Valve's Steam Machine has hit its first major hardware snag. A Reddit user reported a critical failure just 20 minutes into using the device, when the machine displayed a specific red LED pattern that, according to Valve's official error codes, signals GPU failure.
The user said they played about five minutes of No Man's Sky before installing an available system update. After the update, the device stopped producing any video output. The failure earned the nickname "Red Line of Death" from the community, echoing the Xbox 360's notorious "Red Ring of Death" that plagued Microsoft in the early 2000s.
This marks the first published hardware failure for the Steam Machine since it began reaching early adopters this week. The device, which started at US$1,049, had already faced performance criticism. Former PlayStation president Shuhei Yoshida called its performance "meh" and questioned the steep price tag in his initial hands-on impressions.
