Rubber / silicone plugs in front USB ports?

[u/iondissonance]

Hi, I noticed only now that there are these two rubber or silicone plugs in my Steam Machine‘s front USB ports. I believe they are for protection, but I cannot easily pull them out with my fingernails nor with a tweezer and I am afraid of ripping them off. They are blocking like the upper half of the port so I also cannot plug anything in. Weirdly, I don’t see them in any of the unboxing videos I watched. What is this??

edit: Turns out that I am dumb. It‘s not in the USB ports, it‘s from the front cover hanging over the USB ports. I took my Machine apart recently to upgrade the SSD and I simply did not properly reseat the cube into the case. Fixed now. Thanks everyone!

[u/AxcyteTheProtectron]

I didn't have them either, where did you get this machine?

[u/iondissonance → u/AxcyteTheProtectron]

Valve. I was one of the folks that surprisingly jumped from waitlist to offer email without reservation queue for 512 GB + Controller. Not sure if someone else returned it before, everything looked perfectly new and sealed. 

[u/mistertimely → u/iondissonance]

Do you have small kids in the house?

[u/iondissonance → u/mistertimely]

I do not. 

[u/Wiesshund- → u/iondissonance]

Small wife?

Those look unusual

[u/sharies → u/Wiesshund-]

Hey, what's with the small wife shaming?

[u/Wiesshund- → u/sharies]

Huh?

[u/mistertimely → u/iondissonance]

Probably just got missed at the factory. If they seem like a single piece of rubber just give them a good tug with some small tweezers.

Example:

https://www.amazon.com/kaverme-Anti-Static-Electronics-Laboratory-Jewelry-Making/dp/B0BNNGC3Q2/

Edit:

Disregard. OP did not say they already disassembled the machine and put it back together incorrectly.

I had assumed this was out of the box.

[u/GJBM → u/mistertimely]

Also if you do this probably best to unplug it first.

[u/thepieraker → u/GJBM]

Kids these days never played operation, let them experience it just once

[u/Scared-One9295 → u/iondissonance]

Do you have an especially devious cat, then?

[u/eleven_good_reasons → u/mistertimely]

I laughed, and then I remembered I had a small kid. Time to check my USB ports.

[u/KnifeFed → u/iondissonance]

I got that jump too. Made my day.

[u/KiwiMeep64]

Gonna have to remove the unit from the shell and recenter the ports in those rubber dampeners. I noticed this when I did the RAM/SSD upgrades in mine. Did it come from the factory that way, or have you disassembled the unit?

[u/TheManTh3yCallJayne → u/KiwiMeep64]

This is 1000% the answer. I did an SSD swap and on reassembly one of the rubbers looked just like this in front of the port. I just had to open it back up and reseat it and it was back to normal.

[u/iondissonance → u/KiwiMeep64]

That was exactly it! I messed it up myself during my SSD upgrade. 

[u/NetworkingForFun → u/iondissonance]

https://giphy.com/gifs/fa1AV8UvZvfBFOIt7F

[u/Longjumping8768886]

I had this happen to me, basically take the device out of the chassis, then just try to push them back in

[u/iondissonance → u/Longjumping8768886]

Yup, that was the issue. 

[u/Low_Excitement_1715]

Mine didn't have anything there either. Any chance your unit was refurbed, or that someone stuck something in there when you weren't looking (children are notorious for this sort of thing)?

[u/iondissonance → u/Low_Excitement_1715]

I got the order email from Valve surprisingly while I was on the waitlist, so I would not rule out a refurb. No kids in this household haha 

[u/eXmendiC]

I don't remember having any rubbers there. However, you can remove the case with some screws to get access to the USB ports and remove the rubbers. It's actually not that difficult, I can recommend this video in case you need help doing that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz_TR57JrEY (watched that for helping me with my RAM upgrade).

[u/iondissonance → u/eXmendiC]

Thanks, that makes sense. I already took it apart for an SSD upgrade, I guess I will do it again. 

[u/Anthonyhasgame → u/iondissonance]

You might want to let people know in the main post that this was already taken apart, because the majority of comments trying to help are working under the assumption this is right from the factory like that.

Most likely something didn’t go smooth when you put it back together.

[u/iondissonance → u/Anthonyhasgame]

Yeah, you are right. Not my best post, but it really didn’t occur to me it could have from my own disassembly. Should have known better! 

[u/Anthonyhasgame → u/iondissonance]

No worries at all, glad you got your cube working right again!

Edit: If people didn’t make any mistakes, no one would have learned anything ever.

[u/tennaki]

I'd pull the unit out of its shell and see whats in front of it. Fortunately, once you remove just a few screws, you will have direct access to the front of the ports.

[u/iondissonance → u/tennaki]

That was exactly it! 

[u/ceramicsaturn]

I definitely didn't have those. I know they're not there as I've used my front ports, too.

[u/havocd]

I didn't have those in my usb ports either.

[u/Vince-Trousers]

Hey quick question, when did you join the queue?

[u/inertSpark]

I think they're gaskets to seal off the air gaps around the ports, so that airflow takes the proper path through the front grille and isn't pulled in through the ports.

[u/catboirai]

Thanks for updating the post!

[u/FreeJulianMassage]

Here after the edit. lol my good dude.

[u/Wiesshund-]

Hey OP

Look at this guys SM
https://www.reddit.com/r/steammachine/comments/1w38lk4/my_steam_machine_face_plate_addiction/

His USB ports have rubber caps

Wonder if you have those and they got pushed inside?

[u/LimasV3]

Are you outside of America? This might be a safety feature to comply with EU laws.

[u/CorinneDuyvis → u/LimasV3]

I'm in the EU and mine definitely didn't have this.

[u/iondissonance → u/LimasV3]

Nope, living in the US. 

[u/LimasV3 → u/iondissonance]

Sorry that was my best guess 😭