Many things were previously said about the Steam Machine, including the way it’s meant to provide a console-like experience despite being a PC. Though arguably not quite the monkey’s paw curling, one user got the most unfortunate kind of console experience with the black cube. In a Reddit post, said user shared an image of their Steam Machine experiencing what could be described as the Red Line of Death, drawing parallels to the Red Ring of Death of the Xbox 360.
Reddit user u/me_hill shared an image of their Steam Machine with the right half of its LED strip in red. The user also shared that they got five minutes of playing No Man’s Sky before installing an update the machine had available. After that, the machine seemingly bricked itself, with the LED light showing red on the right half. Per the product’s support page, when the right half of the LED bar is breathing red, this indicates a GPU failure.
Interestingly enough, the user also shared that while power cycling their Steam Machine seemingly did not fix the issue, they left it unplugged overnight intending “to try some BIOS stuff that other people suggested”. But to their surprise, the machine “booted up immediately without issue” the next day. Complicating things further, an account designated u/SteamHWFeedback claims that “due to a miscommunication, the front panel code is actually flipped horizontally out of the box. Since this happened right after (or during) a BIOS update, it’s very likely that the update didn’t fully complete, and is a memory training issue”.
Ultimately, it’s unclear what the issue with that particular Steam Machine was. Hopefully future owners are more fortunate and avoid running into anything similar. This is especially if you’re planning to get one locally. Much like the controller, it will come with a massive premium once it lands.
(Source: Reddit [1], [2], [3], Steam)
