Constantly having to restart - and Steam seems to interfere with that, too!

[philosoraptorgames]

I keep having a problem where Steam games, that in some cases were working fine as recently as a few hours earlier, won't launch. They don't crash either, I have to Ctrl-Alt-Del and End Task on them. Occasionally it then works if I try again, but far more often I need to restart my computer before any games will launch. And at least nine times out of ten, the computer doesn't shut down properly either after this has happened - I get the "shutting down" screen forever, or else that eventually goes away but the computer never actually powers off and I have to do it manually.

This ONLY happens after I've had this specific Steam issue. It is not a general Windows problem. If I haven't run Steam since I last rebooted, the machine shuts down normally.

The problem first started when I "upgraded" from Windows 7 to Windows 10 early this year. And when I say that word "upgraded" I need you to imagine me saying it in the most sneering, sarcastic, contemptuous tone you can imagine and spitting on the ground afterward, ideally whilst flipping the bird at any nearby Microsoft employees, because that caused a lot of issues. However, since then I've not only reinstalled Windows but later upgraded my motherboard and other key hardware including getting a new M2 drive and then done a fresh install of Windows *again*, and that finally fixed all the new problems that introduced.... except this one. At that point, as much as I may dislike Microsoft, this isn't, or at least isn't solely, on them.

I've had a brief look at the "software that can interfere with Steam" list. Generally speaking I'm either not using those things or using the versions of them built into Windows, at least for the moment. If the firewall or whatever that's built into the OS your software is ostensibly written for is interfering with Steam, than again, much as I may not be fond of Microsoft that's a Valve issue as far as I'm concerned.

In any case, if this were a general problem with Steam on Windows 10 I'd expect to have heard of it by now. What could be plausibly causing it?

[Zukabazuka]

1. Your hardware could be the problem
2. Have you done a clean install of the drivers? Could be drivers that got corrupted or some remnant drivers left that is causing the trouble.
3. Whats your system specs.

Consider you seems to be the only one or the one who ask for help it would most likely point to your system being the problem.

[Zekiran]

Windows 10 is notorious for changing settings and 'forgetting' what you WANT it to do. Valve is in no way shape or form responsible for YOUR security system on YOUR computer.

Make sure that any firewall or virus scanner has completely whitelisted Steam and does NOT do a 'live' scan - scanning while it's trying to access the internet - because that will interfere with Steam considerably.

Also make sure that your video card is properly being accessed, that's yet another 10 failure to retain settings that commonly plagues laptop users, more than desktops but I don't know what all you've got on it.

Lastly, in Steam > Settings > Library, click the low bandwidth features (whatever seems obvious to you) and restart steam. Hopefully that will help.

[Iceira]

Cant do anything about outdate OS, ( you might want to re-edit that out )

lets start with basic first hardware change, thats is where you are now.

most will walk away from this,

you need to visit Brand pc support page or custom Build pc then its The Brand Mortherboard support page.
Download all driver and Bios, most have a auto upgrade tool app in windows start menu or cd with it ( if pc is even have a dvd drive.

and you still need visit online after cd. to check if newer driver is there. and BIOS

and it dont matter if you have new pc or years old.

dont forget Monitor or keybaoard page and other unit you might have even mouse.

i cant say that fix all, but that is you stable Drivers according to support.
then recheck windows update.

( dont OC then you have system stability issue )

use check disk
use windows sfc/scannow ( if system is not a Fresh install )
do make a DVD with with 10 toolkit ( not a joke ) or external disk drive if you dont have dvd-drive

if you still have issue, you could have issue with security from past win7 to win10 upgrade.
this is know as bad migration upgrade, ( later most have learn this is from security apps thats was still effect converting ) you might want to make a fresh install to avoid waste time on keep try fix old issue.

ps.
besure you dont have ISP service on the wanline that has security apps run like firewall and antivius under subscription service at ISP user portal. ( many people forget those service )
most dont have such anymore, then router or own pc handle it with firewall/antivirus app

and no windows normaly dont block steam from working its the security app that doing it or change over time and cause grief to normal user that forget own choise they did.

sure addware and virus can screw up things in system but most get caught before that happend today and thats why you might not want to waste time on fix old os to new upgrade , you might be better off with fresh install , if old system is effect.

im sorry for the long post , but if i short it down, you need to be expert to understand it all.


update pc, fix security issue.
thats simple to short for normal people.

[philosoraptorgames]

I think at least some people here are not understanding the situation, even parts of it I quite explicitly laid out... this problem has occurred on *two* almost entirely different sets of hardware (mobo, proc, RAM, and main hard drive). When I did the hardware upgrade I reinstalled everything from scratch - there's nothing left that could possibly result from the 7=>10 migration.

For much the same reason drivers etc should all be up to date but I'll double-check on that.

[Iceira]

Messaggio originale di philosoraptorgames:

I think at least some people here are not understanding the situation, even parts of it I quite explicitly laid out... this problem has occurred on *two* almost entirely different sets of hardware (mobo, proc, RAM, and main hard drive). When I did the hardware upgrade I reinstalled everything from scratch - there's nothing left that could possibly result from the 7=>10 migration.

For much the same reason drivers etc should all be up to date but I'll double-check on that.

steam have issue with update its content we reply with, the 2 above me was not even there. then i reply.

but we all same more or less same thingy.

try safe boot mode or other interference issue , see steam help menu for that.

[Darren]

So your issue sounds like the Steam Service is either being slowed down or outright blocked from doing things that it wants to do by some other process. This is causing your games to fail to start (as they are waiting for the Steam service to initialise you can probably stop that being an issue if you disabled the overlay) and preventing shutdowns as the process isn't able to stop either as it's being held up on something.

I would typically assume that to be anti-virus software, Do you have anything of that nature installed? If so try uninstalling it entirely (you can reinstall it later if you need it) so you can test whether or not Steam runs fine without it.

[Mitey Mite]

I might be having a similar issue, if not exactly the same. I moved my stuff to a new PC recently. I try to start games but they don't really start and pressing the stop button on steam doesn't do anything. Those programs won't even show up in the task manager for me. I have two games that steam says are running but aren't and one that just failed to run when I tried to launch it from steam.

The op might want to put there system specs up, since that will help with help with getting this issue resolved. I'll put mine down in the meantime.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU SKU
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight-Core Processor, 3700 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 2006, 11/13/2019
SMBIOS Version 2.8
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoard Product PRIME B450M-A
BaseBoard Version Rev X.0x
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State Unsupported
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\windows
System Directory C:\windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.18362.752"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 10.3 GB
Total Virtual Memory 18.3 GB
Available Virtual Memory 9.42 GB
Page File Space 2.38 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection Off
Virtualization-based security Not enabled
Device Encryption Support Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: TPM is not usable, PCR7 binding is not supported, Hardware Security Test Interface failed and device is not Modern Standby, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected, TPM is not usable
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware No
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

Hopefully this helps.

[Crazy Tiger]

It very much sounds like interference. If you check the task manager, do you see something running at 100% of your disk? Perhaps a windows service proces?

The thing with firewalls and anti-virus is that it's not on Valve, as there isn't a specific program that Steam has issues with. Some people run into issues, which means it's to do with that specific set-up.
Are you running the default Windows stuff or do you have additional programs?

[philosoraptorgames]

Messaggio originale di Crazy Tiger:

Are you running the default Windows stuff or do you have additional programs?

As already mentioned, I was just running the default Windows stuff for the bulk of the affected period.

For the sake of completeness, I did install Malwarebytes last night to do a scan in case it was a malware issue (it found nothing, but then, I can't seem to get the free version to do more than a quick scan anymore). I do not have it actively protecting anything (that requires the paid version in any case), it's just there for the occasional manual check, and in any case the problem pre-dates that being on my system.

I did a major overhaul of my drivers last night, we'll see if that helps, it seems to be working so far but the problem hasn't been consistent enough for that to be reassuring just yet.

[Mitey Mite]

So I "might" have fixed my issue...... we'll see, it seems that having fast boot enabled on my PC was causing many issues with not booting properly and steam having issues. It's disabled now, not that fast boot really helped make my *Windows experience* any better.

[philosoraptorgames]

I do recall fast boot being a problem for me in the past, though it was already turned off when I first had the problem on my old computer. Thanks for the reminder, I've turned it off, getting rid of it can fix a lot of problems even if this doesn't turn out to be one of them.

[philosoraptorgames]

If anyone is still reading this thread as it approaches its one-year anniversary (LOL), the problem seems to have been a corrupt C++ library. I went through Add/Remove Programs and chose the Repair option on every C++ library file that gave me that option, restarted, and suddenly this and about half a dozen other weird problems I was having were fixed. (Indeed, this fixed all my major computer issues EXCEPT the issue, with Adobe Indesign, that sent me there in the first place!) So if anyone is having this sort of issue, that's something to try. No promises but it worked for me.

[The High Seraph]

Messaggio originale di philosoraptorgames:

If anyone is still reading this thread as it approaches its one-year anniversary (LOL), the problem seems to have been a corrupt C++ library. I went through Add/Remove Programs and chose the Repair option on every C++ library file that gave me that option, restarted, and suddenly this and about half a dozen other weird problems I was having were fixed. (Indeed, this fixed all my major computer issues EXCEPT the issue, with Adobe Indesign, that sent me there in the first place!) So if anyone is having this sort of issue, that's something to try. No promises but it worked for me.

OMG ! Thank you so much . I am having the exact same issue like you . Steam games stopped working and need to restart or shut down the entire PC when this happen . But after having this problem , my Pc won’t even shut down or restart properly . It’s like stuck in the “restarting” and need to force shut down . If Pc shut down , lights still on and need to do manually .

But it just happened randomly and not even consistent . Happened to me 2 times in 2 weeks and in both times this happened after quitting the games and trying to launch again .

[philosoraptorgames]

Well, thanks! That's great to know. I felt silly updating the thread after all this time but now I feel like it was totally worth it if it helped someone, and if anything now I wish I'd done it sooner.

[The High Seraph]

I repaired C++ like you said . But can’t tell you it work for me or not because this problem happen rarely . Really hope it’s gone . If this happen again , I will just reinstall the OS . At least I know the problem is from my side . First I thought it’s steam messing my games .