Steam won't launch games or start itself up until after I restart my PC

[Clear Crossroads]

This has become a constant problem to the point that I have mild anxiety about even trying to launch anything in Steam at all at this point. Every time I go to launch anything, there's this apprehension of "will it boot.... will it boot.... am I going to have to shut down my entire workstation for the umteenth time?"

If Windows has been running for maybe about a half a day, then Steam will not launch any games. The "Preparing to launch" window will show up, and then the library in Steam's UI will say "Running" next to the game I've tried to launch, but the game never actually launches. The game won't even show up in the Task Manager. It doesn't matter what game I try to launch.

Additionally, if I try to exit Steam and restart the program once this has taken effect, Steam won't even open. The Steam update process will go through just fine, but then the log in window never actually appears, and nothing shows up in the System Tray. However, unlike the games which fail to launch, Steam does at least still show up in the Task Manager as though it's at least *trying* to launch.

The closest thing to a solution that I've been able to find on Google is lots of people saying that if you close the Steam Client and/or the Steam Client Bootstrapper in the Task Manager and then relaunch Steam, then it'll boot, but this doesn't seem to do anything. I can close down everything that has anything to do with Steam in the Task Manager, and the program will still fail to launch.

I found one person who suggested that you should de-activate fast startup, and I'm going to try that, but this is a band-aid, not a cure/fix proper. Since I'm having the problem right now and have to restart anyway, I've just de-activated fast startup. So hopefully, I won't have to do this tomorrow. But I should not need to sacrifice fast startup for Steam. I see this as an unacceptable one-sided compromise, whether it works or not.

If it makes any difference, I'm running Windows 10 Home on an AMD FX-4100 processor with an nVidia GeForce GTX 645 graphics card, and a Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P motherboard.

I've spent a lot of time searching google for a solution to this problem and have so far found nothing.

EDIT: De-activating fast startup did not help at all. The same problem still persists.

EDIT (October 15, 2020): In order to save you the time of reading through this entire thread, I am going to explicitly mention here in the OP that THE ROOT OF THIS PROBLEM IS THE GENERIC XBOX360 CONTROLLER DRIVER! Also, if you're using SCP Toolkit for your PS3 controller (and maybe your PS4 controller?) on your PC, then this will cause the same problem because SCP TOOLKIT MAKES USE OF THIS BROKEN DRIVER! Additionally, some controllers like the Logitech F310 can be configured to make use of this driver. If you are experiencing this issue on a controller other than the XBOX360 or PS3/PS4 controllers, then your controller is probably configured to use this driver, and you will want to look into changing that setting. DO NOT USE THIS DRIVER! I know it REALLY sucks, but you're just gonna have to learn to let go of your XBOX 360 controller and/or your PS3 controller. The creator of SCP Toolkit no longer updates anymore either, so it's just dead now. I'm really sorry—I hate it too—but this is something we're all just going to have to learn to live with.

[Clear Crossroads]

No, Iceira, this is not a "new Steam gui issue." This problem has existed for all of us LONG before the new Steam gui update. Even this thread itself is much older than the new Steam gui update. So, no, it is not "clear to all that can read" that we're mixing up old issues for new Steam gui issues. That is completely unfounded. For me, this problem has existed for THE ENTIRE TIME that I've been using Windows 10, which is about a year now. The new steam Gui update only came out, like, roughly one to two months ago.

I can't speak for anyone else here, but I always keep all of my drivers, and my Windows, and my Steam client fully up to date. It has nothing to do with out-of-date software.

The games (and other apps outside of Steam, not just games within Steam) aren't crashing, they're just plain not launching at all. They'll be listed in the Task Manager, though. If they were crashing, they would not be listed in the Task Manager because when a game crashes, it aborts its process, but they ARE listed in the Task Manager, so crashing is not what's happening. They're STALLING, not crashing.

No errors are generated. Nothing is missing.

I do not use any third party antivirus software. The only antivirus software that I use is Windows' in-built Windows Defender. Therefore, it is "clear to anyone that can read" that it has nothing to do with third party antivirus software.

Additionally, with the way you're talking about this — which is EXTREMELY difficult to understand, by the way — it sounds like you think that this is a perpetual problem where our games just never boot or otherwise always crash. That is NOT the problem that this thread is about. Our games DO boot, and we can play them just fine. The problem is that they randomly STOP booting after an indiscriminate amount of time, seemingly for no reason at all. Everything works fine up until it randomly doesn't, and then we have to restart our computers to make them work fine again.

Those are all the points that I can address from your post because I can't even understand anything else that you said. If you wish to continue replying in this thread, then you would do well to find somebody else to translate your posts into English properly, because that was extremely painful to read and largely unintelligible. And what WAS intelligible was basically all wrong.

[Iceira]

Tor Heyerdal původně napsal:

No, Iceira, this is not a "new Steam gui issue." This problem has existed for all of us LONG before the new Steam gui update. Even this thread itself is much older than the new Steam gui update. So, no, it is not "clear to all that can read" that we're mixing up old issues for new Steam gui issues. That is completely unfounded. For me, this problem has existed for THE ENTIRE TIME that I've been using Windows 10, which is about a year now. The new steam Gui update only came out, like, roughly one to two months ago.

I can't speak for anyone else here, but I always keep all of my drivers, and my Windows, and my Steam client fully up to date. It has nothing to do with out-of-date software.

The games (and other apps outside of Steam, not just games within Steam) aren't crashing, they're just plain not launching at all. They'll be listed in the Task Manager, though. If they were crashing, they would not be listed in the Task Manager because when a game crashes, it aborts its process, but they ARE listed in the Task Manager, so crashing is not what's happening. They're STALLING, not crashing.

No errors are generated. Nothing is missing.

I do not use any third party antivirus software. The only antivirus software that I use is Windows' in-built Windows Defender. Therefore, it is "clear to anyone that can read" that it has nothing to do with third party antivirus software.

Additionally, with the way you're talking about this — which is EXTREMELY difficult to understand, by the way — it sounds like you think that this is a perpetual problem where our games just never boot or otherwise always crash. That is NOT the problem that this thread is about. Our games DO boot, and we can play them just fine. The problem is that they randomly STOP booting after an indiscriminate amount of time, seemingly for no reason at all. Everything works fine up until it randomly doesn't, and then we have to restart our computers to make them work fine again.

Those are all the points that I can address from your post because I can't even understand anything else that you said. If you wish to continue replying in this thread, then you would do well to find somebody else to translate your posts into English properly, because that was extremely painful to read and largely unintelligible. And what WAS intelligible was basically all wrong.

if games dont start run then its security app that block it. try safe mode see steam help guide on interference, and its clear to me you have issue before steam gui , that was ment on the other dude, he replay and think you and him have same issue. then its not.

just so you do know this, there has never been a app made for win7+ i have never could startup. i mean game devs should make a broken game as alpha or something like that and you will see other with same experience as me. so either deal with security app, why it block it or try safemode. this is the way to eliminate reason why things dont start up.

and you also have vindows event viewer .. google how to use it if needed.
even dxdiag can tell you this, this is nothing new in this and most games devs ask about it, see end of file many app fail and sometimes they give a clue why things crash or stop.

and i doubt you have OC the pc or graphic card or ram. this can also lead to odd things.

ps
if this is ms windows defend then turn off folder access so thirdpart apps have rights to folders this can lead to many things , apps cant access document and write game settings.
yes this is a issue , problem is this came to late then all apps has access that folder for years, this is just another raised security level that can cause games to fail they are thidrpart apps.

[Clear Crossroads]

There IS NO security app. I told you. I do not run any third party antivirus software. Just Windows Defender. WD is not blocking anything. And if a security app WAS blocking our games from booting, then it would ALWAYS block them. Security apps aren't flippant. They don't just let games run for five hours to five days and then randomly just decide, "You know what? I'm gonna stop half of everything from booting now until this system gets restarted." Security apps are consistent in this regard. They don't just randomly change their minds.

I can't just stay in safe mode for several weeks, man. Like I've explained multiple times, this problem is NOT everpresent. It only RANDOMLY STARTS happening after anywhere from a few hours to a few WEEKS of Windows running without a restart. Up until then, everything works FINE. You can't just expect people to stay in safe mode for, like, three weeks to see if the problem starts happening or not.

No, I have not overclocked anything.

Windows Event Viewer sounds like it's worth looking into. Thanks for that suggestion.

EDIT: I can't understand half of what you just said. Your English is just way too broken.

[Iceira]

Tor Heyerdal původně napsal:

There IS NO security app. I told you. I do not run any third party antivirus software. Just Windows Defender. WD is not blocking anything. And if a security app WAS blocking our games from booting, then it would ALWAYS block them. Security apps aren't flippant. They don't just let games run for five hours to five days and then randomly just decide, "You know what? I'm gonna stop half of everything from booting now until this system gets restarted." Security apps are consistent in this regard. They don't just randomly change their minds.

I can't just stay in safe mode for several weeks, man. Like I've explained multiple times, this problem is NOT everpresent. It only RANDOMLY STARTS happening after anywhere from a few hours to a few WEEKS of Windows running without a restart. Up until then, everything works FINE. You can't just expect people to stay in safe mode for, like, three weeks to see if the problem starts happening or not.

No, I have not overclocked anything.

Windows Event Viewer sounds like it's worth looking into. Thanks for that suggestion.

EDIT: I can't understand half of what you just said. Your English is just way too broken.

i am trying to help you.
this is you that said this.
I use is Windows' in-built Windows Defender.
and this might be the cause, see settings and try turn off folder access so apps actual can access document folder. many games use that today, not all but many do.

you complain over my english , but i also think you have technical issue with pc and get frustrated over it, and maybe dont understand what others try to explan, and most will give up on such. i dont, keep in mind i assume you do have a working pc, that might only need help with driver or something like that.

and also assume you have checked Brand support page for driver and BioS update, if custom build pc then its Brand Mortherboard support page.

[Clear Crossroads]

this is you that said this.

Gee. Thanks. I never would've been able to figure that out.

and this might be the cause, see settings and try turn off folder access so apps actual can access document folder. many games use that today, not all but many do.

Again, this is NOT an everpresent problem. Everything works FINE up until it randomly stops working after either a few hours, or a few days, or a few weeks. IF what you are suggesting here was the problem, then these games and apps would NEVER work because they don't have access. But that's NOT what's happening. You say you're trying to help, and yeah, I recognize that, but you clearly don't even understand the problem being described. You are offering solutions for a different problem altogether. There is nothing that is preventing access. If that were the case, then these games and apps would not work AT ALL. And even if what you're suggesting here WAS relevant (which it's absolutely NOT), my apps do not have any problems accessing Documents to begin with.

you complain over my english

I'm not just complaining about it. It's a legitimate PROBLEM. You cannot be of any help if you can't even understand the problem being described (which you've demonstrated multiple times) and if I can't even understand whatever irrelevant nonsense it is you're trying to say.

but i also think you have technical issue with pc and get frustrated over it,

Well, duh.

and maybe dont understand what others try to explan,

Yeah, no kidding.

and most will give up on such. i dont,

I really wish ya would.

that might only need help with driver or something like that

I already told you, I keep my drivers, and my Windows, and my Steam fully up to date at all times. You're not listening.

if custom build pc then its Brand Mortherboard support page.

This is not a sentence. This is gibberish.

[Iceira]

nah, you seem to have bigger problem then pc issue , noone want to help you now. maybe a professor in english will help you but i doubt it, because you have no technical clue and want all things bend in neon. and you still have not get a crash report , so maybe you should test with other pc, because you dont check anything other then argue about it.

[Clear Crossroads]

Whatever you say, guy.

[steve]

Suffering from exactly the same issues as described by the OP. Steam presents a start-up window, then vanishes into being a background process. Killing that background process has no benefit. Subsequent restart of Windows hangs at the "Restarting" animation, requiring a hard shut-down.

Like Tor Heyerdal, we hae a pretty vanilla setup. Acer Predator, latest Windows update. Yes, we are using an anti-virus, but we installed _because_ this problem came up (so we were wondering if something evil got into our machine). It detected nothing (except today, when it warned us against opening a Web page that purported to offer a solution to this problem :) ). The problem persists.

Not only has it been documented here for months, if you Google, "steam won't open," you will see that this is a widespread issue. Steam's online advice is about as helpful as those Help Desk people who read you that script about, "Turn your computer off and wait at least 60 seconds," and so on.

Everything was working perfectly for a long time. Lately, it is reboot, reboot, reboot.

And, as we can see, no one from Valve/Steam is even commenting here. Gives you a great feeling, eh?

[A Robot Named Ruby]

I know this thread is old, but I've been having a similar issue

I'll double click on a desktop shortcut for a game I wanna play, I'll get the blue loading circle for maybe 1/10 of a second and nothing will happen. I cannot open the game through the website and Steam itself won't open either. I'm pretty sure it only happens after I've been using my computer without any breaks for a bit and when I just booted up my computer

No idea why this happens

[Clear Crossroads]

For what it's worth, I SUSPECT that this is actually a problem with Windows 10 when using a certain range of hardware configurations that just so happens to affect Steam (in addition to a plethora of other programs), rather than a problem inherent to Steam. I actually don't believe that this is Steam's fault. I never had this problem under Windows 7, but I've had it for the entirety of the time that I've been using Windows 10, even immediately after a fresh installation.

[steve]

FWIW, I only started having this problem recently, and have been running Windows 10 on this computer for well over a year. Now, I've noticed that Chrome appears to have a memory leak and that I have to reboot every so often, when I've been using a Chrome for a long time. Wouldn't rule that out as the culprit. I capture all my process services after the last reboot and had a Steam game up and running. Next time Steam does this, I'll capture all that again and compare. Might learn something.

Meanwhile, some commentary from Steam would be nice.

[Clear Crossroads]

I FOUND THE PROBLEM! At least for me, anyway. I can't guarantee that the source of this problem will be the same for all of you here, but I found it! Well, more accurately, I had a very gifted programmer help me to track down the source of the problem. He's frickin' brilliant. The problem is SCPToolkit!

For those of you who might not know, SCPToolkit is a program and collection of drivers that tricks Windows into thinking that your PS3 controller is an XBOX360 controller so that you can actually use your PS3 controller with Windows. I don't know how or why, but somehow, something happens with SCPToolkit that causes my programs to hang on startup, waiting for a response from SCPToolkit that never comes. And Windows can't restart because Windows, too, is waiting for a response from SCPToolkit when trying to gently shut it down so that it can restart. SCPToolkit auto-updates regularly, but I tried manually updating it anyway, and it insists that I have the latest version, so... ::shrug:: Maybe the developers at SCPToolkit simply aren't aware of this problem?

Now, while I haven't exactly found a PERMANENT solution, I have AT LEAST found a BAND-AID solution that will temporarily fix it when it occurs. If you go to "services.msc" (which can be found in the search bar, or by pressing windows+r), and then scroll down to "SCP DSx Service", right click on it, select "Stop", and then wait for the progress bar (it should just take a moment), this will shut off the Service that maintains the controller functionality. Then, once it's shut off, just right click on it again and select "Start". This will turn it back on and "un-stuck" it. All of my programs are functional again! There is also a "Restart" button in the right-click menu, and I imagine that that will probably work too, but I haven't tried it yet. I decided to go with the raw stop and start for now. Seemed the safer bet. The next time it happens, I'll try the restart button and see what happens.

If you're one of the many people who have this problem, and you have SCPToolkit installed, then give this a try the next time you're plagued with this issue, and it just might work. If, however, you do not have SCPToolkit, but you still have this problem anyway, then you may want to consider trying to restart whatever controller software/services you're running. It's worth a shot.

[steve]

Hey, thanks for this valuable follow-up, Tor! We don't have SCPToolkit running on our machine, but we do have a genuine XBox 360 controller attached at all times. (Question to all others who have reported this problem: do you have a controller attached to your computer?)

Next time this happens, I'll see if I can find a relevant service to restart. If that has any effect, I'll post about it here.

Glad you found a fix that works for you, and even more glad you told us what it was. All information might be helpful to someone else.

[Clear Crossroads]

Hey, you're welcome. I've scoured the internet looking for solutions to this problem, and I've never found anything, so I figured that I should really report my findings. At least then it'll exist SOMEWHERE on the net, right? At any rate, if there is no relevant service for you to restart (I would bet a dollar that there probably isn't if you're using a legit 360 controller, but you should still look into it anyway), then I would recommend pursuing the possibility of updating the drivers for your XBox controller or just plain getting different drivers for it (if possible). Either way, at least you have a LEAD now; some sort of trail you can actually go off of to hopefully point you in the right direction, y'know?

[Clear Crossroads]

Update: So, it turns out that this isn't really much of a solution after all. It works to unstuck the programs, but the trade-off appears to be that the controller gets stuck instead, so I STILL have to restart ANYWAY in order to get controller functionality again. I completely uninstalled SCPToolkit and installed InputMapper instead, as it was the ONLY alternative that I could find, but it still uses SCP drivers, so the exact same problem persists...
EDIT: Oh, also, while restarting the service does unstuck the PROGRAMS, it doesn't actually unstuck Windows' ability to restart. So I still have to get off my äss, walk across the room, and do a hard shut down by holding down the power button. In short, it's the exact same problem, but just with extra steps.