We’ve had a few early reports of Steam Machine errors describing a red light indicator for a problem that means the PC won’t turn on, which is something that will be very familiar to those who have had an Xbox before.
One Redditor posted (see below) that their “Steam Machine was pretty cool for the 20 minutes it worked”, detailing how things went wrong and how the PC ended up showing a ‘Red Line of Death’ and not booting – reminiscent of the ‘Red Ring of Death’ visited upon some unlucky Xbox 360 owners (myself included).
The Redditor tells us they played for five minutes No Man’s Sky before they noticed an update to Steam Machine which they installed – and then the device crashed.
Well, Steam Machine was pretty cool for the 20 minutes it worked from r/steammachine
After the update, it failed to start and the owner was left looking at a red light on the right side of the Steam Machine’s light bar. After some digging, it was discovered that this indicates a ‘GPU error’, according to Valve’s troubleshooting information on the Steam Machine’s LED.
The owner has contacted Valve for help, but at the time of writing, support has yet to get back to them (or at least they haven’t updated the Reddit thread with the details of what’s going on).
This isn’t quite a single complaint, as there is another report of a GPU failure with the Steam Machine on the Steam forums. But clearly, we shouldn’t be running for the hills in panic that this will be Valve’s very own “red ring” controversy wreaking havoc on this hardware launch just yet.
Analysis: defective KITT
While it’s too early to talk about Redditors’ Steam Machine being ‘walled’, meaning permanently dead, it’s not clear where things can go from here. Given that in the Redditor’s case it happened after an update, maybe it’s reversible (the other post on Valve’s forums where the PC immediately crashed on first boot sounds more definitively terminal).
In either case, though, a GPU failure doesn’t sound good, and while it might be possible to fix it by poking around and trying to restore with the PC, the buyer on Reddit is wisely awaiting instructions from Valve’s support team.
I’m betting this will be a payoff in the end (with both PCs) and I think it’s for the best as I’d be concerned if a unit I bought had an initial issue like this as I fear it’s something that might resurface later.
Of course, some point out that the problem is that it is not a quick process to provide the buyer with a new device, given the limited stock of the Steam Machine so far. But Valve will obviously have some contingency plans in place for potential returns, as they will inevitably happen.
That’s another thing to make clear here: just because we’ve seen one Red Line of Death (well, two) doesn’t mean everyone should panic about the quality of Valve’s hardware. There will be a percentage of defective units, that’s just the reality and at the moment we only have a few reports.
Of course, if these issues keep coming, that’s another matter, and we could be looking at a more difficult situation for Valve. Time will tell, but for now let’s stay far away from said hills.
Anyway, the red line looks a lot cooler than the red ring. It reminds me of KITT i Knight Rideror the Cylons in Battlestar Galacticaalthough of course the light should pulse from side to side.
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