Black screen for almost everything [Solved]

[Ego]

When I started steam today, the Store Front, Community, Activity etc were all a black screens with the loading icon but nothing loads. My Friends list is set to offline and it won't allow me to switch it online. I can access my Library of games though and can play them. I've tried several things trying to get it to work, but so far, no luck whatsoever.

I have tried running steam in safe mode with networking enabled and the issue is still present there, so that should rule out another program interfering with steam. I have also deleted the web cache and cookies in steams settings, which also has not had any effect on it.

Screenshots of what I see:

Storefront: https://i.imgur.com/Q4DA9vi.png

Friends List Big Picture Mode: https://i.imgur.com/zfYevlT.png

Solved:

Originally posted by Duke Duke'em:

TreatmentForYourRash on reddit found a TEMPORARY SOLUTION

Seems to be a problem for Win7 and Win8 users.

TL;DR:

• Close Steam (as in Steam > Exit).
  
• Copy C:\Windows\System32\dbghelp.dll file
  
• Paste into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\bin\cef\cef.win7x64\ folder.
  
• Start Steam

EDIT: not sure if the target-folder should be 'cef.win7' or 'cef.win7x64'.
Could be depending on your Windows version, just pick the folder in which you already have the same dll to overwrite it.

[drknigt99]

I'm having the same problem. I've used Steam for years and never had this problem. Just started today. I saw in another thread that you can get in through 'big picture mode.'

I tried that and you can get into the store screens, etc., but they still don't work correctly.

[Ego]

Yeah, Big Picture mode has slightly more active functions but Friends are still listed as offline. I added a couple of screenshots to the first post of what I see

[drknigt99]

Can't see your screenshots, coming up with an Steam error screen, but I do see other people having same problem since last night.

Oops, I'm stupid. Yes, I'm getting the same screenshots as you.

[Levi]

Read: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1456-EUDN-2493

[Ego]

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

Read: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1456-EUDN-2493

:yinyangflip:

Thanks for the post but I am not having any luck with any of those. Nothing is blocked on my firewall related to steam, i did a scan and didn't find any malware and nothing was changed on my router since before this black screen issue came up.

[Levi]

What about changing your DNS settings?

Those are important.

[Luca]

Same problem here, definitely not a network error. store and friends work in big picture mode. figured it out recently. PLEASE STEAM FIX DIS

[Tev]

Originally posted by Ego:

i did a scan and didn't find any malware and nothing was changed on my router since before this black screen issue came up.

What did you scan your PC with?

Do you have any other network adapters that you could possibly try with? Personal hotspot via phone for example just to see if its behavior under that is any different?

What country are you from? Argentina like Hedrave here? Did this issue start out of the blue without you recalling any installations or tweaks you could've done before it?

[ReBoot]

Two different troubleshooting steps, try both separately, see what happens.
1. Start your system in safe mode (with networking, for obvious reasons)
2.

Originally posted by Robin3sk:

What about changing your DNS settings?

Those are important.

:yinyangflip:

Take. 1.1.1.1

[Luca]

the last thing I remember doing was installing Black desert online... before that, I was playing Killing floor almost everyday not a single weird program. So you are suggesting BDO messed up with steam?

and I also remember Restarting Steam for an important update, and then it broke itself.

[Tev]

Originally posted by Hedrave:

the last thing I remember doing was installing Black desert online... before that, I was playing Killing floor almost everyday not a single weird program. So you are suggesting BDO messed up with steam?

No, I wasn't particularly suggesting anything - just basically retracing steps.

[Ego]

Originally posted by Teutep:

What did you scan your PC with?

I did a full scan with malware bytes and by chance, the night before this happened I already did a Windows Defender's scan. If it means anything, running Steam in safe mode with networking doesn't seem to make a difference, so if there is a virus or software conflict, its still present in safe mode.

Originally posted by Teutep:

Do you have any other network adapters that you could possibly try with? Personal hotspot via phone for example just to see if its behavior under that is any different?

I don't have any other hotspots available.

Originally posted by Teutep:

What country are you from? Argentina like Hedrave here? Did this issue start out of the blue without you recalling any installations or tweaks you could've done before it?

I'm from the UK.

Before Steam messed up, there was an update to Windows 7 which caused an issue where I would get a message saying "Failed to connect to a Windows Service" and the PC would revert to an older theme. There were three things suggested on microsofts site for fixing it, one was to go to cmd and type "netsh winsock reset" which I did, but it didn't fix anything.

The second option was to disable everything on Selective Startup and restart the computer, which also didn't work. So I then rolledback my PC to the 11th of October and that seemed to fix everything. Steam was running fine for a few hours after that and then randomly went to black screen when I signed back in later on.

One last thing, if I right click on the Steam short cut, go to properties and change the target line to have "-nochatui -nofriendsui" at the end, and start up steam. It will load my friends list and chat, but with the old design. The storefront and everything else is still a loading black screen though

[spaceboy]

Same here. Nothing works in my client except my library for about the last 2 weeks or so now.

I filled out a ticket last night. Please everyone fill out a support ticket on this. We need as many tickets opened up as we can to get their attention.

Another poster in a different thread said Steam responded saying they knew about the problem but had no ETA on a fix. We need more tickets to make it a larger issue. If they don't get tickets, they assume you're not having problems!

[Ego]

Originally posted by spaceboy:

Same here. Nothing works in my client except my library for about the last 2 weeks or so now.

I filled out a ticket last night. Please everyone fill out a support ticket on this. We need as many tickets opened up as we can to get their attention.

Another poster in a different thread said Steam responded saying they knew about the problem but had no ETA on a fix. We need more tickets to make it a larger issue. If they don't get tickets, they assume you're not having problems!

Just sent for a support ticket. I guess if several people are having this issue, then its an issue with steam so hopefully there will be a fix at some point.

[drknigt99]

I sent a ticket over the weekend. Check part of the response in "Steam only loads library" thread.