Steam overlay not working, reinstalling not helping.

[dart193]

My steam overlay broke 2 weeks ago, today I tried to fix it.

I checked that all the settings are correct, steam overlay is enabled both globally and per games. Those games have overlay working on different machine.

I then checked that Windows is up-to-date. I also updated graphics drivers. No result.

Then I backed up steam and deleted it, then reinstalled it, being sure that this step will help for sure.
Somehow, this did not help.

I also tried disabling firewall and antivirus software, not result.

Googling does not seem to suggest any step beyond that. Does anyone knows what else might prevent steam overlay from working?

It worked before on this machine for 4 years.

[dart193]

I have found that steam folder contains "GameOverlayRenderer.log". Here are the contents. There is some strange disabling message. Also, detach time matches exactly the moment I exit the game.

Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Module file name: C:\Steam\gameoverlayrenderer.dll
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - GameID = 610080, OverlayGameID = 610080
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - System page size: 4096
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Hooking SetCursorPos, GetCursorPos, ShowCursor, SetCursor, and GetCursor
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Modules at GameOverlayRenderer.dll attach
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 01: RealmGrinderDesktop.exe - (00F80000 to 00FA8000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 02: ntdll.dll - (77360000 to 77504000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 03: KERNEL32.DLL - (753D0000 to 754C0000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 04: KERNELBASE.dll - (77130000 to 77349000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 05: SHELL32.dll - (756C0000 to 75C75000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 06: msvcp_win.dll - (76F10000 to 76F8B000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 07: ucrtbase.dll - (754C0000 to 755E0000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 08: USER32.dll - (76F90000 to 7712B000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 09: win32u.dll - (76D20000 to 76D38000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 10: GDI32.dll - (76D40000 to 76D63000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 11: gdi32full.dll - (755E0000 to 756BD000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 12: SHLWAPI.dll - (752C0000 to 75305000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 13: msvcrt.dll - (75DD0000 to 75E8F000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 14: msi.dll - (7AF10000 to 7B1A9000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 15: ADVAPI32.dll - (76690000 to 7670B000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 16: sechost.dll - (75F10000 to 75F86000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 17: RPCRT4.dll - (764D0000 to 7658E000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 18: ole32.dll - (76710000 to 767F3000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 19: combase.dll - (76800000 to 76A80000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 20: bcrypt.dll - (76670000 to 76689000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 21: IMM32.DLL - (76BF0000 to 76C15000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 22: gameoverlayrenderer.dll - (7C710000 to 7C859000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 23: OLEAUT32.dll - (76590000 to 76626000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 24: PSAPI.DLL - (75E90000 to 75E96000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - 25: WINMM.dll - (75170000 to 75198000)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - ----------------------------
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Game is using dinput8, preparing to hook.
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Game is using dxgi (dx10/dx11), preparing to hook.
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Game is using D3D9 or D3D9Ex, preparing to hook.
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - hookDirect3DCreate9 called
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - IWrapIDirect3D9::CreateDevice hook called (type: 1, behavior flags: 46!)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Creating D3D9 renderer
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Initializing Audio...
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Trying to setup input hook...
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Set input hook...
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - IAudioClient_Initialize - SUCCEEDED
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Audio client initialized: 0x04CBF5A0
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Device:
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Audio client mix format:
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - format: 65534
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - channels: 2
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - samples/sec: 48000
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - bytes/sec: 384000
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - alignment: 8
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - bits/sample: 32
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - channel mask: 0x3
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - data format: {00000003-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
Sat Sep 17 17:58:17 2022 UTC - Audio hooked
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - IAudioClient_Initialize - SUCCEEDED
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - Audio client initialized: 0x1291ED38
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - Device:
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - Audio client mix format:
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - format: 65534
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - channels: 2
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - samples/sec: 48000
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - bytes/sec: 384000
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - alignment: 8
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - bits/sample: 32
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - channel mask: 0x3
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - data format: {00000003-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
Sat Sep 17 17:58:21 2022 UTC - Audio client started: 0x1291ED38, 2
Sat Sep 17 17:58:27 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (10 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:29 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (12 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:31 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (14 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:33 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (16 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:35 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (18 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:37 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (20 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:39 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (22 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:41 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (24 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:43 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (26 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:45 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (28 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:47 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (30 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:49 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (32 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:51 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (34 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:53 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (36 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:55 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (38 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:57 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (40 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:58:59 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (42 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:59:01 2022 UTC - Disabling overlay for 2 seconds (44 seconds since last frame from ui process was seen)
Sat Sep 17 17:59:02 2022 UTC - Releasing all resources for device: 0C9E0E00
Sat Sep 17 17:59:02 2022 UTC - Detaching input hook...
Sat Sep 17 17:59:03 2022 UTC - GameOverlayRenderer.dll detaching
[\quote]

[tintingaroo]

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/3978-072C-18DF-FBF9
The section 'Investigate Other Programs Interfering' mentions some stuff.

Perhaps it could be interference from other software that has an overlay (IIRC there's another trouble-shooting page from Valve where they mention this). Running MSI Afterburner? NVIDIA Experience stuff?

Tried running Steam as Admin, not as Admin?

[dart193]

Solution that helped me was to move %temp% folder back to default location and give all steam executables admin rights. I have been consistently running into issues with admin rights in apps about every 3 months due to WIndows updates. Last time, Morrowind refused to save because Windows refused to properly store its registry data.

[Iceira]

No you fiddle with its settings and now it give you game issue and some games can see you have fiddle with steam.exe and its rights, and then you mixup Antivirus Folder access to Document ( know as ransomware )

game devs have used Document way back and before Vista even why i stop there is NTFS also is part of that.

and you can find many crazy ppl that explan move thing out of MS folder or program Files, and its more the users that dont graps whats going on, you need to white list things or make exceptions rules, and its user own responsibility to test for such, even most AV app support page tell user that from false possitive to things being blocked is possible.

win10 was supported by steam a long time ago, sense you mention last 3 months as issue just point out, you got other issue with security in system rights and anti virus app.

and its not even few days ago i told another steam user fiddle with steam.exe only make it worse on other game.

ps.
but what casue that depend on system now have other issue, you can try safe boot mode.

if you are rude and lucky you can try ruleback to 3+ month ago with restore system point if you have such restore point, most dont have such, something cause this wayback.

and Morrwind and Oblivion is know for this, not sure every user know this in those forum. i can say fiddle with steam and skyrim with compabilities setting have seen to give issue before, even own Bethesda support page said that to Oldrim wayback

gl with it.

[Iceira]

off topic ( test system, more a what if other things cause this. ) ( cmd promt with admin rights ofc. )
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow
chkdsk ( per drive letter )

gl with it.

[dart193]

1) I have had issues with windows updates that are not just for me. One of the windows updates broke sound to various degrees for many users, which was quickly rolled back and then hotfixed. I also had successful cases of removing recent windows updates to fix broken things, then update at some later time. So Windows updates do break things sometimes. This problem likely occured after big update downloaded some weeks ago.

2) Fiddling with system settings carelessly - yes, that can cause problems. Thankfully, I google things before doing them. I moved my USER temp folder (system temp folder at %WINDIR%/temp is not touched, _that_ would be a bad idea) to HDD because my SSD has very little space and instead of having to clean it up regularly, it can be just moved to a different drive safely as apps access it via %TEMP% environment variable, which can be safely changed via normal system settings (no registry magic or something).

3) I do not think I have ever heard of app having problems due to _having_ admin right rather than not having them.

4) I never had sfc or Dism actually repair anything. sfc always told me that there were no problems found. For chkdsk, I run this quite frequently - it finds some small unused index and unmarked freespace, but so far I do not think I have seen it finding other errors on this machine.

5) I figured out that there is likely permission problem due to the log I provided: apparently, overlay does starts but cannot receive any frame from game (indicated by messages). As of Windows update breaking overlay, I thought of this because accessing other's process frame data may be potentially unsafe, and given that most of Windows updates increase system security, they could easily made it so that such thing requires admin rights now. Its not a bad thing. The problem might be not present for most of other users because I have settings in Security part of settings app on significally higher strictness than default.