[Resolved] Steam games not launching suddenly and then Steam not launching without a reboot

[Kou]

This started happening a few days ago. I haven't noticed any updates to anything.

So what happened was I was playing MHW for a few hours. I decided to take a break after awhile but when I tried to launch it a few hours later it would just give me a black screen. I tried other games and they did the same thing, so the issue seemed to be on Steam's end.

So of course my next step was to restart Steam. I closed Steam by going to the menu and clicking "exit", like normal. But when I tried to restart Steam, the "Verfying" message would come up like normal, the Steam.exe would show up, but that would be it. Nothing on the taskbar or whatever. I closed literally every other program including my Anti-Virus and disabled my Firewall and still nothing. The ONLY solution seems to be rebooting my entire PC. That's not a great solution.

Anyone have any ideas about what's causing this? I even reinstalled Steam but that didn't help at all.

[The Giving One]

What is that antivirus program you use ? Disabled is not always good enough for them, depending on your version. There can still be background applications in use, even if the antivirus is disabled.

[Kou]

Windows Defender or w/e they want to call it now. I checked the services and other BS to ensure it was 100% disabled. It was a chore.

[The Giving One]

Windows Defender should be fine to use with Steam and games.

Black screen issues sounds like a driver issue, perhaps. Post the exact model and model number of the computer. If custom built, post the motherboard instead.

Post the full system specs on the computer. GPU, CPU, RAM, operating system, including if 32 or 64 bit.

It's still possible that some other software is causing issues with Steam. You said you closed other programs, but does that mean they were disabled ?

The way to check is by using Windows Start and then typing in msconfig and running that process, checking the services tabs and startup tabs/Task Manager.

Don't disable any Microsoft processes, of course.

Programs Which May Interfere with Steam

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

[Kou]

Not on my home PC at the moment so I can't answer all of that right this second, but I did update my Nvidia drivers to the latest (with a EVGA 1080ti). I do have to question why this would stop Steam from actually launching though? I've never heard of a driver stopping Steam from even launching properly. I've never actually had any issues with Steam until now though.

I did ensure everything was actually shut down.

System specs that I can answer off the top of my head:
EVGA GTX 1080ti
Intel i7 4770k
16 GB DDR3 RAM (Gskill IIRC)
Windows 10 Home 64 bit
All I can remember about the motherboard is that it's a 2014 ASUS of some kind. Will post that when I have access to confirm.

I forgot to mention that games launched fine via Bnet and Uplay during all this. Problem was exclusively happening with Steam. So again, driver issue would be odd since games worked fine on other platforms at that time.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Kougeru:

Not on my home PC at the moment so I can't answer all of that right this second, but I did update my Nvidia drivers to the latest (with a EVGA 1080ti).

I am not just talking about GPU drivers here, please.

Originally posted by Kougeru:

I do have to question why this would stop Steam from actually launching though? I've never heard of a driver stopping Steam from even launching properly. I've never actually had any issues with Steam until now though.

Possibly, because I am not just talking about GPU drivers here. And software can cause new issues, if there is a conflict later, even if you never had any issues with that software before. We see it all the time here. Many times in this forum alone.

Originally posted by Kougeru:

So again, driver issue would be odd since games worked fine on other platforms at that time.

To properly troubleshoot any kind of problem like this, the first step is not to assume that anything is irrelevant. Just troubleshoot the problem properly, taking any possibility into account. Don't focus so much on what "surely" is not the problem. Because we don't yet know what the problem is.

You posted your OS but not the computer information that is needed. Need you to identify the EXACT computer model and model number you have. If it is custom built, need the EXACT motherboard instead, please. Thanks for the rest, though.

[Kou]

"I am not just talking about GPU drivers here, please. " Those are the most common ones that cause issues, especially ones resulting in black screens so forgive me for assuming.

Anyway, that's the ONLY driver that I changed recently. All my other drivers have been working fine and do work fine. No driver crashes except Video ones. Again, issue is only happening on Steam.

", the first step is not to assume that anything is irrelevant. "

I'm not assuming it's irrelevant. I'm just stating that I would be confused if that WAS the cause since other clients work fine.

Motherboard is Z87-K. Everything is up-to-date. This issue did start occuring the same day I got the new nvidia drivers so I'm going to try reverting to see if that stops it.

However, being a tech person, even if that is the case, I'd still like to figure out HOW a video driver could cause Steam to not even launch properly. Been using Steam since literally day 1 and have never had such an issue occur. If this really is the cause, it's a very bizarre case. I'll update after testing for a full 24 hours.

[The Giving One]

So you are absolutely sure that all the device drivers here are fully up to date ?

If I have the right board, that is ?

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z87K/HelpDesk_Download/

We are working the problem from point A to B, and next I will suggest we look at possible software conflicts. It might even be failing hardware, such as a PSU or even GPU maybe. So when you can, I would request you post the following :

1. Take screenshots of all of the programs you have installed on your computer. Control panel then programs/programs and features. (Windows 7,8,8.1) or "apps" (Windows 10 click "Start" (Windows icon on bottom left))

2. Click Windows Start and type in msconfig and run that resulting process. Go to the services tab and check the box on bottom "Hide all Microsoft services". Take screenshots of all that is left.

3. Then go to the startup tab on top of that same window (Task Manager in W10). Take screenshots of all that there also. Don't forget to scroll down if needed and get everything in the shots, please.

Post all the links to the above screenshots here, using a file hosting site such as imgur.com, which is free to use.

[Kou]

100% Sure I had my drivers updated. I know how to use a computer. The issue has been resolved. It was 100% related to the latest Nvidia drivers. Reverting back to the August 1st drivers fixed the issue. I'm still blaming this on Steam, though. Since the issue did not exist outside of Steam, something about Steam clearly caused a conflict.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Kougeru:

I'm still blaming this on Steam, though. Since the issue did not exist outside of Steam, something about Steam clearly caused a conflict.

If that was true, this forum would be getting hammered with those posting about the same issue. Thanks for the update to the thread. Maybe you do know how to use a computer, but we don't know you here, so trying to help has to cover even the basics first, and that should not need to be explained.