New Steam update bricks my windows 8.1 pc

[OmegaMan]

PC Startup takes 3-5 mins unless I uninstall steam. Normally takes 20 seconds... The steam client crashes to black screen after 5-10 seconds while at login screen. My PC is on a very stable setup for past 5 years, very very rarely crashing. GTX 770, 32 gb ram, SSD drive etc etc... I tried roll back windows restore point but for some reason it has been disabled... Please advise because I wanted to purchase Crusader kings 3 on steam.

[Satoru]

More likely your OS is somehow messed up. I’d run a full windows update

[Teksura]

Wait, does it have zero ability to function as you describe in your title, or does it continue to operate (with other issues) as you describe in your post?

If your title is accurate, then all you can do is buy a new computer and stop blaming Steam. A bricked system is usually the result of corrupted firmware, meddling with bootup configuration settings you don't understand, hardware issues, or physical damage. Steam is capable of none of these.

If instead your post is accurate, this sounds like something else is going on. Is there anything else you have installed recently? Steam shouldn't be affecting your bootup at all. In this case, it sounds like your best bet should be reinstalling your OS to clean up whatever is messed up.

[OmegaMan]

@Taksura, If I uninstall steam the system runs like normal. If I try to start steam, the computer crashes. Then I have had to load into safe more and uninstalled it, twice now and re-installed it with the same results. The computer DOES start windows with steam installed but it takes 2-4 minutes of un-responsiveness to get loaded. And regardless I can't even get past steam login screen without a black screen crash.

[DoomTrooper-_-]

Originally posted by OmegaMan:

@Taksura, If I uninstall steam the system runs like normal. If I try to start steam, the computer crashes. Then I have had to load into safe more and uninstalled it, twice now and re-installed it with the same results. The computer DOES start windows with steam installed but it takes 2-4 minutes of un-responsiveness to get loaded. And regardless I can't even get past steam login screen without a black screen crash.

Does the steam login window pop up when you start your computer?

I had a similar issue with my laptop and tried disabling steam to auto start when windows starts.

1 Open Task manager
2 Go to start-up tab
3 Disable steam

steam likes to check for updates on every start, so this might help you, my laptop has 6gb and running an i5

I noticed a decrease in boot time after disabling auto-start :)

EDIT* one other thing that could help us if that doesn't work

Can you list the top 3 processes running on task manager when you boot into windows?
-open take manager
-Click the top of column "memory"
And
-click the top column "CPU %"

[OmegaMan]

@DoomTrooper steam is already disabled. And The primary issue is that Steam won't even at all. It crashes to a black screen after 5-10 seconds of starting steam.exe

[DoomTrooper-_-]

EDIT: Found this, try a winsock reset: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/357288572127174544/
------------------

Ok, two more things to try

Compatibility
1
Try if you haven't already compatibility options (right click steam shortcut) set to run under windows 8

safe mode steam start
2
Can you start steam in safe mode with networking?
This along with almost everything under the sun in this article
https://appuals.com/fix-steam-keeps-crashing/#:~:text=Steam%20is%20well%20known%20to,it%20or%20it%20crashes%20randomly.&text=Restart%20your%20system%20and%20launch,and%20check%20if%20that%20helps

However, if this is a hard compatibility issue, you may need to resort to updating to windows 10.
win 8.1 is a little outdated & I don't think they are making updates to steam designed for win8.