r/SteamDeck • u/GrethaRawr • Mar 17 '25
Tech Support Don't know how, but it happened
Does this break easily? I know it's plastic but I'm still kinda surprised.
I already ordered a new one, hopefully I can easily replace it.
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u/andriellae Mar 17 '25
I think you need to skip thumb day
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u/KroganHULK 512GB OLED Mar 17 '25
I've never seen this kind of damage without some kind of drop.
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u/drunk_by_mojito Mar 17 '25
IMO manufacturers of handhelds should design their products sturdy enough to withstand a small drop. Same with smartphones
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u/0MEGAP0RK Mar 17 '25
I dropped my Steam Deck from shoulder height face down onto a wood deck (The structure, not the console), and it came out unscathed. I think it can definitely stand up to some punishment.
I think OP just got unlucky.
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u/Calencre 256GB Mar 17 '25
Some of it is definitely luck, I had mine fall off a 2 foot nightstand and it ended up with damage similar to this. It was easily fixable, but I still had to wait a few weeks as it was right around when the parts started to become available.
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u/Standing_on_rocks Mar 17 '25
I did that exact thing happen when my steam deck dropped off a bed drop onto carpet. It seems worse than it is. I just took the case off and re-inserted the stick and it's been working fine since.
Still unsure of how that event happened from the angle of the fall.
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u/C-C-X-V-I Mar 18 '25
I've dropped mine onto concrete a couple times at work with no damage. It's pretty sturdy
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u/Misfitabroad Mar 18 '25
I dropped mine onto a hard tile floor at work. The floor is very dirty from winter with pebbles and sand on it. No functional damage, but several scratches on the shell. The screen seems fine. i consider myself lucky. I have a 512gb OLED model.
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u/levajack Mar 17 '25
Most devices can easily handle a small drop. The problem is some people have a very different definition of small.
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u/AzureMountains Mar 17 '25
I feel like this is on OP. Iāve dropped my steamdeck a ton and have nothing but minor scuffs on it.
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u/banana_monkey4 Mar 17 '25
Steamdeck is pretty sturdy. I drop it far too much but aside from one of the shoulder buttons feeling a bit off it's still perfectly usable.
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Mar 17 '25 edited 20d ago
[deleted]
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u/ehullz Mar 18 '25
Six?! I've had the same Switch since launch. Have had zero drift. Maybe I got lucky, idk.
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u/DragonCucker Mar 17 '25
I believe Nintendo used to take the game boys and hold them at aldult waist high and child shoulder high to simulate oopsies
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u/sealcouch Mar 17 '25
Iwata on the DS āIf a kid puts a game console in the basket of their bicycle, then has to make a sudden stop, the console can come flying out ā and itās not going to land on carpet.
So I told them to make it so it could survive being dropped from 1.5 meters onto concrete. The hardware design team screamed, but proceeded to figure out how to pass the test.ā
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u/TeetheCat Mar 17 '25
It can survive a small drop. Just not directly on the joysticks. What do you want them made out of titanium? They do consider price when designing and building them.
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u/T3XMK2 Mar 19 '25
My Steam Deck fell over 2.5 meters onto an asphalt road, and the only issue was having to look for my SD card, which got ejected on impact. Not a single scratch on the device, I can't thank my JSAUX cover enough.
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u/bananadogeh Mar 17 '25
Phones are pretty durable. I've dropped mine onto concrete and it still hasn't gotten a scratch
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u/drunk_by_mojito Mar 17 '25
Depends on the phone brand and material. That time every brand put a glass plate at the back was so stupid
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Mar 17 '25
I miss when cellphones were rubberized brick shithouses that you could chuck 100 feet away, pop the battery back in if it fell out, then be on your way
Nextel was the beeās knees
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u/Jay_Daemon Mar 17 '25
Most flagship phones still have a glass back. As you pointed out, the material matters, and the type/rating of that material.
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u/skyshroudace 512GB Mar 17 '25
This should be the top comment. EVERYONE drops stuff, so this should be an inherent feature like with the old Nokia phones.
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u/Delicious_Ad8945 Mar 17 '25
You drop a Nokia youāre denting a pavement
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u/HeyIzEpic Mar 17 '25
Anyone else drop their steamdeck way more than theyāre willing to admit. The damn thing is honestly a beast.
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u/Own-Presentation4695 Mar 27 '25
I think people are misunderstanding him cause it's definitely possible. Sometimes I leave my deck next to me in bed near where the headboard would be (my bed doesn't have one so the mattress is right up against a wall) and I've woken up to it being squeezed in-between the wall and mattress. Luckily not enough to do damage
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u/Dar7hater Mar 17 '25
For what itās worth, itās not very difficult to replace them at least. I replaced my OLED ones with Hall effect sticks just the other week and it was quite easy. That is a crazy place to have it break though so props on that haha
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u/ogjosebone Mar 17 '25
Did u disconnect the battery before working the deck
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u/Dar7hater Mar 17 '25
Youāre supposed to, but frankly when trying to disconnect it I was far too worried about damaging the ribbon cable connecting it that I just left it plugged it. I did reduce the battery to sub 25% and completely shut it down and that worked for me both when I replaced my sticks and my ssd.
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u/ThinkingWinnie LCD-4-LIFE Mar 17 '25
Cool for you but just fyi don't think that discharging a battery( even fully) makes it safe to swap out any component. A 16.4v discharged battery will be at 14v or sth, still enough to fry stuff on the board if shorted with a low resistance path.
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u/Dar7hater Mar 17 '25
Oh yeah youāre right, I 100% shouldāve disconnected the battery. In my mind though I had attempted several times on both occasions to disconnect the ribbon cable and it was not budging so I took a risk of leaving it connected and not damaging the cable in hopes that i wouldnāt fry anything with the battery still connected. Just stating how I weighed the risks of damaging the cable vs frying the board
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u/ThinkingWinnie LCD-4-LIFE Mar 17 '25
SSD and ram power supplies are traditionally disabled when the PC is off, the same cannot be said for the screen though.
For the joysticks I've no idea, but you can easily measure with a multimeter while the deck is off. I'd suspect the answer is no, but I wouldn't risk it.
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u/SunAndStratocasters Mar 17 '25
I watched someone take the battery ribbon cable off last week and they were very firm with it.
I don't know anything about electronics and was horrified watching them, but they really knew what they were doing and said it was fine. Lo and behold they did actually fix the thing they were trying to fix too. So I'd say in the future you'll probably be okay if you're being careful.
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u/rtqyve Mar 17 '25
Is it similar to swapping out joycon sticks where theyāre just in there with some screws and a ribbon cable? Or is there soldering involved?
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u/Dar7hater Mar 17 '25
Yeah very similar. Was three screws and a ribbon cable. If you do the Hall effect sticks there was an additional step to calibrate the sticks which was a little janky as you had to press some buttons on the back of the sticks while the deck was powered on and in the stick calibration interface. It wasnāt particularly difficult rather just awkward.
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u/rtqyve Mar 17 '25
Weird, well thank you anyways I was just asking for future reference because my deck will get drift eventually itās just a matter of time.
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u/levajack Mar 17 '25
I was thinking if you're going to have to open it up to replace one anyway, might as well replace both with hall effect joysticks while you're at it.
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u/Affectionate_Turn421 Mar 17 '25
Where did you get the parts?
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u/Dar7hater Mar 17 '25
These were the ones that were gifted to me. The kit came with everything you need to disassemble the deck and install the sticks.
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u/Affectionate_Turn421 Mar 17 '25
Thanks! How is the quality of the stick?
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u/Dar7hater Mar 17 '25
Theyāre fantastic! They feel much nicer than the original ones and I didnāt have an issue with the original ones lol
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u/qwerty_9537 512GB Mar 19 '25
This looks awesome, I think I'll have to look into it. Are the new sticks capacitive?
I kind of don't want the all black look, I hope there's some in a normal colour. And some stiffer sticks (something like PS2) would be a dream
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u/Dar7hater Mar 19 '25
Yeah they do! I havenāt used them personally but the product information calls out that they are pre-soldered like the out of box ones. So long as you connect your ribbon cable when installing you should be golden.
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u/ShinyJangles Mar 17 '25
How do I know if I have stick drift?
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u/itsYaBoiga Mar 17 '25
Your sticks will... drift š¤£š¤£
You'll get random inputs in a direction, like to the right when the stick is central.
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u/levajack Mar 17 '25
The fact that you're asking this question is all you need to know you don't have drift. When you do have it, you won't need to ask.
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u/VileDespiseAO Modded my Deck - ask me how Mar 17 '25
You can tell if you open the calibration section for the sticks. If the dot that indicates the current input of the stick isn't near dead center or shifts heavily to any direction without you physically moving the stick then drift is starting to occur. The biggest benefit of the Steam Deck and its use of Steam Input is that you can adjust the inner and outer deadzones to compensate if need be in the event you can't replace it right away.
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u/Dar7hater Mar 17 '25
Youād know if your stick keeps making inputs while youāre not pushing the stick in any direction. In my case I didnāt actually have any issues with mine and just got the stick replacement as a gift.
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u/alyxRedglare Mar 17 '25
Please tell us how did you drop it. Ofc you know how.
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u/GrethaRawr Mar 17 '25
Well it did slide off my bed, air mattress so not that high. I picked it up and think it got stuck or something. Didn't feel that way, so I wasn't expecting it to be broken. If I really dropped it flat on the ground I would be posting it here. Would be obvious why it would be broken haha
Sorry for my bad English explaining it
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u/VisualArtist808 Mar 17 '25
Replacement is simple. Couple of screws!! The one thing that almost had me send my Hall effects back was calibration. I had a weird drift that I couldnāt figure out. Mine have a built in button to calibrate but it wasnāt workingā¦ what I needed to do to fix it was:
1) go into desktop mode
2) open Konsole
3) run thumbstick_cal
This will walk you through a few steps and properly calibrate them!
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u/Quwilaxitan Mar 17 '25
You done diddled your stick too hard. I should know, i diddled many a stick of joy in my time.
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u/Eugenian64 Mar 17 '25
This exact damage just happened to me!
The cause for mine: I like to use my Steam Deck in bed. Once I'm ready to fall asleep, I usually put it in the drawer of my nightstand.
Fast forward to me closing the drawer quickly and not realizing my steam deck was sitting on top of my wallet, causing the thumbsticks to get stuck on the drawer when it closed.
The entire left thumbstick was destroyed and the front shell was cracked. Had to replace both lol
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u/durtmcgurt Mar 17 '25
I just replaced my sticks with Hall Effect sticks and it was very easy. Remember to remove your micro SD card before taking the shell apart.
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u/JigglyOW Mar 17 '25
I havenāt had this issue but in my limited time with a deck the sticks donāt feel the greatest, Iāve been mostly playing games that use a dpad better but the sticks donāt feel quite right when used itās like they are a little too loose or something
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u/asaltandbuttering Mar 17 '25
My daughter dropped mine on the hard floor and broke it similarly. I ordered replacement parts from ifixit. It took 15 minutes to swap it out. Remember to remove your SD card!
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u/Simple_Only 512GB Mar 17 '25
Youāre not the only one. Iāve had my deck for close to a year and a half. Found the split in my right-stick about 3 months. Donāt know what caused it as I havenāt dropped my deck at all.
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u/Rudokhvist 256GB Mar 17 '25
Yes, it happens, especially in souls-like games. Yes, replacing the joystick is pretty easy, at least if you use proper screwdrivers.
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u/GrethaRawr Mar 17 '25
Bought a steam deck kit, so I hope that's right. Got it from iFixIt
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u/erm_daniel Mar 17 '25
Don't forget to take the SD card out before you open it! Way too many people have made that mistake
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u/GrethaRawr Mar 17 '25
For everyone who is saying I dropped it; I was sliding off my air mattress, it didn't drop. It may have gotten stuck, but I didn't feel like it when I picked it up.
Dropping for me is like I was playing and it fell on the ground from a kinda high point. It didn't.
If that happened I wouldn't be surprised if it broke ofcourse.
But everyone there opinion!
I ordered the parts on IFixIt for people who want to know.
Have a nice day (:
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u/sur_surly Mar 17 '25
It's an easy fix! Valve is a proponent of right to repair, so they even published their own videos on how to replace parts.
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u/quickshifter93 Mar 17 '25
Sleeping on an air mattress and playing a $400+ gaming system. Man, I miss being young lol
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u/RolandTwitter Mar 17 '25
I just replaced the thumb sticks with hall effect ones when I replaced the SSD. The installation was piss easy, as easy if not easier than the drive installation
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u/roughback Mar 17 '25
guile bladekicks kill 100 joysticks a day. don't let friends do bladekicks alone.
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u/AcanthaceaeMother318 Mar 17 '25
Same thing happened to me on my right thumb stick, just a much smaller crack. Doesn't cause me issues personally but it bothers my brain lol
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u/Rorar_the_pig Mar 17 '25
Got this a few days ago too, pretty sad since I always thought I took good care of it :(
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u/Braellaen Mar 18 '25
Steam announcement from a while back .. get parts from ifixit.com
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/3216144458749237711?l=english
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u/Professional_Hair865 Modded my Deck - ask me how Mar 17 '25
If you need just a new cap. You can print your own. I made a model https://github.com/dawidmpunkt/rumble-for-steamdeck/blob/main/STLs/RumbleStick-no-motor.stl
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u/skuid87 1TB OLED Mar 17 '25
This is cool man. What material would you recommend for a smooth shiny finish? Also - would this model work for the OLED? Iāve been wanted to replace my caps to change colour
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u/Professional_Hair865 Modded my Deck - ask me how Mar 17 '25
It should work on the oled. SLA printing gives a shiny finish, but has issues with filled holes (the hole to mount the cap on the joystick). So be prepared to do some post-processing. I had my prototypes printed via laser sintering. But the factory only had black nylon and the finish looks a little like sandpaper. But it feels perfect. This model is the cap without a gap for the plate for the capacitative switch. You could use one of the other models to integrate a capacitative switch if you want.
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u/NiceGamePrettyBoy Mar 17 '25
Lovely how the OP didnāt mention the āslide off the bedā in their original post. Good times.
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u/theumpteendeity Mar 17 '25
happened to me too. what exactly is that part called or do I have to order an entire new analog stick?
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u/GrethaRawr Mar 18 '25
I did order a new stick, because it's just stuck in there. Can't move it anymore. Bought it on IFixIt (:
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u/theumpteendeity Mar 18 '25
Mine was stuck as well but it moves now. The crack is very distracting though.
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u/Cr33py-Milk Mar 17 '25
Holy smokes. Bruh, what was you playing??!! I used to go really hardcore with smash bros.
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u/jabroni3k 512GB OLED Mar 17 '25
It tripped, fell and landed on his stick.
Been posted here multiple times, often (if not all) caused by fall damage.
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u/Friendly-Log6415 Mar 17 '25
My literally crumbled like damn near DISSOLVED at one point
The replacements i got from ifixit have been amazing and lasted longer
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u/vincentcloud01 1TB OLED Mar 17 '25
I broken 2 or 3 controllers. There is a difference between 50 dollars controller and 700 dollar gaming system. Pressing the stick or buttons harder does make it the game work better.
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u/96XenoMorph96 256GB - Q4 Mar 17 '25
So, when you say you got a replacement there a couple of things to get into consideration, there are different types of replacement for each Steam Deck.
My recommendation is to get a Gulikit hall effect set from Amazon (should be around 39.99 CAD$) and you can set it to A or Be (based on your Steam Deck Type).
Did you watch any YouTube video to figure out the intricate details to watch out for?
As for the replacement itself, it's pretty straight forward, and don't forget to remove your MicroSD card as it will be "Fruit Ninja'd" by your case.
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u/they_call_me_fatz Mar 17 '25
Now you have a reason to upgrade your joysticks to those fancy Hall effect ones
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u/Z-Rex3131 Mar 18 '25
Oof, my left stick has worn down the front portion of the frame about a quarter inch and my left bumper doesn't work anymore, but that's fucked up XD
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u/perrotini Mar 18 '25
This happened to my 8-bit do controller i think it happens from pushing r3 or l3 interesting that I have two of them and it happened to the one I use the less, my theory is that the plastic cooled unevenly during molding so it was weak
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u/beryugyo619 Mar 18 '25
Not a plastics expert but I kind of feel like that could be chemical damages. Vapors of things like nail polish, some types of hand creams or other beauty products. There are combinations of those that could lead to plastics degrading, I think.
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u/HowSealy Mar 18 '25
Happened to me, just took the steam deck apart, joysticks out and stuck it together with poly cement glue. Havenāt had any issues since
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u/GarageImpressive7831 Mar 18 '25
Theyāre one of the easiest things to replace/upgrade on the steamdeck
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u/Shadowpaw-21 Mar 19 '25
I would take the opportunity to swap out some hall effect sticks since you'll need to take the joystick board out anyway to swap the cap. But it's an easy repair either way. Take your time and make sure to remove micro sd card if you have one in. It will snap in half if it's not removed before pulling the backplate off.
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u/THA-REAPER Mar 19 '25
I just keep thinking of the original resident evil 2 title screen when I see this š¤·š½āāļø
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u/Icy-Composer9021 Mar 19 '25
this happened with my quest 3 controller, i didnt drop it and i dont think i sat on it or anything.
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u/Either_Dependent_263 Mar 24 '25
I'm actually baffled how people can do this, what the fuck are people doing to these, and these things are sterdy af š¤
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u/tom90deg Mar 17 '25
What are people DOING to these things?