Yes, RMA it. The more of those the better chance they quit using those by the time I get mine in 6 plus months.
Thanks.
Is the fan user-replaceable? I would imagine that someone would realize they could sell good quality silent fans for $40 (hey, Noctua, you listening?)
Well, here is the answer from steam support
thanks for reaching out to Steam Support.
We’re aware of reports regarding fan noise and we’re actively looking into the issue.
We’re working on making optimizations in software to adjust both overall noise level and sound signature. We’d encourage you to wait for those updates to see whether they address the behavior you are describing.
Some fan noise is expected and lowering your system or in-game settings may improve your experience in the meantime.
Please let us know if the mentioned steps can decrease the noise to an acceptable level.
I dunno. I don’t think hardware problem like this can be solved through software update, and lowering settings fixes nothing when the high pitch whine is there even in the system, outside of games.
I can either insist on replacement, or sell it, because I don’t think I will be able to get used to this.
Play your games with the settings turned down so the faulty fan we installed doesn’t get fully used seems like the wrong response.
Ah damn, that video is the first time I’ve heard the actual fan noise. I don’t think I could deal with that. Hopefully you can get a replacement for that, but I bet there’s a good chance of getting another with the same issue.
I just did a quick search on reddit to see if people were successful with RMAs for the fan noise and instead found comments like the following. This is why I stopped looking at r/steamdeck.
Yeah. I can’t imagine trying to return something because a small fan is a little to loud for me. It’s not broken…thanks for trying to hold up all of us waiting because you have OCD
The solution is to sell it to the person who claims you’re holding them up. That level of fan noise would be a dealbreaker for me - can’t game next to the wife watching TV with that sound.
That’s crazy and not something I could or would tolerate. I’m surprised Steam Support didn’t tell you to use noise-isolating headphones. That’ll ‘fix’ the problem too.
Damn, I kinda want one now too.
I am sure the fan noise thing will get sorted out in future revisions. One of the perils of being an early adopter.
Have seen a lot of work with emulation station on the thing, and that has really piqued my interest.
Coin-Ops is working on a steamdeck version of their frontend also which would be cool.
(9) CoinOPS Player Legends (Linux) on SteamDeck - First Look! - YouTube
To give credit where it’s due, Steam Support answered always very quickly (matter of hours) and when I replied to their message if RMA is possible, they immediately told me sure it is, and to confirm my phone number.
So I guess I will see what happens.
I really really like it otherwise though.
It depends on the viewpoint. The guy is trying to provide tech support for a problem the user is bringing to their attention. He says they’re investigating the issue but is providing actions the user can take to potentially resolve or reduce the problem they’re complaining about in the meantime. From a tech support POV, I think it’s a good response. If they were refusing a return or RMA because “You can just turn the settings down” I’d see it pretty differently, though.
Got my email today! Hopefully mine doesn’t have the fan issues.
To those in the US who already have theirs, how long did it take between payment and shipping/delivery? Given the issues I’ve been having trying to get my other new computer (long story), I’d love to have new hardware to play with next week, but I don’t know if I should expect it that soon or not.
When did you pre-order, out of curiosity? Are we still fulling day 1 and 2 pre-orders?
Now over 2000 games listed as Verified or Playable.
I haven’t gotten mine yet, and I ordered like 10 minutes after they opened it up, so I think we’re still quite a ways off from Day 2 preorders.
I ordered day one, half an hour after reservations went live.
Ah, well that’s fair enough. I know there are limits on how quiet a fan can be when they’re going full tilt (I know my 3080 can get loud if the temps get too high, so I have to make tweaks to stop that happening) but for something like the Steam Deck where everything seems so finely tuned it’s surprising to hear some units are shipping with that kind of noise. I’m sure it will get resolved!
I keep thinking of the noise my video editing laptop makes when it’s rendering in Premiere and even after all that it regularly overheats and crashes. Great job Dell.
Yeah I think I wouldn’t have a problem with even louder steam deck, as long as that high pitch whine isn’t there.
There are times I wish my ears are sensitive enough to be bothered by stuff like that, but a misspent youth of cranked up speakers has made sure they aren’t.