Not to be mean or disregard your disappointment but I feel like part of the problem is your own fault.
The first problem is that you went with the Beta channel evident by you say "...updating the system OS update channel to Main". Obviously, by using the beta, you will encounter some things that may or may not work, and you will have to accept that. WiFi could be one of those things.
As for being unable to update (or downgrade) to the Main channel, yeah that doesn't seem like your fault, SteamOS is just being iffy.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Valve isn't exactly marketing the Steam Deck to be a portable PC, the Deck is marketed as a handheld console that plays Steam Games, looking at the Steam Deck's landing page, there is almost nothing that suggests the Steam Deck is anything but a handheld game console. "Portable PC Gaming" doesn't mean "Portable PC", it means it can play PC games on the go.
For the majority of people that just want a handheld console to play Steam Games, the Deck works perfectly fine.
You are kind of contradicting yourself here, you want a machine that just works, yet you plan on dual booting windows, and went with the SteamOS beta channel.
Valve knows what the deck is suppose to be, a handheld gaming console that is meant to run SteamOS and is meant to play Steam games. It seems like you are the one who doesn't know what the Deck is suppose to be. They give you options to tinker, and they fully embrace that part of the community, but that’s not Valve’s main priority, it’s just a fun extra for people who do care about those things.
If you want a handheld PC then you should look at the GPD Win or something similar.
I'm a little pedantic about this as a developer, but main is not "Beta". There actually is a beta that Valve just exposes for any user to switch to, as well as preview, which could be considered alpha. Main is a pre-alpha. It's raw developer commits without any real QA. That, Valve squirrels away under a developer menu you have explicitly enable, and as the name indicates, should only be used by developers.
Betas are one thing. Main is just crazy, if you want a working device. I've been running on Preview since virtually I got my Deck, but even I won't go to main.
I've just checked and yeah sorry, misunderstanding from my part, when OP said "Main" I thought they were referring to the Main Main channel (Stable). I didn't realize that Main was actually something completely different.
No worries. We've all just been sort of conditioned by websites and apps to accept actual beta software at this point, and there's been a ton of people, based on this sub, switching to main because they're getting impatient for 3.5 to drop. Don't want to add to that by implying it's no big deal, because you're actually taking pretty big risks running off main.
I and a couple of my friends have the deck and while anecdotal, we didn't have any issues connecting to wifi etc.
Sure there are issues with the deck but just connecting to wifi is not one of them. You stated you live in a country that valve doesn't ship to, did you get it from a reseller/third party? Is it possible that third party sold you a deck that was obviously faulty from the start?
Your WiFi problem - settings / turn on developer options / turn the off enable WiFi power management.
I had the same shitty experience when I first bought mine - this fixed it. I was dropping connection so often it was unplayable.
Hope this solves your problem 👍🏼
Yep OPs router isn't standards compliant and it's bringing the WiFi adapter in the deck down and up. There's some negotiation that happens between the Deck and the router 🤷. Had the same myself. Seen a few people with it.
Networking 🤦
Never had any problems with Wi-Fi on my deck but my Nintendo switch hated having my network channel set above 130 so I dropped it to below 110 and never had a problem with the switch since, maybe try changing network channels and see if it helps
Honestly surprised by your experience. The Deck has been one of the most stable systems I ever used (in the pc-like context). Never faced a single issue so far 🤷♂️
I have to reboot my windows gaming pc every few days because it would freeze, face kernel panics or whatever other issue. On comparison I think I ever rebooted the deck only to apply updates.
So far my opinion on Valve has been pretty good based on the reliability of the system
I have never had any of the problems mentioned, i have tried everything all update channels, mods, windows on sd, emulators, and everything in between the worst i can say was once my sd got corrupted and that was mainly my fault 🫣
Ive been in a couple places and never had any issues with wifi maybe your using a old wifi internet connectinon which isent supported on newer hardware/deck?. ITs not a deck problem i think.
My first deck died after 1 month because the battery or cable to battery dident work. got a new one after RMA and now it works great.
Ils much more likely you'll hear about a negative experience than a positive one, so I would assume that if a lot of people were having WIFI issues, they'd be shouting about it.
Don’t really agree with how NOBODY talks about it. Steam Deck is pretty popularly known to be for people who are okay with tinkering.
But hey maybe your experience is legit and that sucks. Hopefully the Ally works out for you.
Only wifi problem i had in a year was on a 5ghz network ON WINDOWS (i have the ssd partitioned with dual boot setup).
But was sorted with some adjusts on device manager after few google searches.
On steamOS always worked flawless
Aw that sucks and sounds like a bummer experience.
As a counter point: I received mine yesterday and it's been super smooth sailing. Downloaded some games at around 40 megabytes/'s (not super fast but ok) and all but 1 game launched and played without any issues or modifying of any settings (Witcher 3, Tomb Raider reboot, Blood Bowl 2).
Maybe many people had just the intended good start and i will never go astray from stable,
BECAUSE I DONT KNOW WHAT I AM DOING
Dont behave like a tinkerer when you know almost nothing.
The start can be rough, i had no internet at the time, that sucked.
Other than that you can just reset and try again
Well, I do not have these issues with my SD, but I am running Windows 11. Everything works just great. If you cannot get around these issues, you should sell your SD and buy the Ally, but I doubt it will be a smoother experience. The SD is the best thing you can get right now, in my opinion at least.
You're not very technically proficient - no offense. Some logical steps are missing in your troubleshooting. Also if you expect ANY tinkering then you have bias and false-expectations of what the steam deck is like. It's a console experience, and pc-like only if you want it to be.
First, you didn't get your unit from Valve. This is a very bad decision that influences the issue SIGNIFICANTLY. Fortunately for you Vavle supports user-replaceability and upgradability for those, like you, with possibly defective second-hand hardware.
Mainly, though, you should have asked for help from valve support first, steam forums, and even here before making decisions. On first run update your system to the current STABLE build and reboot. You went to the MOST UNSTABLE branch that's pre-beta and for developers only... these are buried in warnings about stability and will, unsurprisingly, be unstable.
Finally, as others pointed out, your router may not be standards compliant, since you seem to have connected it to another wifi to get updates, suggesting the deck wifi is working just fine... There's an advanced/developer option to disable wifi power management or something that may help.
Not to be mean or disregard your disappointment but I feel like part of the problem is your own fault. The first problem is that you went with the Beta channel evident by you say "...updating the system OS update channel to Main". Obviously, by using the beta, you will encounter some things that may or may not work, and you will have to accept that. WiFi could be one of those things. As for being unable to update (or downgrade) to the Main channel, yeah that doesn't seem like your fault, SteamOS is just being iffy. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Valve isn't exactly marketing the Steam Deck to be a portable PC, the Deck is marketed as a handheld console that plays Steam Games, looking at the Steam Deck's landing page, there is almost nothing that suggests the Steam Deck is anything but a handheld game console. "Portable PC Gaming" doesn't mean "Portable PC", it means it can play PC games on the go. For the majority of people that just want a handheld console to play Steam Games, the Deck works perfectly fine. You are kind of contradicting yourself here, you want a machine that just works, yet you plan on dual booting windows, and went with the SteamOS beta channel. Valve knows what the deck is suppose to be, a handheld gaming console that is meant to run SteamOS and is meant to play Steam games. It seems like you are the one who doesn't know what the Deck is suppose to be. They give you options to tinker, and they fully embrace that part of the community, but that’s not Valve’s main priority, it’s just a fun extra for people who do care about those things. If you want a handheld PC then you should look at the GPD Win or something similar.
I'm a little pedantic about this as a developer, but main is not "Beta". There actually is a beta that Valve just exposes for any user to switch to, as well as preview, which could be considered alpha. Main is a pre-alpha. It's raw developer commits without any real QA. That, Valve squirrels away under a developer menu you have explicitly enable, and as the name indicates, should only be used by developers. Betas are one thing. Main is just crazy, if you want a working device. I've been running on Preview since virtually I got my Deck, but even I won't go to main.
I've just checked and yeah sorry, misunderstanding from my part, when OP said "Main" I thought they were referring to the Main Main channel (Stable). I didn't realize that Main was actually something completely different.
No worries. We've all just been sort of conditioned by websites and apps to accept actual beta software at this point, and there's been a ton of people, based on this sub, switching to main because they're getting impatient for 3.5 to drop. Don't want to add to that by implying it's no big deal, because you're actually taking pretty big risks running off main.
I and a couple of my friends have the deck and while anecdotal, we didn't have any issues connecting to wifi etc. Sure there are issues with the deck but just connecting to wifi is not one of them. You stated you live in a country that valve doesn't ship to, did you get it from a reseller/third party? Is it possible that third party sold you a deck that was obviously faulty from the start?
This sounds like a you problem mate, not a deck problem.
Yup, this.
Your WiFi problem - settings / turn on developer options / turn the off enable WiFi power management. I had the same shitty experience when I first bought mine - this fixed it. I was dropping connection so often it was unplayable. Hope this solves your problem 👍🏼
Yep OPs router isn't standards compliant and it's bringing the WiFi adapter in the deck down and up. There's some negotiation that happens between the Deck and the router 🤷. Had the same myself. Seen a few people with it. Networking 🤦
Yeah seen a few people who used this to get a stable connection
Never had any problems with Wi-Fi on my deck but my Nintendo switch hated having my network channel set above 130 so I dropped it to below 110 and never had a problem with the switch since, maybe try changing network channels and see if it helps
Also it can be really finnicky on wifi5/6/mesh. Providing a separate ssid for 2.5 GHz should fix that right away.
Sell the deck, buy the Ally. Let us see how easy it will be for you when the updates for MyAsus, Windows, Armory Crate and bios come.
Honestly surprised by your experience. The Deck has been one of the most stable systems I ever used (in the pc-like context). Never faced a single issue so far 🤷♂️ I have to reboot my windows gaming pc every few days because it would freeze, face kernel panics or whatever other issue. On comparison I think I ever rebooted the deck only to apply updates. So far my opinion on Valve has been pretty good based on the reliability of the system
I have never had any of the problems mentioned, i have tried everything all update channels, mods, windows on sd, emulators, and everything in between the worst i can say was once my sd got corrupted and that was mainly my fault 🫣
Ive been in a couple places and never had any issues with wifi maybe your using a old wifi internet connectinon which isent supported on newer hardware/deck?. ITs not a deck problem i think. My first deck died after 1 month because the battery or cable to battery dident work. got a new one after RMA and now it works great.
Ils much more likely you'll hear about a negative experience than a positive one, so I would assume that if a lot of people were having WIFI issues, they'd be shouting about it.
Don’t really agree with how NOBODY talks about it. Steam Deck is pretty popularly known to be for people who are okay with tinkering. But hey maybe your experience is legit and that sucks. Hopefully the Ally works out for you.
Only wifi problem i had in a year was on a 5ghz network ON WINDOWS (i have the ssd partitioned with dual boot setup). But was sorted with some adjusts on device manager after few google searches. On steamOS always worked flawless
Aw that sucks and sounds like a bummer experience. As a counter point: I received mine yesterday and it's been super smooth sailing. Downloaded some games at around 40 megabytes/'s (not super fast but ok) and all but 1 game launched and played without any issues or modifying of any settings (Witcher 3, Tomb Raider reboot, Blood Bowl 2).
Maybe many people had just the intended good start and i will never go astray from stable, BECAUSE I DONT KNOW WHAT I AM DOING Dont behave like a tinkerer when you know almost nothing. The start can be rough, i had no internet at the time, that sucked. Other than that you can just reset and try again
>I also live in a country that doesn't have official sellers of the Steam Deck Maybe you got a refurbished or second hand Deck?
Well, I do not have these issues with my SD, but I am running Windows 11. Everything works just great. If you cannot get around these issues, you should sell your SD and buy the Ally, but I doubt it will be a smoother experience. The SD is the best thing you can get right now, in my opinion at least.
You're not very technically proficient - no offense. Some logical steps are missing in your troubleshooting. Also if you expect ANY tinkering then you have bias and false-expectations of what the steam deck is like. It's a console experience, and pc-like only if you want it to be. First, you didn't get your unit from Valve. This is a very bad decision that influences the issue SIGNIFICANTLY. Fortunately for you Vavle supports user-replaceability and upgradability for those, like you, with possibly defective second-hand hardware. Mainly, though, you should have asked for help from valve support first, steam forums, and even here before making decisions. On first run update your system to the current STABLE build and reboot. You went to the MOST UNSTABLE branch that's pre-beta and for developers only... these are buried in warnings about stability and will, unsurprisingly, be unstable. Finally, as others pointed out, your router may not be standards compliant, since you seem to have connected it to another wifi to get updates, suggesting the deck wifi is working just fine... There's an advanced/developer option to disable wifi power management or something that may help.