Miscellaneous notes on Steam Deck reshells, mods, and screen replacements
I recently spent a few days revitalizing my Steam Deck, replacing a broken screen alongside dropping in a new shell, new complementary buttons, and a clicky button mod.
This was an extremely fiddly mod, even as someone very experienced in working with electronics and reshells, so I wanted to write up a few notes on things that weren’t well covered by the guides I used.
This won’t supplant any of the disassembly/installation guides out there (I primarily jumped between iFixit’s screen replacement guide and ExtremeRate’s official shell replacement video, and I’ve heard people recommend JSAUX’s instructional video as well), but is more or less a list of “things I had to figure out for myself and wish I’d known going in”.
In my case, I was simultaneously installing a new iFixit screen, an ExtremeRate shell, an ExtremeRate set of buttons, and an ExtremeRate clicky button mod. Each of these kits theoretically includes all the tools needed for its respective installation, but…
ExtremeRate gives you a bunch of tools: spudgers, a metal guitar pick, a suctIon cup. They all suck. In my case, I had extremely high-quality tools provided with my iFixit screen kit, as well as plenty of other screwdrivers, tweezers, and iFixit spudgers/picks/etc lying around. If you’re not in that situation, and don’t already have a good spudger, pry tool, set of tweezers, suction cup, and a few guitar picks, I’d consider picking up a repair kit from iFixit. Definitely do not touch ExtremeRate’s metal guitar pick, using a metal tool is very likely to damage your device.
