Steam Deck OLED SSD Replacement

Written By: Clay Eickemeyer

Comments: 13

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

30 minutes - 1 hour

Introduction

Use this guide to replace or upgrade the SSD in your Steam Deck OLED. The Steam Deck OLED's SSD is a single-sided M.2 2230.

Remember to follow general electrostatic discharge (ESD) safety procedures while repairing your 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.

Tools

Parts

Step 1

Turn on your Steam Deck and allow the battery to discharge below 25% before starting your repairs, as a charged lithium-ion polymer battery can be dangerous if accidentally punctured.
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.
Power down your Steam Deck and unplug any cables.
If you have a microSD card installed, make sure to remove it before opening the Steam Deck. If you attempt to remove the back cover with it still installed, it could snap right in half.
During your repair, it can be helpful at times to lay the Steam Deck face-down in its case to protect the thumbsticks and prevent wobble.

Step 2

Use a T6 Torx driver to remove the eight 5.8 mm‑long screws securing the back cover.
Throughout this repair, keep track of each screw and make sure it goes back exactly where it came from.

Step 3

Insert an opening pick at an upward angle between the back cover and the front shell near one of the triggers.
If you can't insert your pick here, try along the top or bottom edges of the Steam Deck OLED before sliding it toward the handle.
Slide your pick along the edge of the handle to release the clips securing it to the front shell.

Step 4

Reinsert your pick and slide it along the top and bottom edges until the back cover feels loose.

Step 5

Grip the unclipped handle and pull it away from the front shell to release the remaining clips.
Remove the back cover.

Step 6

Grip the battery cable pull tab, located to the left of the battery.
Firmly pull the battery cable straight away from the motherboard shield (toward the battery) to disconnect it.
This bundled cable is fairly stiff. If you're having trouble, re-grip the pull tab close to the head of the connector and gently walk it side-to-side as you pull.
If the cable pull-tab feels fragile or rips during this process, remove the motherboard shield and disconnect the cable using a spudger.
When the battery cable comes free, it might push up on the motherboard shield. Don't worry, as this won't damage anything.

The pull tab can come off revealing the wires. The instructions should be updated to reflect that catch.

Khurram Tariq -

Hallo,

gibt es die Abschirmung auch als Ersatzteil irgendwo zu kaufen?

Danke

Yannick B. -

Bad step. Remove the shield plate from the next step first then safely disconnect the battery. Using this type of pull force here made the pull tab peel away exposing the wires.

Jaspal Goshal -

Step 7

Use a spudger to flip up the small white locking flap on the right button board interconnect cable ZIF connector.
Use tweezers or your fingers to grip the cable's pull tab and slide it straight out of its socket to disconnect it.
The pull tab may be labelled C‑R.

Step 8

The interconnect cable is adhered to the motherboard shield.
Insert an opening pick between the interconnect cable and the motherboard shield.
Be careful not to crease or tear the cable.
If you're having trouble inserting a pick, lightly heat the cable using an iOpener or a hair dryer.
Slide your pick along the shield to separate the cable.

The adhesive is quite strong and it causes the cable to bend. Don't separate the cable from the shield and instead unscrew the shield and lift it towards the right gently to create space to access the SSD.

Khurram Tariq -

Step 9

During the rest of the repair, it may be helpful to move the interconnect cable over the battery and out of the way of the motherboard shield.
Be careful not to crease or strain the cable, as it's still adhered to the battery.
Tape the cable in place away from the motherboard shield.

Step 10

Use your T6 Torx driver to remove the two 3.8 mm‑long screws securing the top left and bottom left corners of the motherboard shield.

Step 11

If the speaker cable is taped to the bottom edge of the motherboard shield, gently peel it off.
Remove the motherboard shield.

Step 12

During reassembly, use the flat end of a spudger to slide the battery connector into its socket on the motherboard.

This step should come after the SSD is installed.

Khurram Tariq -

Step 12 is out of order here since this guide refers to replacing the SSD. Reconnecting the battery before swapping out the SSD is all kinds of bad!

Edit: This step should be the very last step. Step 16

Amer - 01/04/24

To address these concerns: this step (when read in the SSD replacement guide) is labelled as a reassembly action, which is to be followed as the guide is read in reverse order during reassembly.

Clay Eickemeyer -

Step 13

Use your T6 Torx driver to remove the 3.3 mm‑long screw securing the SSD.
The SSD will pop up to a slight angle as you remove the screw.

Step 14

Grip the end of the SSD and pull it away from its M.2 board connector to remove it.
Remove the SSD.
During reassembly, insert the SSD at a slight angle into its socket and hold it against its screw post as you install its screw.

Step 15

The SSD is wrapped in ESD shielding. Take care to keep the shielding in good condition, as you'll need to transfer it to your replacement SSD.
Slide the shielding off the SSD.
If the shielding feels stuck, peel the shielding off and remove it. Take care to keep it in the best condition possible if you want to reuse it.
Only the SSD remains.
The Steam Deck OLED uses a single-sided M.2 2230.
To recover, repair, or re-image your SSD, follow Valve's Steam Deck recovery instructions.

Why Valve need to use Torx 6?

Антон Null -

less likely to strip

christopherbrianbrock -

Conclusion

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

To recover, repair, or re-image your Steam Deck OLED'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 OLED answers community for help.

Author

Clay Eickemeyer

Member since: 19/09/22

77552 Reputation

4 comments

Hardest part is unclipping the clips XD

landstrokethegamer 711 -

I have completed this but there are ways this could be done better and safely. I have left comments under each step. Step 6 to disconnect the battery should be after Step 10. In my case, the connector did not come out and the pull tab nearly separated creating a risk for damage if I had proceeded further. Removing the shield gives much better access so you can wiggle the connector out using your nail..

Step 8 is to separate the cable adhesive. Every build may have different amount of adhesive applied making this a risky venture. In trying to separate the cable, a lot of force was needed in my deck which could have damaged the cable. A guide on YouTube was to simply work around this. I wish I had seen it prior to have completely avoided this risk.

All in all, I will say a version 2 of this guide is needed.

Khurram Tariq -

Two things that could be helpful for anyone attempting this :

1. If it's your first time opening a deck, the hardest part is to open up the shell. After removing the screws You just need the guitar pick plastic thing. Taking your time is key and will make it way less likely to scratch the case or break a tab as you'll apply just enough force to unclip.

2. If you've already opened a regular deck and it's your first OLED, in some ways it's easier but in others a bit harder: when I attempted step 6 the battery connector wouldn't budge so I just left it plugged (the battery was almost empty and the deck was in battery storage mode, though). I did step 7 but skipped step 8 and simply folded the whole cable + shield part over the battery while replacing the SSD.

On reassembly, no point in tightening the screws too much, it increases the risk of stripping the screw or breaking the screw threads.

Good luck! (and DON'T FORGET TO REMOVE THE SD CARD BEFORE YOU START!)

Daniel Ristic -

You can totally skip the step 8 if you unplug the interconnection cable and gently remove ONLY the adesive of the speaker, there is no need to unglue the interconnection cable from the motherboard shield, just remove the two shields' screw and carefully lift it up to easily access to the ssd.

Graziano Galante - 11/12/24