The Steam Machine is in its infancy and is currently only available via a random-draw reservation system. And like most things in the world of technology, it may be experiencing some early growing pains as more units make their way out into the wild. This specific issue may actually be a bit familiar to some, as it has been dubbed the ‘red line of death ’, which is a subtle nod to the ‘red ring of death’ from the days of the Xbox 360.
Whose Line is it Anyways?
A post within the Steam Machine Reddit Community caught traction early on as a user posted an image of a solid red line, which, according to the official Steam support page, indicates a major GPU failure has occurred within the device.
What is even more concerning is that this malfunction allegedly occurred just after 20 minutes of using the console. It is also worth noting that while this may be a major hardware issue, it is unclear if this incident is isolated or evidence of a much larger underlying hardware oversight. With that in mind, the post in question has remained the talking point within the community, having received over 4,000 upvotes and just over 700 comments.
Red Light, Green Light
One sentiment that arose amongst commenters was some sort of deja vu when red indicator lights and gaming consoles are mentioned in the same sentence. The infamous ‘red ring of death’ was a sight no Xbox 360 user wanted to come across in the early days of the console. This normally indicates (much like the steam machine) some sort of general hardware failure that was specifically caused by thermal stress cracking inside the GPU.
But regardless of the era we find ourselves in, seeing a system malfunction after a mere 20 minutes is something no one wants to see.
