The first batch of Steam Decks just arrived A lucky few can order them on FridaySome owners have reported stick drift on their devices. But now Valve is telling us it’s a “dead zone calibration issue” – indicating it’s a software issue rather than a hardware issue – and that the team has already provided a fix for it.
Joystick drift is an issue that causes your character or cursor to keep moving in-game even if you don’t press the joystick in any direction. It’s a problem that many have encountered with the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers. While Nintendo itself has suggested this issue It is not fully covered Since Joy-Cons fade over time, Repairs floating Joy-Con controllers for free. Drift doesn’t only appear on Joy-Cons, however; Some have reported drift issues with PS5 DualSense-Controlleris very.
at three Differently Videos On the Steam Deck subreddit, you can see the times when one of the thumbsticks continues to record an entry while the user is not touching the stick. Some users showed a logging issue with the Steam Deck Calibration Checker.
But according to Steam Deck team member Lawrence Yang, “The team looked at these reports and determined that there is an issue with the deadzone calibration that was introduced in a recent firmware update. We just shipped a fix to fix the issue, and the team will continue to monitor reports of this issue.”
Since a fix update has just been shipped, we’ll have to wait and see if it really fixes the joystick drift issue. A Reddit user who experienced drifting has already made a post Video With installed updateAnd in that things seem to have improved.
Any drift issues are likely to be a cause for concern, especially since they’re appearing on the brand new Steam decks, although it’s unclear how widespread the issue is.
In conversation with Washington PostValve’s Pierre-Loup Greves estimated that “tens of thousands” of people would get their bottoms, but there are still a handful of videos documenting the problem. My colleague Sean Hollister told me on Tuesday that his joystick is in his own verification unitThe one he’s been actively testing for the past three weeks hasn’t shown any drift issues so far – they’ve remained absolutely zero, even when he tried the same calibration checker seen in a couple of Reddit videos.
LED hat already promised Eventually to offer parts for Steam Deck – including thumb sticks – so if you’re seeing stick drift on your deck and this hotfix update doesn’t fix it, you can swap out the parts yourself. It will be iFixit An authorized seller of Steam Deck parts, although it’s still unclear when or how much you’ll actually be able to buy.
Unfortunately, if you’re experiencing a Steam deck drift, you can’t buy a spare for yourself. But an influencer on Reddit put together a guide regarding it How to calibrate joystick dead zone? This can be a temporary solution in the device settings.
Update March 1 at 21:06 ET: Added steam deck video with update installed.
Update on March 1 at 20:36 ET: Valve says it shipped a drift stick fix, so we’ve updated the article and title.
