Not getting OEM repairs on used products period isn't mind blowing, ignoring that it's stolen.
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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I disagree, used products should get the OEM warranty just the same. The unit is the same age regardless.
Theft is the big issue here. Steam should have the ability to blacklist units just the same as cellphones, but at the same time, buyers need to have the ability to check for theft at the time of purchase via serial number.
Why? But regardless, the product was beyond warranty, and not getting warranty service on a stolen device is normal.
Steam having the ability to blacklist devices massively compromises their value. The completely open nature of the device is a big part of what they advertised and how they sold it.
You poor Americans. Product isn’t even 2 years out of release and you accept that as a decent lifespan for an electronic device like this.
Likewise warranties exist to guarantee the quality of product, there’s no reason the company should be absolved from that simply because the user has changed.
They're lucky it wasn't just bricked remotely when reported.
It's honestly surprising they don't do that
They could probably blacklist it from getting SteamOS updates through their servers, but actually bricking it would involve taking away from the "it's just a PC" nature of the device.
TIL...
I just assumed laptops would get bricked if reported stolen like a phone or console, but apparently they don't?
This actually makes a Steam Deck a huge target for theft
I don't know about you, but I'm really happy that Valve and PC manufacturers can't just decide to lock me out whenever they want. After I buy it, it's mine, not theirs, and I should be the one to decide whether to install a mechanism to brick it if it gets stolen.
People still steal phones despite knowing that they'll get bricked, they're still worth something for parts.
With android the user can go to their Google account and remotely brick the phone themselves. But it's you, the owner, doing the change, and I agree with it.
On that grounds, Im sure you could write or find a program to give you the ability to remotely brick your steam deck when it next connects to the internet
Exactly. There are plenty of rootkits out there that can destroy the BIOS or something, and writing a way to run that remotely that would be pretty easy (just set up a cron job to check an online service periodically to see if it should brick itself).
However, I'd rather the thieves be able to use something they stole from me instead of just creating more ewaste. So I'm against the idea of remotely bricking things, especially for something like a gaming device where there is no personal information. For something like a phone, I just care that my personal data is safe, so I prefer a remote wipe to a remote brick.
I instead protect my stuff with physical measures instead of technical.
Some corporate computers have a way to do this via the bios but it must be preconfigured and can easily be turned off if it hasn't been.
The onboard storage is a removable NVMe or eMMC memory module, it could be blanked or replaced.
Amazing how quick people have gotten used to not owning their electronics.
It was a stolen unit. As the article says, best course of action is to go back to eBay and report it.
I only wonder if there is something a potential buyer can do beforehand to check if a unit is in good standing with valve.
Would a BIOS password with FDE make a stolen steam deck useless? I haven't gotten my hands on one to test yet.
The BIOS doesn't usually handle encryption, that's usually the bootloader on the drive itself. They could just reformat the drive with the standard Valve image and they're good to go.
It could protect your Steam account though, so if you're worried about them making illegal purchases or something, it can help somewhat. But most thieves aren't that sophisticated, they just want to resell it for quick cash.
In order for the BIOS to work, you'd need to have some kind of cryptographic link with the boot media, something that the standard Valve image wouldn't satisfy. But let's say you do that for your own device, all that does is annoy the thief, it's not going to prevent the thief from stealing your device. Now if every Steam Deck did that by default, maybe thieves would be less interested in stealing it, IDK (probably not, I doubt Steam Decks are popular enough for thieves to now how stealable they are).
I personally don't see the point. Steam Decks typically don't have sensitive, personal data on them that needs to be wiped, so bricking them doesn't benefit the original purchaser being a small amount of "justice" at knowing the thief just stole ewaste. I'd rather a thief resell it and someone get to use it than it just be tossed in the trash.
Never buy anything used without first purchase receipt