Steam Deck OLED Wont Connect to Wifi 6 Networks + Waking itself up as a result

[RedAsKetchum]

Your system information

• Steam client version: 20231122.1
• SteamOS version: 3.5.7
• Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] No
• Opted into SteamOS beta?: [Yes/No] No
• Have you checked for updates in Settings > System?: [Yes/No] Yes
• Router: ASUS - GS-AX3000

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

Describe what you expected should happen and what did happen.

Right off the bat when turning on the OLED for its first time set up I couldn't connect to any networks. I keep receiving a message in read informing me I'm unable to connect. The only way I was able to complete the set was using a Mobile Hotspot.

Once I'm connected to a mobile hotspot I'm strangely allowed to connect to my router's network 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. However, there are times when either coming back from sleep or turning the Sd back on shows you are no longer connected to the WIFI.

If you try to connect to the networks you are received with another unable to connect message. If you set the Steam Deck to sleep after being unable to connect to the WIFI, the Steam Deck will wake itself up after a few seconds.

If you forget the networks you cant connect to it causes all networks to no longer be detected requiring a reboot to end up in the same loop.

• Turning off the 160mhz channel seems to fix the issue, but this nothing but a workaround that shouldnt be needed.

• Yes, I did turn off the wifi power saving option. Didnt seem to help a bit.

@lostgoat has this issue been replicated or is the team aware of it?

Steps for reproducing this issue:

1. Try to connect to a WIFI 6 network on Steam Deck OLED.
2. Unable to connect message pops up.
3. Set the device to sleep to reproduce the wake bug while still unable to connect to WIFI 6.

[eoli3n]

Same problem here, Valve, wake up.

[chyllbacca]

Made an account just to add I’m having same issue.

ASUS RT-ax82u router w/ latest firmware:

-Desktop mode to check and uncheck and check hide SSID, no luck

-configure SSID to priority connection 1 no luck

-split SSID into 2.4 and 5 no luck, smart connect on/off no luck

-simplify network name and password characters, no luck

-make SSID with no password, no luck and that wouldn’t be sustainable anyways

-ipv6 on or off doesn’t matter

• ⁠DFS on or off no change

-160 mhz on/off doesn’t matter won’t work

-AX on/off, doesn’t matter

-resetting SD, resetting modem, resetting router doesn’t matter

I had the deck connect once or twice randomly and I was able to download a couple of games. But usually it won’t connect to any SSID on my WiFi

[Sunspark-007]

For what it's worth, I have an LCD deck and I've made the observation that if I create the login for my router in gaming mode, it will work, but if I do it in desktop mode, it doesn't want to connect after a certain amount of connection profile editing.

So, for those of you who have been doing edits in desktop mode, one suggestion I have to try is, in desktop mode, delete entirely the router's connection profile from the network settings. Then return back to gaming mode and set it up in gaming mode again using DHCP not static, and see how that goes. If it works, then don't touch it again in desktop mode, even though it would be nice to be able to use static.

[australok]

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1253#issuecomment-1868076946

this is a thread for the Steam Deck OLED, LCD and OLED have different Network adapters, please let`s not mix devices because it will change the spot of the problem, wich is a bugged wifi firmware for the OLED that needs inmediate attention by Valve, (attention that we are not having as we can see)

[SkittlesTheGoat]

same here. Reinstalled the OS for nothing. Valve Pls Fix

[ufoalex]

So I tried the following, maybe its different based on my setup.

Login to asus router settings

Under the 'General' section in the left pane click AiMesh option

Then click the node, then in the right of that click Management

In the below settings click the arrow for Enable Radio

For me I have 2.4 GHz, 5GHz-1, 5 GHz-2

I disabled 5 GHz-2 b/c I think that's where the 160MHz is, and once I did that I was able to connect my steam deck to wifi 5ghz with no issue.

Though I've noticed 5 GHz-2 will re-enable by itself in asus router settings for some reason.

Tried the following above a few times, at this point my steam deck has a stable connection to my 5ghz wifi, this issue is confusing

[Originalimoc]

Mine is fine so far but rm -rf /etc/NetworkManager/* to reset network after swap SSD from old LCD to OLED or it won't scan properly for whatever reason...

[AbleGia]

Hello. Figured ill add my name to the list of victims.

Router: RT-AX86S Firmware Version: 3.0.0.4.388_24231

Steam deck: 1TB OLED SteamOS Version: 3.5.7 Opted into beta?: No

Just like everyone else when the Steam Deck tries to connect to a Wi-Fi 6 network it bugs out and disables the Wi-Fi driver requiring a restart to enable it again.

Following the thread above i set my authentication method to WPA2/WPA3-Personal and that seems to have fixed the issue for now. I'm too scared to try and reboot my deck again and see if it stops working after a reboot.

[zekink]

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1253#issuecomment-1858941555

Chiming in again with some more details. Been messing around a bit with this as due to christmas holidays I had a bit more spare time. Also opened a support ticket on Steam - got the recommendations to try the battery storage mode as well a BIOS reset - neither did anything for me. Got my phone hotspot to work momentarily though, which made me try a bit more with this.

So, looking around a bit more in my router's (Sagemcom F-3896) settings, I realized that the network setup is actually a bit different than I thought. The "main" wifi is a 2.4ghz + 5ghz using the same SSID - this one never worked for me with the OLED Deck. I also have an "extra wifi" 5ghz - I initially thought this was 2.4ghz, but it's just another one only on 5ghz, just hadn't read the description properly. This one had never worked for me either on the Deck, unsurprisingly since it's using identical settings as my main network, only the SSID is different. Since I'm not using this extra network for anything else currently, I can dedicate this to the Deck at the moment, so I tried messing with the settings on it a bit. And after I tried setting the wireless access mode on it to 802.11a+n+ac the OLED Deck was instantly able to connect to it, without touching any other settings.

So in this case with this router, 5ghz on 802.11ax seems to totally break the wifi on the Deck OLED causing the same crashes that everyone else is facing too. The only change required to make it work in my case seems to be to set it to 802a+n+ac. Obviously, I haven't really yet tried this out more to figure out if it's stable, or if it will degrade and start dropping out, as seems to be the case for many others.

Out of curiosity, I set the extra network to use the 160mhz bandwidth (the main wifi is on auto, which seems to go to 80mhz for me) and it works with 160mhz as well. So in this router's case, 160mhz bandwidth as well as WPA2/3 personal mode on the wifi security setting do not seem to cause this, it seems to be caused by 802.11ax entirely.

[Originalimoc]

Channel 36, 80MHz ax. AX86U, FW is Merlin 3004.388.5_0, fine so far. On 3.5.7 Stable.

[foprel]

Any news about this?

After Steam Support suggested my WiFi issues were likely caused by a hardware problem, I received a replacement device this week.

As I've been actively monitoring this GitHub thread, I didn't think new hardware would resolve the problem, but I decided to give it a go nonetheless. As expected, the Wi-Fi problems persist with the brand new Steam Deck.

[Sterophonick]

SteamOS 3.5.12 preview has this note: - Fixed a WiFi crash occurring where certain bands would cause the driver to attempt to set an incorrect spatial stream count

Try for yourself, see if it works

[bearwolf]

Updated to SteamOS 3.5.12 preview and now i can connect when 802.11ax is enabled! It did crash when i just enabled it on the wifi, (steamdeck was connected while changing the radio settings on the router) but after a reboot i forgot and added the network again and now it seems to connect just fine. This is on the Sagemcom F-3896 router. I'll report back after i've tested it more thoroughly. Great job fixing this!

[foprel]

Updated to SteamOS 3.5.12 preview and now i can connect when 802.11ax is enabled! It did crash when i just enabled it on the wifi, (steamdeck was connected while changing the radio settings on the router) but after a reboot i forgot and added the network again and now it seems to connect just fine. This is on the Sagemcom F-3896 router. I'll report back after i've tested it more thoroughly. Great job fixing this!

Thanks for sharing 🙏🏼

I have tested this a few minutes ago. Wi-Fi seems to connect to my Sagemcom F5359 modem without any problems on SteamOS 3.5.12.

Haven't been able to test it thoroughly, but this seems very promising. It's been a rollercoaster, but I'm nonetheless grateful Valve is fixing this 👍🏼

[deedeeped]

I’d like to note that, while this does resolve the issue of connection, the WiFi still drops after about 20 minutes of use after the device sleeps, unlike any other device in my home. The Steam Deck seems to have many more problems maintaining a connection after it’s turned back on from sleep. I’ll note that this does not occur on the 2.4 ghz band, which provides the only stable connection (which is far from what is advertised, sadly).

[HauieT]

I’d like to note that, while this does resolve the issue of connection, the WiFi still drops after about 20 minutes of use after the device sleeps, unlike any other device in my home. The Steam Deck seems to have many more problems maintaining a connection after it’s turned back on from sleep. I’ll note that this does not occur on the 2.4 ghz band, which provides the only stable connection (which is far from what is advertised, sadly).

That sucks. This is also the problem I have, so I am guessing this update won’t fix anything for me either. Should we open a new issue for this specific problem?

[Knurek-NC]

That sucks. This is also the problem I have, so I am guessing this update won’t fix anything for me either. Should we open a new issue for this specific problem?

FWIW, it fixed all of my issues (using sagecom Funbox 6 router) Easily connects to 5 GHz 801ax SSID, doesn't lose the connection randomly, reconnects each time you wake from sleep.

[HauieT]

That sucks. This is also the problem I have, so I am guessing this update won’t fix anything for me either. Should we open a new issue for this specific problem?

FWIW, it fixed all of my issues (using sagecom Funbox 6 router) Easily connects to 5 GHz 801ax SSID, doesn't lose the connection randomly, reconnects each time you wake from sleep.

Sounds promising. Will report back the result later today once I am back home and can test it out properly.

[iundead123]

I'm only to able to connect to phone hotspot or 5Ghz wifi, not sure why it doesn't connect to 2.4ghz

Just received my Steam Deck OLED

edit: I somehow fixed it by going to my router settings and disable the ax (wifi 6?) thing on the 2.4ghz mode and it connected

[AustinGMartin]

Update 3.5.12 has not resolved my issues of being unable to connect to my Nighthawk RAX35 router. Already posted details above.

[HauieT]

Okay finally had time to test things out. 3.5.12 did nothing for the issue I had while using Asus rt-ax86u pro.

wifi still degrades after 10-20min of use after steam deck restarts, and only gets stable upon reconnection.

[Emdeekay]

OS Version: 3.5.12 OS Build: 20231226.1 Kernel Version: 6.1.52-valve12-1-neptune-61 BIOS Version: F7G0107 Steam Version: 1703100617 Steam Client Beta: Yes SteamOS Beta: Yes

Router: TELEKOM Speedport Pro Plus Firmware Version: 120141.6.0.013.0 Firmware date: May 11th, 2023 (newest)

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1253#issuecomment-1858416140

I have the same same router with same firmware and a Steam Deck OLED 1TB. I updated from 3.5.7 to 3.5.12 Preview but the issue was not solved.

Only way to connect to my WiFi is to change the channel bandwidth to 40 MHz for the 5GHz WiFi. Then Steam Deck connects successfully. If I change it then back to 80MHz, Steam Deck is not guaranteed to reconnect e.g. after sleep. Basically I have to change between 80 and 40 MHz and back in my router settings whenever I want to connect Steam Deck.

I also have to restart the Steam Deck whenever it loses WiFi connection on 80MHz channel bandwidth, but I am still checking if that is also required on 40MHz. Without the restart it wont connect to any WiFi after losing connect.

Tried other solutions mentioned in various threads about the issue. So far nothing else helped.

[zekink]

Can confirm that for me 3.5.12 seems to fix the connection on my Sagemcom F-3896 at least with initial testing. I can now connect to the 802.11ax network that was initially impossible to connect to and trying kept crashing the Deck wifi, requiring reboot. Will continue testing to see if there's any of that connection degradation many seem to be facing.

[lambergr]

My anectdotal fix with a NightHawk router for STEAMDECK OLED 512GB (latest firmware as of 1/5/2024 -> downloaded via mobile hotspot)

---

Router Info :

Router Name: Nighthawk AX5 RAX30

Hardware Version | RAX30   Firmware Version | V1.0.10.94_3

---

Steps

1. Log into Netgear Router -> Navigate to Basic Tab -> Navigate to Wireless

2. Disable "Enable AX"

3. Disable "Enable Smart Connect" (you should now see both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz options in wireless)

4. Restart STEAMDECK OLED 512Gb

5. I was then able to connect to both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz and download games :)

---

[eoli3n]

how much time before it comes to beta channel ?

[Originalimoc]

Interesting, on 3.5.7, using 5Ghz/AX(WiFi 6 mode)/channel 36/Fixed 80MHz, 2 weeks now no problem.

[Nephyrin]

Hey all, SteamOS 3.5.13 was just released on the Preview/OS Beta update channel with a few fixes for wifi issues, please give it a shot.

[AustinGMartin]

Updated to 3.5.13 from my phone hotspot. After the restart attempted to connect to my Nighthawk and no luck. Restarted one more time with password saved now and still nothing. Forgot and connected once more still nothing.

[Originalimoc]

Updated to 3.5.13 from my phone hotspot. After the restart attempted to connect to my Nighthawk and no luck. Restarted one more time with password saved now and still nothing. Forgot and connected once more still nothing.

Can you try rm -rf /etc/NetworkManager/* to reset the config?

[br6]

Ok I had the issues too, Updated now on Asus RT-X88U merlin 3.0.0.4.388.6.beta1 I enabled 160Mhz after steamdeck OLED was connected

Steamdeck OLED on OS Update channelMain / Client Beta OS 20240104 Steam version 1704329464

It may be that prior to enabling 160Mhz it locked itself on 80Mhz

I will look further into wifi supported config in linux terminal . update , iw dev is showing 5500Mhz, Width 160Mhz txpower 16.00dBm, Positive 😀

[bearwolf]

Maybe i'm not sure how this work with the channels. I went from 3.5.12 preview down to beta 3.5.13. And my wifi started crashing again. Restarted, forgot network, same thing. Then i went back to preview, installed 3.5.13 and not it's working again. Maybe it was a fluke? But i did restart a few times on both beta and preview 3.5.13 and only preview channel works.

[deedeeped]

Hey all, SteamOS 3.5.13 was just released on the Preview/OS Beta update channel with a few fixes for wifi issues, please give it a shot.

No dice for me. Gets connected to 5ghz at 160mhz, but the signal is degraded 20 minutes in, as usual. I’ll stick to 2.4ghz for now, though that is truly a shame.

[Worie]

I can confirm that 3.5.13 helped me with Sagem on OLED 1TB 👍 Thank you.

[Crysis85it]

I can confirm that 3.5.13 helped me with Sagem on OLED 1TB 👍 Thank you.

how is the stability long term to you. I have the same router maker and while it now connects to Wi-Fi with all protocols and bands enabled (with previous versions it did not) i still have issue with connection stability over streaming gaming session. Lag free at the start and then it goes bad after a few minutes untill i turn off and on the wifi on the Steam. Then it resumes with a solid connection. Of course i lose my streaming connection and I have to start again which is a bummer.

[deedeeped]

I’m not sure whether this belongs to the same issue here, but here’s something I’ve noticed via extensive testing.

My OLED Deck connects to the 160mhz network without issue. It does experience a degraded/dropped connection upon trying to stream something (as others have mentioned) 15-20 minutes in if I put the Deck to sleep, awaken it, then start streaming.

If I shut the Deck down, turn it on, then stream, I have no issues for the session. It’s only when I awaken it from sleep that this occurs.

Thus, it’s clear that the issue arises from the connection the Deck has after coming out of sleep mode. Something is not working correctly with the driver there.

Is this the right place to report this issue?

[Worie]

I can confirm that 3.5.13 helped me with Sagem on OLED 1TB 👍 Thank you.

how is the stability long term to you. I have the same router maker and while it now connects to Wi-Fi with all protocols and bands enabled (with previous versions it did not) i still have issue with connection stability over streaming gaming session. Lag free at the start and then it goes bad after a few minutes untill i turn off and on the wifi on the Steam. Then it resumes with a solid connection. Of course i lose my streaming connection and I have to start again which is a bummer.

My model is Sagemcom Fast5670v2. It's overall stable enough for me, although it never shows full signal strength in gaming mode, even though I'm like a meter from the AP. Nonetheless the speed is really good, been downloading titles with 600mb/s lately, and Steam Link app shows stable connection at 100mb/s.

Overall I can't complain on wifi stability I guess, but I had experienced some weird system crashes every now and then since update. So overall definitely not stable experience, but connection itself is good enough on my end. Didn't experience any disconnects or significant performance drops

[australok]

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1253#issuecomment-1885866527

hey man! i have sagemcom fast5670v2 from T-Mobile, do u have from them too? are u able to access to our router normally or...? for me the issue still persists!not being able to connect and incorrect password (firmware crashing)

[Worie]

Replying to #1253 (comment)

hey man! i have sagemcom fast5670v2 from T-Mobile, do u have from them too? are u able to access to our router normally or...? for me the issue still persists!not being able to connect and incorrect password (firmware crashing)

yes that's the same, also from t-mobile. There's no way to access this routers configuration legally (besides like basic stuff like changing ssid/password) - so I did not change anything in the configuration of the router, it runs on the defaults. What I did was 100% steam deck configuration.

• Opt in to the preview software channel on steamdeck in settings, update, restart
• turn on developer mode & turn off wifi powersaving (though I'm not sure if that really mattered)
• in desktop mode I've entered the credentials, making sure that every user can use them and that it's remembered

At one point it just clicked. And it is quite stable now, besides ocasional system crashes, but they might be because of some other totally unrelated reason. I've also opted-out of preview updates for now and switched back to stable releases because I'm happy with the experience 3.5.13 gives me for now.

I think that was all. The detailed how-to on those steps you can find online, hope that helps.

[RedAsKetchum]

@Plagman The latest preview update hasnt solved the issue for me either. Seemed to work great for a while and suddenly I can't connect to the network again. Only fix was a full reboot. The signal seems to slowly degrade as well. Not only it gets slower, but its range seems a lot worse on the OLED than on the LCD while connected to a Wifi 6 router (ASUS - GS-AX3000).

[Emdeekay]

Hey all, SteamOS 3.5.13 was just released on the Preview/OS Beta update channel with a few fixes for wifi issues, please give it a shot.

Sadly, version 3.5.13 also did not solve the issue for me. When 802.11ax is enabled on my Wifi, I can only connect to it when I also set the channel bandwidth to 40MHz.

But I have since my tests with 3.5.12 figured out, that when I disable 802.11ax (currently only having 802.11n and 11ac enabled), my Steam Deck connects perfectly fine even with channel bandwidth set to 80MHz. It even connects without issue from sleep. It also seems so far stable, but I have not used any of the demanding network features like streaming yet.

My conclusion is that Steam Deck even with version 3.5.13 does not support 802.11ax Wifi, yet.

[Glorydayreject]

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1253#issuecomment-1890052159

Well that's depressing to hear. I have a Netgear nighthawk and had to disable AX as well. The 5Ghz connection is slow and spotty at times.

At the time of my comment it's been 62 days since the steam deck OLED released, advertised with wifi 6 and we STILL don't have it.

[Originalimoc]

My 3.5.7 with 80MHz 802.11ax still working fine. Go to Desktop mode and post the KDE NetworkManager UI detail of your SSID.

[thatsthequy]

62 days since the steam deck OLED released, advertised with wifi 6

This. Mine miraculously connected on 6Ghz on two occasions, but overall I have not been able to track down any consistent behaviour so far. I hope a fix comes soon, although I imagine they have to get the chipset vendor involved in releasing a fix which could take some time.

[Originalimoc]

I tried 3.5.13(14? the beta branch now yesterday) with 160MHz 5.2Ghz AX and get very slow(~10Mbps while 3.5.7 with 80MHz can get 300+). So this issue still needs some work.

[cryptofyre]

This is still broken as of the latest preview, should be investigated more urgently as Wi-Fi 6 compliant routers become more common place.

[bearwolf]

It's still working for me on latest preview channel, having some inconsistencies but don't know if it's related or not. But today i tried again going back to beta channel, (set beta channel -> reboot -> install update -> reboot -> forget networks -> reboot) and the driver still crashes on the beta channel, went back to preview and it's working again. I'm still unsure if this should be working in beta or not haha. But still getting stuff like loosing contact to steam servers now and then, usually easiest to resolve by reboot. Sagemcom F-3896

[Mrsuzukid]

Replying to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1253#issuecomment-1885802884

This! Have the EXACT same issue... Using moonlight/ mondeck to stream my PC, or using GeForce now and PC game pass cloud gaming. Can't believe they still haven't fixed the issue

[martpendle]

Had the same issue here after a router reboot (and I’m guessing silent update to its firmware) the oled deck refused to connect. The only solution was to turn off the 5ghz network completely. Connecting to the 2.4 failed, changing down to 5ghz 40mhz, nothing worked.

Really hoping we get an update that fixes this.

I’ve tried the preview channel and also the developer “main” channel (took me to OS 3.6) combined with the steam deck client beta channel.

EDIT: Changing "down" to the preview channel and os 3.5.14 this morning seems to have resolved the issue.

[robert-spurrier]

I bought a LE OLED and I have been having this issue since day one, no issues at all with my previous LCD deck. Very frustrating.

[jeanfbrito]

Same here.