Sometimes, Steam becomes unusably slow and I don't know why

[BlazeHedgehog]

Sometimes the Steam interface will be EXTREMELY sluggish. Text is immensely slow at coming up in chat windows, it takes 3-5 seconds for any clicks to respond when I'm browsing my library (or anything through the Steam client, really).

Restarting Steam usually fixes it.

Absolutely nothing precludes this happening. In the most recent case (just now), it was the first time I'd used Steam since booting up my PC two hours ago. A chat message from a friend came up, and trying to bring up the chat window from the task bar took several seconds.

[The Giving One]

BlazeHedgehog eredeti hozzászólása:

The Giving One eredeti hozzászólása:

EDIT..I see one thing that may not be a big deal but certainly does not help...you only have 2 gigs of RAM, right ?

Then uninstall ALL of that software and test this again. Especially Hamachi and Daemon Tools. Reboot after uninstalling it.

I'll uninstall Hamachi but I'm not going to uninstall software I actively use.

Then you are not going to fully troubleshoot this problem in a step by step methodical manner using process of elimination. Can you not simply reinstall any program later on that we find as not causing this ?

And what about the RAM issue ?

[BlazeHedgehog]

The Giving One eredeti hozzászólása:

BlazeHedgehog eredeti hozzászólása:

I'll uninstall Hamachi but I'm not going to uninstall software I actively use.

Then you are not going to fully troubleshoot this problem in a step by step methodical manner using process of elimination. Can you not simply reinstall any program later on that we find as not causing this ?

And what about the RAM issue ?

Actually, no, I might not be able to reinstall this version of Daemon Tools. More recent versions of Daemon Tools are full of adware and other junk, this is a specific version from before that. I'm also not entirely sure why that would be conflicting with Steam's web browser of all things.

I've disabled Daemon Tools' ability to start with Windows, and I've uninstalled Hamachi, and the problem still persists.

And what about the RAM issue? Yes, I only have 2gb, but if you're going to tell me that a storefront and game launcher needs more than 2gb, I think Valve's got big problems.

[The Giving One]

Disabled is not the same as fully uninstalled and all traces removed from your system. If you keep "thinking" that this or that is not the problem, then you are not troubleshooting this in a step by step process of elimination. You can clearly see that Daemon Tools is on the list, so eliminate it as being a possible cause and we can move on to the next step, if there is one, because you are still using XP for some reason even though support for that OS ended long ago.

And I am not saying Steam uses more than 2 GB of RAM, but Steam is not the only thing running on your PC in normal boot, hence my suggestion for you to use safe mode WITH networking while troubleshooting this problem.

And your PC is the ONLY device hooked up to your modem right now and your router is in no way also hooked up to it, correct ? You should only have one ethernet cable running from your PC to your modem right now and nothing else connected at all.

I saw a post once where a user did a factory reset of his modem to default conditions, and that fixed his problem, but I would perhaps consider that as a last step here and do that at your own risk if you decide to do it.

"If the issue persists, please try disabling or temporarily uninstalling the program to test the issue."

I don't mean to sound rude here but if you are going to go on about what you are not going to do there to try to troubleshoot this issue in a process of elimination, then perhaps you should clarify that one more time please and then I can go on to actually helping someone else more receptive to suggestions, and someone that is not using an OS that is no longer supported by Microsoft.

I mean that with all due respect here.

[BlazeHedgehog]

I'm not still using Windows XP by choice, not entirely. There's a whole ordeal with video capture drivers, and basically I've had to stay with XP or lose access to certain pieces of hardware. There's also the fact that I've reached a point with my system where I'm basically at the limit of what this motherboard will support, so if I upgrade it's going to cost over $500 to do so, as I'll have to buy new everything (save for maybe the PSU and the HDDs, of course).

I'm saving money, but I'm poor and over the last year I've only managed to stash away about $340. I'll get there eventually. I'd hoped by Christmas, but I'm starting to have my doubts.

But, hey, I can read between the lines enough to know what you're getting at. That's fine. I'm used to being left out like this. And you're obviously a real ace at making people want to cooperate with you.

If anyone else wants to help this fine gentleman figure out what's going on, they are welcome to knock themselves out. I found my workaround.

[Basic]

@OP Thanks for taking the time to post the results of your investigation here. Unfortunately, I'm experiencing a slightly different issue and this didn't fix it or me, but I appreciate the effort nevertheless.

[enterman]

Hate to revive a dead topic but I've been trying to fix this issue for over a month now. I had not installed any new games, software, hardware, or updates to my computer when this started last month. I'd been playing Dark Souls 2 a lot and all of a sudden my steam interface became unusually slow and unusable upon boot one day and has been happening everyday since. Two other computers in the house have no issues with Steam. Clearing my download cache fixes the issue but I have to clear it every time steam starts. Anyone ever figure this out? I've never experienced this issue in the 10+ years I've used steam.

[enterman]

Well for the first time today upon boot my steam was working fine. Checking my task manager showed not one but three separate "steamwebhelper.exe" which seemed odd but everything is working at least. When there was only one "steamwebhelper.exe" I'd end it via task manager and it would then create 2 and steam would start working correctly until I reboot.

EDIT: The problem still persists.

[Boba Fett]

@enterman; I just recently started having this same issue, looked for solutions on google and I shut down the steamwebhelper.exe and Steam was once again responsive like it was a few days ago. I don't know what triggered the issue, but if I have to shut down that one program to keep it behaving right, so be it.

[The Giving One]

THEB00BA eredeti hozzászólása:

I don't know what triggered the issue, but if I have to shut down that one program to keep it behaving right, so be it.

You should not have to be doing that. That is not normal behavior for Steam at all, of course.

When you launch Steam using a clean shortcut or the right click directly from .exe method, it should launch and run fine, and allow you to login.

Sounds like you have a software conflict possibly there, such as security software possibly, just as an example.

Would you like to explore ways to get that fixed ? We can maybe help if you do.

[ORBiT]

I had this problem recently. For me it was solved by not starting Steam with administrator privileges.

[Messer]

I turn on steam manually and this still happens for the first time, then I have to quit steam through that laggy interfact (I just kill the steam process now) then 2nd time and onwards it's a-ok. Clearly not an issue with startup and manual steam.

[Sorasora]

Since I'm seeing newer posts I'll add my two cents. I can start steam and within seconds it lags out, it's almost unusable to try to scroll through games, or even to switch tabs in it. What I found that works for me is to go into my processes and kill the Steam Client Webhelper. It'll restart itself, which is fine because when I get back to my Steam screen, everything works perfectly. I might have to do this 2 or 3 times but it doesn't take long at all for Steam to begin behaving normally.

So far this has happened on 2 different computers on 2 different OS's. While this isn't a "fix" it does get my Steam back to running smoothly, which I'll accept. I'll also add that during the lockups, Steam is using less than 1% of my CPU and less and 2% of my RAM, and neither is majorly utilized (even playing World of Tanks or Minecraft the CPU and RAM usually are less than 25% utilized)

[raecer]

Same thing happens to me. Quitting and restarting steam client works. But it's weird.

[Joikleave]

It has been 2 years since the first time I saw this, the only way to solve was just start manually Steam. But today seems came back even starting it manually...
Maybe is it just the new Client patch?

[ᵉʳᵍᵒ]

So I'm not the only one this just happened to. Valve needs to focus on optimizing their already half-broken platform instead of shoving it full of more features nobody asked for.