...And Then, His System Became Allergic To Steam.

I'm at my parents', and long story short, my laptop has suddenly decided to start locking up anytime Steam comes on the scene.

The only thing that's happened is, I put Steam on my parents' computer so that I could show PvZ to my nephew, and of course the next time I went back to my laptop, Steam notified me that I had been logged out since I had logged in at another computer. I dismissed the message, did some work on the laptop, and shut down the system. The next time I booted up, the system froze at startup, and I finally figured out it was happening when Steam tried to start.

Uninstalled Steam, then reinstalled...and sure enough, at the point in the install process where it would ordinarily start the client, frozen again. And by "frozen," I mean everything...no keyboard, no mouse, nothing to do but a hard reboot.

Any thoughts as to what might be going on with my system that it suddenly doesn't like Steam? By the way, as part of the process of narrowing the problem down, I have already done a system restore to a point earlier in the day (before I installed Steam on my parents' computer). I may try another even earlier point here in a few minutes, though it doesn't seem like that would make much difference, as it was working fine at the time I restored to.

Edit: An additional puzzle piece: I am able to start Steam in Safe Mode (with networking).

Edit 2: Some Google searching brings up some similar tech help threads--none newer than October of 2010--in the problem was the Creative Labs software installed on ASUS laptops, which I have. I'll uninstall that and give it a shot in a few minutes--though I'd be curious to know why I've experienced no issues in the year plus I've owned the laptop, and suddenly, right after a seemingly minor incident involving Steam, the CL software has decided to give me this problem.

Could be an issue with the new Steam Guard system. I don't know much about it, but it might be worth looking into.

Have you tried deleting the clientregistry.blob file in your steam registry?
Its notorious for being a dirty fix to most situations.

boogle wrote:

Have you tried deleting the clientregistry.blob file in your steam registry?
Its notorious for being a dirty fix to most situations.

that is a great suggestion.

How might one edit this "steam registry?"

And, what do we mean by "dirty fix?" I am an educator; I'm expected to maintain a certain standard of behavior.

Edit: found the blob file. Still curious about possible consequences to deleting it, though.

garion333 wrote:

Could be an issue with the new Steam Guard system. I don't know much about it, but it might be worth looking into.

I was under the impression that Steam Guard was an optional feature you could download? If I'm wrong and it's part of the latest client update, it sure didn't put up much of a fight when I accessed my account from my parents' computer.

Mytch wrote:

Edit: found the blob file. Still curious about possible consequences to deleting it, though.

There are no consequences. Steam will create a new one when you launch.

MrDeVil909 wrote:
Mytch wrote:

Edit: found the blob file. Still curious about possible consequences to deleting it, though.

There are no consequences. Steam will create a new one when you launch.

Yeah, delete away. I've had to do it several times.

Steam guard FAQ
Check your verified email associated with the account.

First of all, before I forget, thanks for your responses!

Deleted the .blob file and restarted...pretty exciting; this time it gave me the "updating Steam" and "updating Steam client" windows, which it hadn't been showing me before (outside of safe mode). But, after it finished updating...same issue. Going to try restoring to an even earlier point, but like I say, I'm skeptical as to how effective that will be. Any other suggestions?

Scratched...good idea, but there's nothing in that e-mail account from Steam.

The plot thickens:

Restored to a few days ago...starting Steam no longer locks up the system, but instead of the login screen, it brings up a dark, black, login screen-shaped window on the desktop (and indeed, the taskbar identifies it as "Steam Login". System isn't frozen, and I can right-click on the icon in the taskbar and close it out, but it's not letting me do anything else with that window. It looks like about 1/4 of TMA-1...help! I'm fighting the strange urge to club my sister with a femur!

I'll probably try uninstalling/reinstalling Steam a little later...gotta leave for church now.

Edit: NM, deleted the .blob file, we're in business. Now, why isn't it showing any of my games as being installed? Thought it would detect those automatically when I reinstalled the client (thought it had in the past). I checked, all the files are there. Do I need to somehow direct the client to the install folder?

The games probably need to be re-verified after deleting the blob file. The files are there, but Steam doesn't know. Just double click on the games and they will show up.

Maybe back up the steamapps folder just in case, I seem to recall that you have terrible internet too.

If the .gcf or .ncf is in the steam/steamapps folder, steam should think the game is installed, then for .ncf games (pretty much everything not by valve, and L4D) you'll want the corresponding files in steam/steamapps/common.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

The games probably need to be re-verified after deleting the blob file. The files are there, but Steam doesn't know. Just double click on the games and they will show up.

Maybe back up the steamapps folder just in case, I seem to recall that you have terrible internet too.

Double-clicked a smaller game that I had installed--Flight Control HD--and it automatically started re-downloading. Same for Deus Ex.

Scratched, the only .gcf or .ncf files I'm seeing are for a few random, smaller games (Osmos, Machinarium, and the like). But, it's not seeing those, either. For example, double-clicking on Machinarium in my library sets it to re-downloading.

I do have terrible internet...but I'm at my parents' currently, and theirs is fantastic! However, I'm only here for a few more hours. Looks like I need to do all the downloading I can before it's time to leave...:sad: Irritating, since before this happened, I had just used their connection to get all my games downloaded, updated, etc..

Only thing I'm particularly worried about losing is my current Fallout 3 saves. They should be backed up on the hard drive at home--and I think I'll back them up again on this portable drive before I re-download--but I'd sure like to just slap Steam upside the head and get it to recognize that all the game files are right there in Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 3 GOTY. Does anyone know the location and extension for Fallout 3 saves?

Edit: Just copied the Fallout 3 folder...only 300 or so MB; guess I was wrong about all the files being there. I do understand correctly, that when you uninstall "Steam," you're not uninstalling/deleting the game files, you're just deleting the client to access those games...right? The system restore I performed was only for a date that was to a date at which Fallout 3 was installed.

Since it doesn't look like there's much to lose, I think I'm going to restore back to the "uninstalled Steam" restore point, just to see what that folder looks like.

I thought system restore only touched the programme files/windows registry and not actual file content of the wider hard drive?

Duoae wrote:

I thought system restore only touched the programme files/windows registry and not actual file content of the wider hard drive?

I did, too, Duoae...I did, too.

But...the steamapps folder looked the same when I restored it to a point before I uninstalled Steam...so who knows. Fallout 3 and a few others re-downloading now. Sure hope I can retrieve my saved games, but I guess it won't be the end of the world if I can't.

No, i'm saying that, when you uninstalled Steam, it wiped the file content of all the games..... so restoring it to before or after you unwiped steam won't make a difference.

Saved games are not saved in the steam folder. Check within my documents\mygames and within the C:\Documents and Settings\[User] for those.

Duoae wrote:

No, i'm saying that, when you uninstalled Steam, it wiped the file content of all the games..... so restoring it to before or after you unwiped steam won't make a difference.

Gotcha. Still, though...it was my understanding that uninstalling Steam wasn't supposed to wipe the game files, either. But my laptop seems to be making its own rules these days.

I had completely forgotten to look for saved games in My Documents...thanks! They're all there. So hopefully, if my parents' bandwidth stays as strong has it has been, I'll be back to where I need to be by the time we leave.

Sometimes with the game it tells you that it is downloading, but it just verifying that you own the game. I know it's doing this when it is apparently downloading at impossible speeds. Sounds like that's not the case here. Bit of a weird situation.

Steam is awesome, until it isn't.

This is also why I say to backup your steamapps folder. With some games, they apparently do over write the existing files and redownload, but sometimes if you start the download you can copy the files from the backup into the directory and then it won't need to.

One little trick I needed to work out thanks to my crappy internet.

Oh, and one of my favourite apps. GameSave Manager.

Mytch wrote:
Duoae wrote:

No, i'm saying that, when you uninstalled Steam, it wiped the file content of all the games..... so restoring it to before or after you unwiped steam won't make a difference.

Gotcha. Still, though...it was my understanding that uninstalling Steam wasn't supposed to wipe the game files, either. But my laptop seems to be making its own rules these days.

I had completely forgotten to look for saved games in My Documents...thanks! They're all there. So hopefully, if my parents' bandwidth stays as strong has it has been, I'll be back to where I need to be by the time we leave.

Steam deletes all the content files/folders (unless you copy and move them) when it is uninstalled. Google will confirm this if you prefer

Duoae wrote:

Steam deletes all the content files/folders (unless you copy and move them) when it is uninstalled. Google will confirm this if you prefer ;)

Uh...oops.

Really thought it was just a client that allowed you to access the files it had downloaded. I knew it was more involved in the actual running of the games than, say, Impulse is, but I didn't realize it was to the point that it would take the furniture with it when you ask it to move out. Thinking back, I guess I've never uninstalled Steam without a simultaneous HDD reformat, so I guess that's why I never noticed before.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

This is also why I say to backup your steamapps folder. With some games, they apparently do over write the existing files and redownload, but sometimes if you start the download you can copy the files from the backup into the directory and then it won't need to.

One little trick I needed to work out thanks to my crappy internet.

Oh, and one of my favourite apps. GameSave Manager.

Yep, I did this with my last reformat (which I believe I documented in a similarly embarrassing manner on this very forum), and you're right, that does work with some games. Irritatingly random, the games it chooses to leave alone, though.

Agreed on GameSave Manager...it was going to be the last thing I tried before Duaoe reminded me that lots of games are saved in My Documents these days.