this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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[Solved!] Swapped nvme from old deck into new deck, now headphones don't work (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by beastlykings@sh.itjust.works to c/steamdeck@sopuli.xyz
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Update: It's fixed! Spoiler tag for anyone who wants to think about what it could be before send the solution.

spoilerI don't know why exactly this fixed it, but Max_P suggested deleting the pipewire and wireplumber folders and restarting. This has solved my issues!

Original post:

Hi there.

I swapped the drive because my old steam deck is the "good" one, the first one we bought. My wife has been using it so much lately, we decided to get a second one. She doesn't need a 2TB drive, so I swapped it with the 512GB one that came with the "new" deck.

Why not just give her the new deck? It's screen is cracked, and it has other issues I'm going to fix. I want her to have the nice one.

The issue is software related, the headphones work fine with the old nvme. Likewise, I slapped a 256GB 2280 drive in there, did a fresh steam install, and it works fine.

Things I've tried:

Searching online, nobody else seems to have this exact issue.

Restarting with headphones plugged in.

Rapidly changing between outputs in the settings.

Going into desktop mode and manually fiddling with the headphones in the audio settings.

Bluetooth headphones work fine.

So far nothing makes the wired headphones work.

I don't want to factory reset my Deck, but I will if I have to. My next step is to do a system repair using the install media, to see if it finds and fixes anything. But it gives a warning about potential data loss if it fails. So first, I am running rescuzilla and backing up the entire drive. I don't have a spare nvme big enough to test that backup, so it's not really a backup, but, that's where I'm at.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Thanks

Edit: added to the things I've tried

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[–] tinchs@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I have the same issue, and I also believe it’s software related.

Only temporary fix I’ve found so far is changing the output but not to another output. In Desktop Mode, from the Audio Volume menu > Three lines switch to Pro Audio and back to default a couple of times until it fixes.

Unfortunately, this only lasts until a restart.

USB headset via a docking station works no problem.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 14 points 2 days ago (4 children)

If that works, something with the PipeWire state might be weird. Tried deleting pipewire/wireplumber in ~/.local/state followed by a reboot (or restarting pipewire and wireplumber). That should reset it.

[–] rotopenguin 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

👆 this sounds like the most probable fix. I suspect OP buried a very critical factoid - moving the drive between OLED and LCD models. The systems have some significant hardware differences (as evidenced by the Windows drivers changing so much that Valve took a long time to update em). Somewhere, Pipewire has squirreled away details about routing or preferred devices from the old system.

Heck, there might be journalctl log entries being generated you plug into the headphone jack. Pipewire could already be trying to tell you exactly what's wrong.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This was the solution, deleting the pipewire and wireplumber folders and restarting was the solution.

To be clear though, I definitely swapped from one LCD model to another, so I'm still not sure why it was failing 🤷‍♂️

Glad it's fixed though!

[–] tinchs@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Disregard, I found it. Looks like it also worked!

~~Sorry, could you please give more context on what you deleted and where?

I tried looking for that ~/.local/ folder but can't seem to find it :/ I'm still new to Linux/Steam OS~~

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Glad you found it, and glad it worked for you too!

[–] rotopenguin 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Huh. Mmmaybe the LCD model has board revisions that are still different enough to trip things up? It's definitely a bug to have wireplumber not "do the right thing no matter what hardware it booted up on today", it would probably take a Valve engineer to chase that down and submit a patch.

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

That makes sense, definitely weirdness. Funny it didn't bother it the other way around, the other deck is fine 🤔

At any rate, I'm done worrying about it haha

[–] tinchs@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Looks like this worked, thank you Max!

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

You absolute legend, this was it, now my headphones work perfectly, thank you!

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

I'm op, not the guy you responded to. But I might try this as well. I wasn't able to make mine work on desktop mode, but maybe something else is fishy in there. Thanks!

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Pro audio and back? Ok I don't remember seeing that specifically.

I did go into desktop mode and fiddle with the audio mixer, turning the speakers and headphones on and off, etc. Never got any sound. But I'll dig deeper. Maybe this combined with the other person who responded to you, can get me up and running.

Can't try it till this evening though.

[–] tinchs@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's in there, for some reason it won't let me take a screenshot while that menu is open... You should see Default (selected) and Pro Audio.

Looks like this once you switch to Pro, then I go back to default and it fixes after a couple back and forth

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

I did those steps to no avail, unfortunately.

However, deleting the pipewire and wireplumber folders and restarting did the trick!

[–] beastlykings@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Ok thanks I'll check it out tonight. That menu definitely already looks different than what I was seeing, from my memory anyway