go flatline

go flatline
 v.

   [from cyberpunk SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces upon
   brain-death] (also adjectival flatlined).

   1. To {die}, terminate, or fail, esp. irreversibly. In hacker
   parlance, this is used of machines only, human death being considered
   somewhat too serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about.

   2. To go completely quiescent; said of machines undergoing controlled
   shutdown. "You can suffer file damage if you shut down Unix but power
   off before the system has gone flatline."

   3. Of a video tube, to fail by losing vertical scan, so all one sees
   is a bright horizontal line bisecting the screen.
    

go flatline

   [{Cyberpunk} SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces upon
   brain-death] also "flatlined". 1. To {die}, terminate, or
   fail, especially irreversibly.  In hacker parlance, this is
   used of machines only, human death being considered somewhat
   too serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about.

   2. To go completely quiescent; said of machines undergoing
   controlled shutdown.  "You can suffer file damage if you shut
   down Unix but power off before the system has gone flatline."

   3. Of a video tube, to fail by losing vertical scan, so all
   one sees is a bright horizontal line bisecting the screen.

   [{Jargon File}]