Steam GameOverlay REFUSING to start! Please help! [SOLVED]

[Duchess of Soles]

Hello everyone!

Originally posted by MrCachumba:

For those who don't know, a recent Bit Defender update has been causing the overlay problem. If you have the paid version make steam an exception. Not sure what to do for the free version, personally i uninstalled it for now.

Thanks to MrCachumba, many of us are back on the road with our Steam Overlay. However, I'm not going to delete this thread; should you still have GameOverlay issues and your antivirus wasn't the case, try one of the things I've attempted and listed below as they've worked for some people! (Alternatively, should I indeed run in to more issues myself, I'd merely clean up and reboot this thread in the future; makes things easy.)

Just disabling your antivirus (or even having its process not running at all) won't fix it, you have to legitimately uninstall and let it safely pluck itself from your registry. Though as mentioned, should you have the paid version, just make an exception to Steam's stuff and you should be fine.





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I'm on Win7 x64.

I've recently run on to a problem with Steam GameOverlay not starting, it's VERY concerning for me; mostly because, it is disallowing me from being able to stream via steam, take screenshots, join friends in-game, or even chat with my friends unless I tab out.

Tue Dec 16 17:46:20 2014 UTC - GameOverlay process started: pid: 4568
Tue Dec 16 17:46:20 2014 UTC - GameOverlay exiting due to missing PID argument

^ That is the latest log from the GameOverlayUI.exe.log file, and what I see when overlay fails.

*EDIT: I later found out that the log there was a result of me attempting to manually start it; it just didn't recognize any games presently running I assume? So it gave me that message. I get the same message when games aren't running at all.

I've played games for years using steam and have never experienced this issue before; I don't recall anything different done recently, nor have I tampered with anything. Game Overlay works perfectly fine for some games (Warframe, Spiral Knights, etc) but refuses to even start for most others (Borderlands TPS, Payday 2, Viscera Cleanup Detail, etc etc).




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*POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS*

Here's a list of things I've tried, as I've scanned over tons of threads regarding issues with the steam overlay. They've helped some people:

-Ensured Overlay was enabled both in general settings and with the individual games via Steam Library.

-Tried running the game, overlay.exe, and Steam as Admin. (Both separately & All at once.)

-Tried restarting Steam & my PC.

-Opt'd in for Steam Beta Client.

-Tried pinning GameOverlayUI.exe to taskbar.

-Ensured I was on NET.Framework 3.5 and not 4.0+ (AKA: I changed nothing [EDIT: May be an outdated solution in the future.])

-Ensured no external programs were running (Like Fraps, Xfire, Mumble, etc etc), the only program I have running is Steam itself; I installed nothing new before the issue started.

-Varified game cache(s) of the games that it doesn't work on.

-Did the Steam flushconfig trick.

-Did the "Delete everything but SteamApps & Steam.exe" trick for a fresh install fo steam.

-Attempted to update DirectX (as well as DirectX for the specific games), no dice.

-Installed latest Display Drivers.

-Disabled anti-virus/firewalls. (EDIT [SOLVED]: Some, such as Bitdefender, need to either be UNINSTALLED entirely, or if possible, Steam added to the list of exceptions as it may be the culprit.)

-Disabled ALL start up/background applications that weren't Microsoft (as suggested here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8043-EUJN-5239 ).

-Prayed to the Machine Spirit.



This PID Argument thing seems to be the root of the problem. When I boot up the few games that DO work with the Game Overlay, I don't get missing PID Argument alerts on the log. (Though again, it could just be the Game Overlay refusing to recignize the games themselves. - Again, yes, I triple checked they have Enable Game Overlay ticked in their properties.)


Tue Dec 16 18:07:06 2014 UTC - GameOverlay process started: pid: 6020
Tue Dec 16 18:07:06 2014 UTC - GameOverlay process connecting to: pid: 1444
Tue Dec 16 18:07:06 2014 UTC - BuildID: 1418725563
Tue Dec 16 18:07:06 2014 UTC - Steam Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam


^ That's what it looks like in the GameOverlayUI.exe.log when it works.


The only other thing I can think of that happened which was 'weird' lately, was my firewall had decided to quarantine some "easyanticheat" thing from Steam. It never messed with steam prior. Maybe that could be it...?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\downloading\301520\EasyAntiCheat\EasyAntiCheat_x86.dll

^ This was the file that got deleted, though upon further inspection, I believe it was just an update for a game that it was coming through on. I don't believe this is the root of my problem, as this happened on the 2nd of December... I didn't start having issues until recent.



Do any moderators, or people with tech experience have any suggestions? I'm at a loss here, and it's very disheartening to not be able to play and enjoy games due to achievement notification, screenshot, steam stream, friend-joining, and communication denial.


Any/All helpful or insightful responses are GREATLY appreciated!!
(Feel free to post if you're having similar issues. I did see others with the same issue on other forums, with no solutions given... I sincerely feel it's a Steam thing.)


EDIT: Added additional information.
EDIT: Added further clarification to avoid miscomm.
EDIT: [SOLVED]
EDIT: More cleaning.

[Duchess of Soles]

I've even tried the individual suggestions to get specific games working that people have had issues on. No go, and if you want a list of things I have running, I may be able to add that... but it's very agitating because this was working 100% fine up until recently. Games are coming out with new content/updates and I feel as if I have a thorn in my side attempting to enjoy them with this non-sense. :/

[spoof]

I did not see you mention directx to fix a directx overlay.

[Duchess of Soles]

Originally posted by spoof:

I did not see you mention directx to fix a directx overlay.

Ohhhh? This is one thing I hadn't seen. Do you have any walkthroughs for that?

[spoof]

hust download and install it from the microsoft site.
even if steam installed it 20 before it sometimes works.

[Duchess of Soles]

Originally posted by spoof:

hust diwnbload and install it from the microsoft site.
even if steam installed it 20 before it sometimes works.

So you're saying I just download the latest Dx version or something? Does it have to be Dx10 or 11 or 9? Apologies for not knowing this (if it's common knowledge).

[spoof]

just get the latest , directx is backwards compatible.
that means the latest has all versions.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36805

[Duchess of Soles]

Originally posted by spoof:

just get the latest , directx is backwards compatible.
that means the latest has all versions.

Yeah I'm not the brightest with everything, but I know a decent bit of lingo lol - Thank you, I shall try this and let you know if it works; if it does, I'm gonna cry.

[76561198128744311]

做任务

[Duchess of Soles]

Originally posted by 小白兔太妃糖:

做任务

The task is done.

Okay so, spoof; I did what you asked but it's saying I already have that version on my computer. I also tried the Dx.End-User thing and it said it didn't need to install because a current/better version was already installed.

So unless I did something wrong, I suppose I'll add that to the list of things I tried? Unless I have to uninstall then reinstall it, or something.

[spoof]

I can always just install it , I do not take much note of what microsoft say to me.

edit: just tested it and you are right.
must be a new thing(to me)

[Duchess of Soles]

Originally posted by spoof:

I can always just install it , I do not take much note of what microsoft say to me.

http://gyazo.com/fd8e1957db3bcbf5e91d46da0d8368c7 That's the only thing that happens.

[spoof]

yeah I moved on it does not sound like the issue.

but you say this stops you from achievements and game time tracking.
this is not true for the overlay.

are you saying your achievements do not work and game time is not tracked?

[Duchess of Soles]

Originally posted by spoof:

yeah I moved on it does not sound like the issue.

but you say this stops you from achievements and game time tracking.
this is not true for the overlay.

are you saying your achievements do not work and game time is not tracked?

It's a mixture of assumptions, namely because I don't see my time increase so I figure nothing else is tracked; then again, I suppose it could be that I just do not see it. I'm admittedly still confused and baffled about it all, like, I see 0 reason for this to happen...

[spoof]

it is probably something you have installed , usually security software.

try this to disable start up items.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9SM3OpbsqKM#t=73

[Duchess of Soles]

http://gyazo.com/b47359785532b4bd91338243a4ebab43 This is an image of my TaskMngr. Anything on there look suspect?

Bitfinder is my anti-virus; I've had it disabled whilst troubleshooting (and have had it running fine in the past for a long, long time without issues), and gyazo is just the image thing, which I always shut down when I'm not taking snaps, like this one, so it's not interfering.