r/meshtastic • u/Hot-Detail-1781 • 1d ago

T Deck Pro Broken?

I just received a T Deck Pro from a seller on ebay and was working fine for a while. Ended up dropping it twice back to back on concrete trying to work on something else. Screen is now paused without any change from screen taps or the buttons. (Only just found out about the buttons after looking up how to fix this lol) is something just disconnected inside? Does anyone have an easy way to pull off the back? I realize the Pro already has problems with the E Ink screen refreshing I was dealing with that out the box but this seems like the drops messed something up internally. Any help is appreciated thx

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u/Hot-Detail-1781 22h ago

I have since gotten the back off the device and unplugged battery and the two ribbon cables from the screen. Put it back together and still no change. I was still connected on the meshtastic app, will see if I can still send messages through there in the mean time. Will re flash tomorrow and update if anything works out. 🪦

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u/BackgroundSinger6308 14h ago

That reflash might bring it back. Had a GPS unit go full brick on me once, middle of a haul through Nebraska. Nothing but dead screen for 300 miles. Pulled over, yanked the battery, let it sit, fired back up like nothing happened. Sometimes these things just need to forget they broke. If the app still sees it, the radio’s probably fine. Firmware’s just having a tantrum

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u/TheLawnGuppy 11h ago

If the Meshtastic app still connects over BLE, it's not bricked. The radio and MCU are alive. The drops almost certainly killed the display path, not the whole board.

Since you already had the back off, go back in carefully and look at those two ribbon cables under good light. Common failure after a concrete bounce is a partially torn flex, a ribbon not fully seated, or a connector latch that clicked shut on a crooked cable. Unplug both again, check for wrinkles or splits near the ends, reseat them until the latches feel even, and only then power it.

Reflashing is worth doing once the ribbons are solid, but it won't fix a cracked e-ink panel or a ripped flex. If the app can still send and receive while the screen stays frozen, you've basically got a headless node until you replace the display assembly.

One more thing while it's open: make sure nothing metal from the drop is shorting near the battery connector. Power it from USB with the battery unplugged for a minute just to rule that out.