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:

Początkowo opublikowane przez 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.

[Ego]

Początkowo opublikowane przez 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.

Thanks for posting this Duke, it seems to have worked for me. The Store, Community and Friends list all seem to be working again after doing that.

[Duke M]

If it worked:
Which folder did you use and which OS + bit did you have?

Folder:

• cef.win7
  
• cef.win7x64
  
• other?

OS:

• Win7 32 or 64 bit
  
• Win8 32 or 64 bit
  
• Win8.1 32 or 64 bit
  
• other?

If it didn't work or the problem didn't apply or you wanna tell your totally unrelated computer problem story without beginning, end and content:
Shut up ;P

[Ego]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Duke Duke'em:

If it worked:
Which folder did you use and which OS + bit did you have?

Folder:
cef.win7x64

OS:
Win 7 64-bit

Thanks again =)

[Duke M]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Ego:

Thanks again =)

You're welcome, I am so happy for myself that I found what this guy on reddit wrote :D
First I thought Valve will fix it in some days but it will be soon 1 month of using a broken steam-client :(

@Ego: maybe wanna update your op with "Solved:" and my quote?

[Ego]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Duke Duke'em:

@Ego: maybe wanna update your op with "Solved:" and my quote?

Done

[Bor aaruul]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Knight of Storms:

I had this problem too recently. This, a problem possibly with EAC, then win 10 flipping out. I got my friends list working, kept playing through the library, but then got 'the big picture' running with full features. Turning BP on and off over a few days (since I hate it) I just notice steam went back to normal. No idea if they patched it, or what.

oooh god u saved my life i trying 1 week ahah now finally done thanks bro

[Cartman]

Początkowo opublikowane przez 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:

Początkowo opublikowane przez 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.

I have that problem when I try to click my activity feed!

[pizzahut]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Monaca Towa:

I have that problem when I try to click my activity feed!

Different cause, go here for a workaround:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/1744480966991217725/?ctp=6#c1744480967007775255

[TenMa<3A]

just for someone still having this problem with steam, the only solution left it's to install W10, in that OS there isn't exist this DLL, so steam works perfectly there. I just tested with other computers.

[boggrat]

Out of interest I just installed Steam onto a Windows 7 x 64 PC and had this problem. Tried a few solutions mentioned in this thread and they didn't work. I noticed I had both a cef.win7 and a cef.win7x64 folder in the /steam/bin directory so I removed the cef.win7 folder. Next time I started Steam it ran an update and the problem was solved.

Hope this helps someone out - I was scratching my head!!

[CengizhanTR]

fgdghdfhd

[TenMa<3A]

Początkowo opublikowane przez High:

If you are still having this "problem" in 2020 its probably because, for whatever reason, You denied read access to the CEF folder.

C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\CEF

Steam checks the crash-pad metrics and checks your user dictionary before establishing a network connection for parts of the application.

If you've deleted the folder because you didn't know what it did or thought you didn't need it, then you are in for a world of pain when you realize how many things actually check that folder.

Nope, sorry but that's not true, I have never done anything to that folder, and I still have the problem (CEF folder is intact). According to my investigation (checking at least 1000 pages about it on internet), the root problem is to have a corrupted version of your OS. It means, your OS is not original (or at least an OEM), it's just a cracked OS, and THAT is causing all the problems with steam.
Otherwise, you can try any of the possible solutions just searching on internet.

[Duke M]

"C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\CEF"

This folder only holds the userdata, deleting it is no problem at all. It will be just recreated.
Try it out, stop the steam.exe, rename the folder, look at it being recreated.
If you deny access to the folder, the steamhelper.exe will crash at client startup, which is not part of the issue in the original post.

PS: the myth of cracked windows versions creating strange problems everywhere in the system is as old as the internet, it's just an lazy excuse for problems which can't be found easily, the Chrome Embedded Framework integrated into your steam-client does not check for any licenses on your Windows OS.

[TenMa<3A]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Duke Duke'em:

"C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\CEF"

This folder only holds the userdata, deleting it is no problem at all. It will be just recreated.
Try it out, stop the steam.exe, rename the folder, look at it being recreated.
If you deny access to the folder, the steamhelper.exe will crash at client startup, which is not part of the issue in the original post.

PS: the myth of cracked windows versions creating strange problems everywhere in the system is as old as the internet, it's just an lazy excuse for problems which can't be found easily, the Chrome Embedded Framework integrated into your steam-client does not check for any licenses on your Windows OS.

I have never denied the access of Steam to CEF folder, and if for some reason I did that in the past, I already fixed that with the many solutions that I tried. That's something that I've already seen in other post as a solution (not only in steam, also in other forums like reddit and even technical forums). I'm not saying that the reason of the black screen on library it's about a corrupted OS, there are many reasons that could be causing this problem, like the steamwebhelper crashing that you mentioned. In other post I have send a list of possible solutions for all people, but there are REALLY REALLY special cases (like me) , that there is not actually solution, other that fix the OS. I can guarantee after testing like 100 solutions in other PCs with differents OS (W10, W8.1, MAC & Linux).

[Sketso]

It worked on Windows 10. I copied the file to the cef.win7x64 folder.
Thanks a lot.