PC Gaming@lemmy.cabyalessandro@lemmy.ca
10 hours

Steam Machine's "Red Line of Death" [dubbed as "major hardware fault" by Eurogamer] single occurrence, resolved by keeping unplugged for a night.

archive.is English

original quote:

Anticlimactic and somewhat embarrassing update: as some people suggested, I left it unplugged for about half an hour last night and then tried plugging it back in… and it didn’t work. So I left it unplugged for a couple of hours and then tried it again before bed… and it didn’t work. Same error light despite multiple power-cycling attempts. So I left it unplugged overnight and plugged it back in today to try some of the BIOS stuff that other people suggested… and it booted up immediately without issue.

I feel stupid about even posting this now, especially since it blew up a bit, but I was tired and irritable after a long day of work, and an ominous GPU error code wasn’t exactly the seamless plug-and-play experience I had hoped for. But I guess if anyone encounters the same error, don’t panic like I did, just let it sit for a few hours and it will somehow sort itself out. Anyway, I’m sorry for the false alarm, thanks to everyone who suggested solutions, and now I’m going to spend this weekend playing Crusader Kings until my eyes hurt.

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    • carrylex@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      Let me guess this is the story so far:

      • Fuck up BIOS settings
      • Complain on Reddit about it instead of googling how to fix such a thing
      • Story get’s into braindead click-bait “news”
      • People read said news because they’re dumb
      • Original author finds out that you can unplug it and remove the BIOS battery to reset BIOS
      • Works again

      Classic Layer 8 problem

      PS: I didn’t read said braindead click-bait “news” because I don’t care

    • 58008@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 hours

      Something went wrong, just wish we knew what.

      I’ll be curious to see how the OP OP’s machine is doing a few weeks from now, and if the error pops up again.

    • Fizz@lemmy.nzEnglish
      10 hours

      Dubbed major hardware fault after a single reddit post?

      • halcyoncmdr@piefed.socialEnglish
        10 hours

        And apparently solved by just letting the capacitors dissipate. A common solution to power issues.

        The Xbox One had built in surge protection function inside the external power supply that required you to unplug it and let it dissipate before you could use it again.

        Not really a major hardware fault by basically any definition.

        • karlhungus@lemmy.caEnglish
          6 hours

          Yeah it’s maybe not a major hardware error, but telling someone that turning their console off for 6plus hours is the solution to their issue is not something that we’d forgive from any other company. If it’s completely a one off sure, especially if valve offers to replace it. But we shouldn’t wave this off as if it’s nothing because it’s valve

          • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4 hours

            Assuming this is expected functionality of built in surge protection or similar, I am absolutely okay forgiving every company for this… if they put it in the fucking manual…

    • PonyOfWar@pawb.socialEnglish
      10 hours

      Calling it resolved immediately after it booted up again seems a bit premature though. I’ve had a few major PC hardware issues where I managed to get it running again for a short while only for it to fail again soon after. This issue happening in the first place does likely indicate some hardware fault with that person’s Steam Machine.

      • alessandro@lemmy.caEnglish
        10 hours

        The problem is how easy you can have a 100% disaster and 100% not-a-problem when the usercase is…well, 1.

        • PonyOfWar@pawb.socialEnglish
          10 hours

          Yeah, I don’t disagree. As of now this is just one person with an issue out of an unknown number of Steam Machine owners. It shouldn’t be blown out of proportion.

          If I was that person though, I’d probably ask Valve for a replacement unit, even if it works for now.

      • rozodru@piefed.worldEnglish
        10 hours

        ASUS ROG Strix laptops enter the chat.

        “huh it randomly rebooted and won’t post…ok i’ll turn it off for 15min or so…oh it’s working again.”

        few months later

        “huh these false reboots are happening more frequently now and now it’s taking an hour or more before it’ll post again…still works though!”

        few months later

        “the mobo cooked itself.”

        Don’t buy ASUS laptops kids. you’ll be lucky, extremely lucky, if you get 4 to 5 years out of it.

        • Dangerhart@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3 hours

          Otoh, a family member gave me their “broken” Asus zenbook, I replaced the battery and its been running great for a few years now. I’m at the point where I need to replace the battery again(and maybe ditch Ubuntu, I always regret installing it)

    • leave_it_blank@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10 hours

      If you have to keep it unplugged for a couple of hours it does not seem like a fix.

      But well, if it happens again he should return it, just to be sure.

      • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
        8 hours

        Leaving it unplugged means capacitors drain. Not sure what issues that would solve that wouldn’t be related to hardware failure.

        Still, only a single hardware failure reported so far and some news outlets ran with “MAJOR failure in Steam Machine, GabeN in shambles, Valve BTFO, Sony was right all along, apologize to Nintendo right now”

        • frongt@lemmy.zipEnglish
          8 hours

          A random bit flip in memory. Sometimes errors can be retained.

            • towerful@programming.devEnglish
              4 hours

              Yeh, but is extremely outside of any manufacturers control for consumer level gear.
              For mission-critical satellites or space crafts, then it’s either a 3-way-quorum or extremely ruggedised processors specifically designed for the radiation of space (with a massive performance penalty).

              It’s not something you buy off the shelf. It is a specific requirement that is built in at all levels of hardware, firmware and software.

              So, if the steam machine is designed for high radiation environments then it’s steams fault.
              Seeing as it isn’t, a cosmic bit flip that is actually able to impact hardware negatively is so extremely unlikely that it isn’t Steam’s issue. At all.

        • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.socialEnglish
          8 hours

          Eh you know how’s the hate train. It drives way more clicks to just create ragebait than to report news.

          In the videogame world however, seems to be worse as the average “journalist” is basically a guy who can put letters together.

      • NoirFactor@lemmy.zipEnglish
        9 hours

        Ya having to keep it unplugged would tell me that something is on the brink of total failure.

        Whether this is a one off case or turns into a wide spread issue I’d be asking for a replacement.

    • makeshift0546@lemmy.todayEnglish
      10 hours

      I love, despite the large amount of broken shit on the deck, people are desperate to defend this thing as the second coming. Just fascinating.

          • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.socialEnglish
            8 hours

            So having a weak wifi and, apparently, “utterly broken screen scaling” is “a large amount of broken shit”. Idk mate, I was expecting something kinda worse than two non issues…

            • BeamBeamCable@lemmy.caEnglish
              1 hour

              Not as harsh as OP on the deck, but it definitely has more issues than those two. However, I’d say most of the problems are caused by Steam’s Big Picture Mode.

              I still love my deck its convenient and powerful, but I hate the broken keyboard, borked store navigation & terrible library function, incompatibility with my PC (mindlessly turning one game on during the other system’s play will sign me out of the former system, understandableish but frustrating), getting flashbanged by desktop mode because the brightness will reset to ~65% >o< Not had much screen scaling issues, although wifi does get weak a couple rooms away.

              The great casual controls, mini pc, and quick lazy game access makes it tolerable but these issues have been reported for years in some cases and Valve has not fixed them. The Steam Deck is phenomenal but not without faults. Large amount? Perhaps not, but they are ever present depending on your use case.

            • makeshift0546@lemmy.todayEnglish
              7 hours

              Yeah having shitty wireless controller performance and broken Wi-Fi is NBD for a gaming console is NBD. I swear the amount of cope because you align ideology wise is crazy. Just hand waving basic issues away 🤣

              Gordon Ramsay you donkey meme in action.

              • AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.socialEnglish
                6 hours

                Two decks at home and not a single of those issues. I must be lucky. Three more among my friends and same. Must be lucky too…

                I mean, yeah. You came here to shit on a console that nobody is taking about but sure it must be us coping… Are you ok? Did Gabe steal your candies? Who hurt you so badly that you have to come online to insult randos and talk shit about an unrelated topic on an internet post?

      • karlhungus@lemmy.caEnglish
        7 hours

        It seems like your getting down voted for 'large amount of broken shit", which I don’t know about, but I agree people seem way to willing to forgive a pretty bad error with this, when I expect they’d not if it was a different company.