Steam Crashing on Startup, even Reinstall won't help

[Felix.00]

I was playing a new game and watching twitch, exited the game and wanted to start it again. But steam wouldn't want to start. I got the notification that steamwebhelper.exe was crashing. I tried all of the suggested... restarting steam with hardware acceleration disabled, sandboxing disabled etc.

Furthermore I tried:
- restarting the PC
- disabling Antivirus
- restarting router
- checked for windows update
- ran a malware check
- deleting steamwebhelper.exe and restarting
- copying the dbghelp.dll from System32
- even reinstalling steam fresh multiple times

none of it worked. I can still start some installed games (just the .exe) even without steam installed.

I did not install any new software in the meanwhile or changed any setting ins windows

Any help is appreciated
(I am relatively tech savvy, so unconventional solutions are also welcomed)

EDIT: to clarify: when i start the steam client it shows 'loading user data'
-> the steam ui pops up for a second
-> and then crashes.
-> then a cycle of loading, starting and crashing starts.

EDIT: SOLVED: I added steam.exe and steamwebhelper.exe to the exceptions of my antivirus (Bitdefender). I don't know why the problem persisted when AV was deactivated though

[Slapdown]

I am having the same issue. Hopefully there is a fix for this.

[Felix.00]

Originally posted by Slapdown:

I am having the same issue. Hopefully there is a fix for this.

did it also just randomly happen or after you installed something? Since when do you have this issue?

[Lavie]

Hi!
Maybe (or not) new ideas here:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/6516193260169315933/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3811782223876997480/

You said you tried disabling Antivirus, but stil... l what is your antivirus? and Windows version?

[ShayWulf]

Originally posted by Felix.00:

I was playing a new game and watching twitch, exited the game and wanted to start it again. But steam wouldn't want to start. I got the notification that steamwebhelper.exe was crashing. I tried all of the suggested... restarting steam with hardware acceleration disabled, sandboxing disabled etc.

Furthermore I tried:
- restarting the PC
- disabling Antivirus
- restarting router
- checked for windows update
- ran a malware check
- deleting steamwebhelper.exe and restarting
- copying the dbghelp.dll from System32
- even reinstalling steam fresh multiple times

none of it worked. I can still start some installed games (just the .exe) even without steam installed.

I did not install any new software in the meanwhile or changed any setting ins windows

Any help is appreciated
(I am relatively tech savvy, so unconventional solutions are also welcomed)

EDIT: to clarify: when i start the steam client it shows 'loading user data'
-> the steam ui pops up for a second
-> and then crashes.
-> then a cycle of loading, starting and crashing starts.

[ShayWulf]

I keep getting : steamwebhelper.exe, a critical Steam component, is not responding. The Steam UI will not be usable.
I have tried everything from reinstalling to all the fixes that have been recommended over the net. Still no luck.
This only started to happen after the update from steam and its frustrating cause I am unable to play games

TURNS OUT BITDEFENDER was the culprit, I just disabled it when starting up steam app

[Felix.00]

Originally posted by Lavie:

Hi!
Maybe (or not) new ideas here:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/6516193260169315933/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3811782223876997480/

You said you tried disabling Antivirus, but stil... l what is your antivirus? and Windows version?

Bitdefender on Windows 11

[Lavie]

Maybe something here:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2393/

Be sure also your have the last update for Windows and Bitdefender.

If not working, many topic on the web about Bitdefender (or other antivirus) causing this issue... If you have nothing to lose, maybe try uninstalling it (you tried disabling it, but maybe something still wrong)

[Felix.00]

Originally posted by Lavie:

Maybe something here:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2393/

Be sure also your have the last update for Windows and Bitdefender.

If not working, many topic on the web about Bitdefender (or other antivirus) causing this issue... If you have nothing to lose, maybe try uninstalling it (you tried disabling it, but maybe something still wrong)

That solved it, thank you my friend, I was close to giving up.
To anyone else looking for an answer: I added steam.exe and steamwebhelper.exe to the exceptions, don't know which one or if both are needed, but it fixed it

[Lavie]

Bravo! Thank for the return... :-)

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Originally posted by Felix.00:

Originally posted by Lavie:

Maybe something here:
https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2393/

Be sure also your have the last update for Windows and Bitdefender.

If not working, many topic on the web about Bitdefender (or other antivirus) causing this issue... If you have nothing to lose, maybe try uninstalling it (you tried disabling it, but maybe something still wrong)

That solved it, thank you my friend, I was close to giving up.
To anyone else looking for an answer: I added steam.exe and steamwebhelper.exe to the exceptions, don't know which one or if both are needed, but it fixed it

It is Steam.exe to allow as an exception.

I did this in 2016 when I built this PC. Thank you though.

[kyllian.]

Hello, I don't fully understand what to do, after adding "steam.exe" as an exception what should I do?

[Lavie]

Originally posted by kyllian.:

Hello, I don't fully understand what to do, after adding "steam.exe" as an exception what should I do?

Yes. To be sure, you can also add steamwebhelper.exe.

[kyllian.]

Originally posted by Lavie:

Originally posted by kyllian.:

Hello, I don't fully understand what to do, after adding "steam.exe" as an exception what should I do?

Yes. To be sure, you can also add steamwebhelper.exe.

and then I have to do what? just launch steam? because when I do that, steam always uses 600mo of ram.

[Lavie]

It's a solution to Steam crashing at Startup (see the title).

Maybe you can try this:
https://www.howtogeek.com/694531/how-to-reduce-steams-ram-usage-from-400-mb-to-60-mb/

You can Google "steam using to much memory" for other answers.