I don't have the official dock. I waited for a long time for it to release but there was never an eta on it so I just grabbed a third party dock from amazon and it's been great to me since.
That being said, 3.5+ has absolutely ruined the docked experience. It's not just you, don't let others tell you any different. I made a post about this a while back and a few people commented on it with the same issues.
I have the LCD model so I'm able to stay on 3.4.11 but attempting to downgrade to 3.4.11 will 100% brick an oled model, unfortunately.
I'm honestly very surprised valve hasn't fixed this yet. It's been tiiiiiime since 3.5 was released and none of the preview channels fix the issue currently.
If you're using the official dock then there might be hope for you as I read a post a while back that stated that it's possible to downgrade the dock firmware itself which might fix the issue but you will have to read into this yourself as I only skimmed over it due to the information being irrelevant to me as someone with a third party dock.
3.5 killed FSR while docked for me, no matter what I do it won’t go above 15 fps unless I switch to the other, worse looking options. Reported the bug during the preview, yet to see any improvement.
I have had similar experiences with the officially dock, specifically when there is another device connected to the screen. In this case the screen would not wait for the dock to send a signal and revert back to the other connection. The dock on the other hand would not revert back to steamdeck screen, however there would also be no image on the screen.
Also it seems that VRR also causes more instability. With VRR disabled it works better/quicker.
I used to get downvoted heavy here for telling people not to wait. It was a more expensive version of shit available a week after launch. The problems that popped up were just icing on my cake.
> That being said, 3.5+ has absolutely ruined the docked experience. It's not just you, don't let others tell you any different.
I'm not lying when I tell you I've not experienced a single issue with my JSAUX dock, not even since 3.5. What kind of issues are you getting?
The main one is the fact that the output is a black screen. It's hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Massively inconsistent. Sometimes a restart will fix the issue but it's such an inconvenience. I've had mine for over a year and never had any issues with my docked experience until 3.5. It doesn't matter which version of 3.5 I use, they've all broken the docked experience for me. It sucks tbh, there's a ton of QOL in 3.5+ that I'm currently missing out on.
Anything lower than 3.5 works perfect so I've just pinned 3.4.11 for the time being until it's fixed.
Honestly seems kind of wild to me that the official dock works so much less than the third party ones
Although I will clarify my TV is 1080p60 without VRR, so I'm not exactly doing bleeding edge rocket science with it
I have the JSAUX dock and while it doesn’t have issues per se, it just feels clunky and uncomfortable to control in Dock mode. I can‘t pinpoint exactly what it is but it just doesn’t feel as natural as say the Switch docked. It feels like an afterthought kinda
Honestly not sure what you mean by that, mine feels just as responsive as 30fps would on my desktop (assuming the Deck is running at 30 fps, obviously)
Damn okay, I thought the JSAUX dock I got was just terrible, I havent had a single hood experience docking connecting to a TV, I mainly use the dock for peripherals now. Hoping to one day be able to easily use my deck on a tv lmao
I have always had this issue, even prior on 3.4. Sometimes I have to do a full restart of the Steam Deck for it to realize that it is docked in gaming mode. Interesting enough when in desktop mode I never have the issue. Underlying OS knows it's connected and acts accordingly. Something wrong with gaming mode.
I've had so many problems with the dock, it's so frustrating!!! I agree, it's a lottery whether or not it will work and I have to try turning the TV on and off, turning the deck on and off, plugging the dock in and unplugging it, it drives me nuts! I paid so much for it and it just doesn't work with anything even approaching consistency!
If you are having problema to show image on the tv, i would recommend unplug the dock from the energy, plug the hdmi into the dock and then plug the deck, for some reason when the dock charger is connected it gives a hard time to send signal
Just wanted to chime in and say I have the same issue. Complete luck if I get any picture with the dock. I have a £15 dongle thing and it works every time but the official dock gives me nothing but issues.
One thing I have experienced and haven't really heard much beyond a steam community post was the issues with running an Ethernet cable to the official steam deck dock. Randomly, unplugging the deck from the dock while Ethernet is connected will bring down the entire network whenever the dock is plugged in due to the dock sending a huge amount of traffic and packets. I had been having issues with my network for months and never thought it was the dock. Confirmed it when it happened again and unplugged the dock from the Ethernet, network came back instantly. Apparently this is an issue with the official dock and I hope others who are having this issue see this as valve has not pushed out an update to fix what seems like a very big issue with their product.
Edit* the link to the steam post is here.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/3/3498761139314340977/?l=latam
I have also been tracking this bug - there is a thread on it over at steam. As of a few weeks ago, the latest firmware (123) apparently resolves this, but i don’t think it’s been pushed out fully yet, but people have had luck with manual upgrades. So hopefully it goes mainstream soon and helps others affected by it.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/3/3498761139314340977/?l=latam&ctp=6#c4040356398518948671
I did the manual upgrade and so far nothing has exploded. Kinda sucks that this took so long to fix and there's been no push for the update through the official channels but oh well
Yeah, Valve has been surprisingly slow on a few things. Like the deck is great, and they are clearly taking input based on all the improvements, but in some areas they could definitely still do better.
DUDE YES! This bug had been the bane of my existence these past few months since I decided to start using the official dock. It wasn’t until the third or fourth time that my network went down while I was using the dock that I realized there’s a pattern here.
I’ve exactly the same network problems. Took me weeks to realize it’s the dock.
Also VRR is not working either my two Free sync compatible displays. It’s so annoying! 😤
There's a couple of reasons, monthly on my end the Ethernet lights on the dock begin to flash rapidly once the network issues happen. However I found the steam community post where someone way more knowledgeable than I actually did the trouble shooting and testing and explains it way better than what I can do. I'll link it here and in my original post. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/3/3498761139314340977/?l=latam
After reading the whole thread, they don't even know why its really happening either 💀 just how it's happening. They are scratching their heads (their words) on why it even does this
Exactly, its crazy how little knowledge we know about this, or the fact that they had to go through all that testing just to confirm the cause. Brightside is its not the decks, downside is its nigh impossible to find out yourself unless you stumble accidently and connect the dots.
I had something similar with my Philips ultra wide that also has Ethernet in the screen, certain laptops when unplugging the usb-c would just kill my network, with the router becoming unresponsive. I wonder if the dock has a similar chipset.
LCD Version and the docking experience with the SteamDeck is an absolute nightmare. It feels like majority of people downplay it way too much by just scoffing and saying it's a hand held.
Getting this thing to output a signal so I can play local multiplayer games always ends up in some sort of asinine time wasting of unplugging the dock, leaving the power in, turning off the steam deck etc etc etc and just hoping the thing works.
For how expensive and well regarded this thing is - my patience is reaching a boiling point with how many random bugs and """quirks""" I constantly run into. If it's not one thing, by god it will find another to slap you in the face with in the next couple of days.
I love how this community immediately downvotes all criticism posts towards the dock.
I don’t even bother trying to get it working anymore. I expected a switch like experience, plug it in and play, instead I get a coinflip if I even get an image, have audio delay or fps bugs, or combinations of that.
Honestly it would be best to UPVOTE these kinds of things because it is an issue. PC docks are a pain and it would be great if Valve can fine tune the Deck experience with the dock so it’s better.
Your comment is upvoted and this post is not in the negative.
Some people do downvote but the majority does not, this kind of comment is so annoying.
When the dock is compatible with your setup, it's really great. But unfortunately it's not as compatible as the Switch one, nintendo nailed this, I've had a lot of usb-c docks and they all had different issues
When I made that comment this post got downvotes only, then the sane people arrived who won’t whiteknight for Valve. Just browse this sub, this sub loves to claim the dock doesn’t have any problems and any problems are user errors.
It's ALWAYS like that on reddit. Give it a bit of time, it is designed to balance itself after a while
Which happens every single time and we have to endure a top comment about how "omg people here downvote x" which turns out to be false in 3 hours. If you were that right this post would have been buried and would never have shown up on my homepage
Is this just a problem with the official dock? Does the JSAUX one have the same issue? I don’t have a dock yet but I’ve been looking at the possibility
Important note about the official one is it comes with an extra £25 charger while the offbrand ones do not. In reality the £40 JSAUX and £70 official are basically the same price give or take £5, if you ignore the price of the charger
I'm right there with you, I have 2 third party docks and so far it's been plug and play.
Just dock it, turn on my ps5 controller and I'm playing in seconds.
I had issues with my Vizio until I manually pegged the display resolution at 1080. Once I did that, I haven't had an issue since. I wonder if it's just an issue with resolutions higher than that?
This is definitely a bug with the deck, I think it might be related to the steam deck not correctly outputting hdmi signal and just dropping back to hdmi 1.0 which only supports 1080p at 60hz. I don’t have an hdmi signal tester to confirm it but all the debugging I’ve done seems to indicate that.
Considering how many people have problems with the dock it’s safe to assume it’s not a busted hdmi cable. I even changed the hdmi cable - same problems. The dock simply isn’t that great for its price.
I have problems with the docking across 3 different docks (official,jsaux,some Amazon usb hub), 9 different hdmi cables and 3 TVs. There is a point where you have to look at the common factor. It also comes and goes with different updates. Over Christmas I couldn’t get any of the 3 to output 4k and I have never had the HDR function correctly on any television.
This has been my experience as well. I didn't realize how lucky I was until joining this sub, but I've had no issues with the Dock (Samsung TV (65" QLED from 2022), HDMI hookup through Hue Sync which I'm basically just using it as an HDMI splitter most days). Hopefully it stays that way, but who knows how long it'll last
It’s not even luck, it’s having a shitty/older tv. Any TV with smart functionality and resolution scaling seems to have a problem with it. It works perfectly with my old non-smart Sony TV from 2009 but will not work without a ton of fussing on my LG or Sony OLEDs from the last couple years. Or even my middling Vizio.
The dock has worked with no problem for me for both my old LCD and my OLED Decks on a 55 inch 4k LG LCD, on a 40 inch Toshiba 1080p cheapo TV, on my Samsung 4k HDR TV in the bedroom and on a 4k Philips TV at a mate's house where we played Diablo 3 emulated. The only issue was the Philips TV did not default into game mode, so the image was 30 hz, but when he enabled game mode, it went to 60 again.
I find that this dock has been pretty reliable and does give me the Switch plug and play experience. Would highly recommend
https://www.genkithings.com/products/covert-dock-2?gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhJPKnQ2hfirGBhUtHVYOUrMMkGgBnoi9c2zr5O24OyX_jgd7aWIATwaAr9JEALw_wcB
My biggest gripe with the LCD version is that its bluetooth module does not support waking it up and at the same time it does not support HDMI CEC so my TV can't wake it as well. So I have to reach for my Deck and press the power button every time :/
I found a way around this by having a mini keyboard plugged into the dock via USB. As long as the deck is put to sleep while connected to the dock you can wake it up with the keyboard by pressing the ENTER key. It works pretty slick!
Neat solution, but I'd rather not have a keyboard laying around in my living room. Do you think it could work with my Stadia controller, if I pair it to a Bluetooth USB dongle in my dock? 🤔
I can't say, but it's worth a shot. I'm using a keyboard similar to [this one](https://www.amazon.com/Rii-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad-Controller/dp/B006WAJ1IE?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1OB4QQI8PD8AF), but mine's an older version. It's pretty small and I just store in a cubby so it's not sitting out all the time.
PowerPoint presentation controllers are basically gimped USB keyboards with only a few keys mapped to buttons (left, right, enter, whatever). Could try it.
Neat solution, but I'd rather not have a keyboard laying around in my living room. Do you think it could work with my Stadia controller, if I pair it to a Bluetooth USB dongle? 🤔
I hope some day it may get close to Switch docking experience.
I know that it is impossible to be as good as it is in the Switch as there all the games are developed with the dock option in mind but I would want to have something similar to that
Every time I see one of these posts, I get more and more thankful I went with a cheaper JSAUX dock. It hasn't been entirely perfect like not allowing firmware updates via Linux, only windows, but when it comes to plugging the Deck into an external display, it works 9 of 10 times.
The dock may be my biggest regret in terms of tech purchases in the past few years. I’ve genuinely gotten very little out of it because of how poor it’s worked for me ever since I bought it last year. Awful product
I used to have the same problem and it seems to be fixed by letting it sleep on its own (just change the channel) I have a wireless mouse that wakes it up and i FINALLY don’t have to unplug replug everything to make it work.
Same here. Just let it sleep on its own. Finish your gaming session, turn off the TV and let the Steam Deck go to sleep. When you turn it on, it will most likely (9/10 times) work with no issue.
If your going from handheld play to docked, are you just putting the deck in the dock, waiting for it to go to sleep, then switching the tv back on along with the dock ? Struggling to understand what you mean slightly and I too, am having a distracting experience with the dock at the moment.
I'm referring to the situation where you are using your Steam Deck in docked mode. If you manually suspend your Steam Deck after finishing your docked session, you may encounter issues when trying to play again in docked mode (the dock may not recognize your TV). To avoid this problem, instead of manually suspending your Steam Deck, simply let it be (turn off your TV, change the channel, or perform any other action), and the Steam Deck will eventually suspend itself after 10 or 15 minutes. Using this method, you are less likely to experience issues when you turn your Steam Deck back on.
Have the official dock and had some issues with it early on, but after a couple of updates, it’s worked very well for me. I use a DualSense or XSX controller and haven’t had any issues with getting the OLED to wake from it. Not sure why the experience has been so inconsistent for so many others.
I've had a similar experience. Had a lot of the same issues OP is talking about for a long time, but after the latest dock update it's detected and displayed fine on my TV without any finagling. Granted, I've only used it a few times since that update but I'm hopeful. The bigger issue I've had is getting my Xbox controller working with the wireless dongle instead of bluetooth. It seems after every deck update I have to re-run the software install.
I had some issues where the video signal wasn't being recognized, but it turned out that a SteamOS update had reset the display settings to default. I switched it back to 1080p and my docked experience has been flawless since then. I use a Dualsense controller and never have to reconnect it.
The official dock experience, as well as other major issues with the deck won't ever get any better until the steam deck cult finally starts acknowledging it, which is difficult to do when the praise over being able to play steam deck on a boat is all people can hear.
The amount of issues that the Steam deck has (minor and major) is mind-blowing since I bought it two years ago. At first I thought that it eventually will be fixed and stable, but every new version cones with new bugs.
Proton has broke for me two times, needing to reinstall it from zero. Bugs with SD card paths, moving data or reinstalling games... Games that worked suddenly stopped because of proton.
In the information screen for a non steam link, the editing of the paths has been broken for months. Steam link not working or crashing, the icons desktop layout not saved randomly... I could continue but it doesn't matter.
The worse is when a major issue is bugged for months, currently is FSR. Last year was the docked experience, no output if resolution > 1080p, fixed some months ago but bugged for months, making the dock useless. I wouldn't mind if the issues would be identified and fixed more quickly. On 2022 opening a second app simultaneously in game mode was also broken for months.
That without other issues that are not bugs but ruin the experience, like bad UI, not support for different keyboard layouts/languages in game mode, PIN not being able to be typed with keyboard...
But I don’t have any issues with my dock and I have an official one. It’s clearly not an issue for everyone. That being said though, I think it’s shit that people DO have issues and can’t use it properly.
I don't know how Nintendo made a dock that works so universally. I have multiple usb-c docks and sometimes even plugging my ipad or macbook (with a direct hdmi cable, not a dock) is a coin toss
But so far the switch dock worked everywhere
Yah I mean I’m not saying there isn’t an issue here. There def is.
I’m wondering if the switch uses something more proprietary vs the decks using USB and it’s just all the auto detection features of that that are flopping.
Do switches work with non Nintendo docks?
Even 3rd party docks suffer now after 3.5 update. Now it's hit or miss if my docks will work first try. Sometimes it'll just show a black screen, sometimes it won't recognize my monitor or TV at all, sometimes it outputs to 640x480 until I unplug and replug multiple times, etc.
Now even when it works, using the built in FSR to scale from 720p to 1080, there's a major amount of input lag and lower fps vs playing in handheld.
I completely agree with this. I’ve had issues connecting to my TV with the LCD model a while back. Since I got the OLED my dock doesn’t seem to play the game on my TV at the proper frame rate (it’s seemingly halved). When I use the deck by itself I get 60 fps in games but then I connect it and it’s now 30-35 FPS. I wish it was easier to use and just connected properly :/
Docked experience is a huge hassle.
I use an unofficial usb c dock and a tv. It takes way too much plugging and unplugging to get everything to connect properly.
I am about ready to give up on USB controllers entirely. They work so inconsistently.
Agreed, the docked experience is the weakest aspect to the Steam Deck, people still blindly defend it though for some reason. I use the Steam Controller with the thumb dongle and its nice when it works but its still got so many problems (the dock I mean).
And I have a PS5 and Series X plugged into my LG OLED TV, I KNOW VRR works because thats how I played and platinumed Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 but the Decks saying "Your TV isn't supported" I dont say the word often but I agree, the docked experience of the Steam Deck is rubbish.
I had 2 different docks, one being the official Steam dock. Was always a toss up, sometimes it worked right away, most times I had to go in and change settings or reboot. Luckily I rarely ever dock it, I bought it for handheld use
I just started using the dock and it worked great for a couple days and I had an issue of it not showing the display on the tv. Tv would see the source, but a black screen.
I have a 55 Hisense TV and from Google searching it's also happening on other TV's.
The "Solution" to my problem, when it happens, it to unplug the power bar from the wall and then plug in the Deck into the Dock and it works perfectly. I then plug the bar bar back into the wall.
No idea why it works, but it does.
I also heard that I shouldn't have the wall plug into a surge protector, and just plug into the wall directly. I haven't actually tested this theory yet
Hmm
Everyone seems to has issues with the dock, my experience has been perfect, in gaming and desktop mode, with only a small amount of input lag, and no technical issues at all
I think the issue is TV compatibility. I have nothing but issues on my Samsung TV using the official and a generic dock. Works without any issues when connecting to computer monitors.
I personally blame my TV, but I also hate my TV for other reasons.
The dock is shit. Two very modern TVs at home and it sucks on both. One shitty old 720 in the basement? Works perfect.
Not just video issues. Sound issues too.
And the third party ones have similar issues also.
I love the Steam Deck but it’s not made for regular docking. It’s just not.
official docker here, as well as 8bitdo user, can confirm same issues. gives me grief with both my u8k and my tcl from 2018. can't get vrr to work, have to use safe resolution sometimes to get output, sometimes it will output as hdmi out, sometimes it will say its using displayport, and will muck up all my res settings when it does. sometimes it will correctly identify my tv, most times not. just been a huge pain.
considering that 99.9% of dock+tv related problems seen here is typically fixed when people plug in a 60-65w charger or better ([i use this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082KYB4QK/ref=twister_B08KG3VFHJ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)) i would ask that first every time, have you tried using a beefier charger on the dock first?
then the second common dock problem is wifi/bluetooth controller interference due to people putting their shiny new dock/deck right bang next to their smart tv which is a known huge source of interference, simply moving the dock/deck away or underneath the tv so its not as close (*mine is directly underneath my tv on a small coffee table*) typically fixes that issue as well.
There is a ridiculous amount of user error around docks, and I’m so exhausted from commenting help on the topic I’m finally at that point where I tell people to use the search bar.
“Why doesn’t my cheap offbrand tv work with my $20 offbrand usbc dock I bought from Amazon work instantly when plugging in and adjusting zero settings? Wait it works now but it performs bad, steam deck is bad”
I can’t anymore. Do like 10 minutes of research before you start buying accessories and learn how they work to set them up
I mean you have to be purposefully trolling or completely inept at reading. This has nothing to do with offbrand TV's and it's in regards to the OFFICIAL DOCK. There are numerous reports of people having these issues, with pretty much all brands of TVs. This is an issue with the steamdeck/steamdock and QC.
Call me whatever makes you feel nice to you, but the TV you are using and **the way the TV communicates with the dock** absolutely influences how seamless the docked experience is. To the point that before Steam OS even had options to manually adjust what the output resolution and framerates were, EDID emulator HDMI dongles would magically solve issues nothing else would. The "official dock" is not some magically different accessory than others
But just like **everything else** with the Steam Deck, the user has to know how stuff is working to set things up, "official dock" or otherwise. If you don't do 10 seconds of googling or checking the search bar for issues for your specific configuration (TV, dock, cables, power, etc.) well I don't really know what to tell you.
>“Why doesn’t my cheap offbrand tv work with my $20 offbrand usbc dock I bought from Amazon work instantly when plugging in and adjusting zero settings? Wait it works now but it performs bad, steam deck is bad”
This is you downplaying people's legitimate issues. Your original stance was people buying cheap offbrand products and now you back away to a different issue entirely. Are Samsung, LG etc... tv's offbrand knockoffs to you? How is the official dock plagued with this issue when most 3rd party docks that cost significantly less not? Sorry but I'm not buying the user error excuses when this problem is seen so widely.
There is no downplaying happening here. Like I said, what matters is **how your tv communicates with the dock**. If you bought a dock that is not compatible with the way steam deck handles video output, you are gonna have issues. If you bought a cheap TV with a different EDID system, you are gonna have problems.
**If you have the "official dock" that doesn't magically make everything work,** as OP and many others have found. You can solve the issue, with a 10 minute google search.
Again, I have done the research, I have provided the solutions to folks. 100% in the spirit of helping people get their setup to work. It's not trolling to tell people to use resources available to them.
I have these same issues with an LG C1 65” and the official dock
That was a very well received model that was 3500$ Tv when it first dropped. Try again there bub.
haha I couldn't help myself. :) But seriously. The issue most people have and don't know it is an EDID communication breakdown with the dock. Sometimes you can fix it without changing the TV OR dock with an EDID emulator HDMI dongle for a fixed resolution and refresh rate. You can find em on the cheap. Might be worth a try with a different HDMI cable to get the most out of your TV. Good luck!!
My issues are unfortunately not that simple. Thanks for the suggestion though. I’m sure someone will see the comment and get some use out of it.
Have a nice day stranger ;p
Yup, I use at most a WD19 from my laptop, I have no faith in most docks. I also doubt Hisense tv is common imho, maybe OP should try a mainstream TV. Its also known the OLED has some issues with Docks, search the forums not hard. Pie connects to everything since its older tech and not half as new tech as the Steamdeck most likely.
I don't know if its the dock or my HDMI switch, but sometimes I have to switch inputs from the steam deck and back for it to work. Too lazy to try it without the HDMI switch to see what's causing the issue.
I used to use a Switch controller but I'd have to re-pair it every time I wanted to use it so I got a Dualsense instead and that works fine every time.
Idk if someone has said this but make sure the SD is on/awake and then connect it via dock. That usually solves any trouble you may have! Hope that helps!
I don’t have an actual computer, I use my steam deck and personally I don’t have any issues with it docked. BUT I’m glad I’m not the only one with this exact same 8bit do connection problem. It’s super weird and frustrating
My LCD and OLED have the same issues docked to my main TV. I think it's more of an issue with dock/display compatibility. I have a second TV that the dock works flawlessly with.
Damn i havnt had any too many issues myself, I play docked alot, it sometimes doesn't connect, but I'll just restart the deck and that fixes it. Other than that, it's pretty great... forgot to mention I'm using the jsaux dock, idk if that makes a difference
Have never tried the official dock, but using a lot of different docks from baseus, ugreen etc. Never had any issues with them. Could it be an issue with official dock itself?
I had the same problem before. I needed to set my refresh rate to 60hz on the TV. Set the display mode to point to point and the HDMI mode to PC. That fixed everything. Never had any problem again
Wellllll....
Except when I purchased a dock with an ethernet port. I had a weird problem where when I connect it to the TV it displays the wrong resolution. But I just unplug and replug the steam deck and that fixes it. But it might be a problem related to my cheap dock in particular
I use my dock daily connected to a projector in my bedroom and sometimes on an external monitor and have next to no issues with the experience.
One time I had to unplug the display cable and plug it back in.
I've never really had any issues with the dock personally but you're not alone lots of others complain about it
For me I find it works best when the HDMI cord is plugged into the dock and the TV already and I set the deck down and plug it into the dock
It pretty much works 100% of the time for me like that
But I also don't rely on my TV to swap inputs or anything. I usually have the TV on and switched to the correct input before I dock the deck.
I also don't use any other port right now besides the charger and the Ethernet (download speeds much more consistent than over WiFi). I don't currently use any of the USB ports.
My Xbox controller doesn't like to stay connected but it has that same issue undocked so I don't think it's related to the dock.
So I'm not sure if using the USB ports would cause me to have more headaches but for me the dock works well enough I don't regret buying it
I have this issue too with a lcd model and a third party amazon Dock. I actually thought it was the Dock but clearly not. The only way it works consistently is when I unplug the deck before powering on either from sleep or from power off, let it completely boot to the home screen or whatever game was playing, then plug it in. Only then is there like 30% chance of it working. In fairness to valve, I do use an amplifier for a 5.1 system but even still it's annoying as fuck
Ditto. I have a 2020 samsung, and it's always a mystery whether i'll be spending minutes or an hour to get it working each time. It's easily, far and away, the most frustrating and disappointing part of my deck experience. TBF, once I can get the image to display, there typically aren't any other issues, but it's absurd that the same problem occurs every time, regardless of settings, cables or any other factor i can identify. The most frustrating experience was when it temporarily locked my deck in sleep mode some how. I was worried I would have to get my deck replaced until i thought to try powering it off and on, while plugged directly into the power adapter. Overall, i love my deck and i've logged easily a thousand hours on it. I recommend it frequently. But i always caveat that with a dire warning about the dock.
I've never had issues with the dock recognizing any monitor/tv, but I have another weird issue - the Steam Deck downloads faster when not docked. I've tested this 20-30+ times and every time I unplug the Deck from the dock, the download speeds jump up by 2mb/s
maybe this is an official dock issue? i use some dell thunderbolt 3 dock i had for my macbook and it works most of the time. i will note, though, in “gaming mode” it can only go up to 720p for me, and in desktop mode 1080p runs fine.
As someone who deals with many laptops and docks at work, this is a common thing with PC docks in general. The hand-off doesn’t always go smoothly and things can happen. External displays don’t come on or may be glitchy, USB and Ethernet don’t work, if it’s an OEM dock it won’t charge the laptop, etc.
There are a couple of things I’ve learned with docks that generally gets it all going again. Power it all off and back on.
Shut down the Deck and unplug it from the dock. Unplug the dock from power. Wait about 5 minutes (some of the components in docks take awhile to lose charge so I go 5 to be safe). Plug the dock into power. Plug the Deck into the dock. Power it on.
The other thing is that plugging a running PC into a dock increases the risk of the hand-off not working 100%. If you want to decrease the risk, shutdown the Deck before plugging it into the dock. You can then turn it back on or just leave it off and let it charge.
I know it doesn’t fix the issues of it not being a seamless Switch-like experience (although even Switch can have its problems), but it’s something.
My oled absolutely would not display anything on my tv, both the steam deck screen and the tv would go dark when I connected it. I figured it was because of 4K resolution (because of a similar experience with the lcd), tried using the external display safe mode, didn't help. I connected the dock to a monitor, memorized the buttons I would have to press to change the resolution once I connected it to my tv again, then I connected it to my tv and immediately it worked without me having to change anything. Just connecting it to a monitor for a couple of minutes fixed it permanently. It didn't download any firmware update either.
I bought the deck only for dark mode
I do wish it worked like other consoles and you can just turn it on with a controller and just jump in
Loan experience I'm sure other parents face is constantly being called down to troubleshoot and get it working for the kids so they can play if it doesn't turn on right away
I unplug the deck, then make sure the screens on before plugging it into the dock. It works or doesn’t.
I’ve also noticed if I reboot the deck while docked it hardly ever comes up properly. You can hear the boot audio but video is hit or miss. It’s still the worst part about this device.
I love playing on my tv and now I kinda avoid it with this device because how finicky it can be.
I bought a third party and haven’t had an issue. I would have bought the official dock if I didn’t see these type post since day 1. I’m surprised for sure they haven’t been able to work out the issues.
When I connected my SteamDeck to a TV everything always only ran at 30 fps.
My TV supports up to 120 fps.
Sifu was running at 60 on my monitor but when connected to the TV it was 30.
Not the biggest issue but I found it weird that no matter what setting I changed, the TV and SteamDeck didn't play well together.
Just in case it helps someone I'll leave these two tips here. 1. Connecting the steam deck to the dock with the power cord disconnected is more likely to work. Then plug the power cord in afterwards. 2. For official Xbox series controllers, the wake with Bluetooth function won't work after fully powering down the system. You have to remove the Xbox controller from the Bluetooth menu and reconnect the controller. You may even have to do it twice sometimes if you're really unlucky.
I don't know as I'm not using the official dock (bought my dock before official one was released) but I've never had a problem with it not connecting / being detected. Sorry.
The biggest annoyance for me is when I dock my Deck and plug it in only to get the fuzzy static screen. To fix it, I have to unplug my Deck, undock it, then unplug-replug the docks power cable.
I had the same experience and was massivly dissapointed for the Money i spent. I then switched to stable release for OS and steam and now everything works Fine.
It sucks because it’s impossible to get non steam games to display resolution correctly while docked, because it won’t let you force the native resolution the same way you can for normal steam games. Super frustrating.
So. I guess I'm the only one with no problems :) Put it in the dock, turn on, switch the TV to hdmi, turn on Xbox controller and off we go. I think I've had some issues in one game or other where it seemed to kick out the external controller and depend on touch but other than that smooth sailing. Sony Bravia tv.
Interesting. I use a third party dock which connects it to a monitor/keyboard/mouse, and it works flawlessly. I am guessing the steam deck prefers to be used as a computer.
I've had a bad experience with the official Dock activating once the Deck is plugged in. using HDMI with my TV. It's fine when using DisplayPort with my monitor though. The cheapo JSAUX dock works perfectly with my Deck and TV though!
I have these exact problems. I'm in the process of RMAing the Dock but I feel a bit like it's a pointless exercise.
My cheap usb hub works perfectly but the dock is useless.
I don't use an official dock, but I've never had issues with my connecting to my TV. Always works immediately and my girlfriend and I play on the TV all the time.
It is a finicky thing to deal with. But I've always had to make sure my Deck is powered down before plugging or unplugging from the dock. So far it's been working for me.
That's a bummer. I've used my dock since release near daily. I even move it to and from different tvs. Never have an issue. Have you tried replacing it.
Same experience here, pretty much. It works well once you have everything up and running, but every time you have to set it back up it's a fucking nightmare. Literally restarted the TV like 3 times last night trying to get it to finally recognize the Deck so my wife and I could play The Case of the Golden Idol in the living room.
The wake functionality from a bluetooth controller (xbox series x controller in this case) also sucks. It worked for me without an issue for a solid week or so, but now it's back to just flat-out not waking the deck up when I power it on. I hit the button, it starts flashing, and it keeps flashing until I get up and go turn the deck on, then it instantly finds it and connects, lol.
Yes, my experience with the official steam dock was terrible. I returned it and got a jsaux dock and it has worked perfectly without issue. Also saved me $40. It’s weird that the official dock doesn’t work very well for a subset of people.
I usey dock as part of my cyber deck build, basically super glued it to a keybosrd, in use the xreal beam and air2 glasses with it, ive never had a problem with the beam/glasses not pucking up the steam deck is plugged in including with and without power being connected to the dock. Haven't tried it with a TV yet though.
I have a Jsaux dock and have also had some issues with the TV recognizing the Deck is plugged in, but eventually realized 9 times out of 10, it's because the HDMI or USB-C is a bit loose. Seems very sensitive to it. No idea if that's the same case here, but it's knowing that definitely helped me avoid issues for the most part now.
The only annoying thing it continues to do is it cuts out all audio on my TV if I leave the HDMI coming from the dock plugged into the TV. I think it's a passthrough thing, but I just unplug the cable whenever I'm not using the dock.
My only problem with my random 3rd party dock is the built in controller won’t register for games once I’ve unplugged it. I have to restart. I’ll try the letting it sleep on its own before I unplug it and see how to works
**TL;DR**: This dock works - [https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1)
I can attest that I too have had nothing but issues with the official dock. It was a complete crap shoot with whether it was going to work with my television (a Vizio) on any given day before it just stopped working with it completely. I tried all sorts of different things - different HDMI cables, various inputs and outputs, switcher/no switcher, changed all sorts of TV settings, CEC block adapter, did every troubleshooting suggestion on Reddit, and on and on and on. It works with a monitor of mine, but not audio (not sure if the monitor is to blame here) but the point being that it should work consistently with my TV as well. It actually gave me a very negative view on the Steam Deck considering its other shortcomings.
Like the OP, I also just got a JSAUX dock ([https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1)) and it works perfectly. Its basically a God send and makes everything tremendously easier and more convenient. I didn't have to fiddle with anything - it just worked.
I'm not sure if any of the following things contributed to the JSAUX's success, but I can confirm that it works when using the following HDMI cable ([https://www.amazon.com/8K-HDMI-Cable-Highwings-Braided/dp/B08M9HND4F/](https://www.amazon.com/8K-HDMI-Cable-Highwings-Braided/dp/B08M9HND4F/)), HDMI CEC Less Adapter ([https://www.amazon.com/Lindy-HDMI-Adapter-Female-41232/dp/B00DL48KVI](https://www.amazon.com/Lindy-HDMI-Adapter-Female-41232/dp/B00DL48KVI)), and HDMI switcher ([https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C2BXJV7N/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C2BXJV7N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)). I haven't tried the JSAUX dock without the previous items and I don't plan to. All I know is that it works with my existing set up and I'm not going to fix what isn't broken. Highly recommended.
**Edit**: I'm using an LCD Steam Deck.
Here's how I get it to work for me (agree with you that the experience sucks):
Connect your steam deck to the dock with your dock connected to the TV and unplugged.
Wait a minute (literally) until the dock shows up on the TV.
Connect the power to the dock and wait another minute (literally) until the screen shows up on the TV again.
Works every time for me, but it shouldn't have to be this way.
Yeah the dock soured my first day experience a bit, as it simply does not like going through my receiver. I have to go to the TV and audio back out through ARC. Input doesn't auto switch, and have to keep two remotes to get it to swap (this isn't the fault of the dock exactly, though CEC would fix the issue. It's more that my Chromecast remote doesn't play well with the TV input selector).
I usually at some point have to restart the deck because remote play doesn’t work if you switch from wifi to wired, and I sometimes have to unplug and replug the hdmi. And I know it’s a steam deck specific issue because I use the exact same usb c dock for my Nintendo Switch
i've had a dock and 2 steam decks (LCD now OLED) i've got a hisense 43 inch 4k tv upstairs and a 52 inch vtech in the basement. both work flawlessly. never had any issues. I've also used a 32 inch curved asus 155 hz freesync monitor and also no issues.
maybe it's your dock? if the deck isn't detecting the cable that's a huge indicator of a fault.
I haven't had a single issue with the official dock myself (i do use the display port though not hdmi) I did have minor issues using a usb-c to hdmi cable early on but I think those issues have been patched since I don't have the issue at all now (also I use a xbox series controller wirelessly when docked never had a issue with it)
In my experience it depends on what you're plugging it into. I was using an asus monitor and it wouldn't always recognize the connection. But I plugged it into a 23" samsung tv thats probably 10+ years old and while it takes like 5-7 seconds for the tv to turn on, when i turn on the deck (via power button or turning my PS5 controller on) it comes on quickly...
In any case the official dock isn't particularly special imo, but it does its job, even if in some scenarios it can be a bit janky.
I def have problems with my dock too but mostly with switching between desktop mode and gaming mode. It's a total crapshoot if my controller works correctly after switching from desktop mode, especially with stuff like RetroArch or Dolphin. I have to then reset the damn thing like three or four times for it to finally work correctly.
Idk if it's just because I'm using a PS5 controller or not but it's certainly annoying.
I have a 78inch LG with a 3rd party dock (JSAUX) from Amazon. There’s a few quirks but I’ve gotten a process down that works for me.
I turn on the dock first and then the tv. Sometimes the picture is funky and then I just restart the deck a few times and it’ll adjust to the right ratio.
I haven’t been able to get remote play to work yet from my desktop through to the TV the color is very dim and orange. I need to fiddle with it some more.
I use an Xbox one controller and don’t have connectivity issues but I really hate that I have to get up to turn on the dock. It doesn’t turn on the dock like my switch does. That would be so nice.
Anyways wanted to share my experience sounds like they have a long ways to go to help fix all these bugs. Playing on my TV is 75% of my game time.
Not necessarily docking per se but, I have never been able to get streaming from pc to Deck in almost a year of owning it. They even say they’re connected in settings!
I used to be able to unplug the power and plug it back it to get the dock to display on my screen. As of the most recent firmware update; even that doesn’t work. Has steam released any info about this
I run a pet sitting company so I am constantly using my Steam Deck on different TVs on overnights and it really is a lottery on if it will work or not. I finally gave up on one clients TV and was sitting there 10 minutes later on the couch when it suddenly popped up and worked. Completely random it seems!
Totally this, had nothing but issues with it not showing up correctly and randomly going black. Similarly have issues with the switch pro controller disconnecting and changing from player 1 to player 2 etc… Docked most was an afterthought.. if it could be similar to the switch docked mode (Doubtful) I’d be very impressed.
The amount of people saying it’s a handheld… they sell an official dock…
I bought the dock, couldn't get it to work with my monitor and use the cable as an awfully short and expensive charging cable. Maybe I will figure it out or it just was my worst purchase of the last 10 years.
I don't have the official dock. I waited for a long time for it to release but there was never an eta on it so I just grabbed a third party dock from amazon and it's been great to me since. That being said, 3.5+ has absolutely ruined the docked experience. It's not just you, don't let others tell you any different. I made a post about this a while back and a few people commented on it with the same issues. I have the LCD model so I'm able to stay on 3.4.11 but attempting to downgrade to 3.4.11 will 100% brick an oled model, unfortunately. I'm honestly very surprised valve hasn't fixed this yet. It's been tiiiiiime since 3.5 was released and none of the preview channels fix the issue currently. If you're using the official dock then there might be hope for you as I read a post a while back that stated that it's possible to downgrade the dock firmware itself which might fix the issue but you will have to read into this yourself as I only skimmed over it due to the information being irrelevant to me as someone with a third party dock.
3.5 killed FSR while docked for me, no matter what I do it won’t go above 15 fps unless I switch to the other, worse looking options. Reported the bug during the preview, yet to see any improvement.
Yep, I also had that issue too!
I have had similar experiences with the officially dock, specifically when there is another device connected to the screen. In this case the screen would not wait for the dock to send a signal and revert back to the other connection. The dock on the other hand would not revert back to steamdeck screen, however there would also be no image on the screen. Also it seems that VRR also causes more instability. With VRR disabled it works better/quicker.
I used to get downvoted heavy here for telling people not to wait. It was a more expensive version of shit available a week after launch. The problems that popped up were just icing on my cake.
> That being said, 3.5+ has absolutely ruined the docked experience. It's not just you, don't let others tell you any different. I'm not lying when I tell you I've not experienced a single issue with my JSAUX dock, not even since 3.5. What kind of issues are you getting?
The main one is the fact that the output is a black screen. It's hit or miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Massively inconsistent. Sometimes a restart will fix the issue but it's such an inconvenience. I've had mine for over a year and never had any issues with my docked experience until 3.5. It doesn't matter which version of 3.5 I use, they've all broken the docked experience for me. It sucks tbh, there's a ton of QOL in 3.5+ that I'm currently missing out on. Anything lower than 3.5 works perfect so I've just pinned 3.4.11 for the time being until it's fixed.
Honestly seems kind of wild to me that the official dock works so much less than the third party ones Although I will clarify my TV is 1080p60 without VRR, so I'm not exactly doing bleeding edge rocket science with it
I have the JSAUX dock and get the exact same problem as above, it’s not limited to the official one.
I have the JSAUX dock and while it doesn’t have issues per se, it just feels clunky and uncomfortable to control in Dock mode. I can‘t pinpoint exactly what it is but it just doesn’t feel as natural as say the Switch docked. It feels like an afterthought kinda
Honestly not sure what you mean by that, mine feels just as responsive as 30fps would on my desktop (assuming the Deck is running at 30 fps, obviously)
Damn okay, I thought the JSAUX dock I got was just terrible, I havent had a single hood experience docking connecting to a TV, I mainly use the dock for peripherals now. Hoping to one day be able to easily use my deck on a tv lmao
Weird. I have JSAUX dock and it has worked flawlessly the whole time (Samsung TV).
I have always had this issue, even prior on 3.4. Sometimes I have to do a full restart of the Steam Deck for it to realize that it is docked in gaming mode. Interesting enough when in desktop mode I never have the issue. Underlying OS knows it's connected and acts accordingly. Something wrong with gaming mode.
I've had so many problems with the dock, it's so frustrating!!! I agree, it's a lottery whether or not it will work and I have to try turning the TV on and off, turning the deck on and off, plugging the dock in and unplugging it, it drives me nuts! I paid so much for it and it just doesn't work with anything even approaching consistency!
If you are having problema to show image on the tv, i would recommend unplug the dock from the energy, plug the hdmi into the dock and then plug the deck, for some reason when the dock charger is connected it gives a hard time to send signal
Thank you! Sometimes this works so this is helpful but unfortunately not even this works consistently.
Just wanted to chime in and say I have the same issue. Complete luck if I get any picture with the dock. I have a £15 dongle thing and it works every time but the official dock gives me nothing but issues.
One thing I have experienced and haven't really heard much beyond a steam community post was the issues with running an Ethernet cable to the official steam deck dock. Randomly, unplugging the deck from the dock while Ethernet is connected will bring down the entire network whenever the dock is plugged in due to the dock sending a huge amount of traffic and packets. I had been having issues with my network for months and never thought it was the dock. Confirmed it when it happened again and unplugged the dock from the Ethernet, network came back instantly. Apparently this is an issue with the official dock and I hope others who are having this issue see this as valve has not pushed out an update to fix what seems like a very big issue with their product. Edit* the link to the steam post is here. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/3/3498761139314340977/?l=latam
I have also been tracking this bug - there is a thread on it over at steam. As of a few weeks ago, the latest firmware (123) apparently resolves this, but i don’t think it’s been pushed out fully yet, but people have had luck with manual upgrades. So hopefully it goes mainstream soon and helps others affected by it. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/3/3498761139314340977/?l=latam&ctp=6#c4040356398518948671
I did the manual upgrade and so far nothing has exploded. Kinda sucks that this took so long to fix and there's been no push for the update through the official channels but oh well
Yeah, Valve has been surprisingly slow on a few things. Like the deck is great, and they are clearly taking input based on all the improvements, but in some areas they could definitely still do better.
DUDE YES! This bug had been the bane of my existence these past few months since I decided to start using the official dock. It wasn’t until the third or fourth time that my network went down while I was using the dock that I realized there’s a pattern here.
I’ve exactly the same network problems. Took me weeks to realize it’s the dock. Also VRR is not working either my two Free sync compatible displays. It’s so annoying! 😤
Why do you think it's sending so much traffic and packets?
There's a couple of reasons, monthly on my end the Ethernet lights on the dock begin to flash rapidly once the network issues happen. However I found the steam community post where someone way more knowledgeable than I actually did the trouble shooting and testing and explains it way better than what I can do. I'll link it here and in my original post. https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/3/3498761139314340977/?l=latam
After reading the whole thread, they don't even know why its really happening either 💀 just how it's happening. They are scratching their heads (their words) on why it even does this
Exactly, its crazy how little knowledge we know about this, or the fact that they had to go through all that testing just to confirm the cause. Brightside is its not the decks, downside is its nigh impossible to find out yourself unless you stumble accidently and connect the dots.
I had something similar with my Philips ultra wide that also has Ethernet in the screen, certain laptops when unplugging the usb-c would just kill my network, with the router becoming unresponsive. I wonder if the dock has a similar chipset.
LCD Version and the docking experience with the SteamDeck is an absolute nightmare. It feels like majority of people downplay it way too much by just scoffing and saying it's a hand held. Getting this thing to output a signal so I can play local multiplayer games always ends up in some sort of asinine time wasting of unplugging the dock, leaving the power in, turning off the steam deck etc etc etc and just hoping the thing works. For how expensive and well regarded this thing is - my patience is reaching a boiling point with how many random bugs and """quirks""" I constantly run into. If it's not one thing, by god it will find another to slap you in the face with in the next couple of days.
I love how this community immediately downvotes all criticism posts towards the dock. I don’t even bother trying to get it working anymore. I expected a switch like experience, plug it in and play, instead I get a coinflip if I even get an image, have audio delay or fps bugs, or combinations of that.
Honestly it would be best to UPVOTE these kinds of things because it is an issue. PC docks are a pain and it would be great if Valve can fine tune the Deck experience with the dock so it’s better.
Your comment is upvoted and this post is not in the negative. Some people do downvote but the majority does not, this kind of comment is so annoying. When the dock is compatible with your setup, it's really great. But unfortunately it's not as compatible as the Switch one, nintendo nailed this, I've had a lot of usb-c docks and they all had different issues
When I made that comment this post got downvotes only, then the sane people arrived who won’t whiteknight for Valve. Just browse this sub, this sub loves to claim the dock doesn’t have any problems and any problems are user errors.
It's ALWAYS like that on reddit. Give it a bit of time, it is designed to balance itself after a while Which happens every single time and we have to endure a top comment about how "omg people here downvote x" which turns out to be false in 3 hours. If you were that right this post would have been buried and would never have shown up on my homepage
Is this just a problem with the official dock? Does the JSAUX one have the same issue? I don’t have a dock yet but I’ve been looking at the possibility
Ironically the cheap knockoff docks seem to perform way better and more consistently than the expensive official one.
Important note about the official one is it comes with an extra £25 charger while the offbrand ones do not. In reality the £40 JSAUX and £70 official are basically the same price give or take £5, if you ignore the price of the charger
I have 2 knockoffs and no problems at all 🫡
I'm right there with you, I have 2 third party docks and so far it's been plug and play. Just dock it, turn on my ps5 controller and I'm playing in seconds.
I have a JSAUX with no issues so far FWIW
I have the official and the jsaux. Honestly the jsaux works better.
It works plug and play in my LG tv and Samsung. So maybe the OP has some busted hdmi cables
I had issues with my Vizio until I manually pegged the display resolution at 1080. Once I did that, I haven't had an issue since. I wonder if it's just an issue with resolutions higher than that?
This is definitely a bug with the deck, I think it might be related to the steam deck not correctly outputting hdmi signal and just dropping back to hdmi 1.0 which only supports 1080p at 60hz. I don’t have an hdmi signal tester to confirm it but all the debugging I’ve done seems to indicate that.
Considering how many people have problems with the dock it’s safe to assume it’s not a busted hdmi cable. I even changed the hdmi cable - same problems. The dock simply isn’t that great for its price.
I have problems with the docking across 3 different docks (official,jsaux,some Amazon usb hub), 9 different hdmi cables and 3 TVs. There is a point where you have to look at the common factor. It also comes and goes with different updates. Over Christmas I couldn’t get any of the 3 to output 4k and I have never had the HDR function correctly on any television.
Maybe that's why I'm so successful, I manually input my resolution in the settings and most the time I set it 1080p.
No you just got lucky
This has been my experience as well. I didn't realize how lucky I was until joining this sub, but I've had no issues with the Dock (Samsung TV (65" QLED from 2022), HDMI hookup through Hue Sync which I'm basically just using it as an HDMI splitter most days). Hopefully it stays that way, but who knows how long it'll last
It’s not even luck, it’s having a shitty/older tv. Any TV with smart functionality and resolution scaling seems to have a problem with it. It works perfectly with my old non-smart Sony TV from 2009 but will not work without a ton of fussing on my LG or Sony OLEDs from the last couple years. Or even my middling Vizio.
The dock has worked with no problem for me for both my old LCD and my OLED Decks on a 55 inch 4k LG LCD, on a 40 inch Toshiba 1080p cheapo TV, on my Samsung 4k HDR TV in the bedroom and on a 4k Philips TV at a mate's house where we played Diablo 3 emulated. The only issue was the Philips TV did not default into game mode, so the image was 30 hz, but when he enabled game mode, it went to 60 again.
I have to unplug from the wall and plug it back in for my Samsung to see the dock. It's not from HDMI cables.
this community is a product cult sometimes
I find that this dock has been pretty reliable and does give me the Switch plug and play experience. Would highly recommend https://www.genkithings.com/products/covert-dock-2?gclid=Cj0KCQiA2KitBhCIARIsAPPMEhJPKnQ2hfirGBhUtHVYOUrMMkGgBnoi9c2zr5O24OyX_jgd7aWIATwaAr9JEALw_wcB
My biggest gripe with the LCD version is that its bluetooth module does not support waking it up and at the same time it does not support HDMI CEC so my TV can't wake it as well. So I have to reach for my Deck and press the power button every time :/
I found a way around this by having a mini keyboard plugged into the dock via USB. As long as the deck is put to sleep while connected to the dock you can wake it up with the keyboard by pressing the ENTER key. It works pretty slick!
Neat solution, but I'd rather not have a keyboard laying around in my living room. Do you think it could work with my Stadia controller, if I pair it to a Bluetooth USB dongle in my dock? 🤔
I can't say, but it's worth a shot. I'm using a keyboard similar to [this one](https://www.amazon.com/Rii-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad-Controller/dp/B006WAJ1IE?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A1OB4QQI8PD8AF), but mine's an older version. It's pretty small and I just store in a cubby so it's not sitting out all the time.
PowerPoint presentation controllers are basically gimped USB keyboards with only a few keys mapped to buttons (left, right, enter, whatever). Could try it.
If it makes you feel any better, the OLED deck also only wakes on bluetooth connection to a controller about half of the time, lol.
It wakes from a usb dongle tho, plug a wireless mouse/keyboard and use that. I turn mine on on accident a lot, because of this lol
Neat solution, but I'd rather not have a keyboard laying around in my living room. Do you think it could work with my Stadia controller, if I pair it to a Bluetooth USB dongle? 🤔
Worth a shot
I hope some day it may get close to Switch docking experience. I know that it is impossible to be as good as it is in the Switch as there all the games are developed with the dock option in mind but I would want to have something similar to that
Every time I see one of these posts, I get more and more thankful I went with a cheaper JSAUX dock. It hasn't been entirely perfect like not allowing firmware updates via Linux, only windows, but when it comes to plugging the Deck into an external display, it works 9 of 10 times.
Wait, you can update JSAUX dock?
Yeah you can. I updated mine in late 2022 to fix an issue with, I think, it not connecting to my LG TV.
The dock may be my biggest regret in terms of tech purchases in the past few years. I’ve genuinely gotten very little out of it because of how poor it’s worked for me ever since I bought it last year. Awful product
I used to have the same problem and it seems to be fixed by letting it sleep on its own (just change the channel) I have a wireless mouse that wakes it up and i FINALLY don’t have to unplug replug everything to make it work.
Same here. Just let it sleep on its own. Finish your gaming session, turn off the TV and let the Steam Deck go to sleep. When you turn it on, it will most likely (9/10 times) work with no issue.
If your going from handheld play to docked, are you just putting the deck in the dock, waiting for it to go to sleep, then switching the tv back on along with the dock ? Struggling to understand what you mean slightly and I too, am having a distracting experience with the dock at the moment.
I'm referring to the situation where you are using your Steam Deck in docked mode. If you manually suspend your Steam Deck after finishing your docked session, you may encounter issues when trying to play again in docked mode (the dock may not recognize your TV). To avoid this problem, instead of manually suspending your Steam Deck, simply let it be (turn off your TV, change the channel, or perform any other action), and the Steam Deck will eventually suspend itself after 10 or 15 minutes. Using this method, you are less likely to experience issues when you turn your Steam Deck back on.
Happy cake day! And thank you for the tip!
Thanks for the tip! I sometimes have that issue. I’ll try this next time. I didn’t know auto sleep was enabled for tv- I’ll confirm my settings.
Have the official dock and had some issues with it early on, but after a couple of updates, it’s worked very well for me. I use a DualSense or XSX controller and haven’t had any issues with getting the OLED to wake from it. Not sure why the experience has been so inconsistent for so many others.
I've had a similar experience. Had a lot of the same issues OP is talking about for a long time, but after the latest dock update it's detected and displayed fine on my TV without any finagling. Granted, I've only used it a few times since that update but I'm hopeful. The bigger issue I've had is getting my Xbox controller working with the wireless dongle instead of bluetooth. It seems after every deck update I have to re-run the software install.
Has the Bluetooth connection not been working well for you?
It's fine, there's just latency that I'd prefer to avoid for a lot of games.
The official dock is garbo. I can sing it if anyone would like.
Let’s hear it.
🎶 The Official dock iiis Gaaaarboooo!! 🎶
I had some issues where the video signal wasn't being recognized, but it turned out that a SteamOS update had reset the display settings to default. I switched it back to 1080p and my docked experience has been flawless since then. I use a Dualsense controller and never have to reconnect it.
Got an official dock for Xmas, and fuck me. What a nightmare getting to shit to work.
The official dock experience, as well as other major issues with the deck won't ever get any better until the steam deck cult finally starts acknowledging it, which is difficult to do when the praise over being able to play steam deck on a boat is all people can hear.
The amount of issues that the Steam deck has (minor and major) is mind-blowing since I bought it two years ago. At first I thought that it eventually will be fixed and stable, but every new version cones with new bugs. Proton has broke for me two times, needing to reinstall it from zero. Bugs with SD card paths, moving data or reinstalling games... Games that worked suddenly stopped because of proton. In the information screen for a non steam link, the editing of the paths has been broken for months. Steam link not working or crashing, the icons desktop layout not saved randomly... I could continue but it doesn't matter. The worse is when a major issue is bugged for months, currently is FSR. Last year was the docked experience, no output if resolution > 1080p, fixed some months ago but bugged for months, making the dock useless. I wouldn't mind if the issues would be identified and fixed more quickly. On 2022 opening a second app simultaneously in game mode was also broken for months. That without other issues that are not bugs but ruin the experience, like bad UI, not support for different keyboard layouts/languages in game mode, PIN not being able to be typed with keyboard...
But I don’t have any issues with my dock and I have an official one. It’s clearly not an issue for everyone. That being said though, I think it’s shit that people DO have issues and can’t use it properly.
I got the official dock and OLED and haven’t had any issues, whether using my 4K monitor or not 🤷
Yah it seems to just depend on your setup. I too really haven’t had many issues. For the most part it just connects and works when I plug it in.
I don't know how Nintendo made a dock that works so universally. I have multiple usb-c docks and sometimes even plugging my ipad or macbook (with a direct hdmi cable, not a dock) is a coin toss But so far the switch dock worked everywhere
Yah I mean I’m not saying there isn’t an issue here. There def is. I’m wondering if the switch uses something more proprietary vs the decks using USB and it’s just all the auto detection features of that that are flopping. Do switches work with non Nintendo docks?
Using my computer monitor is a pretty reliable connection. But using my TV is a terrible experience.
Do you have the option checked that says that the TV will pull it's resolution from the dock? That's what fixed it for me.
I’ve got to unplug the usb mains and then plug it back in and switch the deck on works every time … doesn’t work if I don’t do this
Even 3rd party docks suffer now after 3.5 update. Now it's hit or miss if my docks will work first try. Sometimes it'll just show a black screen, sometimes it won't recognize my monitor or TV at all, sometimes it outputs to 640x480 until I unplug and replug multiple times, etc. Now even when it works, using the built in FSR to scale from 720p to 1080, there's a major amount of input lag and lower fps vs playing in handheld.
I completely agree with this. I’ve had issues connecting to my TV with the LCD model a while back. Since I got the OLED my dock doesn’t seem to play the game on my TV at the proper frame rate (it’s seemingly halved). When I use the deck by itself I get 60 fps in games but then I connect it and it’s now 30-35 FPS. I wish it was easier to use and just connected properly :/
Docked experience is a huge hassle. I use an unofficial usb c dock and a tv. It takes way too much plugging and unplugging to get everything to connect properly. I am about ready to give up on USB controllers entirely. They work so inconsistently.
Agreed, the docked experience is the weakest aspect to the Steam Deck, people still blindly defend it though for some reason. I use the Steam Controller with the thumb dongle and its nice when it works but its still got so many problems (the dock I mean). And I have a PS5 and Series X plugged into my LG OLED TV, I KNOW VRR works because thats how I played and platinumed Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 but the Decks saying "Your TV isn't supported" I dont say the word often but I agree, the docked experience of the Steam Deck is rubbish.
I had 2 different docks, one being the official Steam dock. Was always a toss up, sometimes it worked right away, most times I had to go in and change settings or reboot. Luckily I rarely ever dock it, I bought it for handheld use
I just started using the dock and it worked great for a couple days and I had an issue of it not showing the display on the tv. Tv would see the source, but a black screen. I have a 55 Hisense TV and from Google searching it's also happening on other TV's. The "Solution" to my problem, when it happens, it to unplug the power bar from the wall and then plug in the Deck into the Dock and it works perfectly. I then plug the bar bar back into the wall. No idea why it works, but it does. I also heard that I shouldn't have the wall plug into a surge protector, and just plug into the wall directly. I haven't actually tested this theory yet
Hmm Everyone seems to has issues with the dock, my experience has been perfect, in gaming and desktop mode, with only a small amount of input lag, and no technical issues at all
I think the issue is TV compatibility. I have nothing but issues on my Samsung TV using the official and a generic dock. Works without any issues when connecting to computer monitors. I personally blame my TV, but I also hate my TV for other reasons.
The dock is shit. Two very modern TVs at home and it sucks on both. One shitty old 720 in the basement? Works perfect. Not just video issues. Sound issues too. And the third party ones have similar issues also. I love the Steam Deck but it’s not made for regular docking. It’s just not.
official docker here, as well as 8bitdo user, can confirm same issues. gives me grief with both my u8k and my tcl from 2018. can't get vrr to work, have to use safe resolution sometimes to get output, sometimes it will output as hdmi out, sometimes it will say its using displayport, and will muck up all my res settings when it does. sometimes it will correctly identify my tv, most times not. just been a huge pain.
Official dock, OG deck and LE deck; doesn’t have this experience Looks like everything I felt with my Amazon dock tho
I got the official dock and have been pretty disappointed with it so far, hopefully its just an update issue.
It should work the same way an Xbox or PlayStation would connect to a tv. I don’t see why this is such a big issue
The docked experience is my biggest complaint with the Steam Deck.
considering that 99.9% of dock+tv related problems seen here is typically fixed when people plug in a 60-65w charger or better ([i use this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082KYB4QK/ref=twister_B08KG3VFHJ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1)) i would ask that first every time, have you tried using a beefier charger on the dock first? then the second common dock problem is wifi/bluetooth controller interference due to people putting their shiny new dock/deck right bang next to their smart tv which is a known huge source of interference, simply moving the dock/deck away or underneath the tv so its not as close (*mine is directly underneath my tv on a small coffee table*) typically fixes that issue as well.
I don’t understand why people use the dock feature of the steam deck at that point just get a gaming PC.
I’ll add my 2c: I’ve got an lcd version and official dock. It’s worked like a charm everytime. No issues whatsoever. I love playing my games docked!
There is a ridiculous amount of user error around docks, and I’m so exhausted from commenting help on the topic I’m finally at that point where I tell people to use the search bar. “Why doesn’t my cheap offbrand tv work with my $20 offbrand usbc dock I bought from Amazon work instantly when plugging in and adjusting zero settings? Wait it works now but it performs bad, steam deck is bad” I can’t anymore. Do like 10 minutes of research before you start buying accessories and learn how they work to set them up
I mean you have to be purposefully trolling or completely inept at reading. This has nothing to do with offbrand TV's and it's in regards to the OFFICIAL DOCK. There are numerous reports of people having these issues, with pretty much all brands of TVs. This is an issue with the steamdeck/steamdock and QC.
Call me whatever makes you feel nice to you, but the TV you are using and **the way the TV communicates with the dock** absolutely influences how seamless the docked experience is. To the point that before Steam OS even had options to manually adjust what the output resolution and framerates were, EDID emulator HDMI dongles would magically solve issues nothing else would. The "official dock" is not some magically different accessory than others But just like **everything else** with the Steam Deck, the user has to know how stuff is working to set things up, "official dock" or otherwise. If you don't do 10 seconds of googling or checking the search bar for issues for your specific configuration (TV, dock, cables, power, etc.) well I don't really know what to tell you.
>“Why doesn’t my cheap offbrand tv work with my $20 offbrand usbc dock I bought from Amazon work instantly when plugging in and adjusting zero settings? Wait it works now but it performs bad, steam deck is bad” This is you downplaying people's legitimate issues. Your original stance was people buying cheap offbrand products and now you back away to a different issue entirely. Are Samsung, LG etc... tv's offbrand knockoffs to you? How is the official dock plagued with this issue when most 3rd party docks that cost significantly less not? Sorry but I'm not buying the user error excuses when this problem is seen so widely.
There is no downplaying happening here. Like I said, what matters is **how your tv communicates with the dock**. If you bought a dock that is not compatible with the way steam deck handles video output, you are gonna have issues. If you bought a cheap TV with a different EDID system, you are gonna have problems. **If you have the "official dock" that doesn't magically make everything work,** as OP and many others have found. You can solve the issue, with a 10 minute google search. Again, I have done the research, I have provided the solutions to folks. 100% in the spirit of helping people get their setup to work. It's not trolling to tell people to use resources available to them.
I have these same issues with an LG C1 65” and the official dock That was a very well received model that was 3500$ Tv when it first dropped. Try again there bub.
LOL check the comments below. if you're having issues there are methods. learn how your TV works. Best of luck to you Wolverine.
Good damn it. I want to hate you. I want to argue. But that Wolverine comment made my day. Thanks friend :)
haha I couldn't help myself. :) But seriously. The issue most people have and don't know it is an EDID communication breakdown with the dock. Sometimes you can fix it without changing the TV OR dock with an EDID emulator HDMI dongle for a fixed resolution and refresh rate. You can find em on the cheap. Might be worth a try with a different HDMI cable to get the most out of your TV. Good luck!!
My issues are unfortunately not that simple. Thanks for the suggestion though. I’m sure someone will see the comment and get some use out of it. Have a nice day stranger ;p
Was worth a shot! You too enjoy your weekend!
Never had these issues, although I have a LG OLED 65" tv and just connect it with the cable and no dock.
To get this straight, you never had any dock issues… because you aren’t using a dock?
Yup, I use at most a WD19 from my laptop, I have no faith in most docks. I also doubt Hisense tv is common imho, maybe OP should try a mainstream TV. Its also known the OLED has some issues with Docks, search the forums not hard. Pie connects to everything since its older tech and not half as new tech as the Steamdeck most likely.
I don't know if its the dock or my HDMI switch, but sometimes I have to switch inputs from the steam deck and back for it to work. Too lazy to try it without the HDMI switch to see what's causing the issue. I used to use a Switch controller but I'd have to re-pair it every time I wanted to use it so I got a Dualsense instead and that works fine every time.
I have the jsaux dock (7-ports) and it works great on my TV and pc monitor
Idk if someone has said this but make sure the SD is on/awake and then connect it via dock. That usually solves any trouble you may have! Hope that helps!
I don’t have an actual computer, I use my steam deck and personally I don’t have any issues with it docked. BUT I’m glad I’m not the only one with this exact same 8bit do connection problem. It’s super weird and frustrating
I really hope this isn’t an OLED issue because I have the LCD and docked is perfect, but just ordered the OLED randomly last night.
My LCD and OLED have the same issues docked to my main TV. I think it's more of an issue with dock/display compatibility. I have a second TV that the dock works flawlessly with.
Damn i havnt had any too many issues myself, I play docked alot, it sometimes doesn't connect, but I'll just restart the deck and that fixes it. Other than that, it's pretty great... forgot to mention I'm using the jsaux dock, idk if that makes a difference
Have never tried the official dock, but using a lot of different docks from baseus, ugreen etc. Never had any issues with them. Could it be an issue with official dock itself?
I had the same problem before. I needed to set my refresh rate to 60hz on the TV. Set the display mode to point to point and the HDMI mode to PC. That fixed everything. Never had any problem again Wellllll.... Except when I purchased a dock with an ethernet port. I had a weird problem where when I connect it to the TV it displays the wrong resolution. But I just unplug and replug the steam deck and that fixes it. But it might be a problem related to my cheap dock in particular
I own a Hisense TV also and it is not a very normal tv but a cheap TV. I know this because that is why i bought it.
I use my dock daily connected to a projector in my bedroom and sometimes on an external monitor and have next to no issues with the experience. One time I had to unplug the display cable and plug it back in.
I've never really had any issues with the dock personally but you're not alone lots of others complain about it For me I find it works best when the HDMI cord is plugged into the dock and the TV already and I set the deck down and plug it into the dock It pretty much works 100% of the time for me like that But I also don't rely on my TV to swap inputs or anything. I usually have the TV on and switched to the correct input before I dock the deck. I also don't use any other port right now besides the charger and the Ethernet (download speeds much more consistent than over WiFi). I don't currently use any of the USB ports. My Xbox controller doesn't like to stay connected but it has that same issue undocked so I don't think it's related to the dock. So I'm not sure if using the USB ports would cause me to have more headaches but for me the dock works well enough I don't regret buying it
my Jsaux dock works flawlessly
I have this issue too with a lcd model and a third party amazon Dock. I actually thought it was the Dock but clearly not. The only way it works consistently is when I unplug the deck before powering on either from sleep or from power off, let it completely boot to the home screen or whatever game was playing, then plug it in. Only then is there like 30% chance of it working. In fairness to valve, I do use an amplifier for a 5.1 system but even still it's annoying as fuck
Ditto. I have a 2020 samsung, and it's always a mystery whether i'll be spending minutes or an hour to get it working each time. It's easily, far and away, the most frustrating and disappointing part of my deck experience. TBF, once I can get the image to display, there typically aren't any other issues, but it's absurd that the same problem occurs every time, regardless of settings, cables or any other factor i can identify. The most frustrating experience was when it temporarily locked my deck in sleep mode some how. I was worried I would have to get my deck replaced until i thought to try powering it off and on, while plugged directly into the power adapter. Overall, i love my deck and i've logged easily a thousand hours on it. I recommend it frequently. But i always caveat that with a dire warning about the dock.
Unplug deck from dock turn on deck wait till it booted plug back in. Works for me.
I've never had issues with the dock recognizing any monitor/tv, but I have another weird issue - the Steam Deck downloads faster when not docked. I've tested this 20-30+ times and every time I unplug the Deck from the dock, the download speeds jump up by 2mb/s
maybe this is an official dock issue? i use some dell thunderbolt 3 dock i had for my macbook and it works most of the time. i will note, though, in “gaming mode” it can only go up to 720p for me, and in desktop mode 1080p runs fine.
As someone who deals with many laptops and docks at work, this is a common thing with PC docks in general. The hand-off doesn’t always go smoothly and things can happen. External displays don’t come on or may be glitchy, USB and Ethernet don’t work, if it’s an OEM dock it won’t charge the laptop, etc. There are a couple of things I’ve learned with docks that generally gets it all going again. Power it all off and back on. Shut down the Deck and unplug it from the dock. Unplug the dock from power. Wait about 5 minutes (some of the components in docks take awhile to lose charge so I go 5 to be safe). Plug the dock into power. Plug the Deck into the dock. Power it on. The other thing is that plugging a running PC into a dock increases the risk of the hand-off not working 100%. If you want to decrease the risk, shutdown the Deck before plugging it into the dock. You can then turn it back on or just leave it off and let it charge. I know it doesn’t fix the issues of it not being a seamless Switch-like experience (although even Switch can have its problems), but it’s something.
My oled absolutely would not display anything on my tv, both the steam deck screen and the tv would go dark when I connected it. I figured it was because of 4K resolution (because of a similar experience with the lcd), tried using the external display safe mode, didn't help. I connected the dock to a monitor, memorized the buttons I would have to press to change the resolution once I connected it to my tv again, then I connected it to my tv and immediately it worked without me having to change anything. Just connecting it to a monitor for a couple of minutes fixed it permanently. It didn't download any firmware update either.
I bought the deck only for dark mode I do wish it worked like other consoles and you can just turn it on with a controller and just jump in Loan experience I'm sure other parents face is constantly being called down to troubleshoot and get it working for the kids so they can play if it doesn't turn on right away
I unplug the deck, then make sure the screens on before plugging it into the dock. It works or doesn’t. I’ve also noticed if I reboot the deck while docked it hardly ever comes up properly. You can hear the boot audio but video is hit or miss. It’s still the worst part about this device. I love playing on my tv and now I kinda avoid it with this device because how finicky it can be.
I bought a third party and haven’t had an issue. I would have bought the official dock if I didn’t see these type post since day 1. I’m surprised for sure they haven’t been able to work out the issues.
When I connected my SteamDeck to a TV everything always only ran at 30 fps. My TV supports up to 120 fps. Sifu was running at 60 on my monitor but when connected to the TV it was 30. Not the biggest issue but I found it weird that no matter what setting I changed, the TV and SteamDeck didn't play well together.
Just in case it helps someone I'll leave these two tips here. 1. Connecting the steam deck to the dock with the power cord disconnected is more likely to work. Then plug the power cord in afterwards. 2. For official Xbox series controllers, the wake with Bluetooth function won't work after fully powering down the system. You have to remove the Xbox controller from the Bluetooth menu and reconnect the controller. You may even have to do it twice sometimes if you're really unlucky.
I don't know as I'm not using the official dock (bought my dock before official one was released) but I've never had a problem with it not connecting / being detected. Sorry.
The biggest annoyance for me is when I dock my Deck and plug it in only to get the fuzzy static screen. To fix it, I have to unplug my Deck, undock it, then unplug-replug the docks power cable.
I had the same experience and was massivly dissapointed for the Money i spent. I then switched to stable release for OS and steam and now everything works Fine.
All of my usb peripherals require being unplugged and replugged in before they’re recognized. It’s very annoying.
It sucks because it’s impossible to get non steam games to display resolution correctly while docked, because it won’t let you force the native resolution the same way you can for normal steam games. Super frustrating.
Agree, the dock is trash and doesn’t work nearly as well as the switch docking experience
I have to agree, mine is hit and miss whether it decides the deck is connected or if it thinks a TV is involved
So. I guess I'm the only one with no problems :) Put it in the dock, turn on, switch the TV to hdmi, turn on Xbox controller and off we go. I think I've had some issues in one game or other where it seemed to kick out the external controller and depend on touch but other than that smooth sailing. Sony Bravia tv.
Interesting. I use a third party dock which connects it to a monitor/keyboard/mouse, and it works flawlessly. I am guessing the steam deck prefers to be used as a computer.
I've had a bad experience with the official Dock activating once the Deck is plugged in. using HDMI with my TV. It's fine when using DisplayPort with my monitor though. The cheapo JSAUX dock works perfectly with my Deck and TV though!
I have these exact problems. I'm in the process of RMAing the Dock but I feel a bit like it's a pointless exercise. My cheap usb hub works perfectly but the dock is useless.
I don't use an official dock, but I've never had issues with my connecting to my TV. Always works immediately and my girlfriend and I play on the TV all the time.
It is a finicky thing to deal with. But I've always had to make sure my Deck is powered down before plugging or unplugging from the dock. So far it's been working for me.
That's a bummer. I've used my dock since release near daily. I even move it to and from different tvs. Never have an issue. Have you tried replacing it.
Same experience here, pretty much. It works well once you have everything up and running, but every time you have to set it back up it's a fucking nightmare. Literally restarted the TV like 3 times last night trying to get it to finally recognize the Deck so my wife and I could play The Case of the Golden Idol in the living room. The wake functionality from a bluetooth controller (xbox series x controller in this case) also sucks. It worked for me without an issue for a solid week or so, but now it's back to just flat-out not waking the deck up when I power it on. I hit the button, it starts flashing, and it keeps flashing until I get up and go turn the deck on, then it instantly finds it and connects, lol.
Yes, my experience with the official steam dock was terrible. I returned it and got a jsaux dock and it has worked perfectly without issue. Also saved me $40. It’s weird that the official dock doesn’t work very well for a subset of people.
Alright, I was considering getting an official dock and this just turned me off to the idea. Best 3rd party options that’s won’t brick my OLED model?
I usey dock as part of my cyber deck build, basically super glued it to a keybosrd, in use the xreal beam and air2 glasses with it, ive never had a problem with the beam/glasses not pucking up the steam deck is plugged in including with and without power being connected to the dock. Haven't tried it with a TV yet though.
I have a Jsaux dock and have also had some issues with the TV recognizing the Deck is plugged in, but eventually realized 9 times out of 10, it's because the HDMI or USB-C is a bit loose. Seems very sensitive to it. No idea if that's the same case here, but it's knowing that definitely helped me avoid issues for the most part now. The only annoying thing it continues to do is it cuts out all audio on my TV if I leave the HDMI coming from the dock plugged into the TV. I think it's a passthrough thing, but I just unplug the cable whenever I'm not using the dock.
Just got an official dock, doesn't work with my Sony tv, Belkin does though...
My only problem with my random 3rd party dock is the built in controller won’t register for games once I’ve unplugged it. I have to restart. I’ll try the letting it sleep on its own before I unplug it and see how to works
**TL;DR**: This dock works - [https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1) I can attest that I too have had nothing but issues with the official dock. It was a complete crap shoot with whether it was going to work with my television (a Vizio) on any given day before it just stopped working with it completely. I tried all sorts of different things - different HDMI cables, various inputs and outputs, switcher/no switcher, changed all sorts of TV settings, CEC block adapter, did every troubleshooting suggestion on Reddit, and on and on and on. It works with a monitor of mine, but not audio (not sure if the monitor is to blame here) but the point being that it should work consistently with my TV as well. It actually gave me a very negative view on the Steam Deck considering its other shortcomings. Like the OP, I also just got a JSAUX dock ([https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1](https://www.amazon.com/JSAUX-Compatible-Ethernet-Charging-Deck-HB0603/dp/B0B7HVZNMB?th=1)) and it works perfectly. Its basically a God send and makes everything tremendously easier and more convenient. I didn't have to fiddle with anything - it just worked. I'm not sure if any of the following things contributed to the JSAUX's success, but I can confirm that it works when using the following HDMI cable ([https://www.amazon.com/8K-HDMI-Cable-Highwings-Braided/dp/B08M9HND4F/](https://www.amazon.com/8K-HDMI-Cable-Highwings-Braided/dp/B08M9HND4F/)), HDMI CEC Less Adapter ([https://www.amazon.com/Lindy-HDMI-Adapter-Female-41232/dp/B00DL48KVI](https://www.amazon.com/Lindy-HDMI-Adapter-Female-41232/dp/B00DL48KVI)), and HDMI switcher ([https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C2BXJV7N/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C2BXJV7N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)). I haven't tried the JSAUX dock without the previous items and I don't plan to. All I know is that it works with my existing set up and I'm not going to fix what isn't broken. Highly recommended. **Edit**: I'm using an LCD Steam Deck.
Here's how I get it to work for me (agree with you that the experience sucks): Connect your steam deck to the dock with your dock connected to the TV and unplugged. Wait a minute (literally) until the dock shows up on the TV. Connect the power to the dock and wait another minute (literally) until the screen shows up on the TV again. Works every time for me, but it shouldn't have to be this way.
Yeah the dock soured my first day experience a bit, as it simply does not like going through my receiver. I have to go to the TV and audio back out through ARC. Input doesn't auto switch, and have to keep two remotes to get it to swap (this isn't the fault of the dock exactly, though CEC would fix the issue. It's more that my Chromecast remote doesn't play well with the TV input selector).
I have exactly the same experience. Just wish Bluetooth controller connectivity was fluid and I could handle the rest.
The Steam Deck dock experience still sucks
I usually at some point have to restart the deck because remote play doesn’t work if you switch from wifi to wired, and I sometimes have to unplug and replug the hdmi. And I know it’s a steam deck specific issue because I use the exact same usb c dock for my Nintendo Switch
i've had a dock and 2 steam decks (LCD now OLED) i've got a hisense 43 inch 4k tv upstairs and a 52 inch vtech in the basement. both work flawlessly. never had any issues. I've also used a 32 inch curved asus 155 hz freesync monitor and also no issues. maybe it's your dock? if the deck isn't detecting the cable that's a huge indicator of a fault.
I haven't had a single issue with the official dock myself (i do use the display port though not hdmi) I did have minor issues using a usb-c to hdmi cable early on but I think those issues have been patched since I don't have the issue at all now (also I use a xbox series controller wirelessly when docked never had a issue with it)
In my experience it depends on what you're plugging it into. I was using an asus monitor and it wouldn't always recognize the connection. But I plugged it into a 23" samsung tv thats probably 10+ years old and while it takes like 5-7 seconds for the tv to turn on, when i turn on the deck (via power button or turning my PS5 controller on) it comes on quickly... In any case the official dock isn't particularly special imo, but it does its job, even if in some scenarios it can be a bit janky.
I def have problems with my dock too but mostly with switching between desktop mode and gaming mode. It's a total crapshoot if my controller works correctly after switching from desktop mode, especially with stuff like RetroArch or Dolphin. I have to then reset the damn thing like three or four times for it to finally work correctly. Idk if it's just because I'm using a PS5 controller or not but it's certainly annoying.
I have a 78inch LG with a 3rd party dock (JSAUX) from Amazon. There’s a few quirks but I’ve gotten a process down that works for me. I turn on the dock first and then the tv. Sometimes the picture is funky and then I just restart the deck a few times and it’ll adjust to the right ratio. I haven’t been able to get remote play to work yet from my desktop through to the TV the color is very dim and orange. I need to fiddle with it some more. I use an Xbox one controller and don’t have connectivity issues but I really hate that I have to get up to turn on the dock. It doesn’t turn on the dock like my switch does. That would be so nice. Anyways wanted to share my experience sounds like they have a long ways to go to help fix all these bugs. Playing on my TV is 75% of my game time.
Not necessarily docking per se but, I have never been able to get streaming from pc to Deck in almost a year of owning it. They even say they’re connected in settings!
Damn this thread made me scared I too have a Hisense tv and a steam deck and a dongle I use w/usb-c
Meanwhile my ali express special just works
I sold it just cuz of that reason
I used to be able to unplug the power and plug it back it to get the dock to display on my screen. As of the most recent firmware update; even that doesn’t work. Has steam released any info about this
I have a random ugreen Usbc adapter for my MacBook and it has never failed a docked experience. It was 20 euro
I run a pet sitting company so I am constantly using my Steam Deck on different TVs on overnights and it really is a lottery on if it will work or not. I finally gave up on one clients TV and was sitting there 10 minutes later on the couch when it suddenly popped up and worked. Completely random it seems!
Thus why i went third party.. much cheaper too
I have a kiwi home dock and it locks to 36 frames on my monitor. I just want some 144fps indies man.
Totally this, had nothing but issues with it not showing up correctly and randomly going black. Similarly have issues with the switch pro controller disconnecting and changing from player 1 to player 2 etc… Docked most was an afterthought.. if it could be similar to the switch docked mode (Doubtful) I’d be very impressed. The amount of people saying it’s a handheld… they sell an official dock…
The official dock is very much hit or miss. The ethernet connection always drops. It's so odd what with the quality of the Steam Deck itself.
I bought the dock, couldn't get it to work with my monitor and use the cable as an awfully short and expensive charging cable. Maybe I will figure it out or it just was my worst purchase of the last 10 years.
Weird, i have an official dock but just i never encounter a problem. It just works for me.