I’m sure many Xbox fans, especially those who go back in time Xbox 360definitely remember tragedy was the Red Ring of Death. Millions of Xbox 360 consoles made their way into homes, only to later overheat and fail, leading many owners to come up with all sorts of weird and wonderful DIY fixes.
In the end, It cost Microsoft over $1.15 billiondespite the disaster, it didn’t stop the Xbox 360 from becoming Xbox’s most successful console generation to date. So how does Valve’s new Steam Machine fit into all of this? Well, the Steam Machine has a front-facing LED light bar that serves a variety of purposes, including downloads and hardware status.
On it The Steam Machine subredditalthough user me_hill reported that the system appears to be the first “Red line of death.” According to the user, they were playing No Man’s Sky, installed a system update, and then the machine bricked. According to Valve’s own Steam Support pageit looks like the user is experiencing a GPU failure.
Given that the GPU is soldered to the motherboard, it’s not something the average user can repair. Some to add insult to injury Reddit users joked that they were “beta testing” the hardware for everyone.
Fortunately, this appears to be an isolated incident for now and I hope it stays that way. It would be a real shame if Valve’s $1,000 mid-powered device suffered anything like the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death fiasco.
Believe it or not, I really want a steam engine. Even if my biggest reservation is still the price, stories like this make me glad I waited. I just can’t justify the expense $1,000 for hardwareand while I know it’s probably unrealistic, I’d be more tempted if it were closer to the $500 mark.
Hopefully Valve can get the affected user back up and running with a replacement or repair. That said, let me know if stories like this put you off buying a Steam Engine or if you still want to get your hands on one. Share your thoughts in the comments and don’t forget to take our poll below:
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