Valve shows why you shouldn’t tear down a Steam Deck by tearing down a Steam Deck

Valve has taken a novel approach to discouraging gamers from opening up their Steam Deck hardware, by demonstrating how incredibly wrong it’s likely to go.

In a instructive video teardown, the PC gaming giant, warns against tinkerers messing with the device in order to replace parts or SSD storage, because opening up the device “might mess things up, like, profoundly.”

The five minute “why you really shouldn’t do this” video posted today explains that fiddling around inside the forthcoming handheld console is a really crap idea because the parts aren’t designed to be user-swappable.

It says playing around could lead to the battery exploding, if you damage it. The company goes as far to warn users that their life “might end if you do this wrong.” Valve says that taking the screws out of the back could damage them, the casing and make the whole array less drop resistant. Exposing the innards to static electricity is likely to fry them, Valve says.

“Even though it’s your PC — or it will be once you’ve received your Steam Deck — and you have every right to open it up and do what you want, we at Valve really don’t recommend that you ever open it up,” the video’s narrator explains.

“The Steam Deck is a very tightly designed system, and the parts are chosen carefully for this product with its specific construction, so they aren’t really designed to be user-swappable.”

By taking the Steam Deck apart and telling users what’s inside, the company is looking to settle the curiosity of some tech tinkerers before it arises.

Tech tear downs from seasoned pros like iFixit can be really useful. Firstly, they tell us more about the parts companies used to assemble their gadgets, but also inform about how fixable our products are, should something go wrong.

This can be handy if users wish to replace worn out parts without paying expensive manufacturer fees.