Even though it’s been out for only a week, the Steam Machine might be running into a major problem — one that feels remarkably familiar to anyone there during the Xbox 360 era.
Users are reporting what’s been coined as the “red line of death.” The Steam Machine front-facing LED bar can be used to communicate a variety of hardware statuses and issues. Typically, the bar will glow a bright blue when working. But according to the Steam Machine’s website, a blinking red bar will typically indicate a GPU failure.
A user named me_hill on Reddit shared a picture of the red line of death, saying they’d used the system for all of 20 minutes before it appeared. Later in the thread, they say, “Got five minutes of No Man’s Sky in, then I installed the update the machine had available and it bricked itself. If you’re still in the queue, look on the bright side; theyr’e presumably going to iron this crap out.” Below is the image they provided.
It should be noted that the thread is full of people mentioning how good Valve’s RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) process is, and that the user should be able to get it sorted out. There also doesn’t seem to be widespread reports of this problem, either.
The Steam Machine is now available for purchase, although you’ll have to join a waitlist and hope to be selected in order to buy one currently. There are four different options to buy, and even the lowest is eye-wateringly pricy. Here are all four.
- 512GB Model – $1049
- 512 GB Model With Controller – $1128
- 2TB Model – $1349
- 2TB Model With Controller – $1428
Like many other pieces of tech, the Steam Machine price has largely been affected by the RAM crisis, which has also led to price hikes for both Xbox and PlayStation.
