Steam Deck: Valve postpones Docking Station indefinitely

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After the Steam Deck was delayed and is still only available to a limited extent, Valve has now announced that the announced docking station for mobile gaming PCs will also be delayed. The reasons are once again missing components and production difficulties caused by Corona.

Valve didn't even mention a new date

According to Valve, it is working flat out to improve the situation and to bring the docking station to market quickly, but does not even mention a new date for the market launch in the announcement for the delay. Due to the current COVID-related closures of the production facilities in Asia, Valve only has a limited direct influence on the situation, and the shortage of the required components will not improve drastically in the short term. Originally, the Docking Station was supposed to appear at the same time as the Steam Deck, but then Valve postponed the release date to “Spring 2022” and hasn't specified it since then.

In addition to an HDMI 2.0 connection and a DisplayPort 1.4, the official docking station for the Steam Deck should also offer three USB-A ports and a USB-C charging connection for the handheld.

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Docking Station for Steam Deck
Docking Station for the Steam Deck

No changes in the production of the Steam Deck

However, the postponement should not have any further delays in the previous production schedule or affect the reservation periods for the Steam Deck itself, since the Steam Deck uses completely different components than the docking station and the production facilities are different.

Support for docks should be improved

So while users have to wait for the official docking station to connect the Steam Deck to an external monitor or TV, Valve wants to improve the docking experience with USB-C hubs and external displays. This is also urgently needed, because at the start of the Steam Deck some users had to struggle with the so-called “ghost charging” (see also). In this case, the Steam Deck will no longer charge the internal battery via a power adapter, even if the charging icon is displayed after being charged on an external docking station or USB-C power adapter. Despite the power supply being connected, the battery discharges until the Steam Deck finally switches off and no longer reacts at all. Often the only solution to this problem is to reinitialize the battery by completely switching it off via the bios or by physically disconnecting the battery, for which the handheld must be opened. Only then can the battery be recharged using the original power pack. Numerous users had to send in their Steam Deck shortly after receipt because of this problem. ComputerBase was also affected by the problem, but was able to solve it via the bios.