Valve says you shouldn’t fix the Steam Deck’s noisy fan this way

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

This week might be the best yet, because we are finally addressing the biggest issue with the $400 portable PC, and the Steam Deck has gotten a bit better since then. I'm talking about the fan.

When the Deck launched, it shipped with an extremely noisy fan to cool its chips, and owners like me have been dealing with its volume and constant whine from day one. Even when I wasn't using the system, it was always ramping up even in games like Vampire Survivors.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

It whines. Some steam decks have an issue with one fan from Delta and another from Huaying, according to the community. Most others complain about the whine from what I have seen, and I have the Delta one. iFixit can't say whether you'll be able to swap out for a better fan when replacement parts are available, but Valve won't comment on the fan selection.

We're aware of the noise issue, and we're trying to source the ones without the noise, but it will depend on what's available to us.

— iFixit (@iFixit) April 18, 2022

This week, Valve took a big step towards improving it, and I can confirm that it is a whole new experience. When the system is just sitting there, the fan no longer kicks on, until you warm up the chip by opening up big folders of games or download some content.

It doesn't ramp up as quickly anymore, with mine generally waiting until the system crosses 65 degrees Celsius before raising fan speed to a new tier, though I did notice it getting pretty toasty before it hit maximum fan speed, and even saw some stuttering in Elden Ring.

None of Valve's tweaks fixed the whine. My Delta fan still has that small jet engine noise even though it doesn't ramp up as quickly.

What did it take to fix it? There is electrical tape.

The whine was deadened by simply pressing on the back of the Steam Deck's shell. They put four strips of electrical tape on top of a place inside the shell behind the fan. They created some videos.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

I did the same thing, pressing on the back to see if it would work, then opening the steam deck and adding tape. The whine was gone. The fan is still loud at full bore. The rushing of air is not a screech.

Please be careful if you open your deck.

• Remove your SD card first; some people have snapped theirs in half because the case effectively guillotines it as it pops open
• Use soft plastic spudgers, not screwdrivers, to pry it open once the eight screws are removed — pry tools are cheap!
• Drain the battery before opening and yank the battery connector once open
• Don’t overtighten the screws when closing again

Is it a good idea to try this at home? We don't know why it works or if there are ill side effects, so we don't recommend changing the path.

Between Valve's warning and the fact that opening up the Deck is a teensy bit harder than some people think, I don't think it's worth it.

I'm pretty sure that the fan problem is hardware, not just software, and if Valve doesn't have a plan or a recommendation to deaden the sound, more than a few people will take matters into their own.

The fan curve is one of the neat additions in this week's update for the deck. It also adds an experimental way to change the screen refresh rate between 40 and 60Hz, which could improve battery life and smoothness when your game runs over 30 frames per second, but can't quite hit 60.