[SOLVED] Can only connect to Steam Servers in Safe Mode

[wolfman]

Steam constantly gives me error "Can't connect to network" despite my internet connection being fine and working on everything else. It works great in Safe Mode w/ Networking and has no issues connected, but regular booting my PC does not let me connect to the Steam Servers, so I've pretty much been stuck in Offline Mode for about two weeks now, and it sucks not being able to play any online games. I've read countless year old to 10 year old forums posts of other people that had this issue and tried literally everything from flushing my IP/DNS, the -tcp trick, uninstalling and re-installing, you name it I've probably tried it. literally spent days trying to get this working again and it hasn't budged even in the slightest. I've narrowed it down to it possibly being an issue with my PC itself instead of a network issue since I can sign into my account on other PC's, and it doesn't connect when using other networks. I believe it's either an app interfering with Steam (that I don't have the slightest clue of since I know it's not my firewall and I have no anti-virus) or a possible driver issue (although all of my drivers say they are working properly). It feels like my only option is to reset Windows entirely, but I'm not very keen on losing all my files, and if it's a driver issue I believe the problem would persist. Anybody who's solved this issue or has any other recommendations, please let me know. Any help is greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I figured out it was an app that was interfering with my connection to Steam. It seems to be a few different apps, so I'm still working it through but disabling everything makes Steam run fine.
For anyone else with this issue, I would suggest running msconfig and disable every service except for the Steam client and reboot. If it starts up fine after reboot, go through and re-enable every service one by one to pinpoint the issue. Thank you to everyone in the thread for your help

[Yatsuki]

Originally posted by komorezi:

Steam constantly gives me error "Can't connect to network" despite my internet connection being fine and working on everything else. It works great in Safe Mode w/ Networking and has no issues connected, but regular booting my PC does not let me connect to the Steam Servers, so I've pretty much been stuck in Offline Mode for about two weeks now, and it sucks not being able to play any online games. I've read countless year old to 10 year old forums posts of other people that had this issue and tried literally everything from flushing my IP/DNS, the -tcp trick, uninstalling and re-installing, you name it I've probably tried it. literally spent days trying to get this working again and it hasn't budged even in the slightest. I've narrowed it down to it possibly being an issue with my PC itself instead of a network issue since I can sign into my account on other PC's, and it doesn't connect when using other networks. I believe it's either an app interfering with Steam (that I don't have the slightest clue of since I know it's not my firewall and I have no anti-virus) or a possible driver issue (although all of my drivers say they are working properly). It feels like my only option is to reset Windows entirely, but I'm not very keen on losing all my files, and if it's a driver issue I believe the problem would persist. Anybody who's solved this issue or has any other recommendations, please let me know. Any help is greatly appreciated.

You mentioned that you have no antivirus which could possibly mean that you have some sort of Virus on your computer that is preventing you from connecting that would explain why you can connect in SafeMode I would recommend that you downloaded an antivirus and scanned your computer.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

If something is not active on safe mode means something activity causing issue for you on normal state of Windows.

Try reviewing what you have installed, see what could be the cause.

If you're using VPN, proxy, or DNS that might be an issue if they're blocking Steam.

Some DNS services varies for regions, and block things in some regions for no reason that shouldn't be blocked. Can try google, cloud flare, Verisign, or etc...

[DEEM]

hm....

[Yatsuki]

Originally posted by bhop god ¯\_(ツ)_/¯:

hm....

Stop badge posting. You don't need to post to get the badge all you do is Search in discussions

[Iceira]

Reintsall steam over current one to fix missing admin rights to steam,

steamclientservice most run under service.

and what part of safe boot mode do you not get, see what you load and not ( msconfig ) whats the diffrence, sure i wish it could tell you that, but i still think it look like security issue.
from previous app installed, most apps made do not make interference on purpose.
what you have look like option issue or combination or a app did a optimize pc and now prevent things from running , even such is seen before.

[crunchyfrog]

Yup as others have pointed out here, if you get things to work in safe mode, rest assured the issue is something on your computer that is blocking it.

You say you have no antivirus. I suspect you will have Windows Defender so you should check that. SOMETHING is clearly blocking it, and antivirus, or firewall, or VPNs are the most likely culprits. If you have any work-related security software on there too that can cause issues.

At this stage though, your best bet is simple process of elimination. Start bringing windows up with each program added one by one until it fails again. Then you'll know.

If however, you truly DO NOT have any antivirus, then that also might be your problem because it's incredibly foolish to run absolutely no antivirus at all. And virus behaviour can very much cause issues like this.

And if that is the case, at this stage your only real chance of salvation is to reinstall windows entirely.

[wolfman]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

Yup as others have pointed out here, if you get things to work in safe mode, rest assured the issue is something on your computer that is blocking it.

You say you have no antivirus. I suspect you will have Windows Defender so you should check that. SOMETHING is clearly blocking it, and antivirus, or firewall, or VPNs are the most likely culprits. If you have any work-related security software on there too that can cause issues.

At this stage though, your best bet is simple process of elimination. Start bringing windows up with each program added one by one until it fails again. Then you'll know.

If however, you truly DO NOT have any antivirus, then that also might be your problem because it's incredibly foolish to run absolutely no antivirus at all. And virus behaviour can very much cause issues like this.

And if that is the case, at this stage your only real chance of salvation is to reinstall windows entirely.

I definitely worded it incorrectly, I do have Windows Defender, I meant it more as in I don't have any additional anti-virus, like McAfee or AVG. I don't have a VPN or a private DNS (i think that's what it is? I read others had an issue with that in the past) so I will definitely try going one by one with different apps. Would I use msconfig to shut each process down and then test them out one by one?

[wolfman]

Originally posted by Iceira:

Reintsall steam over current one to fix missing admin rights to steam,

steamclientservice most run under service.

and what part of safe boot mode do you not get, see what you load and not ( msconfig ) whats the diffrence, sure i wish it could tell you that, but i still think it look like security issue.
from previous app installed, most apps made do not make interference on purpose.
what you have look like option issue or combination or a app did a optimize pc and now prevent things from running , even such is seen before.

I did try re-installing steam over the current version I had and that had made it a little worse in a regular boot, because it got stuck during the update and refused to connect, but once I tried safe mode it booted fine. I don't think the issue is with steam itself more than it my over all PC.
I did in the past use PCMatic and noticed it blocked really weird things from connecting, like Google Chrome and Adobe Services, so even though Ive uninstallled it it could have changed a setting that I haven't found, so I'll try digging through that and figure out if that could've been a cause

[Iceira]

atleast you have something start to add more into boot and see if you can figureout what app doing it. ( do try CCleaner and iobit fix my pc , keep eye on things so you know how it can make change on boot speed and startup and use that app to undo startup app, but this PCMatic i dont know , but atleast you start to see what the bloody hell happend here.

again do note CCleaner and iobit fix my pc, with recommend setting and all the tool app can and should be seen as help not make it worse, just becuase you can do alot with them dont mean all should be activated and do them, see them as if you dont know what you aere doing dont change option or do it. onnly iobit care app can be set all on doing scan.

well anyway see them as suggestion nothing else.

ccleaner is a professional tool app.
just because i do registartion database rep and junk cleaning , because doing iy manual and scripts from past is a no GO today, apps do it now.

[Yatsuki]

Are you still having the issue or have you fixed it? Cause i see that you are playing games on your steam.

[wolfman]

Originally posted by Inshallah☪:

Are you still having the issue or have you fixed it? Cause i see that you are playing games on your steam.

Yes, figured out it was an app that was blocking the Steam connection. It seems to be a couple different ones so I have to disable them to use Steam but for now I've found a solution. Appreciate the help