only the SSD remains.
The Steam Deck uses a single-sided M.2 2230.
To recover, repair, or re-image your SSD, follow Valve’s Steam Deck recovery instructions.

The SSD is wrapped in ESD shielding that will need to be transferred to the replacement SSD.

Use a pair of tweezers to slide the shielding off of the SSD.

If the shielding feels stuck, use a pair of tweezers to peel off and remove the shielding instead, taking care to keep it in the best condition possible.

Only the SSD remains.

The Steam Deck uses a single-sided M.2 2230.

To recover, repair, or re-image your SSD, follow Valve’s Steam Deck recovery instructions.

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

To recover, repair, or re-image your Steam Deck’s SSD with SteamOS, follow Valve’s Steam Deck recovery instructions.

Take your e-waste to an R2 or e-Stewards certified recycler.

Repair didn’t go as planned? Try some basic troubleshooting, or ask our Steam Deck answers community for help.

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                                                                                      60 other people completed this guide.

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                    Carsten Frauenheim

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adamnfs2 - Aug 14, 2022

idk why valve couldn’t have just made the m.2 slot a 2230/2242/2260 & 2280 m.2 NVMe SSDs support??/ they could have done it! im hoping someone out there can make a new back shell that includes the nvme. m2 adapter riser cable extender that moves the nvme ssd to the back case somewhere else with more room and to also not only allow for better cooling of the SSD but also allows us to use any size m.2 nvme SSDs like 2230 up to 2280 m.2 size ssds as i have tons of gen3 x4 2280 nvme ssd lying around from all my AMD ryzen machines from my 1800X X370 all way up to X570 and 5700X / 5800X & 5800X3D etc..

Dennis - Aug 16, 2022

I think it has to do with power draw… The Steam Deck isn’t designed to cope with a incredibly fast (and power hungry) 2280 drive. I learned this the hard way on my laptop. I changed the drive myself to a 5500MB/s one and I could tell that not only did the SSD run hotter but also the components surrounding the SSD, it completely changed the thermal characteristics of the device. I added this drive to my desktop computer instead and bought a low powered one for the laptop. By having a 2230 drive on the Steam Deck, Valve forces users to choose drives that are typically designed for small and low powered devices.

and possibly even a m.2 door/cover to allow easier m.2 ssd removal W/O having to disassemble our steam deck! if the battery needs unplugged then a battery “KILLSWITCH” or “BATTERY DISCONNECT” Switch be also added to the decks after market backplate/cover to allow the steam decks battery to be disconnected from the unit with a toggle of a switch? allows for safter disassembly and m.2 SSD replacement with out having to repeatedly disassemble the steam deck….(SSD nand flash memory can fail) if i had the tools and capabilities to do this myself i would/ but i still dont even have my steam deck yet (Q3 July -Sept. 2022 ;( my friend just got his (ordered on same day) so WTF is mine valve!?????

ralkia - Sep 9, 2022

It’s already incredibly impressive that the Deck does what it does, at its price point, with its form factor. It’d be even bigger with any other physical features like that.

The unit isn’t necessarily designed with modularity in mind, at least not first and foremost. People aren’t “supposed” to be replacing these according to Valve; if that were the case then the internals would have to be shifted around quite a bit to ensure that people wouldn’t be able to break stuff when they swap drives/etc. Although this is a very easy repair, people will inevitably mess it up. Valve doesn’t want to have to replace everyone’s devices if they destroy the internals on their own volition.

The fact that the SSD replacement process is this easy, and it doesn’t instantly void your warranty, is amazing. Very few companies have this type of policy with hardware of this nature. A handheld device with fully upgrade-able storage to this extent has been neigh unheard of until now.

adamnfs2 - Aug 16, 2022

eh. i guess pwr draw// but adding a 5500mbps nvme sounds like a gen4 pci-e nvme m.2 im sure the steam deck (even thougt it is running AMD’s Zen2 (4c/8t ) CPU cores with a small cluster of( i think) 8cus (in the decks APU) but i dont think it has gen4 pci-e support to using an m.2 gen4 speed (4000mps+ (usually gen4 nvme are (1st gen ones like saberent rocket 4(OG model) below specs..

Tech Specs

SKU

SB-ROCKET-NVME4-1TB

Performance

Up to 5,000 Seq. Read /&/ 4,400 MB/s Seq.Write (yeah this one would not work) but I do have some low power (2280) m.2 nvme gen3 ssds that came from older laptops!

**(Steam Deck cant do these speed cuz pci-e gen4 isnt even supported(not implemented in the apus I/O :( Not even in any laptop APU (except new Ryzen 6000 series with RDNA2 RX 680m igp with (12CU’s) (& up to 8c/16t zen3)& does have Pci-e gen4 i think) I wish valve would have used this APU / SoC instead ( this steam deck would have been a much more capable Unit) & i would have paid up to $1000($ or 999) with a 2280 m2

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