Why you should 'fix' your steam machine

[HermesTheMessenger]

So I don't normally make posts unless I need to. I observe mostly and read forum stickies when I have hardware or software issues with any devices I use. I feel obligated in this case to explain an issue with steams manufacturer software and how to make your worthless Steam Machine an amazing usable and versitile user friendly machine. I warn you, this takes MINIMAL technical knowledge but may require some interesting technical skills if things go wrong, primarily the use of Windows diskpart tool.

In 2015 I bought the best steam machine available, newly released and began immediately experiencing issues with both the hardware and software. The hardware issues cause my machine to occasionally not start and get a blinking yellow light error. In my case my error stemed from faulty rushed memory and motherboard hardware. I searched online about the error, easily found by googling ' steam machine blinking yellow light' also include in your search the number of times the light blinks as this indicates specifically which piece or pieces of hardware are malfunctioning. I then contacted Dells Alienware support and sent the machine in for maintenance.

Prior to experiencing these issues in the hardware, I noticed that the software was not compatible with almost any of the features the advertisement boasted about on my initial purchase. You can only play Steam OS games, which are few and far between. Developers have no incentive to produce steam OS games as no one owned a steam machine. Now that has slightly changed but still a problem. Unhappy with the product, it sat on my shelf at home and I continued using my PC for Steam gaming as it could play EVERY game. I did this in the hope that Valve and Steam affiliates would eventually solve the compatibility problems that I faced through an update. This never happened.

My primary PC crashed and I lost all my data and had unusable hardware until I fixed the hard drive issues causing the issue. But I was broke and needed a new computer immediately for my job and remembered that I had the steam machine still collecting dust on my shelf. The machine was about as good as my PC with a 6th generation i7 Intel processor, 8 gigs of RAM and 800GB of storage space as well as a X960 G-force graphics card or something like that. So I decided I would convert my Steam Machine into a desktop PC. The process was quite simple, obtain a USB 3.0 device with at least 32GB of storage then download a USB windows To Go flash port to allow the installation of Windows 10. You also need a mouse and keyboard. Plug in your configured USB device to a port in the back of your steam machine and press the f2 key immediately when starting up your steam machine to allow the machine to boot directly to its BIOS menu. Follow instructions online to convert your steam machine to a windows pc easily found on Google, I won't detail information as I am unsure of the legality of the process. Once you force your machine to boot the Bootable USB Windows To Go, follow Windows install instructions, REFORMAT the primary hard drive of the steam machine, and use the newly reformatted hard drive to install Windows 10. Once Windows is intalled, log online, download Steam and install. You can now play ALL of the games available, you can now comfortably use a keyboard and mouse, your steam controller, and any other 3rd party device you wish.

My 900$ steam machine is now my primary PC. I still launch steam in Big Picture mode for controller use, and I use the machine to do any computer based computation. I have also partitioned the hard drive to allow me to install linux and Steam OS. I love steam, so much so that I support over 120 of their games and invested in their Alpha hardware. I was let down by their hastily rushed development but whatever, it happens. I made the best of my situation and so can you. Your steam machine is not worthless, it's an amazing computer IF you know how to use it. Follow what I did and you can sit on your couch and play Civilization 5 for over 250 hrs with your steam controller as well as Darkest Dungeon, Endless Space, Don't Starve, Curious Expedition and many other awesome titles. It took me 4 days from start to finish to figure out from simple google searches on how I could achieve this conversion. I am an Environmental Scientist, Biologist, Botanist, Martial Artist, Business Manager, Husband, Nerd and many more. Titles are hogwash, you don't need to be a computer genius to figure out your technical problems. Just need an initiative. I hope to god this guides some pour soul that experienced similar issues as I did, because I didn't find a single forum that helped me with my issue, I had to rely on several, but it's possible. If you want to know how I did all this email me and I will happily guide you along.

Best of luck, and Valve and Steam, you can go f$!# yourself for not resolving my issues and selling me a hastily made faulty product. Your lucky I love your games.

Regards
Jeremy Malloy
[e-mail]

[Di$TuRbEd]

Alienware made the complete product.

[HermesTheMessenger]

This review and notes are for the unlucky souls who purchased the alpha system as I did. The 'complete' product is a different product, not the one discussed above.

[Exalted]

So I partitioned my old external hard drive and was able to boot windows 10 on my laptop off of the external hard drive which led me to believe that I had done it correctly. I figured if I could boot from the external it should work on the steam machine. Apparently that assumption was wrong as I am getting some weird error messages. I tried googling a few of them but it all relates to PC. as far as I know If I was partitioning it for my PC it would be fine. These are the errors I was getting:

Unmountable Boot_Volume

and

info: Boot disk blah blah
info: Disconnecting possible blocking drivers
info: Starting NTFS driver
info: Started driver: efifs NTFS driver v1.0 (grub 2.0)
info: Locating the first NTFS partrition on the boot device
info: Checking if partition needs the NTFS service
WARN: an NTFS service is already loaded
info: looking for NTDS EFI loader
info: Launching NTFS EFI loader

I am also no PC guru so all of this is gibberish to me and it seems like not a lot of people are turning their steam machines into PCs because there isn't a lot of info or error fixes out there.

[HermesTheMessenger]

So one of the issues I faced when doing this was when I used an external HD. The best solution I found was to not use one.Create a bootable window to go install flashdrive, mine was 32GB USB3.0. After I got to the install screen I was never able to find the external HD i was using , so when given the option as to where to install windows I chose the main HD of my steam machine. you will have to format the drive and windows will state this. On the screen where you select a drive,just select the drive with the most storage space,youll see a format button and format. Then select the drive for install. I chose to partition 200GB of the 900GB so if I wanted to reinstall steam OS I could at a later date. There is NO going back when you do this, the steam machine will no longer be a steam machine until you find a way to reinstall steam OS through Windows. I hope this helps. If it doesnt then I can post the linls that I used to help you along. This process definitly takes a fair amount of tech knowledge , if you have the initiative to learn then you will figure it out. I am super glad i figured out how to do it as I now use my Alienware Steam machine for everything as a windows PC. Ive not once tried to reinstall Steam OS and never will until it becomes more Linux paralleled.

[Exalted]

Can you please upload some links. I would like to just do it to the main hard drive but I thought it would be safer to do the external. I just don't understand why my external hard drive can boot on a laptop but not the steam machine. What do you mean by creating a bootable window to go install flashdrive? Can you provide links please?

Thank you.

[HermesTheMessenger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZJpzPvqtk

this is the main tutorial I used. I just simply ignored the step of installing on the external HDD and formatted my main steam machine HDD. I also followed steps like these http://mspoweruser.com/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-drive-for-windows-10/

This does require a windows PC to set up the bootable USB , a 3rd party software that allows you to mount the windows image (like Rufus) and direct use of the DiskPart tool in windows installer. These links will guide you to how to get to your bios screen during machine power up (usually by pressing f2 on a keyboard when u see the alien logo, yes youll need a keyboard hooked up to your machine)

No matter what, you will need to read forums about how to do this. It takes hours and possibly days. good luck

[Auryn]

See Here!

http://steamcommunity.com/app/353390/discussions/0/215439774867897381/

[HermesTheMessenger]

Originally posted by AurynGaming:

See Here!

http://steamcommunity.com/app/353390/discussions/0/215439774867897381/

I dont hate Steam for it honestly. I took the risk by being one of the first to get one of these machines. Now that its a super portable Windows PC its awesome, my only desire is that the memory and graphics modules be upgradable. I'll be investing in another Gaming PC next year and I will have to retire the Alien Ware Windows Machine to the 'common space' for my fiance and her friends, but until then its still a pretty solid tech box.

Good work figuring everything out too, gotta be pretty internet savvy to have made workable sense to all the forums out there.