(Solved) Steam says "Running" after clicking Play but nothing happens until 20 minutes later

[ImperialRex]

OK so this was not an issue until last week, and this is only happening to certain games. As of today I can confirm that I'm having this problem with Dynasty Warriors 8 and Pinball FX3.

Basically after I click Play in Steam library, it will immediately says "Running", but nothing happens. However I am able to see game's program exe in Task Manager in the Details tab and in Processes tab it is showing as a Background Process.

After something like 15-20 minutes, the game would FINALLY start and runs like nothing happened (super smooth).

Am pretty sure that my hardware is powerful enough to handle these games.

Things I've checked:
- Validate local files - Not helpful
- Run "steam://flushconfig'' command - Not helpful
- Either Opt-in and Opt-out of Beta - Not helpful
- Turn on/off - Steam Overlay - Not helpful
- Turn on/off - Nvidia Overlay - Not helpful
- Running Steam in offline mode - Not help
- Reinstall the game / Steam - Not helpful
- Reinstall DX / DotNet - Not helpful
- Reinstall x86 and x64 VC Redist installed for 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015-2019 - Not helpful
- Update windows to latest - Not helpful
- Update all drivers to latest - Not helpful
- msconfig and disable / enable NVIDIA localsytem selector as well as other services with reboot - not helpful
- Reboot and reinstall Windows - Not helpful (and no thank you I don't want to do this again)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys!

EDIT: OK apparently this is caused by some information exchange mechanism on Steam side when the game launcher start. Who would have thought!

Basically when we start the game, the launcher would need to visit some domain (I don't know which since I'm not monitoring my internet traffic), and such visit needs to be verified by this launcher before it can pop up as a fully running programme.

In my case, I'm setting specific rules for my VPN, with both steampowered.com and steamcommunity.com in the whitelist. However when the game starts, it need to visit somewhere else and apparently the VPN somehow cannot support such visit.

As soon as I turn off the VPN, everything runs smoothly.

What I feel disappointed is that I already bought this game and it should be able to run despite any network rules that I'm using. Apparently Steam is doing some shady business and needs the launcher to send them some data every time I start the game. And I could not run it in offline mode if previous communication mechanism is failed.

Super disappointed. But at least I know what's the reason and how to solve it.

[jdblacks7]

This is happening to me and my cousin too. For the past 3 days (Games worked then)
I've done seen it multiple times in Steam forum..
Games I've been playing, for over 4 years, on this PC will not start. Rocket League - Age of Empires 2
Everything is up to date. No changes/Files Validated/No Firewalls blocking/Latest Drivers Installed/No Maleware/Disabled Antivirus/No False-Positive
Other games play fine...

Here is another Post with other peeps having the same issue https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1643170903496191396/

This sucks

[ImperialRex]

Originally posted by jdblacks7:

This is happening to me and my cousin too. For the past 3 days (Games worked then)
I've done seen it multiple times in Steam forum..
Games I've been playing, for over 4 years, on this PC will not start. Rocket League - Age of Empires 2
Everything is up to date. No changes/Files Validated/No Firewalls blocking/Latest Drivers Installed/No Maleware/Disabled Antivirus/No False-Positive
Other games play fine...

Here is another Post with other peeps having the same issue https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1643170903496191396/

This sucks

I'm not sure whether this is something funky on the steam side - would be really disappointed if so.

[jdblacks7]

Originally posted by ImperialRex:

Originally posted by jdblacks7:

This is happening to me and my cousin too. For the past 3 days (Games worked then)
I've done seen it multiple times in Steam forum..
Games I've been playing, for over 4 years, on this PC will not start. Rocket League - Age of Empires 2
Everything is up to date. No changes/Files Validated/No Firewalls blocking/Latest Drivers Installed/No Maleware/Disabled Antivirus/No False-Positive
Other games play fine...

Here is another Post with other peeps having the same issue https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1643170903496191396/

This sucks

I'm not sure whether this is something funky on the steam side - would be really disappointed if so.

Right... idk It's just weird how other games work fine.. And there is no 'Error' message or Warning to help us out.. I'm thinking, it's gotta be Steam.

[jdblacks7]

Originally posted by ImperialRex:

Originally posted by jdblacks7:

This is happening to me and my cousin too. For the past 3 days (Games worked then)
I've done seen it multiple times in Steam forum..
Games I've been playing, for over 4 years, on this PC will not start. Rocket League - Age of Empires 2
Everything is up to date. No changes/Files Validated/No Firewalls blocking/Latest Drivers Installed/No Maleware/Disabled Antivirus/No False-Positive
Other games play fine...

Here is another Post with other peeps having the same issue https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1643170903496191396/

This sucks

I'm not sure whether this is something funky on the steam side - would be really disappointed if so.

This worked for me - I downloaded the latest supported Visual C++ downloads.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads

x86: vc_redist.x86.exe

x64: vc_redist.x64.exe

ARM64: vc_redist.arm64.exe

[jdblacks7]

Hopefully it will work for you too

[ImperialRex]

Originally posted by jdblacks7:

Hopefully it will work for you too

Thanks but I have all x86 and x64 VC Redist installed for 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015-2019.

Don't really think this is causing issues - otherwise the game wouldn't be running eventually.

It's very likely Steam running something to cause this trouble, whatever their intention is. I'm very disappointed

[ImperialRex]

Bump. This is now solved. See OP

[♡ LaraPlays033 ♡]

Hii, am having the same issues with my Computer, can you guys tell me how i can solve it?

Thank you!

[Iceira]

+1 to Nightenhelser, OP own faulth. pretty sure this smells like congested area in top of this.

at VPN end or you on the way to it. same crap.