STEAM - games & problems

[Daehawk]

Im still having a problem with Steam and TF2.

Right now my Steam LIBRARY wont load.I cant see my games at all. Ive rebooted and that didn't help.

As for TF2 I uninstalled anything I could find with the name team fortress in it from my pc and registry. I reinstalled it and it locked up trying to load me into a game server.

I dont know whats up. I have the latest video driver from nVidia. Im starting to feel that maybe Win10 is corrupted with Steam somehow. Just dont know.

[hitbyambulance]

how old is the hard drive/SSD? file (and filesystem) corruption can (and does) come with advanced age

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I was going to say the only time I've ever had anything even remotely similar to what you're describing it was when my secondary hard drive (where all the Steam games were installed) was dying. Started out being unable to patch games (write failures), then games disappeared, then HDD died.

[Daehawk]

Its on a Samsung SSD from around like 2016.

[Daehawk]

Ok I installed TF2 in it's own DIR on the same had drive. I actually got into the game..and pretty fast at that. I mean it loaded fast and zipped on in. But while I was in settings trying to see if my graphics had been fuzzled it crashed with a hard lock and sound loop repeating. Had to restart the PC.

Im gonna look for the latest sound card drivers.

EDIT: Downloaded and installed newest sound card drivers. Nope. This time it started to load me into a server and filled the progress bar up to the last little bar at the end. Just stopped there and died. Had to restart.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Its on a Samsung SSD from around like 2016.

That's a somewhat archaic SSD, so I'd strongly suggest using the free and open source CrystalDiskInfo utility to more closely examine the health of your SSD via its S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) info and TBW (TeraBytes Written limit), as explained below:

[Daehawk]

Why would the SSD be failing on only one game? And continue to fail when I move that game to a different directory.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Why would the SSD be failing on only one game? And continue to fail when I move that game to a different directory.

As explained in the video above, if/when your drive exceeds its TBW spec, it does not typically suddenly just stop working altogether. Usually, it still 'works', but will have more and more failing and reallocated sectors while you gradually lose more space on the SSD as those sectors fail and it becomes increasingly unreliable. Eventually, as the memory further degrades, some SSDs will switch to a read-only failsafe mode so that you can at least read the data on the drive and recover it before the SSD completely dies. So, you may just be seeing more immediately apparent evidence of this corruption with your installation and re-installation of TF2, which is why it's worth checking and further investigating. Because even though SSDs do tend to have higher reliability in general than spinner hard drives, they undoubtedly do not last forever and forewarned is forearmed.

[Unagi]

I figured I would post this question here...


Is it just me, or did everyone else's Steam just start formating certain screens really poorly (like, broken).

My Store and Library screens look perfectly normal, it's only when you dive into parts of Steam (like a modders list of mods)...

The fastest/easiest to explain example of this would be looking at your Wishlist. The formatting of that page is now entirely broken. It lists every thing down a very narrow column (like 4 inches) on the screen.

Is it just me? (I hope not, as it's horrible and I can't imagine how I would/will fix it if it's not on their end)

[stimpy]

Everything looks normal to me.

[TheMix]

There was an update Steam wanted to do yesterday that I hadn't done yet. But I checked the Wishlist before and after, and it looks normal. It's a single column, but it's about 10 inches wide. Maybe try re-installing Steam? Sounds like your update got borked.

[Max Peck]

I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary. I specifically checked the wishlist and it looks the same as always.

[Unagi]

Dang.

Thanks for checking guys.

[Unagi]

There was an update Steam wanted to do yesterday that I hadn't done yet. But I checked the Wishlist before and after, and it looks normal. It's a single column, but it's about 10 inches wide. Maybe try re-installing Steam? Sounds like your update got borked.

I've never 're-installed' Steam before. Does that also imply that all the games would need to be reloaded/downloaded too?

[Blackhawk]

Web or app?

[Anonymous Bosch]

There was an update Steam wanted to do yesterday that I hadn't done yet. But I checked the Wishlist before and after, and it looks normal. It's a single column, but it's about 10 inches wide. Maybe try re-installing Steam? Sounds like your update got borked.

I've never 're-installed' Steam before. Does that also imply that all the games would need to be reloaded/downloaded too?

Nah, you're simply repairing the Steam client itself, so you should not need to re-download previously installed games.

Have a butcher's at the following site for specific guidance on how to repair your Windows Steam client:

5 Ways to Repair Steam Client

[Unagi]

There was an update Steam wanted to do yesterday that I hadn't done yet. But I checked the Wishlist before and after, and it looks normal. It's a single column, but it's about 10 inches wide. Maybe try re-installing Steam? Sounds like your update got borked.

I've never 're-installed' Steam before. Does that also imply that all the games would need to be reloaded/downloaded too?

Nah, you're simply repairing the Steam client itself, so you should not need to re-download previously installed games.

Have a butcher's at the following site for specific guidance on how to repair your Windows Steam client:

5 Ways to Repair Steam Client

Thanks!

Have a butcher's at

I think this it the first time I've been instructed by a cockney rhyme. That was fun. Thanks again.

[TheMix]

There was an update Steam wanted to do yesterday that I hadn't done yet. But I checked the Wishlist before and after, and it looks normal. It's a single column, but it's about 10 inches wide. Maybe try re-installing Steam? Sounds like your update got borked.

I've never 're-installed' Steam before. Does that also imply that all the games would need to be reloaded/downloaded too?

Nah, you're simply repairing the Steam client itself, so you should not need to re-download previously installed games.

Have a butcher's at the following site for specific guidance on how to repair your Windows Steam client:

5 Ways to Repair Steam Client

I wasn't sure if Steam had an equivalent for "Verify integrity of local files...". And I'm too lazy to look. Thanks!

[Unagi]

That's just for each game though, beyond checking if your client is up to date, there doesn't seem to be an equivalent for the Steam Client itself.

(correct me if I'm wrong)

[Blackhawk]

Have a butcher's at the following site for specific guidance on how to repair your Windows Steam client:

5 Ways to Repair Steam Client

I don't know about the others (although I'm very hesitant about blindly typing unexplained commands into an elevated command prompt), but I can tell you that doing the Steam 'refresh' as listed on that site screwed up Steam to the point that I had to uninstall and reinstall every last game a couple of months ago.

In other words, be careful.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Have a butcher's at the following site for specific guidance on how to repair your Windows Steam client:

5 Ways to Repair Steam Client

I don't know about the others (although I'm very hesitant about blindly typing unexplained commands into an elevated command prompt), but I can tell you that doing the Steam 'refresh' as listed on that site screwed up Steam to the point that I had to uninstall and reinstall every last game a couple of months ago.

And I've used these techniques several times before myself to repair and 'refresh' the Steam client of friends and colleagues' systems without any issues whatsoever. But this merely reinforces the notion that the plural of anecdote is not data.

In other words, be careful.

Indeed.

[Unagi]

So have a butcher at this

I also opened a ticket with Steam to see if they could help before I tried anything more drastic - as this was such a limited problem.
They got back to me with the following:

We're sorry to hear that you're encountering this issue.
We have refreshed some files on our end, please try the following steps to clear your web browser cache on your end.
1. Open the Settings panel in the Steam Client by selecting “Steam > Settings” from the top left menu.
2. Select the Web Browser tab.
3. Click on "Delete Web Browser Cache" and then select "OK" to proceed and re-test the issue.

If the issue persist, then please follow these instructions (This was a hyperlink) to opt into the Steam beta.

You may need to restart the Steam client to ensure the updates are applied.

I never needed to opt into the Steam beta, as Steps 1 - 3 totally did the trick.

All is well.

again, thanks everyone for all your help and replies.

[Anonymous Bosch]

So have a butcher at this

I also opened a ticket with Steam to see if they could help before I tried anything more drastic - as this was such a limited problem.
They got back to me with the following:

We're sorry to hear that you're encountering this issue.
We have refreshed some files on our end, please try the following steps to clear your web browser cache on your end.
1. Open the Settings panel in the Steam Client by selecting “Steam > Settings” from the top left menu.
2. Select the Web Browser tab.
3. Click on "Delete Web Browser Cache" and then select "OK" to proceed and re-test the issue.

If the issue persist, then please follow these instructions (This was a hyperlink) to opt into the Steam beta.

You may need to restart the Steam client to ensure the updates are applied.

I never needed to opt into the Steam beta, as Steps 1 - 3 totally did the trick.

All is well.

again, thanks everyone for all your help and replies.

Good to know, and glad to hear you got things straightened out smoothly.

[hitbyambulance]

Ok I installed TF2 in it's own DIR on the same had drive. I actually got into the game..and pretty fast at that. I mean it loaded fast and zipped on in. But while I was in settings trying to see if my graphics had been fuzzled it crashed with a hard lock and sound loop repeating. Had to restart the PC.

Im gonna look for the latest sound card drivers.

EDIT: Downloaded and installed newest sound card drivers. Nope. This time it started to load me into a server and filled the progress bar up to the last little bar at the end. Just stopped there and died. Had to restart.

i had pretty much the exact same things happen to me _with a dying HDD just a few months ago_ - the drive was already old, then power surges resulting from a combo of a newly-installed too-powerful GPU and the existing not-powerful-enough PSU dealt it a fatal blow.

[Blackhawk]

tl;dr - back up your shitte, and start planning for a new drive. If it turns out not to be that, nothing will have been wasted. If it does, you'll be ready.

The good news is that drives are actually pretty cheap unless you go for the top-tier capacity.

[gbasden]

tl;dr - back up your shitte, and start planning for a new drive. If it turns out not to be that, nothing will have been wasted. If it does, you'll be ready.

The good news is that drives are actually pretty cheap unless you go for the top-tier capacity.

Yep. The first SSD I had died with almost the same symptoms. I'd back up what you can now.

[Zarathud]

I had my first SSD die. It kept trying to reinstall two massive 1G steam game patches until it went dead. I’m pretty sure the sectors were bad even though the drive read “healthy” until it bricked.

[Daehawk]

I think you guys are right...my SSD seems to be dying. Or Steam is really really f'd up one. Steam will no longer open my friends list. It also wont uninstall games...either through Ccleaner or itself. I can delete games by going to the hard drive and deleting the directory there.

Also my Samsung Magician..the hard drive software management software wont do anything with the drive like it used to..cant change performance or test it or anything..its all just blank for that drive.

This sucks too as I still have all my games on it. Its my only gaming drive. My Main drive is just for the OS..its the same make and model only smaller at 250gb. I had just sold something and was hoping to replace my tablet that is failing also. Dammit. Always something. Guess I better see about ordering a drive.....I have no idea whats out there. Ill make a thread for it.

[Blackhawk]

I can delete games by going to the hard drive and deleting the directory there.

Just be aware that with some games (although not most), that will also delete all of your saves.

It's also worth mentioning that Steam just released a complete interface update, so everything - friends lists, etc. now works differently.

[Daehawk]

Since Ive been having Steam troubles for months now back to not being able to play TF2 anymore I thought it was Steam. But you guys thought it might be my SSD starting to fail. I think its the SSD. I cant get Samsung's own software to recognize it and work with it to fix or test it now. I used to be able to.

So Im hurriedly trying to find a SSD to get and replace it with tonight. I started a thread in Computer tech area.

https://octopusoverlords.com/forum/view ... 3#p2976453

The 500g PNY SSD for $21.99 seems the ticket so far.