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Yeah Windows has a lot of security prompts that show up. You always have to allow the app to make any changes it needs to. If you miss one or deny a permission it may not run correctly.

Yup, definitely a very versatile laptop. Would have loved a way to charge with usbc even if it couldn’t supply enough power to game.

Be careful not to strip the screws and make sure to use the correct size of screwdriver or it’ll be very hard to open. If it’s already stripped you might be out of luck on opening it without damage.

I believe the Steam Deck doesn’t support secure boot so it probably won’t work. I have read that Windows 10 should work with their anticheat and it didn’t require TPM or secure boot so you can try making a Windows 10 drive instead.

@@Loaded0 Thanks for your reply !

Some models don’t have an extra slot so you can only upgrade the one current SSD.

Yes, Windows doesn’t install them automatically. You have to download them, unzip them, then follow the directions Valve provided. Some of them you need to run the setup and some just require you to right click a certain file and select the “install” command. Make sure you get the files and use the instructions from the Valve source: help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/6121-ECCD-D643-BAA8

I haven’t tried but it should be pretty simple. It has a very good WiFi card already and I’d only upgrade if I really wanted WiFi 7.

This video is an older version and they’re constantly updating it so it’s going to look different now. Functionally should be pretty similar though.

Not really sure what you mean, but if it’s intermittently working it could be another app taking control of controller. Steam does this. So does other apps similar to handheld companion like reWASD or SWICD. If you have or had any of these installed you shouldn’t run them together or fully uninstall them.

There have been updates to the bios, AMD drivers, and Nvidia drivers since this video happened and I can tell you that it appears to still be working on my laptop so maybe you can try the latest versions and see if it fixes it. Also make sure you have hybrid graphics on in the bios before installing everything.

No you won’t be able to access the SteamOS drive so game files will have to be separate too. Probably better that way so Windows can’t mess up anything on the SteamOS side.

Most likely it’ll crash and restart or it could freeze which would require you to shut it down manually by holding down the power button. It shouldn’t cause any hardware problems though.

@@Loaded0 Thanks!

No key required to use Windows. You won’t be able to change the background wallpaper and it’ll nag you occasionally to get a license, but it should be a fully functional Windows even without a key.

@@Loaded0 Ok, thanks for the input. I'm bit tempted to try how Steam Deck would work as a normal Windows 11 desktop (Windows for specific program needs) and bit tight for money atm. In theory it should fare really well with USB-C hub.

Works pretty much like a fat tablet. The screen resolution makes it a bit tough to use windows apps on it, but using a hub and external monitor it’s just like a home PC.

If you’re running your games through Steam or have Steam auto startup with Windows it could be the problem. It’s better to use the built in Steam Input in that case. Handheld Companion should mainly be used for games from other stores or launchers. Unfortunately Handheld Companion itself is basically a collection of individual software that all updates independently so things can break too.

Well, try a reinstall and make sure you give it all the permissions it needs. It’s best to start it with nothing else running like Steam. Especially on the first run as it configures everything. If it just doesn’t run at all usually the required Windows libraries didn’t get installed correctly.

Rufus should set no password or a blank password. If Windows asks you to set a password after booting you need to make one. They often change their startup requirements so I’m not sure what it’ll look like now. The last time I set it up it looked like it required my Microsoft account to login, but there was a small link that let me bypass that and create a local account instead which I chose to do.

@Loaded0 I had to redo the Rufus bit and uncheck the box that maybe a local account. It works now. I have to put in a pin to log in. But hey it works so 🤷 lol. Thanks for the tutorial on this. It's a pain to try and get this whole process to work.

If you’re playing the games through Steam you might have to disable Steam Input.

@@Loaded0 the Game dont lounch with this toll

It shouldn’t affect games launching at all. I would try to uninstall it and see if the games run. If they don’t then you might have another problem not related to Handheld Companion.

It should work, but it would just be slow to run Windows.

It's a little metal piece that attaches to the motherboard and elevates the SSD to be level. It also has the screw hole to secure the SSD from moving. Most laptops have it built into the motherboard so they can only take one size of SSD, but this laptop can accept different sizes by using this bracket.

Since they work individually I would think there might be a problem with the RAM slot. I’m guessing you used the bottom slot when testing one stick at a time. Try one stick in the top one if it stays in that way. It could be damaged or maybe just the contacts need to cleaned or dusted.

There’s a new bios 1.20 that just came out that I haven’t tested, but if you’re willing to risk a try you can do that one and apply any Nvidia and AMD updates too before trying a rollback. I’ve updated mine a few times from this video and luckily haven’t lost brightness controls yet.

Do you have the OLED model? I think it’s still a sound problem that Valve has to fix. Also might want to try a different proton version or if you’re pretty savvy with Linux use the Golden Eggroll version of Proton.

Well, nothing has changed much except that the brightness works again with the latest updates. Still a great laptop that holds up with new games too.

@@Loaded0 i upgraded my laptop following your video and it works great, thanks mate for the information

Yeah it’s the 3060 model and most of the ones they made had only the orange lighting.

Is it the same specs? I read that only people with the 3060 or higher have the option.

@@Loaded0 My laptop is the Dell g15 5510 I7-10870h rtx 3060

@user-wm3zc9sx6u I think you should have the option too, but there’s a chance they only started doing it with the 11th gen Intels. Only thing I could think of is check to make sure your bios is up to date.

That's right, I have the latest version of the BIOS and it doesn't appear

@user-wm3zc9sx6u yeah it might be a 11th gen intel and later thing. You should still get similar performance using an external monitor though.

Yes, there’s a desktop mode setting.

@@Loaded0 I've been trying that, toggling it on and such. But it does nothing. I don't know what I'm doing wrong or missing

That’s weird. Does the trackpad work when HandheldCompanion isn’t running? If it still doesn’t work you might be missing a driver.

If you’re using Linux you should probably just use SteamOS and its controller configurator.

@@Loaded0 it makes me just use mouse and i cant use controller

You have to run any apps or games through Steam so SteamInput (controller support) will be active. You can manually add any non Steam game or app to your Steam library.

You need a windows pc for Rufus. Doesn’t work in Linux unfortunately. Rufus will also erase everything on the external drive to put Windows on it so the games will have to be redownloaded too.

Yeah, everything is on the SD card so you can have two SD cards, one for each OS, or change the files on one card. You can’t put both OSs on one card and swap between them though.

@@Loaded0 thank you mate!

I have read that there was an update that was eventually pulled that was killing monitors. It’s unfortunate that these companies don’t do a good job of testing before releasing updates. I can tell you that no company is immune to doing this though, but it’s worth considering how well they handle support if something goes wrong.

@@Loaded0 I will update here once my issue is solved wish me luck

@@Loaded0 already got my laptop back from the service center, they have fixed it and replaced my screen

Nice, glad it worked out!

If you’re adding the storage to the second slot you don’t have to do any data transfer. It’ll show up as a second drive (usually D:) in Windows. If you want to replace the drive in the original slot or want to use the new drive as the main Windows drive you’ll need to do a data transfer. Most new name brand SSDs will let you download their data transfer app for free and run you through the process if that’s what you want to do.

It should still be working. The key is it’s switching between Xbox wireless mode and Bluetooth mode and you can have one device for each. Xbox wireless is limited to an Xbox Series console or the Xbox wireless adapter for pc.

Yeah Valve is taking their sweet time with drivers this time.

Is it the model with the same battery size? If it is just give it some time. I don’t know what it is about Windows, but it seems to eat battery life after setting up for my devices. What I do now when I get a new Windows device is update everything first, then I leave it on, plugged in, idle, and don’t let it sleep for a day (screen off is ok). Let Windows take care of everything it want to in the background then try a battery life test in low power mode. Let me know if it helps.

It’ll be perfect for Roblox and Fortnite. Luckily the CPU hasn’t improved much over the years and the newer 4060 GPU isn’t that much better than the 3060 unless you need DLSS 3 so it’s still very usable now.

I’ve been using the black more lately so it doesn’t stand out much when I’m out, but I think I like the purple’s single color buttons and styling better.

Can you try without the hub and see if it boots into Windows? You might not be able to set it up without a keyboard and mouse, but at least you can see if it’s the hub causing problems.

did it boot up thru the USB hub?

No, it doesn’t work any better than Gen 3. Some Gen 4 drives can be found pretty cheap though especially if they’re the slower speed ones so you should shop around for both. A slow Gen 4 can be about the speed of a fast Gen 3 and be a better price sometimes.

It should work for windows 10 too. It doesn’t launch manually either? It might not be set to auto launch in its settings.

Yeah, Windows won’t boot as an external drive normally. The key is that the shown process with Rufus makes a “Windows to Go” external drive which can boot.

I haven’t tried Steam Deck Tools, but it seems like it’s a good simpler alternative. Handheld companion has more features and is constantly being updated. Depends on what you’re looking for I think.