Steam Freezes my entire PC when downloading/updating apps/games

[I'm Back Bois]

I know this was an issue with WIN7 back in 2019, but I'm having this issue on WIN10. Every time Steam updates or downloads(mostly updates) a game/app, it will work for a minute or so, Steam will stop responding, sometimes it will catch up with itself but then my entire computer will freeze to the point that I have to force it off via the power switch in the back. I've gone through all of the older posts as well as trying to find some new ones and absolutely none of the old solutions have helped. This has been going on for weeks and I noticed that I never had this problem until after the last Steam client update. I haven't been able to play a lot of my games because I haven't been able to update them. Any suggestions?

[Iceira]

Stop tell win7 issue on a win10 OS, you might give ppl wrong buzz word and throw them off topic, ( is it a Fresh win10 install or migration from win7 to win10 )

change steam DL zone maybe , this will not help if you own isp is the issue,

check cable for bad packets transmission
https://packetlosstest.com/

check isp speed ( do you get what you paid for into own isp, not rest of the world )
https://www.speedtest.net/

read other issue or ask for how to test pc
dism, sfc, chkdsk, netsh winsock reset ( google all this )

[Lewy2]

change download region on steam, disable not needed apps and update all apps like Origin here is EAapp
Disable antivirus programs temporarily
run CMD as administrator type sfc /scannow and press Enter
if not help:
run msconfig disable some services, not microsoft services ofc. scan system for viruses run full scan,

[I'm Back Bois]

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

Stop tell win7 issue on a win10 OS, you might give ppl wrong buzz word and throw them off topic, ( is it a Fresh win10 install or migration from win7 to win10 )

This is a WIN10 issue. My computer is by default a WIN10. I never had a 7. Also, I did google possible fixes. Like I stated in the first post, absolutely nothing has helped.

Originally posted by g 0 s t e k:

change download region on steam, disable not needed apps and update all apps like Origin here is EAapp
Disable antivirus programs temporarily
run CMD as administrator type sfc /scannow and press Enter
if not help:
run msconfig disable some services, not microsoft services ofc. scan system for viruses run full scan,

Only thing here I haven't tried yet is changing the DL region. I'll try that and see what happens. I'll update this if it if it doesn't work.

Edit: Changing DL region didn't work.

[Iceira]

Are you have a gamepad attached to system ( controller unplug it, do steam work now with mouse/keyboard only. )

[I'm Back Bois]

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

Are you have a gamepad attached to system ( controller unplug it, do steam work now with mouse/keyboard only. )

I only ever use mouse+keyboard

[Iceira]

Do you have a spare pc or Friends laptop, this will either proof its your pc and not isp into steam issue, or not, feel free to try safe boot mode and other test with diffrent windows login user so you know its a OS issue or that pc profile issue.

[JK_Original]

Had this issue for months and months on a prior PC build. Only fix that solved the issue was replacing the storage device Steam used. Precisely, I kept the "defective/dying" storage device as the primary, and had Steam use the new secondary drive I purchased. On my latest build, I do use NVME and have had zero issues having it be an all on one drive.

[lewy🎮]

maybe you can try clear cache in download settings or fix download folder or reset your network maybe can help idk

[I'm Back Bois]

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

Do you have a spare pc or Friends laptop, this will either proof its your pc and not isp into steam issue, or not, feel free to try safe boot mode and other test with diffrent windows login user so you know its a OS issue or that pc profile issue.

I have another laptop that also runs WIN10. I can try on that and see what happens. I'll update if it fails.

Originally posted by JK_Original:

Had this issue for months and months on a prior PC build. Only fix that solved the issue was replacing the storage device Steam used. Precisely, I kept the "defective/dying" storage device as the primary, and had Steam use the new secondary drive I purchased. On my latest build, I do use NVME and have had zero issues having it be an all on one drive.

I've been thinking that it might be my storage device but the only thing with that is the fact that the drive I use for Steam is not even a week old. I bought it JUST for Steam since most of the games I play are quite large. Which reminds me that this issue seems to occur with games that are smaller than 1.5 GB. Anything smaller seems to update/download perfectly fine.

Originally posted by r3tr0masa:

maybe you can try clear cache in download settings or fix download folder or reset your network maybe can help idk

I tried clearing the DL cache but that didn't work. There's not much I can do about the network since it's not my router to mess with.

Edit: I'm getting the same result on my laptop. Steam freezes the whole thing while updating/downloading. Since both of my computers are WIN10, I wonder if it's an OS issue. Though that wouldn't explain why I never had this issue until after the latest Steam client update.

[stambeto0_87]

I solved the problem. It took me days and trying to test the hardware components but nothing helped. I just deleted my antivirus Avast free and left only windows defender. My computer no longer freezes when I download games through steam.

[Iceira]

Originally posted by stambeto0_87:

I solved the problem. It took me days and trying to test the hardware components but nothing helped. I just deleted my antivirus Avast free and left only windows defender. My computer no longer freezes when I download games through steam.

yeah you can find several post with anti-virus app hook down performance , even in steam guide under interference issue if i remmeber corrrecly.

its not so easy to ID this show itself doing safe boot mode test, then it get turn off while testing.

[John]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.