iFixit revealed that iFixit plans to start providing official replacement parts for Steam Deck this summer. Valve first announced in February that iFixit would be one of the authorized sellers of replacement parts, but didn’t give a specific supply timeline at the time.
It’s also a good thing for consumers that Steam Deck offers official replacement parts, and hopefully, this will push other hardware makers to do the same in the future. In Valve’s official Steam Deck teardown video in October, the company said “joysticks, SSDs and possibly more” parts will be available.
However, in the video Valve strongly warns players not to turn on Steam Deck, “Even though this is your computer and you have every right to turn it on and do what you want, we at Valve really don’t recommend you turn it on.
Steam Deck It’s a very well-designed system, and the parts are carefully selected for the particular construction of this product, so they’re not really designed to be user-replaceable.”
Earlier this week, some of the first Steam Deck users reported experiencing joystick drift problems, which are very common on some Nintendo Switch Joy-Con handles. Valve said drift was a software bug, not a hardware issue, and provided a fix within hours. Three players who experienced stick drift issues told The Verge that this update has resolved the issue.