This is fantastic, thanks! I've got the 512 OLED model and wanted to see how difficult it would be to swap out the SSD, and it doesn't look too bad at all! Favorited so that I can come back to watch again once I end up picking up a new SSD, thanks again!
I did that and it still powered on when opening it up I freaked out. And did put it in power save mode again. It's weird how its able to turn on by pressing the button again. Luckily I was able to swap to a 2tb and finished everything, but man that was stressful and scary was sweating bullets. Thank you for the video
Thanks for showing the disconnection of the ribbon cable, I have no idea why but many Steam Deck OLED teardown videos skip this entirely. Just under the ribbon cable there's a little lead taped to the very bottom of the shield, I'd personally recommend unsticking this to avoid pulling on that lead while you have the shield moved out of the way.
Absolutely, it threw me when I saw it when I first opened it up, so I figured it would for other people too and I wanted to be sure to include it. And oh good to know, thank you for sharing that!
Thank you, straight to the point. Was very useful, specially when guides are 30 mins long for such an easy thing (including I think your previous one). Cheers!
Yeah definitely tried to keep this as short as possible (especially compared to the original video I made), no guide video should be much longer than it actually takes to do the repair in my opinion.
Do you get a creeking noise from the right after putting everything back together? I think I might have warped the shell or maybe the triggers or springs when using the tool to pry it open. It’s closed tightly but still creeks a bit. Anybody experiencing this?
I'm sorry to hear that, maybe there's something putting pressure on the case inside and causing it to creak? I haven't experienced any issues like that and I've opened mine up twice now, so maybe try determining exactly where the creaking is and open it up and see if you can see anything out of place inside compared to screenshots online or my video? Just an idea, good luck to you though, hopefully you figure it out!
The extra ribbon cable and the little wire tied to the heat shield were annoying compared to the ease of getting into the original model...thanks for the guide. Got my 2 TB swapped in!
I agree, definitely annoying but if it adds some performance or enhances functionality in any way I’m fine with it, not incredible difficult to get around it at least. But absolutely, thanks for watching! Congrats on getting it swapped in!
Thank you I appreciate it! I didn't disconnect the battery connector the 3 or 4 times I've done this and everything turned out fine (I believe putting it in battery saving mode beforehand should prevent any issues from occurring) but usually it's best practice to disconnect the battery before completing any work on the device.
Thanks for this video! My steam deck is arriving soon and thinking of upgrading it to 2TB and will definitely be referring to this. If the SSD installed is fresh and blank, do I just follow the steam deck OS imaging instructions straightaway? Was thinking of booting it just to make sure it turns back on but concerned there might be issues if I power it up without the image ready. Thank you!
Did any of the orange paint strip away from the orange screws? It sounds silly but I am really pedantic about this stuff and am deathly afraid of leaving a mark on them!
Great question! It did very slightly scrape a small amount of orange paint from the very tips of the inside of the screws (it’s seriously barely noticeable, I had to put it up to my face and really look for it to find anything), but I also wasn’t being super careful about that because I didn’t think about that being an issue ahead of time, so I bet if you are super careful you could do it without removing any of the orange paint.
I’ve now done this 3 times with my steam deck, (long story) but it’s been simple each time and I don’t bother undoing the ribbon cable, it’s flexible and pretty tough long as you’re not pulling it about. People disconnecting the battery and disconnecting the ribbon cable are making it unnecessarily difficult. Great guide tho this is the one I used first time round.
Thank you I appreciate it! And great question! If you have a large micro sd card around you could move all the games onto that and then do the swap and move them back to the internal storage, but that could take a pretty long time (micro sd cards are so slow), so I’ve noticed that most people prefer to find a way to connect both drives to another computer and use software to clone the entire old drive to the new one. This link here seems to have both options pretty well covered, I’d check these out and see which one makes the most sense to do based on your internet speed/data caps and how much game storage you already have used on the previous deck. www.pcgamer.com/steam-deck-ssd-upgrade-step-by-step/ Hopefully that helps!
phew those clips on the LE are a major pain in the butt! u can also work around the heatsink/ribbon cable without unplugging but it's a little risky to fray your cable
Haha yeah they really are. I did notice that lining up the opening pick directly with the clip helped to get them off easier, but gosh it’s so stressful I always feel like I’m going to break one and really regret it. Luckily I don’t have to do this too often normally, so it shouldn’t be an issue anymore for a bit. Haha
@@MTS4K i was so worried about scratching the transparent shell so bad ... lol and it even caught me under my fingernail and gave me a nasty undernail cut. "Easier to repair" they said :D Thank you for the informative content as I used it to help open my LE.
That’s a good point, I didn’t even think about that! I normally have Dbrand killswitch case on mine so I basically couldn’t scratch it, but wow now I’m glad that didn’t happen! Haha But oh gosh an under nail cut, I’ve never had that before, that sounds painful! Hopefully it gets better soon! But absolutely, thank you for watching the video and commenting/chatting with me and supporting my channel, I really appreciate it!
Good question! In the three times I’ve done this, I’ve never disconnected the battery and had no issues whatsoever (perhaps because I put the battery in storage mode first) but it is always best practice to disconnect the battery before doing any work on an electronic device. Hope that helps!
Best practice is definitely to always disconnect the battery while doing any repairs on an electronic device. However, I did forget to do this, and I put my battery is storage mode and swapped the SSD 3 different times all without disconnecting the battery first and never had any issues.
Still looks scary to do this, feel like I would destroy this. I still have not bought the ssd just not sure which one and wish they were cheaper too lol.
It definitely is a bit scary, but valve has amazing customer service and almost all the original parts are available from ifixit’s website if you mess anything up or break anything, so there is a safety net which is nice at least. As for the SSD, check out ifixit’s site! They’re having some Black Friday/cyber Monday sales right now and they already usually have pretty reasonable pricing in my opinion for their SSD’s (like a 1TB for $95 or a 2TB for $185). Just an idea, either way hopefully you find one for a good price when you decide to go for it!
I bought this all as one self-contained kit. They have a version on Ifixit that's like a "general all device repair bits" kit and that's what I got so I'd have the bits for iPhones, androids, steam deck, etc.
if your just swapping out the ssd for a new one do you still need to use the Steam Deck Recovery ie downloading steam deck Image or not as i’m really not sure or can you just put the new ssd in and power on all is good?
Great question, yes you'll need to image the new SSD on a separate device before installing it in the Steam Deck. There should be more specific info in one of the links in the description if you want to check that out too!
Just finished successfully swapping my LE to 2TB with your guide :-) Before the swap I cloned the original 1TB to the new 2TB using a 2230 enclosure using Linux "sudo dd" command I got from a pcgamer guide. Can't share the URL sadly because YT deletes them.
Nice that’s really cool, glad to hear the guide helped and everything went well! Bummer about UA-cam deleting the URL though, at least if you give enough info people can usually Google search it and find it somewhere.
They will get slightly scratched along the very inner edges of the screw if you aren’t super careful, but I know on mine it’s almost completely unnoticeable (unless you put the screw right up in front of you and are looking for it) so it definitely hasn’t been a big problem for me. If they were more scratched up it would be though.
Great question! I’m not sure the max size you can put in, but I know I bought a 2TB SSD from ifixit’s website (I can’t post a link in the comments now because of UA-cam updates, but if you Google ifixit and then open their shop tab it’ll be there) and installed that no problem on my steam deck and now I have so much storage I can’t even fill it up! And great question about voiding the warranty! I believe in the US it’s now illegal to void a warrantee based on modifications/upgrades to the device within expected use (such as swapping out an SSD with a larger SSD) but in some specific states or other countries this may still void the warranty. Personally, I recommend swapping the SSD and keeping the old SSD in storage, and then if you ever need to warranty it out for any reason, put the old SSD in the deck when you send it in. That way 1) if they swap it out for a whole new deck you won’t lose your larger SSD, 2) you can keep all your installed games and configurations and saves if they end up wiping the device during the warranty process, and 3) they shouldn’t have any way of knowing you swapped out the SSD originally anyways, so unless you volunteer that information when you submit the warranty claim, to Valve’s support team it should seem like you’re just sending in a normal Steam deck with a normal Steam deck configuration (because you are). That’s my recommendations/answers, hope that helps!
Is this any place where its possible to pay someone to do this for you? I want to my 1TB ssd card but I wonder if theres any store or area where you can pay someone to do this thank you for the helpful video!
That’s a great question, it depends on where you live and what shops are around! I know by my house there’s several different tech support shops and any of them could make this swap pretty easily, so pretty much any computer repair place should be able to do this with no issues And absolutely, thanks for watching and commenting!
Please add in somewhere that you need to install the OS yourself. I'm getting tired of explaining it for people in reddit that said you said it was just a quick swap and it's done.
I'm sorry to hear that, I'll definitely try to put out a video that includes that information as well, and I'm sorry this video didn't include that originally, but thank you for explaining it to the people I should have explained that to! The original video I shot and released was only focused on how to move your SSD from an LCD Steam Deck to an OLED Steam Deck, so in that case installing the OS wasn't needed, but when I reshot this to just be for how to swap out the SSD in a Steam Deck OLED, I forgot that most people doing this will probably be swapping out a brand new SSD so that's an important piece to mention. Thanks again for letting me know, I'll try and put out an updated video for this at some point.
Yeah that's a great point, thanks for letting me know! I figured I wasn't doing anything too invasive so I didn't do that the 3 or so times I swapped out the SSD while shooting this footage, but you're definitely right, best practice is to always disconnect the battery while doing anything to an electronic device.
I agree. But if you're careful enough just pulling out the SSD and putting the new one in, it shouldn't be an issue, since the slot isn't powered, if the SD is powered down correctly. Also removing the battery plug involves removing more stuff which in turn may lead to more chances of breaking something in the first place.
Yes I do, good catch! I really wanted the special anti-glare etched glass screen, but I have little kids and always worry about screens getting scratched or broken so I put a screen protector on it just to be safe. Now that you mention it though, I might look at getting an anti-glare screen protector someday in the future, that might be a good thing for me to think about! Thank you for mentioning that!
@@MTS4K lol true. Even tho I definitely see the value of etched and I now know it doesn’t look bad, if there was a limited edition with glossy screen I would have convinced myself to buy it instead of the 512 I got (cause I could always put a Anti glare protector after the fact)
Yeah that’s a good point, and I’ve read reviewers out there like Dave2D who said the anti-glare etched glass makes the inky-blackness of the OLED slightly less impressive than it would be on a glossy screen. Not sure exactly how that works, but interesting it was mentioned (either way I think both look great, and I’ll take OLED over LCD any day, regardless of the glass coating).
Yes the one I used has been absolutely amazing! I play my steam deck almost every single day for a couple hours, and I’ve ever had any issues, plus I still have over 500GB of storage left on it too which is awesome!
I just ordered a 512 OLED steamdeck and a 2T SSD to put into it. I'm not swapping SSDs from another Deck, do I need to create a bootdisk microSD card, to boot from to format and install OS drivers onto the new clean SSD? Or is the Deck's OS kept in some other internal storage?
Great question! Unfortunately you will need to create a boot disk on an external USB drive (I’m 90% sure you can’t boot from the sd card) and boot to that after your SSD is installed. Once you boot to the Steam OS installer on the USB drive it’s really easy, just click the prompts and it’ll install the OS and then after it’s all done you’re good to unplug the USB and boot to the normal steam deck OS! Two additional things: 1) make sure you update your Steam deck to the latest OS version BEFORE swapping the SSD, (only the latest update supports the Steam deck OLED, so you don’t want your deck to be on a previous version before the swap). 2) After you boot into SteamOS on your new SSD, make sure to download any pending updates and switch to desktop mode and download any pending updates there as well, just in case there’s anything in the store or whatever that needs updated in the OS itself.
@@MTS4K For the first step, are you saying that we should first boot our new Steam Deck and update its OS BEFORE opening up the deck for swapping? I'm actually confused because isn't the OS installed on the original SSD? So why do we need to update it to the latest OS version, when you're about to switch it out with a new SSD and install the new OS on this new SSD?
If you’re just installing a new SSD into your Steam deck, then I don’t think you need to make sure it’s up to date first. However, if you’re swapping your SSD from an old LCD Steam deck to the new Steam Deck OLED, then I think it’s definitely best to make sure both are updated and on the same most recent OS version before doing the swap. I think this mainly because one of the more recent updates (OS update 3.5.5) added official support for the Steam Deck OLED, so to make sure your drivers and everything that support the running of the device work correctly after swapping the SSD, I think it’s definitely better to update the OS ahead of time to make sure you don’t have any driver issues later. I could be wrong on this and maybe it isn’t needed, but IMO better safe than sorry, it makes sense to have both steam decks on the same version before swapping an SSD between them since I’m not sure exactly where the firmware is stored for the interactive buttons on the device, but I bet it’s not on the SSD.
Man this is the easy part bru lol. Ive got 2tb ssd for my 512 oled . Also bought an enclosure and usb flash drive . But still haven’t done it yet because im not that pc savvy and don’t wanna mess nothing up. But I desperately want to put the 2tb I just don’t know how lol smh
Haha fair, yeah the OS install isn’t as fun, but if you check out the link in my description they make the entire OS install process super easy to follow. And even if you do mess it up, it really causes no issues because you can just try it again, it can’t break the SSD if the install goes wrong, you can just format the SSD and try again.
Only if you’re swapping an SSD from another Steam deck, like I did from my LCD Steam deck to my OLED Steam deck. Unfortunately if you’re wanting to install a new SSD for the first time in a Steam deck, you’ll need to complete what you mentioned separately and flash the OS onto a bootable drive first.
True, however you still have to install the SSD into the Steam deck first before you can flash the OS anyways, so in either situation you would do this swap first. But that makes sense, I’ll keep that in mind for the future.
So I have my original lcd steam deck with 2tb installed. If I got the oled model and want to cold swap the ssd do I still need to turn on the oled model and update it before I swap my existing 2tb ssd to the oled model or does that not matter?
Yes I would definitely do that. It’s possible that it doesn’t matter, but I think it definitely makes more sense that if you’re moving the SSD from one device to another that they are both using the same firmware and OS version.
@@MTS4K duly noted and congrats on your upgrade. I’m just going to save up and refer to what you said about the updates. Also, sweet limited edition model. I wish they come back in stock soon. Otherwise I’ll just anticipate the steam deck 2 that’s if there is such a planned release.
Thanks I appreciate it! And that's a good idea, hopefully Steam Deck 2 will be a huge upgrade even from the OLED model. Honestly when I first opened the OLED model it looked cool, but when I started playing on it I was like "this really is pretty much the same thing with a nicer screen". I still love the OLED model and think it is the best version of the Steam Deck, but I think it's not necessarily worth the upgrade from the LCD model.
@@MTS4K how does 90hz feel compared to the 60 tho? lol at that point might as well get the rog ally or the legion go since I think they can go up past 90hz with a resolution up to 1080? Idk lol But I love how simpler valve has done to manage steam deck in game mode. Not sure how the other handhelds are doing but I guess I shall see more comparisons down the road.
The 90hz is awesome and I love it, not sure I could go back to the 60hz on the LCD model, but it only really matters if the games you're playing are side scrollers or not too graphic intense to prevent you from hitting the 90hz. I've been playing Lords of the Fallen almost every day for 3 weeks on my Steam Deck, and I've never gotten above 50FPS so the 90hz refresh rate really doesn't matter, but when I play games like Death's Door and Inscryption, then I get that 90fps and it's amazing. I'd *highly* recommend not getting the ROG Ally, I've heard a ton of people say the battery life is awful on it. Especially a lot of people in my Steam Deck video chat have said they're switching (or switched) from the ROG Ally because the battery life was awful. The legion go looks pretty cool, but I feel like right now mobile graphics cards are just not good enough to fully utilize screens like that has with higher resolutions and refresh rates. I think the Steam Deck killed it with the absolutely perfect resolution and refresh rate on the OLED for the next several years until the chips get powerful enough to hit better graphics levels. There's also a thing where like 4K is important on large TVs because the screen is so large we can easily see the difference between 4K and 2K or 1080p, but on a small 7" handheld screen, you basically can't notice the difference between 720p and 1080p or 2K, so there's not really a point of having a higher resolution since you can barely tell the difference but it will dramatically affect graphics performance, thus why the Steam Deck has stuck with 720p.
On mine I didn't need to re-install SteamOS because I was just moving the SSD from my previous Steam Deck (which already had SteamOS on it) to my new Steam Deck OLED.
fair warning... Steam doesn't want you to modify their Steam Deck. While in the process of swapping SSDs the L4 switch came off the left trigger board. How does this happen unless the board had defective cold solders. I've been begging Steam to replace or repair under warranty but they are refusing because I was "in the process of modifying or repairing" the Deck. I've gone back and forth and they refuse to move and offered to send me info for a paid repair service. All the other switches are firm on the boards with no issues and there is no possible way I could have exerted enough force opening the case to cause the switch to come off. Just beware... according to Steam Support you will void your warranty if you swap drives or any other damage or defects are detected.
@@AJCoRePlays bottom center. But I've done the SSD swap on my original SteamDeck and even did the hall sensor joystick upgrade. No issues with that swap. The switch may have fallen off with basic game play but since I rarely use the L4/R4 triggers I wouldn't have noticed if the switch was already loose. The other switches are fine... a few of my electronic buds say that it appears to be a cold solder and the board should be replaced but ifixit doesn't have that board yet. Sad spending the big $$ even splurged the extra few for the limited edition. Buyer beware.
Gosh I'm sorry to hear that, hopefully you were able to get it figured out, maybe that's a part you can order from Ifixit.com since they have official Steam Deck repair parts?
Gosh I'm really sorry to hear that. Hopefully at least they get it fixed and you can use it again, but that's a definitely a bummer, I feel for you there.
i just got done swaping the ssd from my og deck to the oled myself, the hardest part is spliting the shell on the oled it was alot easyer on the og model, in fact i ended up with a very slight dmg to the case where i had to pry it open as i had to use a flat head screw driver to get it to release
Gosh, I’m sorry to hear that! Yeah I had a seriously hard time doing that too. I thought I bent the edges of the right side of the case, but it turned out okay and there wasn’t any damage thank goodness. Plus I use a Dbrand kill switch case, so I don’t see most of the deck anyways, but still, knowing there was any damage would bother me.
Oooh that's too bad. Yeah, never use metal tools with these projects. Highly recommend buying an iFixit tool kit with those guitar pick tooks. I had a fairly easy time of it using them.
Yeah same, couldn’t recommend any ifixit stuff enough, they definitely know what they’re doing and sell great (but also a bit more expensive) tools to get it done right.
@@tappersreviews4677 i have ifixit set of tools , it just wouldnt budge with the pick, had no choice had to use a small flat head to finaly get it to release, and it was very minor dmg to case to wear the plastic has a little dent , here is a picture of it, with my jsaux case on it you cant even see it anyway i.imgur dot com/nMRpxhP.jpg
it really should be easier than this to replace an ssd, it should just be a case of epening a door on the rear to access the ssd, none of this opening up the device and potentially breaking something.
Yeah that would be nice, but to be honest I’ll take anything that isn’t proprietary at this point. A great example is the Xbox Series X which has the super easy to install SSD chip you can buy for it, but it’s proprietary and uses a proprietary port and shape, so because there’s no competition and it’s all proprietary it costs twice as much as the the same amount of storage compared to a PS5 where you can just buy any newer SSD (that has fast enough read/write speeds) and install that instead. I got a 2TB SSD for my PS5 for like $230 (they’re still $230 or cheaper now), meanwhile a 2TB for the Series X is $360 at normal list price. Not worth it just to make it easier to install in my opinion. Also the read/write speed on the m.2 SSD for PS5 is MUCH faster than the Series X proprietary SSD.
You can't already tell by looking? You should not be near any electronics if you can't tell by looking. Unless you're blind. Then I apologise for your blindness and stupidity.
Great question! For me, I was swapping out the 2TB SSD from my old LCD steam deck, so it already had the Steam OS image on it from the previous steam deck. If you’re buying a brand new SSD, there’s a link in the video description that tells how to install Steam OS on a new or formatted SSD. Hope that helps!
No you shouldn’t, at least not in the US because I believe they determined that wasn’t legal to prevent people from fixing their own stuff. Also, unless there’s something I’m not aware of inside the deck, I don’t see how Valve would ever know if you’ve opened up your deck or not if you swap the internal SSD back to the factory SSD before you send it in for any repairs. Great question though!
@@MTS4K Usually there are some bolts with a sticker that says "warranty voided if opened" i guess they will figure it out i opened it when they notice the broken clips cause i am clumsy af 😂😂 Thanks for answering though!
Yeah that’s a good point, this definitely didn’t have any of those, probably due to Valve’s incredible openness and support of people being able to tinker and fix their own Steam decks and selling original parts through ifixit’s site which is just awesome. And haha I thought I was going to do that too even with how gentle I was trying to be, I’m sure you’ll do great! It’s definitely a sweet feeling once the SSD swap is complete and everything turns back on and is working correctly though. Haha
For this Steam Deck OLED SSD swap I used only the torx TR6 tip from the ifixit repair kit.
Thanks to @dzzjj for pointing out I forgot to mention this!
This is fantastic, thanks! I've got the 512 OLED model and wanted to see how difficult it would be to swap out the SSD, and it doesn't look too bad at all! Favorited so that I can come back to watch again once I end up picking up a new SSD, thanks again!
I did that and it still powered on when opening it up I freaked out. And did put it in power save mode again. It's weird how its able to turn on by pressing the button again. Luckily I was able to swap to a 2tb and finished everything, but man that was stressful and scary was sweating bullets.
Thank you for the video
Thank you for this excellent guide. Best I've seen. Planning to install a 2TB in my LE soon.
Absolutely, thanks for watching!
And thank you I really appreciate it!
Good luck with the installation, hope everything goes well for you!
Thanks for showing the disconnection of the ribbon cable, I have no idea why but many Steam Deck OLED teardown videos skip this entirely. Just under the ribbon cable there's a little lead taped to the very bottom of the shield, I'd personally recommend unsticking this to avoid pulling on that lead while you have the shield moved out of the way.
Absolutely, it threw me when I saw it when I first opened it up, so I figured it would for other people too and I wanted to be sure to include it.
And oh good to know, thank you for sharing that!
Very well done, everything explained and excellent camera work. I would say this is the quintessential Steam Deck OLED SSD swap video
Thank you very much, I really appreciate you saying that!
Thank you, straight to the point. Was very useful, specially when guides are 30 mins long for such an easy thing (including I think your previous one). Cheers!
Yeah definitely tried to keep this as short as possible (especially compared to the original video I made), no guide video should be much longer than it actually takes to do the repair in my opinion.
Do you get a creeking noise from the right after putting everything back together?
I think I might have warped the shell or maybe the triggers or springs when using the tool to pry it open. It’s closed tightly but still creeks a bit.
Anybody experiencing this?
I'm sorry to hear that, maybe there's something putting pressure on the case inside and causing it to creak?
I haven't experienced any issues like that and I've opened mine up twice now, so maybe try determining exactly where the creaking is and open it up and see if you can see anything out of place inside compared to screenshots online or my video? Just an idea, good luck to you though, hopefully you figure it out!
Brilliant guide, had mine done in less than half an hour. Thanks!
Thank you I appreciate it, glad to hear it helped!
Do you need to format or install anything on the new ssd? Or as simple as this video shows.
The extra ribbon cable and the little wire tied to the heat shield were annoying compared to the ease of getting into the original model...thanks for the guide. Got my 2 TB swapped in!
I agree, definitely annoying but if it adds some performance or enhances functionality in any way I’m fine with it, not incredible difficult to get around it at least.
But absolutely, thanks for watching! Congrats on getting it swapped in!
Great video! Got my SSD swapped out in no time.
Thank you I really appreciate it, glad to hear the swap went well!
Great job with this video. Liked and subscribed.
Thank you I really appreciate it!
Great video and very clear. I've subbed and liked, I hope more people see this tutorial :-)
Thank you I really appreciate you doing that! I hope more people do too!
great video, wondering if the battery connector needs to be disconnected ?
Thank you I appreciate it!
I didn't disconnect the battery connector the 3 or 4 times I've done this and everything turned out fine (I believe putting it in battery saving mode beforehand should prevent any issues from occurring) but usually it's best practice to disconnect the battery before completing any work on the device.
oh i see this is way better
Thank you, glad you think so!
Made sure this one was perfectly centered for anyone who wanted to see the OLED model only!
Thanks for this video! My steam deck is arriving soon and thinking of upgrading it to 2TB and will definitely be referring to this. If the SSD installed is fresh and blank, do I just follow the steam deck OS imaging instructions straightaway? Was thinking of booting it just to make sure it turns back on but concerned there might be issues if I power it up without the image ready. Thank you!
thankyou did swap my ssd to 2tb after cloning with my old 512ssd
Absolutely, thanks for watching! And congrats, glad to hear the clone and swap went well for you!
Did any of the orange paint strip away from the orange screws? It sounds silly but I am really pedantic about this stuff and am deathly afraid of leaving a mark on them!
Great question!
It did very slightly scrape a small amount of orange paint from the very tips of the inside of the screws (it’s seriously barely noticeable, I had to put it up to my face and really look for it to find anything), but I also wasn’t being super careful about that because I didn’t think about that being an issue ahead of time, so I bet if you are super careful you could do it without removing any of the orange paint.
I’ve now done this 3 times with my steam deck, (long story) but it’s been simple each time and I don’t bother undoing the ribbon cable, it’s flexible and pretty tough long as you’re not pulling it about.
People disconnecting the battery and disconnecting the ribbon cable are making it unnecessarily difficult.
Great guide tho this is the one I used first time round.
Fantastic video, however what if I have stuff on my current ssd prior to installing a new one?
Thank you I appreciate it!
And great question! If you have a large micro sd card around you could move all the games onto that and then do the swap and move them back to the internal storage, but that could take a pretty long time (micro sd cards are so slow), so I’ve noticed that most people prefer to find a way to connect both drives to another computer and use software to clone the entire old drive to the new one.
This link here seems to have both options pretty well covered, I’d check these out and see which one makes the most sense to do based on your internet speed/data caps and how much game storage you already have used on the previous deck.
www.pcgamer.com/steam-deck-ssd-upgrade-step-by-step/
Hopefully that helps!
@@MTS4K yeah I just got a ssd case that I can clone the steam deck to the new ssd then install the new ssd and done sir done.
Perfect, glad you found a good solution!
How does it work with the software do you need to reinstall it and how? Can anybody explain maybe if there is a file that i can load on the m.2?
Do you need to do anything to the new sad going in or is this literally plug and play. Need to put the operating system on it or anything?
phew those clips on the LE are a major pain in the butt! u can also work around the heatsink/ribbon cable without unplugging but it's a little risky to fray your cable
Haha yeah they really are. I did notice that lining up the opening pick directly with the clip helped to get them off easier, but gosh it’s so stressful I always feel like I’m going to break one and really regret it.
Luckily I don’t have to do this too often normally, so it shouldn’t be an issue anymore for a bit. Haha
@@MTS4K i was so worried about scratching the transparent shell so bad ... lol and it even caught me under my fingernail and gave me a nasty undernail cut. "Easier to repair" they said :D Thank you for the informative content as I used it to help open my LE.
That’s a good point, I didn’t even think about that! I normally have Dbrand killswitch case on mine so I basically couldn’t scratch it, but wow now I’m glad that didn’t happen! Haha
But oh gosh an under nail cut, I’ve never had that before, that sounds painful! Hopefully it gets better soon!
But absolutely, thank you for watching the video and commenting/chatting with me and supporting my channel, I really appreciate it!
Do i need to unplug the battery connector to the motherboard ???
Good question! In the three times I’ve done this, I’ve never disconnected the battery and had no issues whatsoever (perhaps because I put the battery in storage mode first) but it is always best practice to disconnect the battery before doing any work on an electronic device.
Hope that helps!
@@MTS4K Good answer ! Thankx bro
Great guide! Thanks
Absolutely, thanks for watching!
So to oled dose not need a other computer I might try this
Yeah I didn't need a computer to swap it over from my LCD to my OLED, so hopefully you're able to do that easily!
Thanks I might look into getting one eventually
A tb ssd or mabey 2
No need to disconnect battery while doing this?
Best practice is definitely to always disconnect the battery while doing any repairs on an electronic device.
However, I did forget to do this, and I put my battery is storage mode and swapped the SSD 3 different times all without disconnecting the battery first and never had any issues.
Still looks scary to do this, feel like I would destroy this. I still have not bought the ssd just not sure which one and wish they were cheaper too lol.
It definitely is a bit scary, but valve has amazing customer service and almost all the original parts are available from ifixit’s website if you mess anything up or break anything, so there is a safety net which is nice at least.
As for the SSD, check out ifixit’s site! They’re having some Black Friday/cyber Monday sales right now and they already usually have pretty reasonable pricing in my opinion for their SSD’s (like a 1TB for $95 or a 2TB for $185). Just an idea, either way hopefully you find one for a good price when you decide to go for it!
Less i go broke i kidn fo bought stuff, so if don't I cna later on get one,. til then just use SD cards for now and I own two steam deck too@@MTS4K
I bought 2tb wd ssd. But i just don’t know how to do all the reimaging and all that jazz smh.
If ssd and steam deck is new do u just open up oled and put it in or do you have to install os??
1:44 did this come with the mako driver kit? Or did you have to buy it separately?
I bought this all as one self-contained kit. They have a version on Ifixit that's like a "general all device repair bits" kit and that's what I got so I'd have the bits for iPhones, androids, steam deck, etc.
if your just swapping out the ssd for a new one do you still need to use the Steam Deck Recovery ie downloading steam deck Image or not as i’m really not sure or can you just put the new ssd in and power on all is good?
Great question, yes you'll need to image the new SSD on a separate device before installing it in the Steam Deck.
There should be more specific info in one of the links in the description if you want to check that out too!
Just finished successfully swapping my LE to 2TB with your guide :-) Before the swap I cloned the original 1TB to the new 2TB using a 2230 enclosure using Linux "sudo dd" command I got from a pcgamer guide. Can't share the URL sadly because YT deletes them.
Nice that’s really cool, glad to hear the guide helped and everything went well!
Bummer about UA-cam deleting the URL though, at least if you give enough info people can usually Google search it and find it somewhere.
I’ve watched videos of people doing that. But only on the lcd models. Will the command be the same for oled??
@@LaymanGaminit’s literally the same system
I am going to swap but my question is will these orange screws get scratched?
They will get slightly scratched along the very inner edges of the screw if you aren’t super careful, but I know on mine it’s almost completely unnoticeable (unless you put the screw right up in front of you and are looking for it) so it definitely hasn’t been a big problem for me. If they were more scratched up it would be though.
What is the max size SSD you can put in? Which SSD do you recommend please post link? Does this process affect the warranty?
Great question! I’m not sure the max size you can put in, but I know I bought a 2TB SSD from ifixit’s website (I can’t post a link in the comments now because of UA-cam updates,
but if you Google ifixit and then open their shop tab it’ll be there) and installed that no problem on my steam deck and now I have so much storage I can’t even fill it up!
And great question about voiding the warranty! I believe in the US it’s now illegal to void a warrantee based on modifications/upgrades to the device within expected use (such as swapping out an SSD with a larger SSD) but in some specific states or other countries this may still void the warranty.
Personally, I recommend swapping the SSD and keeping the old SSD in storage, and then if you ever need to warranty it out for any reason, put the old SSD in the deck when you send it in. That way 1) if they swap it out for a whole new deck you won’t lose your larger SSD, 2) you can keep all your installed games and configurations and saves if they end up wiping the device during the warranty process, and 3) they shouldn’t have any way of knowing you swapped out the SSD originally anyways, so unless you volunteer that information when you submit the warranty claim, to Valve’s support team it should seem like you’re just sending in a normal Steam deck with a normal Steam deck configuration (because you are).
That’s my recommendations/answers, hope that helps!
Is this any place where its possible to pay someone to do this for you? I want to my 1TB ssd card but I wonder if theres any store or area where you can pay someone to do this thank you for the helpful video!
That’s a great question, it depends on where you live and what shops are around!
I know by my house there’s several different tech support shops and any of them could make this swap pretty easily, so pretty much any computer repair place should be able to do this with no issues
And absolutely, thanks for watching and commenting!
Please add in somewhere that you need to install the OS yourself. I'm getting tired of explaining it for people in reddit that said you said it was just a quick swap and it's done.
I'm sorry to hear that, I'll definitely try to put out a video that includes that information as well, and I'm sorry this video didn't include that originally, but thank you for explaining it to the people I should have explained that to!
The original video I shot and released was only focused on how to move your SSD from an LCD Steam Deck to an OLED Steam Deck, so in that case installing the OS wasn't needed, but when I reshot this to just be for how to swap out the SSD in a Steam Deck OLED, I forgot that most people doing this will probably be swapping out a brand new SSD so that's an important piece to mention.
Thanks again for letting me know, I'll try and put out an updated video for this at some point.
You can clone the drive with Clonezilla which is easier than reinstalling everything
its a good idea to disconnect the battery while removing/replacing the storage
Yeah that's a great point, thanks for letting me know!
I figured I wasn't doing anything too invasive so I didn't do that the 3 or so times I swapped out the SSD while shooting this footage, but you're definitely right, best practice is to always disconnect the battery while doing anything to an electronic device.
I agree. But if you're careful enough just pulling out the SSD and putting the new one in, it shouldn't be an issue, since the slot isn't powered, if the SD is powered down correctly. Also removing the battery plug involves removing more stuff which in turn may lead to more chances of breaking something in the first place.
do you just have a glossy screen protector?
Yes I do, good catch! I really wanted the special anti-glare etched glass screen, but I have little kids and always worry about screens getting scratched or broken so I put a screen protector on it just to be safe.
Now that you mention it though, I might look at getting an anti-glare screen protector someday in the future, that might be a good thing for me to think about! Thank you for mentioning that!
@@MTS4K lol true. Even tho I definitely see the value of etched and I now know it doesn’t look bad, if there was a limited edition with glossy screen I would have convinced myself to buy it instead of the 512 I got (cause I could always put a Anti glare protector after the fact)
Yeah that’s a good point, and I’ve read reviewers out there like Dave2D who said the anti-glare etched glass makes the inky-blackness of the OLED slightly less impressive than it would be on a glossy screen. Not sure exactly how that works, but interesting it was mentioned (either way I think both look great, and I’ll take OLED over LCD any day, regardless of the glass coating).
Hi bro one question is micron ssd 2T you used are good ??
Yes the one I used has been absolutely amazing! I play my steam deck almost every single day for a couple hours, and I’ve ever had any issues, plus I still have over 500GB of storage left on it too which is awesome!
I just ordered a 512 OLED steamdeck and a 2T SSD to put into it. I'm not swapping SSDs from another Deck, do I need to create a bootdisk microSD card, to boot from to format and install OS drivers onto the new clean SSD? Or is the Deck's OS kept in some other internal storage?
Great question!
Unfortunately you will need to create a boot disk on an external USB drive (I’m 90% sure you can’t boot from the sd card) and boot to that after your SSD is installed. Once you boot to the Steam OS installer on the USB drive it’s really easy, just click the prompts and it’ll install the OS and then after it’s all done you’re good to unplug the USB and boot to the normal steam deck OS!
Two additional things:
1) make sure you update your Steam deck to the latest OS version BEFORE swapping the SSD, (only the latest update supports the Steam deck OLED, so you don’t want your deck to be on a previous version before the swap).
2) After you boot into SteamOS on your new SSD, make sure to download any pending updates and switch to desktop mode and download any pending updates there as well, just in case there’s anything in the store or whatever that needs updated in the OS itself.
@@MTS4K For the first step, are you saying that we should first boot our new Steam Deck and update its OS BEFORE opening up the deck for swapping?
I'm actually confused because isn't the OS installed on the original SSD? So why do we need to update it to the latest OS version, when you're about to switch it out with a new SSD and install the new OS on this new SSD?
If you’re just installing a new SSD into your Steam deck, then I don’t think you need to make sure it’s up to date first.
However, if you’re swapping your SSD from an old LCD Steam deck to the new Steam Deck OLED, then I think it’s definitely best to make sure both are updated and on the same most recent OS version before doing the swap.
I think this mainly because one of the more recent updates (OS update 3.5.5) added official support for the Steam Deck OLED, so to make sure your drivers and everything that support the running of the device work correctly after swapping the SSD, I think it’s definitely better to update the OS ahead of time to make sure you don’t have any driver issues later.
I could be wrong on this and maybe it isn’t needed, but IMO better safe than sorry, it makes sense to have both steam decks on the same version before swapping an SSD between them since I’m not sure exactly where the firmware is stored for the interactive buttons on the device, but I bet it’s not on the SSD.
What's the model and rated amps of the OLED 1 tb ssd found on the label?
Great question! It shows the following:
Model: MTFDKBK1T0QFM
3.3V 2.5A
Gen4x4
Hopefully that helps!
That's interesting!
Edit: they went with micron 2400
Man this is the easy part bru lol. Ive got 2tb ssd for my 512 oled . Also bought an enclosure and usb flash drive . But still haven’t done it yet because im not that pc savvy and don’t wanna mess nothing up. But I desperately want to put the 2tb I just don’t know how lol smh
Haha fair, yeah the OS install isn’t as fun, but if you check out the link in my description they make the entire OS install process super easy to follow.
And even if you do mess it up, it really causes no issues because you can just try it again, it can’t break the SSD if the install goes wrong, you can just format the SSD and try again.
so with the new OLED there no need to download the SD os onto a bootable drive??
Only if you’re swapping an SSD from another Steam deck, like I did from my LCD Steam deck to my OLED Steam deck.
Unfortunately if you’re wanting to install a new SSD for the first time in a Steam deck, you’ll need to complete what you mentioned separately and flash the OS onto a bootable drive first.
@@MTS4K That would be nice if you mentioned that...I wonder how many new users messed up because of that oversight.
True, however you still have to install the SSD into the Steam deck first before you can flash the OS anyways, so in either situation you would do this swap first.
But that makes sense, I’ll keep that in mind for the future.
So I have my original lcd steam deck with 2tb installed. If I got the oled model and want to cold swap the ssd do I still need to turn on the oled model and update it before I swap my existing 2tb ssd to the oled model or does that not matter?
Yes I would definitely do that.
It’s possible that it doesn’t matter, but I think it definitely makes more sense that if you’re moving the SSD from one device to another that they are both using the same firmware and OS version.
@@MTS4K duly noted and congrats on your upgrade. I’m just going to save up and refer to what you said about the updates. Also, sweet limited edition model. I wish they come back in stock soon. Otherwise I’ll just anticipate the steam deck 2 that’s if there is such a planned release.
Thanks I appreciate it! And that's a good idea, hopefully Steam Deck 2 will be a huge upgrade even from the OLED model.
Honestly when I first opened the OLED model it looked cool, but when I started playing on it I was like "this really is pretty much the same thing with a nicer screen". I still love the OLED model and think it is the best version of the Steam Deck, but I think it's not necessarily worth the upgrade from the LCD model.
@@MTS4K how does 90hz feel compared to the 60 tho? lol at that point might as well get the rog ally or the legion go since I think they can go up past 90hz with a resolution up to 1080? Idk lol But I love how simpler valve has done to manage steam deck in game mode. Not sure how the other handhelds are doing but I guess I shall see more comparisons down the road.
The 90hz is awesome and I love it, not sure I could go back to the 60hz on the LCD model, but it only really matters if the games you're playing are side scrollers or not too graphic intense to prevent you from hitting the 90hz.
I've been playing Lords of the Fallen almost every day for 3 weeks on my Steam Deck, and I've never gotten above 50FPS so the 90hz refresh rate really doesn't matter, but when I play games like Death's Door and Inscryption, then I get that 90fps and it's amazing.
I'd *highly* recommend not getting the ROG Ally, I've heard a ton of people say the battery life is awful on it. Especially a lot of people in my Steam Deck video chat have said they're switching (or switched) from the ROG Ally because the battery life was awful.
The legion go looks pretty cool, but I feel like right now mobile graphics cards are just not good enough to fully utilize screens like that has with higher resolutions and refresh rates. I think the Steam Deck killed it with the absolutely perfect resolution and refresh rate on the OLED for the next several years until the chips get powerful enough to hit better graphics levels.
There's also a thing where like 4K is important on large TVs because the screen is so large we can easily see the difference between 4K and 2K or 1080p, but on a small 7" handheld screen, you basically can't notice the difference between 720p and 1080p or 2K, so there's not really a point of having a higher resolution since you can barely tell the difference but it will dramatically affect graphics performance, thus why the Steam Deck has stuck with 720p.
Wait! You didn’t have to reinstalled Steam OS?
On mine I didn't need to re-install SteamOS because I was just moving the SSD from my previous Steam Deck (which already had SteamOS on it) to my new Steam Deck OLED.
@@MTS4K oh ok thanks
fair warning... Steam doesn't want you to modify their Steam Deck. While in the process of swapping SSDs the L4 switch came off the left trigger board. How does this happen unless the board had defective cold solders. I've been begging Steam to replace or repair under warranty but they are refusing because I was "in the process of modifying or repairing" the Deck. I've gone back and forth and they refuse to move and offered to send me info for a paid repair service. All the other switches are firm on the boards with no issues and there is no possible way I could have exerted enough force opening the case to cause the switch to come off. Just beware... according to Steam Support you will void your warranty if you swap drives or any other damage or defects are detected.
Good to know, thank you for sharing!
Why did u admit u were opening it ?
Did you start prying open from the trigger grip area or did you start prying from the bottom center?
@@AJCoRePlays bottom center. But I've done the SSD swap on my original SteamDeck and even did the hall sensor joystick upgrade. No issues with that swap. The switch may have fallen off with basic game play but since I rarely use the L4/R4 triggers I wouldn't have noticed if the switch was already loose. The other switches are fine... a few of my electronic buds say that it appears to be a cold solder and the board should be replaced but ifixit doesn't have that board yet. Sad spending the big $$ even splurged the extra few for the limited edition. Buyer beware.
@@technopackratand the other guys question, why would you tell them you opened up the deck?
its bad practice to keep the battery plugged in while doing anything to electronics...
Fair, that’s a good point.
The little clip you use to take the cable attached to the heat shield broke and idk what to do
Gosh I'm sorry to hear that, hopefully you were able to get it figured out, maybe that's a part you can order from Ifixit.com since they have official Steam Deck repair parts?
@@MTS4K I looked didn’t see anything that looked similar so I had to send it in to get repaired the bill will be between $120-$180 🙁
Gosh I'm really sorry to hear that. Hopefully at least they get it fixed and you can use it again, but that's a definitely a bummer, I feel for you there.
i just got done swaping the ssd from my og deck to the oled myself, the hardest part is spliting the shell on the oled it was alot easyer on the og model, in fact i ended up with a very slight dmg to the case where i had to pry it open as i had to use a flat head screw driver to get it to release
Gosh, I’m sorry to hear that!
Yeah I had a seriously hard time doing that too. I thought I bent the edges of the right side of the case, but it turned out okay and there wasn’t any damage thank goodness.
Plus I use a Dbrand kill switch case, so I don’t see most of the deck anyways, but still, knowing there was any damage would bother me.
Oooh that's too bad. Yeah, never use metal tools with these projects. Highly recommend buying an iFixit tool kit with those guitar pick tooks. I had a fairly easy time of it using them.
Yeah same, couldn’t recommend any ifixit stuff enough, they definitely know what they’re doing and sell great (but also a bit more expensive) tools to get it done right.
@@tappersreviews4677 i have ifixit set of tools , it just wouldnt budge with the pick, had no choice had to use a small flat head to finaly get it to release, and it was very minor dmg to case to wear the plastic has a little dent , here is a picture of it, with my jsaux case on it you cant even see it anyway i.imgur dot com/nMRpxhP.jpg
Step 1: Remove your Micro SD Card
Step 2: REMOVE YOUR MICRO SD CARD, BECAUSE YOU DEFINITELY DIDN'T DO IT IN STEP ONE!
Cool
This is what fear looks like.
it really should be easier than this to replace an ssd, it should just be a case of epening a door on the rear to access the ssd, none of this opening up the device and potentially breaking something.
Yeah that would be nice, but to be honest I’ll take anything that isn’t proprietary at this point.
A great example is the Xbox Series X which has the super easy to install SSD chip you can buy for it, but it’s proprietary and uses a proprietary port and shape, so because there’s no competition and it’s all proprietary it costs twice as much as the the same amount of storage compared to a PS5 where you can just buy any newer SSD (that has fast enough read/write speeds) and install that instead.
I got a 2TB SSD for my PS5 for like $230 (they’re still $230 or cheaper now), meanwhile a 2TB for the Series X is $360 at normal list price. Not worth it just to make it easier to install in my opinion.
Also the read/write speed on the m.2 SSD for PS5 is MUCH faster than the Series X proprietary SSD.
Ultimate guide but does not tell what screwdriver to use 😂
You can't already tell by looking? You should not be near any electronics if you can't tell by looking. Unless you're blind. Then I apologise for your blindness and stupidity.
Good point I should have mentioned this!
I went ahead and added it in the comments and pinned it, thanks for pointing this out to me!
Did you have to download the Steam OS and install it or did it just boot up from the internal drive?
Great question! For me, I was swapping out the 2TB SSD from my old LCD steam deck, so it already had the Steam OS image on it from the previous steam deck. If you’re buying a brand new SSD, there’s a link in the video description that tells how to install Steam OS on a new or formatted SSD.
Hope that helps!
Thank you!
Do you get warranty voided with this?
No you shouldn’t, at least not in the US because I believe they determined that wasn’t legal to prevent people from fixing their own stuff.
Also, unless there’s something I’m not aware of inside the deck, I don’t see how Valve would ever know if you’ve opened up your deck or not if you swap the internal SSD back to the factory SSD before you send it in for any repairs.
Great question though!
@@MTS4K Usually there are some bolts with a sticker that says "warranty voided if opened"
i guess they will figure it out i opened it when they notice the broken clips cause i am clumsy af 😂😂
Thanks for answering though!
Yeah that’s a good point, this definitely didn’t have any of those, probably due to Valve’s incredible openness and support of people being able to tinker and fix their own Steam decks and selling original parts through ifixit’s site which is just awesome.
And haha I thought I was going to do that too even with how gentle I was trying to be, I’m sure you’ll do great!
It’s definitely a sweet feeling once the SSD swap is complete and everything turns back on and is working correctly though. Haha