Failed to start game ( Unknown Error) to all my steam games

[Raph]

I've been having this issue for the past 2 weeks where every time I try to launch a game on steam. it doesn't allow me to and gives me the error "Failed to start game ( unknown error ) " I've searched through every forum ever and I've tried every single thing.
1.I've uninstalled my games.
2. I've uninstalled steam and re-installed it.
3. I've verified game cache files.
4. I've messaged steam support 4 times and been getting automated messages back with ♥♥♥♥ that doesn't even help me, like flushing out the steam files, and allowing permission in my regedit files.
5. 'I've stopped all my apps that run on startup to check if it was any apps I had ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with it.
6. Checked out all my virus softwares and malwares and stuff, nothing to do with that.
7. No apps are interfering with my steam.
And that's pretty much it, steam support's not helping me at all and I didn't wanna factory reset my pc till I tried everything possible in this world to get my ♥♥♥♥ together, also, I know it's a steam error because every time I go to the respective game's steam folder and launch the game through the .exe (for example, CS:GO) it launched the game perfectly fine, but then gives me a headsup that I've launched the game outside of steam and won't allow me to play, (In this case) VAC secure servers because apparently I ain';t playing from steam, so please, if anyone can help me I will thank you from the bottom of my black heart.

[Jürgen]

uff

[uneX]

pff

[Raph]

Someone help :(

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Raph:

4. I've messaged steam support 4 times and been getting automated messages back with ♥♥♥♥ that doesn't even help me, like flushing out the steam files, and allowing permission in my regedit files.

Please, when you message support, make one ticket and wait for a reply. When you spam it, if that is what you did, then that just slows down the process for everyone, including you.

Now, on topic with your actual issue. Post a screenshot or screenshots of ALL of your installed programs on that computer. Make sure we can see them all, please. Thanks. Use imgur.com if you are unsure and post the links here.

What is the operating system ?

[Raph]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Originally posted by Raph:

4. I've messaged steam support 4 times and been getting automated messages back with ♥♥♥♥ that doesn't even help me, like flushing out the steam files, and allowing permission in my regedit files.

Please, when you message support, make one ticket and wait for a reply. When you spam it, if that is what you did, then that just slows down the process for everyone, including you.

Now, on topic with your actual issue. Post a screenshot or screenshots of ALL of your installed programs on that computer. Make sure we can see them all, please. Thanks. Use imgur.com if you are unsure and post the links here.

What is the operating system ?

Thank you for the reply and I'm sorry for the spam but here you go, the images of all my files and my operating system is windows 8.1
http://imgur.com/a/94YGg

[The Giving One]

Thanks but that is not a list of your installed programs. That is a list of the files and folders of said programs. Control panel then programs is what we need thanks.

But so far, I see a couple of issues maybe.

CCleaner (monitoring mode on ?)
Avast
And I see this one all the time be an issue....Skype

Avast is more of a concern actually. Along with Skype.

All of them are listed here...

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

Please post the list of installed programs instead.

[Raph]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Thanks but that is not a list of your installed programs. That is a list of the files and folders of said programs. Control panel then programs is what we need thanks.

But so far, I see a couple of issues maybe.

CCleaner (monitoring mode on ?)
Avast
And I see this one all the time be an issue....Skype

Avast is more of a concern actually. Along with Skype.

All of them are listed here...

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

Please post the list of installed programs instead.

My bad, here's the control panel ones but relating to ccleaner, avast and skype, I've had those since the dawn of time on my computer and nothing's ever happpened.
http://imgur.com/a/jjSaY

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Raph:

My bad, here's the control panel ones but relating to ccleaner, avast and skype, I've had those since the dawn of time on my computer and nothing's ever happpened.
http://imgur.com/a/jjSaY

That does not matter. I see this all the time....you are already making assumptions that you should never make when troubleshooting a problem. Programs change, and new issues can come up.

For example.....

"But I never had a problem with that antivirus before..."
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/364040961444986179/#c364040961449364808
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/392184289303449855/?tscn=1458512553#c392184289303484833
http://steamcommunity.com/app/730/discussions/0/364042063114127030/

Wait, and I will look at your list. Be ready to uninstall programs or you are not fully troubleshooting this properly and fully. You said you have had this for 2 weeks and seem pretty desperate and frustrated, so not taking suggestions here now seem a bit illogical, with all due respect. Not trying to be rude or anyting but just saying....

[Raph]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Originally posted by Raph:

My bad, here's the control panel ones but relating to ccleaner, avast and skype, I've had those since the dawn of time on my computer and nothing's ever happpened.
http://imgur.com/a/jjSaY

That does not matter. I see this all the time....you are already making assumptions that you should never make when troubleshooting a problem. Programs change, and new issues can come up.

For example.....

"But I never had a problem with that antivirus before..."
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/364040961444986179/#c364040961449364808
http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/392184289303449855/?tscn=1458512553#c392184289303484833
http://steamcommunity.com/app/730/discussions/0/364042063114127030/

Wait, and I will look at your list. Be ready to uninstall programs or you are not fully troubleshooting this properly and fully. You said you have had this for 2 weeks and seem pretty desperate and frustrated, so not taking suggestions here now seem a bit illogical, with all due respect. Not trying to be rude or anyting but just saying....

Naw, I get it, I'm all for troubleshooting, I'm also downloading another game I have on steam now to find out if it's only valve games or all my games because it only came to mind that I've only re-installed valve games after re-installing steam

[The Giving One]

Utorrent, Avast, CCleaner, Himachi, and Skype. They are all on that list and suspect to this problem that you are having. Reboot after uninstalling the software, and verify the game files of any and all games affected. Do that here...

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

Follow the paragraph under antivirus applications for Avast, and do the steps there for adding scan exceptions and then disabling and finally, uninstalling Avast temporarily and rebooting and then verify game files as suggested above.

[Raph]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Utorrent, Avast, CCleaner, Himachi, and Skype. They are all on that list and suspect to this problem that you are having. Reboot after uninstalling the software, and verify the game files of any and all games affected. Do that here...

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2037-QEUH-3335

Follow the paragraph under antivirus applications for Avast, and do the steps there for adding scan exceptions and then disabling and finally, uninstalling Avast temporarily and rebooting and then verify game files as suggested above.

Just finished uninstalling the apps and verifying the game files and tried launching the game and got the usual error, and also just found it's only valve games that I get the error

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Raph:

Just finished uninstalling the apps and verifying the game files and tried launching the game and got the usual error, and also just found it's only valve games that I get the error

So just to clarify, you fully uninstalled Utorrent, Avast, CCleaner, Himachi, and Skype and rebooted your computer and then verified the game files and tried a game that you verified and got the same error ?

Let's pick one game to use to troubleshoot this with, please. Your choice of Steam games, of course. Post that game we will be using in your next reply.

Also, when you post your OS, always state if it is 32 or 64 bit.

When was the last time you checed the manufacturer's website for driver updates to the system drivers ?

Have you updated the GPU drivers lately ? What are your other computer specs as in GPU, CPU, RAM, etc. Post those as well please.

[Raph]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Originally posted by Raph:

Just finished uninstalling the apps and verifying the game files and tried launching the game and got the usual error, and also just found it's only valve games that I get the error

So just to clarify, you fully uninstalled Utorrent, Avast, CCleaner, Himachi, and Skype and rebooted your computer and then verified the game files and tried a game that you verified and got the same error ?

Let's pick one game to use to troubleshoot this with, please. Your choice of Steam games, of course. Post that game we will be using in your next reply.

Also, when you post your OS, always state if it is 32 or 64 bit.

When was the last time you checed the manufacturer's website for driver updates to the system drivers ?

Have you updated the GPU drivers lately ? What are your other computer specs as in GPU, CPU, RAM, etc. Post those as well please.

OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit
Specs:i7-5500U CPU@2.40GHz Processor, 16GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce GTX950M.
I updated my drivers and my windows the day the error occured, so about 2 weeks ago, and I'd definitely like to pick CS:GO as my game to be using in this

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Raph:

OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit
Specs:i7-5500U CPU@2.40GHz Processor, 16GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce GTX950M.
I updated my drivers and my windows the day the error occured, so about 2 weeks ago, and I'd definitely like to pick CS:GO as my game to be using in this

You do understand the difference between system drivers and GPU drivers, right ? Just asking in case...

So as long as you are not worried about any cooldown issues or whatever from using CSGO, then that is fine. The problem with that possibly is that Windows 8.1 is not specifically listed in the requirements for CSGO on the store page. So I would have to suggest running it in compatability mode for say Windows 7 if that is the game we are going to use.

So I guess either pick another game or set CSGO to run in compatabiliy mode for Windows 7 and be sure to click "apply" and "ok" before you try to playtest that game again just to see if compatability mode actually helps.

EDIT..I know the store says "minimum" but then previous operating systems are specifically listed, and Windows 8.1 is not.

[Raph]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Originally posted by Raph:

OS: Windows 8.1 64-bit
Specs:i7-5500U CPU@2.40GHz Processor, 16GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce GTX950M.
I updated my drivers and my windows the day the error occured, so about 2 weeks ago, and I'd definitely like to pick CS:GO as my game to be using in this

You do understand the difference between system drivers and GPU drivers, right ? Just asking in case...

So as long as you are not worried about any cooldown issues or whatever from using CSGO, then that is fine. The problem with that possibly is that Windows 8.1 is not specifically listed in the requirements for CSGO on the store page. So I would have to suggest running it in compatability mode for say Windows 7 if that is the game we are going to use.

So I guess either pick another game or set CSGO to run in compatabiliy mode for Windows 7 and be sure to click "apply" and "ok" before you try to playtest that game again just to see if compatability mode actually helps.

In regards to your first question I'm afraid I don't know the difference :S and I guess I could go for CS:S considering it's the only other game I have on here