If there’s one thing you can count on with technology of any kind, it’s that something will eventually break on you. And if you’re an early adopter of new hardware, like Valve’s new Steam Machine, it looks like that rule still applies.
As reported on the Steam Machine subreddit, Reddit user “me_hill” says their new device started showing what the “Red Light of Death.” Some have compared it to the Xbox 360’s infamous Red Ring of Death, but this isn’t really a line. It’s the Steam Machine’s front light bar lighting up red, which is a lot more specific and, honestly, a lot more fitting. It also looks a bit like KITT from Knight Rider, which makes it hard not to notice.
According to “me_hill,” the device reportedly worked fine at first, and they were even able to get some time in with No Man’s Sky. After that, they installed the latest Steam Machine update, and that’s when the device stopped working. So far, nothing has managed to bring it back to life, and they’ve already reached out to Valve for help.
However, unlike the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death, Valve’s light bar isn’t just there to tell you the Steam Machine is having a bad day. Valve has a Steam Machine LED reference page that shows the light bar and indicator LED can display different statuses, similar to the debug LEDs you’d find on a motherboard.
Judging from the picture that “me_hill” provided, the red light bar and red indicator LED appear to point to an issue with the GPU, which is definitely not what you want to see on a brand-new piece of hardware.
Still, it really does stink when a new and very expensive piece of hardware decides to stop working on you, leaving you stuck playing the waiting game. I can’t say I’ve been immune to this myself. When I picked up my shiny new Nintendo Switch 2, the dock stopped working within a week. That led to me playing phone tag with Nintendo, who eventually decided they weren’t going to fix it, so I returned the device to GameStop, who thankfully had another one on hand.
Hopefully this gets sorted quickly, and Valve figures out exactly what caused it. One failed unit isn’t enough to say this is a widespread problem, but if Steam Machine units are getting knocked out after updates, or if this points to an actual hardware issue, that could turn into a much bigger problem fast.
