[Question] Steam will not Open or Start up : "Verifying Installation" briefly appears and closes.

[zohryu]

Hello,

I am having some difficulties with the steam platform. After a recent CHKDSK /f /r on my Windows 7 installation to repair my PC, steam no longer opens up. Clicking on "Steam.exe" prompts the "Updating Steam" "Verifying Installation" box for a split second before it closes. The steam process briefly appears in my task manager before opening and closing. The Steam Client Service windows service is unable to start.

I have viciously googled any information for the past 5 hours relating to this issue, and I can find nothing relevant or helpful to assist me.

So far I have tried :

1) Rebooting.

2) Rebooting into Safe mode with Networking to try to launch steam.

3) Installing any windows updates.

4) sfc scannow on my hardrive

5) Re-installing steam.

6) Running in compatibility mode (win xp and win 7)

7) Running as administrator.

8) Using the “netsh winsock reset” command lind in CMD ran as admin.

9) Manually uninstalling steam and its folders and removing "Valve" from my registry in regedit.

10) Updating every single outdated driver on my PC

11) Disabling my anti-virus and reinstalling/uninstalling/launching steam

12) Uninstalling my anti-virus and reinstalling/uninstalling/launching steam with the AV uninstalled.

And so far, nothing has helped. Steam is unable to launch. It just displays the "verifying installation" box for one second before closing. The steam client boot strapper does not launch. Please someone help me :(

[print(name)]

Have you tried installing Steam in the root of your C: drive? Or on another HDD/SSD in your computer (if any)?

[zohryu]

I have tried installing steam in my external HDD (my J:\ disk) in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam and in C:\Steam and none have seemed to work, they all provide the same "Verifying Installation" box that disappears almost instantly

[Novaa-]

have you tried closing steam.exe? (window task manager)

[zohryu]

Yup! Steam.exe automatically closes in task manager after the "Verifying Installation" box disappears. I have also closed any steam process in task manager. There are none open (steamwebhelper.exe or steam.exe, etc) when I re-launch steam, yet it does the "Verifying Installation" thing for a second before closing.

[print(name)]

Have you redownloaded the Steam installer? Incase it got corrupted during CHKDSK.
I experienced your issue in the past but that was many moons ago and I can't remember my solution.

[zohryu]

Yes I downloaded it twice just in case, and both installers have experienced the same issue. Thank you so far for having responded to my thread.

[print(name)]

Tried turning off the firewall?

[zohryu]

Yeah firewall and antivirus turned off, as well as having my Mcaffee antivirus uninstalled (then I rebooted and tried reinstalling Steam but the same error was produced)

[zohryu]

apparently, from other threads about this exact same issue (From 2017) i have to reinstall windows.
great

[print(name)]

I'm short on any more ideas. You could try to do a system restore and revert to an earlier snapshot before Steam stopped working.

There's always the nuke option... Completely reinstalling Windows after doing a backup of all your important files and save you the hours of headache in trying to figure out the solution... If you ever figure it out at all.
Always a good idea and nice to reinstall to a freshly clean OS after a while when you experience slowdown and problems that won't get fixed.

[Attackmanzz]

Did you ever fix this issue? I have this issue with steam right now.

[HiFive]

Originally posted by Attackmanzz:

Did you ever fix this issue? I have this issue with steam right now.

I think there were some server issues just now. Things were loading slow for me, and comments on Discussion were not being posted and I couldn't upload my screenshots. Steam just issued a new update, and perhaps something got whacked in the process. Anyway, it's all working properly for me now. I hope it's fixed for you, as well.

[di46616]

Originally posted by HiFive:

Originally posted by Attackmanzz:

Did you ever fix this issue? I have this issue with steam right now.

I think there were some server issues just now. Things were loading slow for me, and comments on Discussion were not being posted and I couldn't upload my screenshots. Steam just issued a new update, and perhaps something got whacked in the process. Anyway, it's all working properly for me now. I hope it's fixed for you, as well.

Originally posted by Attackmanzz #SaveTF2:

Did you ever fix this issue? I have this issue with steam right now.

I'm having the same problem now. Was it really just resolved by just waiting?

[Iceira]

only seen one other steam user , try all and then it was a usb game pad controll that somehow cause issue, point is unplug all unnessary things you dont need for a game,

this is printer and other attached unit, just for testing, so do steam work with mouse and keyboard only. ( if usb then replug so windows auto re-configurate them before you start steam again , or retry it. )

and what does windows event viewer say in the log about a crashed app ( steam.exe )


this post is from 2018, a steam moderator might close it. ( steam client had many update and fixes not even sure your post match Original 5 years later this dont added up even then it look like it. )

[Burgers]

What seriously? I had the same issue. Steam would not start. As soon as I read this I unplugged my XBox 360 controller from the USB port, Steam opened. This is a pretty annoying bug.