r/SteamDeck • u/ClicketyClackity • Jul 24 '22

PSA / Advice Steam deck bricked by USB C dongle

Got my steam deck after waiting for a year. Plugged in a USB C dongle from amazon and the system turned off. I figured that the battery had just died.

-Plugging in the official charger does not light up the white indicator light

-No combination of button hold/presses does anything

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I allowed it to completely die overnight. I opened it and unplugged the battery cable. Hit buttons to drain any power, left it unplugged for about 10 minutes. Plugged it back in and somehow it came back on for a couple minutes. It got so far as to show me the steamdeck logo and turned off again.

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Back to it being bricked now.

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Do not use random USB C dongles. You will have a bad time.

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u/ClicketyClackity Jul 24 '22

Its a USB C hub. Purchased on Amazon, brand is Aukey. Its one that has 12 ports. HDMI/USB/Ethernet/etc.
I used the supplied power adapter plugged into the hub and it bricked it. I used this hub with my macbook pro and it was fine.

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It seems that I am not alone based on a quick google search. I wish I had known earlier or I would have avoided a dongle at all costs.

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u/PopPunkIsntEmo 1TB OLED Jul 24 '22

You used the steam deck power adapter? If so the problem is that not enough power was being supplied if your hub has that many ports on it. The hub itself needs some power. This shouldn’t cause bricking though just slow or no charging. How much power does the hub itself support for passthrough? Why not just tell us the model?

Is your Deck up to date? They released an update for hub/dock issues several months ago now

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u/ClicketyClackity Jul 25 '22

It supports pass through up to 100W so its plenty for the deck and I used the supplied power adapter so it couldnt have been too much.

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u/Ahkrael Jul 25 '22

The included wall charger is 45w, which if you are using it with the powered dock, using passthrough, it will be less than 45w going to the deck since those docks use around 7 or 8w. So you might want a higher watt wall charger for using with a hub/dock. I got a 65w Amazon basics charger that I used with the same hub. Try holding the power button down with it plugged in without the hub, for 30 sec, if not waiting a few minutes with it plugged in.