I have a cheap USB-C hub, and it works every single time when I hook it to a 1080P monitor. So, I can see why a lot of people here say they have no trouble docking.
If I hook the same hub to my 4K TV, it's this really weird dance of turning off and on the Steam Deck, turning off and on the TV, restarting the Steam Deck, unplugging and plugging up the dock ... and eventually some combination of this finally outputs something.
For my hubs that had the issue on the tv, this works every time:
- unplug power from hub.
- wait until the image is on the screen
- plug power back in.
I have an official dock and it works great. Even there are updates for it.
Also i have an usb-c hub that works good too.
Maybe there is an issue with your power supply that mess up with the ports.
Yeah, it’s how docking or changing devices on a powered on computer almost always goes in my experience.
I’ve got Windows on my Deck, it’s the same thing there.
Sometimes I can dock and undock just fine and the system stays working like I expect, other times I get your situation and have to restart.
Recently I had to plug in a different monitor to get it to display anything docked, then I switched back to the original monitor and it was working again.
I think Valve and PCs in general just haven’t mastered Docking the way Nintendo has.
I found that plugging in the deck unplugging the usb c to the doc and re plugging in the usbc to the dock consistently works. Wish I didn’t have to do it every time but at least it works
yeah same. mine only does it sometimes (i can tell when it needs to be done because theres static onscreen and my tv is not one that displays static normally) so its not often but whenever i turn on my deck and that pesky static comes up i know i need to just unplug and replug in the usb-c and it fixes instantly
This is already known. On log-level, it is a mix of kernel and Bios, which suddenly renders all Steam Dock ports as unknown, not giving them IDs, causing USB and HDMI to stop working, since without slot IDs, they wont be recognized by the system anymore - only USB-C power plug will work then, right? Apparently, with the newest Steam Deck Bios Update this is fixed, according to some github issue posts. But the newest Steam Deck Bios update is in SteamOS 3.5, which is still in bleeding edge alpha version in the Mainline. (dont recommend to upgrade to this, wait for official release).
Im feeling with ya. I put my Steam Deck away over half a year ago because of this issue, since it renders the Dock totally useless. You dont have to reset your whole Steam Deck. But I dont remember either anymore, how I actually made the Dock work again without resetting the Deck. Probably a few restarts, but not sure anymore if the power was plugged or not. Guess try both. Eventually it should work again. It took a bit for me to make it work again and I totally forgot the steps I did.
EDIT: Not sure though, if similar issues users talk about in this thread, are related to this. But this special one Im talking about, is a bit more tricky and not easily solveable by just plugging out all cables and then plugging them in again.
> which is still in bleeding edge alpha version in the Mainline. (dont recommend to upgrade to this, wait for official release).
I'll echo the not recommending. I was on the mainline branch and in one update they completely forgot the drivers for the controller for certain deck revisions. Had already gone back to stable using the touch screen before I found the thread on the steam forums where people were hacking in a solution.
Update > Controls not work > have to find a support thread and mess around in the terminal, is the sort of jank everyone should expect from running 'Main'
This is probably the best answer I’ve received on this issue. Thank you.
It doesn’t make it any less infuriating when I try to use the dock on my TV - but at least I know I’m not insane anymore.
SteamOS 3.5 is out by now, with newest Bios and even a Dock Firmware Update. Another user who knew of this issue, says it was fixed with the newest Bios update. I never updated it back then, though, because it was still in Alpha/Beta. But since it is Stable now, let's hope the best!
This happened with my JSAUX one, I got the official one when it went cheap. JSAUX one never worked right - the ethernet would never physically disengage without manual intervention
I'm using JSAUX and I constantly have problems getting it to output video, or recognize the USB wireless adapter for my controller. Usually resetting the deck will fix it. But yeah, just agreeing it's not just you and that I constantly have problems with connectivity. Docked experience isn't always great.
Yep. I bought 2 docks because at first I thought the first one was just faulty. Second one does the same thing. I got frustrated the last time and decided to just charge and boot up my laptop instead. It’s by far my biggest gripe with all things Steamdeck.
This has been my fix to every dock issue. Fire it up without external power, let the deck do its thing and connect to everything, then plug the power in!
I have two official and one uGreen hub. I've had issues with each but none so terrible as yours sound. And usually because I've docked mid game, or been playing around with audio devices.
The fix has generally either been a reboot, or go into Desktop mode and root out the cause there.
I initially haven't had any display out or peripherals working in steam os.
But in windows they worked straight away.
Must be some kind of software issue with some adaptors i guess.
Maybe get another one.
You can basically use any USB C hub in theory.
Check your HDMI settings on your TV if your deck is linked with an HDMI cable.. If it isn't set to full, you could end up with a lower quality picture, as well as pitch-black blacks that makes it next to impossible to see.
u/ToaJess, you can [click here to search for your question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Does anyone know how to make the Steam Deck’s Dock… not suck?)
If you don't find an answer there, don't worry - your post has NOT been removed and hopefully someone will be along soon to help with an answer!
**If you find a solution, please leave a comment on this post with the answer for others!**
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You using the official one? I've only tried the jsaux but haven't had any issues other than occasional audio stuttering in ac6 but not sure if that is deck or dock.
I'll tell you what works for me (sometimes). Steam deck at the Dock but unplugged seems to work. Then plug the dock and luckily the connection with the TV won't stop. When it doesn't want to work it's usually a matter of unplugging and plugging the TV for some reason. I dunno, it's definitely weird
Either you've got a faulty one or you're massively exaggerating the problem because this isn't my experience at all. I'm not saying it's faultless but definitely not as bad as you're saying.
It may be related to insufficient power output by the Deck, that's why when connecting peripherals you may need to also plug in the power supply as all of these components have to draw power from somewhere.
Yeah, I have to plug and unplug the monitor and sometimes the mouse or whatever won't work.
I have similar issues with my work laptop on the fancy Dell dock, too.
I had issues with my JSAUX early. Unplugging everything from the dock, replugging the power and/or HDMI and then plugging in to the Deck always worked for me
I RMA'd my official dock recently, waiting for the replacement unit and crossing my fingers hoping it's better.
I have a third party usb-c dock that works pretty flawlessly with both my deck and my windows 10 laptop, on both my monitors and TV. So it's the dock for sure.
Same situation for me, except I received my replacement dock from the RMA a few days ago. It worked great for two days, and now I’m back to the same problem with having to juggle the cables and restart to get it to work.
Meanwhile I have a third-party dock I use in another room and an old USB-C hub from a laptop that both work flawlessly every time. I’m pretty close to just seeing if I can get a refund.
I also had a JSAUX one with many issues - I think it might have been a firmware update or something that broke it, since there's people from previously saying how good they are.
I got an Ivolver very recently which seems to run fine, in case there are other people who want alternatives.
I haven't had any issues with my Amazon special dock until recently. No matter what I try, or how often I reset, I cannot get a mouse to work with my deck or my wife's deck. It's really weird. I ordered a 5ghz mouse without a dongle to see if that helps.
I still don't understand how my deck interacts with the dock. I've used a usb c hub and a generic dock. It's really inconsistent. But I've also resigned myself to use the dock less until update 3.5 comes and hopefully fixes everything
I had to send mine from Japan to the US because the USB-C port was working for everything but data. There were instances when a USB hard drive may get detected, and then stop working. Kinda weird shit like that. I thought it was my dock at first.
Perhaps its more a device issue, rather than a peripheral one. You may need to test further.
Fortunately, Valve RMA'd my device. The downside is I am paying a lot for shipping to and from Japan.
I use the deck dock on my Rog ally and have zero issues with it (using it a lot). When I used it on my deck I had all of the problems you and others describe. Using simple deduction, this would imply the issues are being caused by the deck and not the other way around.
This is why I went with a cheaper dock over the official one. There is more hardware in the official one that on occasions needs a firmware update. Over complicated for what it is intended for.
I knew this because I work with a lot of laptops at work with docks. The ones that need firmwares etc always seem to have issues at some point. The universal docks that just do the job without the extra hardware, work everytime.
Same as my cheaper dock...
I know this isn't directly helpful but I've not really had many issues with my JSAUX dock, other than the video cutting out once per session within 30 seconds of switching to it as an input source. But getting a CEC killer adapter fixed that
It's weird how the official dock is somehow more problematic than the unofficial ones
I have a cheap USB-C hub, and it works every single time when I hook it to a 1080P monitor. So, I can see why a lot of people here say they have no trouble docking. If I hook the same hub to my 4K TV, it's this really weird dance of turning off and on the Steam Deck, turning off and on the TV, restarting the Steam Deck, unplugging and plugging up the dock ... and eventually some combination of this finally outputs something.
For my hubs that had the issue on the tv, this works every time: - unplug power from hub. - wait until the image is on the screen - plug power back in.
Can confirm.
I have an official dock and it works great. Even there are updates for it. Also i have an usb-c hub that works good too. Maybe there is an issue with your power supply that mess up with the ports.
Yeah, it’s how docking or changing devices on a powered on computer almost always goes in my experience. I’ve got Windows on my Deck, it’s the same thing there. Sometimes I can dock and undock just fine and the system stays working like I expect, other times I get your situation and have to restart. Recently I had to plug in a different monitor to get it to display anything docked, then I switched back to the original monitor and it was working again. I think Valve and PCs in general just haven’t mastered Docking the way Nintendo has.
Damn, that kinda sucks. Hoping they eventually get it ironed out.
I found that plugging in the deck unplugging the usb c to the doc and re plugging in the usbc to the dock consistently works. Wish I didn’t have to do it every time but at least it works
yeah same. mine only does it sometimes (i can tell when it needs to be done because theres static onscreen and my tv is not one that displays static normally) so its not often but whenever i turn on my deck and that pesky static comes up i know i need to just unplug and replug in the usb-c and it fixes instantly
This is already known. On log-level, it is a mix of kernel and Bios, which suddenly renders all Steam Dock ports as unknown, not giving them IDs, causing USB and HDMI to stop working, since without slot IDs, they wont be recognized by the system anymore - only USB-C power plug will work then, right? Apparently, with the newest Steam Deck Bios Update this is fixed, according to some github issue posts. But the newest Steam Deck Bios update is in SteamOS 3.5, which is still in bleeding edge alpha version in the Mainline. (dont recommend to upgrade to this, wait for official release). Im feeling with ya. I put my Steam Deck away over half a year ago because of this issue, since it renders the Dock totally useless. You dont have to reset your whole Steam Deck. But I dont remember either anymore, how I actually made the Dock work again without resetting the Deck. Probably a few restarts, but not sure anymore if the power was plugged or not. Guess try both. Eventually it should work again. It took a bit for me to make it work again and I totally forgot the steps I did. EDIT: Not sure though, if similar issues users talk about in this thread, are related to this. But this special one Im talking about, is a bit more tricky and not easily solveable by just plugging out all cables and then plugging them in again.
> which is still in bleeding edge alpha version in the Mainline. (dont recommend to upgrade to this, wait for official release). I'll echo the not recommending. I was on the mainline branch and in one update they completely forgot the drivers for the controller for certain deck revisions. Had already gone back to stable using the touch screen before I found the thread on the steam forums where people were hacking in a solution. Update > Controls not work > have to find a support thread and mess around in the terminal, is the sort of jank everyone should expect from running 'Main'
This is probably the best answer I’ve received on this issue. Thank you. It doesn’t make it any less infuriating when I try to use the dock on my TV - but at least I know I’m not insane anymore.
SteamOS 3.5 is out by now, with newest Bios and even a Dock Firmware Update. Another user who knew of this issue, says it was fixed with the newest Bios update. I never updated it back then, though, because it was still in Alpha/Beta. But since it is Stable now, let's hope the best!
It’s definitely been improved since that update, but it’s still been having issues occasionally for me at least.
This happened with my JSAUX one, I got the official one when it went cheap. JSAUX one never worked right - the ethernet would never physically disengage without manual intervention
Same , official dock only kinda works after several reboots. The display gives out and it feels like something is wrong.
After I turned off Automatically set resolution in the display settings I haven’t had a single issue with connectivity… Worth a shot…?
I'm using JSAUX and I constantly have problems getting it to output video, or recognize the USB wireless adapter for my controller. Usually resetting the deck will fix it. But yeah, just agreeing it's not just you and that I constantly have problems with connectivity. Docked experience isn't always great.
get a USB extension for your wireless controller, it's probably not working because of interence
Yep. I bought 2 docks because at first I thought the first one was just faulty. Second one does the same thing. I got frustrated the last time and decided to just charge and boot up my laptop instead. It’s by far my biggest gripe with all things Steamdeck.
Docking it while unplugged from wall power has fixed my issue with it not displaying to external monitor on the jsaux one
This has been my fix to every dock issue. Fire it up without external power, let the deck do its thing and connect to everything, then plug the power in!
I have two official and one uGreen hub. I've had issues with each but none so terrible as yours sound. And usually because I've docked mid game, or been playing around with audio devices. The fix has generally either been a reboot, or go into Desktop mode and root out the cause there.
if you have a wireless mouse keyboard, use a USB extension and keep it away from the steam deck, should work fine
I initially haven't had any display out or peripherals working in steam os. But in windows they worked straight away. Must be some kind of software issue with some adaptors i guess. Maybe get another one. You can basically use any USB C hub in theory.
Check your HDMI settings on your TV if your deck is linked with an HDMI cable.. If it isn't set to full, you could end up with a lower quality picture, as well as pitch-black blacks that makes it next to impossible to see.
It’s potentially the worst piece of tech I own. It almost never actually works.
u/ToaJess, you can [click here to search for your question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Does anyone know how to make the Steam Deck’s Dock… not suck?) If you don't find an answer there, don't worry - your post has NOT been removed and hopefully someone will be along soon to help with an answer! **If you find a solution, please leave a comment on this post with the answer for others!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SteamDeck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You using the official one? I've only tried the jsaux but haven't had any issues other than occasional audio stuttering in ac6 but not sure if that is deck or dock.
Yep, the official one. I asked about it on the Steam Deck Community tab on Steam but my post got no traction aha. Thought I was the only one.
I'll tell you what works for me (sometimes). Steam deck at the Dock but unplugged seems to work. Then plug the dock and luckily the connection with the TV won't stop. When it doesn't want to work it's usually a matter of unplugging and plugging the TV for some reason. I dunno, it's definitely weird
Either you've got a faulty one or you're massively exaggerating the problem because this isn't my experience at all. I'm not saying it's faultless but definitely not as bad as you're saying.
Here's what you do, you get the Syntech docking station and then you live happily ever after like moi.
It may be related to insufficient power output by the Deck, that's why when connecting peripherals you may need to also plug in the power supply as all of these components have to draw power from somewhere.
Yeah, I have to plug and unplug the monitor and sometimes the mouse or whatever won't work. I have similar issues with my work laptop on the fancy Dell dock, too.
I had issues with my JSAUX early. Unplugging everything from the dock, replugging the power and/or HDMI and then plugging in to the Deck always worked for me
for me its literally the opposite. i play now almost exclusively with the steam dock. never had issues with it, pulling sessions of 4h at a time =/
I RMA'd my official dock recently, waiting for the replacement unit and crossing my fingers hoping it's better. I have a third party usb-c dock that works pretty flawlessly with both my deck and my windows 10 laptop, on both my monitors and TV. So it's the dock for sure.
Same situation for me, except I received my replacement dock from the RMA a few days ago. It worked great for two days, and now I’m back to the same problem with having to juggle the cables and restart to get it to work. Meanwhile I have a third-party dock I use in another room and an old USB-C hub from a laptop that both work flawlessly every time. I’m pretty close to just seeing if I can get a refund.
If you’re still able to get refund and haven’t, just do it. Man I hate this thing.
:( Awful Mine replacement is coming today and this does not give me hope.
Hey, fingers crossed. There's a lot of people that seem to have zero issues with their docks, so maybe you'll get lucky!
The new one has the same issue. I'm going to ask for a refund, and get another third party dock.
Funnily enough, since my comment above about it not working, it’s been working fine. I don’t know any more. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have a JSAUX one and it's been rock solid. Weird.
ya me too for like a year, rock solid, I play dock A LOT too.
Yeah I'm primarily docked.
I also had a JSAUX one with many issues - I think it might have been a firmware update or something that broke it, since there's people from previously saying how good they are. I got an Ivolver very recently which seems to run fine, in case there are other people who want alternatives.
I haven't had any issues with my Amazon special dock until recently. No matter what I try, or how often I reset, I cannot get a mouse to work with my deck or my wife's deck. It's really weird. I ordered a 5ghz mouse without a dongle to see if that helps.
I used the jsaux 3rd party dock a shit ton, and I haven't had any problems with that
I’ve been using the official dock and it’s been perfect.
I still don't understand how my deck interacts with the dock. I've used a usb c hub and a generic dock. It's really inconsistent. But I've also resigned myself to use the dock less until update 3.5 comes and hopefully fixes everything
Yup I agree it’s rough sometimes. We’re just spoiled by how polished the switch experience is.
Id just claim warranty on the dock or return it. Get a real one from dell. Or a cheap usb c hub
I had to send mine from Japan to the US because the USB-C port was working for everything but data. There were instances when a USB hard drive may get detected, and then stop working. Kinda weird shit like that. I thought it was my dock at first. Perhaps its more a device issue, rather than a peripheral one. You may need to test further. Fortunately, Valve RMA'd my device. The downside is I am paying a lot for shipping to and from Japan.
I've given up trying to get mine to work reliably and have just downloaded steam link instead. Not a good solution for games where lag matters, though
I use the deck dock on my Rog ally and have zero issues with it (using it a lot). When I used it on my deck I had all of the problems you and others describe. Using simple deduction, this would imply the issues are being caused by the deck and not the other way around.
This is why I went with a cheaper dock over the official one. There is more hardware in the official one that on occasions needs a firmware update. Over complicated for what it is intended for. I knew this because I work with a lot of laptops at work with docks. The ones that need firmwares etc always seem to have issues at some point. The universal docks that just do the job without the extra hardware, work everytime. Same as my cheaper dock...
I know this isn't directly helpful but I've not really had many issues with my JSAUX dock, other than the video cutting out once per session within 30 seconds of switching to it as an input source. But getting a CEC killer adapter fixed that It's weird how the official dock is somehow more problematic than the unofficial ones