Steam wont lauch games, wont open again and wont let me shutdown or restart my PC

[StephanFS]

I don't know what happened but Steam is acting weird since yesterday. Everytime I try to open a game, it won't open. And it's not only one game, it's some of the installed games I own. And not even closing and opening Steam again works since Steam wont open. The Bootstrapper is listed on the task manager, but the program won't open. Not only that, but this won't let me shutdown or restart my PC, which forces me to pull the plug off my PC or manually restart it by force.

What should I do?

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by StephanFS:

Not only that, but this won't let me shutdown or restart my PC, which forces me to pull the plug off my PC or manually restart it by force.

Sounds like you have a more serious issue causing your computer to freeze.

And the forced shutdowns can possibly compound the problem.

Conflicting software can cause Steam to not function properly, such as antivirus or other security processes but there can be others as well.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9828-SFLZ-9289

[StephanFS]

Well, I have BitDefender AV installed. Which other AV should I use?

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by StephanFS:

Well, I have BitDefender AV installed. Which other AV should I use?

You need to be sure it is totally ignoring Steam and games in real time scanning, but BitDefender is not the only program that can cause this.

Here is a simple test to see if you do have conflicting software :

Boot your PC into safe mode with networking and try to use Steam there. Browse the store, your profile, community, etc. but do not try to play games in this boot. Just test Steam.

If the files are healthy, and it works fine there, you surely have a software conflict that presents itself in a normal boot of Windows.

[StephanFS]

I removed BitDefender and replaced it with Windows Defender. No problems so far.

I forgot to mention something: when it happened in the first time, I restarted my PC and Steam suddenly worked again, but that was yesterday. It happened again today, but I didn't test if it worked again normally before removing BitDefender. Also it did not freeze. The "Restarting..." screen was stuck in an endless loop. Same goes for "Shutting Down..."

[The Giving One]

That's good news, about Bit Defender. Just make sure you have real time scan exceptions set in whatever security software you use, as they need to leave Steam and games alone in real-time scanning.

Active scanning that you do manually is fine. Passive scanning by the process, no.

So did that solve all the issues you needed help with or was there something else still going on with Steam or games being launched from Steam ?

[StephanFS]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

So did that solve all the issues you needed help with or was there something else still going on with Steam or games being launched from Steam ?

I still need to test even further, but it's late and I need to sleep. Christmas is coming and I need to help everyone here since the rest of the family is going to spend the rest of the holiday where I live.

I'm gonna test tomorrow morning and see if the problem got fixed for good.

[ScuffedOnes]

Hello, i've started getting this issue too over the last few months, I tried everything to do with my antivirus (Malwarebytes) but that didn't help, I also looked for any application that could be interfering with this and nothing worked. I also noticed that when my steam won't open, another application of mine won't work called Speccy( it checkes temperature of pc parts), and when I see this I know if I restart/shut down pc it will just be stuck in a loop until I force shutdown it with the button.
Have you been able to fix it?? Please help.

[UTFapolloMarine]

possibly real time is down for ya, id reinstall windows man

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Valdisimo:

...and when I see this I know if I restart/shut down pc it will just be stuck in a loop until I force shutdown it with the button.
Have you been able to fix it?? Please help.

This sounds like you have more serious issues than Steam or other programs that are not working.

It does sound like a Windows or OS issue, depending on what your OS is. Might also be a good idea to check the OS from an elevated command prompt.

sfc /scannow is the command.

See this for more :

https://neosmart.net/wiki/sfc/

[ScuffedOnes]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

This sounds like you have more serious issues than Steam or other programs that are not working. It does sound like a Windows or OS issue, depending on what your OS is. Might also be a good idea to check the OS from an elevated command prompt.

Hello, I'm using Windows 10.
sfc/ scannow said that ''Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.''

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Valdisimo:

Hello, I'm using Windows 10.
sfc/ scannow said that ''Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.''

And you ran that as an administrator (elevated command), correct ?

Post the exact model and model number of the computer that you have. If it is custom built, post the exact motherboard instead, please. Also, is your Windows 10 32 or 64 bit ?

[ScuffedOnes]

What I did was run the command prompt in administrator mode if that's what you meant.
My pc was custom built and the motherboard is: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Z170-E (LGA1151)
My windows is 64bit.

[The Giving One]

Have you tested this in safe mode with networking, as I explained above in a previous post ?

Post number 3 ?

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3315110799627415476/?tscn=1557437959#c3315110799627688973

If this is your motherboard, are you absolutely sure that all device drivers are up to date on it ?

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z170-E/HelpDesk_Download/

How did Windowss 10 64 bit get installed on that computer ?

Was it an upgrade from a previously installed older version of Windows.....

OR

A clean, fresh install of Windows 10 64 bit from a full reformat or new partition ?

That is, if you know, of course please. Thanks.

[UTFapolloMarine]

just reinstall windows 10 64 bit using your windows key, dont matter if its from windows 7 either :) tech for 6 years

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by POUusnavy:

just reinstall windows 10 64 bit using your windows key, dont matter if its from windows 7 either :) tech for 6 years

I am somewhat in agreement with this, but was trying to help the user to prevent having to do that just yet, by some troubleshooting.

But of course, it's starting to look as that might be the way to go, maybe.