Launching Steam Freezes Whole Computer (SOLVED)

[Zarnubius]

After looking at some similar posts on this thread I've decided to post my own discussion cause all the solutions I have tried over the past few days have been a bust and I'm really just at a loss at this point.

Every time I launch Steam, the client and windows will freeze and can not be recovered unless I force restart my PC. Steam makes it to different stages of launching everytime though which is confusing me. Sometimes it will crash during the self-updating stage, sometimes at the login ui, and then if do manage to login it will immediately crash upon loading the library. It also works perfectly fine in safe mode with networking.

System Specs:
Windows 10
Mobo: Asus z97-A
Ram: 2x 4gb Ballistix Sport
CPU: i7-4790
GPU: Radeon R9270x
500w psu
(If anymore info is needed feel free to ask)

Things that I've tried:

- Scan for viruses (none found with avast or bitdefender)
- disable antivirus
- Update drivers
- Disable any conflicting services I could think of in msconfig
- Ran a chkdsk which found no errors
- Reinstalled steam

- As soon as I can find a USB I'm going to try memtest

After testing whether other games services work, I got the exact same type of crash when I launched Fifa 18 through origin. The launcher worked fine but once the game started windows froze up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm on the verge of giving up and just factory resetting the whole machine lol.

Solved thanks to Iceira!

[Iceira]

and no OC, while you try figure this out. ( and no mod to rule out not own faulth )

and reinstall Graphic card drivers, if not already done so.

Also when I tried updating windows I received Error 0x80070050.
( ruleback to previous system restore point, could be a quick solutions )

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by Iceira:

and no OC, while you try figure this out. ( and no mod to rule out not own faulth )

and reinstall Graphic card drivers, if not already done so.

Also when I tried updating windows I received Error 0x80070050.
( ruleback to previous system restore point, could be a quick solutions )

I updated my graphics drivers but it looks like something went wrong on the restart and it reverted back to onboard graphics. Interestingly it appears steam is working again so I guess that isolates the problem to either my GPU starting to break down or bad drivers.

The windows update error seems to have worked itself out on the second go around at updating

[Panchito Dahmer 💀]

:lunar2019laughingpig:

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by the last meet night:

:lunar2019laughingpig:

Thanks?

[Iceira]

Originally posted by Jtlegit:

Originally posted by Iceira:

and no OC, while you try figure this out. ( and no mod to rule out not own faulth )

and reinstall Graphic card drivers, if not already done so.

Also when I tried updating windows I received Error 0x80070050.
( ruleback to previous system restore point, could be a quick solutions )

I updated my graphics drivers but it looks like something went wrong on the restart and it reverted back to onboard graphics. Interestingly it appears steam is working again so I guess that isolates the problem to either my GPU starting to break down or bad drivers.

The windows update error seems to have worked itself out on the second go around at updating

sounds like my nvidia problem after a windows core update, if nvidia card use advance install and make a clean install then checkbox is there.

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by Iceira:

sounds like my nvidia problem after a windows core update, if nvidia card use advance install and make a clean install then checkbox is there.

Nah it's AMD card not Nvidia. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[Iceira]

Originally posted by Jtlegit:

Originally posted by Iceira:

sounds like my nvidia problem after a windows core update, if nvidia card use advance install and make a clean install then checkbox is there.

Nah it's AMD card not Nvidia. Thanks for the suggestion though.

i did say my, but you got the idea anyway.

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by politediligence:

Originally posted by Jtlegit:

Also when I tried updating windows I received Error 0x80070050. I don't know if this is related to the issue or not.

That's a Windows update error.

If you launch Windows in safe mode with networking, does Steam still freeze your PC?

No it opens without any issues in safe mode with networking

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by politediligence:

Interesting. Have you tried disabling all non-essential software at boot, and enabling them one at a time until you find what makes Steam freeze?

Yeah, I think I've just about disabled everything I could and I would still get the error. I also haven't installed any software recently that could've been the issue as far as I recall. The only thing that seems to stop it from happening is to disable my graphics card from device manager and then launching steam.

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by Miss Ann Thrope:

It might just be easier to reinstall Windows, rather than trying to narrow down and fix this problem. Especially if you are also getting errors in Windows Update.

The windows update actually worked itself out when I restarted the install. I'll probably do a fresh install tonight or tomorrow if I can't sort out the issue soon.

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by politediligence:

Have you tried doing a clean reinstall of your GPU driver?

I've tried reinstalling the latest ones over what I had and then I tried uninstalling them from device manager and letting them reinstall after scanning for hardware changes. Neither one seemed to solve the problem unfortunately.

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by politediligence:

I would try using Display Driver Uninstaller to completely remove the old driver, then reinstall the latest driver for your GPU.

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/

Alright I'll give that a try

[Komrade]

Originally posted by Jtlegit:

Originally posted by politediligence:

Have you tried doing a clean reinstall of your GPU driver?

I've tried reinstalling the latest ones over what I had and then I tried uninstalling them from device manager and letting them reinstall after scanning for hardware changes. Neither one seemed to solve the problem unfortunately.

DDU should be used, not device manager. Boot into safe mode, launch DDU, select the correct options then clean and restart. Also while in DDU, open the settings tab and at the botton it’ll say disable windows driver updates, do that. Once it reboots reinstall directly from the GPU manufacturer and if using Nvidia do not install GFE.

[Zarnubius]

Originally posted by politediligence:

I would try using Display Driver Uninstaller to completely remove the old driver, then reinstall the latest driver for your GPU.

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/

Originally posted by notkennyS:

Originally posted by Jtlegit:

I've tried reinstalling the latest ones over what I had and then I tried uninstalling them from device manager and letting them reinstall after scanning for hardware changes. Neither one seemed to solve the problem unfortunately.

DDU should be used, not device manager. Boot into safe mode, launch DDU, select the correct options then clean and restart. Also while in DDU, open the settings tab and at the botton it’ll say disable windows driver updates, do that. Once it reboots reinstall directly from the GPU manufacturer and if using Nvidia do not install GFE.

Just tried all this but it doesn't seem like it solved the problem.

[Iceira]

try the old ways then, enter steam,exe location at drev.
exit steam ofc.( you cant even start it as i understand it )

then delete all files and folders ( except steam.exe and steamapps folder )
this is to prevent redownload and reinstall of all current installed games.

the reclick steam.exe, if this dont fix itself then you do have security issue with steam
something block it or you missing administrator rights to run it.