Steam not working at all

[snacks]

About the 5th, there was an update for L4D and a client update. Since then, Steam started crashing literally every 10 minutes where it was idle. It took the entire day, constantly restarting Steam, just to download an 800 mb update. It then proceeded to download a 3,500 mb update for L4D that does not exist, with the crashing as bad as ever, and I gave up. I tried to reinstall Steam, and now it refuses to load at all. Either it crashes before it can sign in, or it takes 10 minutes to sign in and then crashes when Steam tries to open. I have no clue what is causing this, I already did virus scans. I also have a new laptop, and the current fad is to not give your customers any kind of backup CD so I don't know how to format the hard drive either.

 

[ramonsterns]

Contact Steam Support

 

[snacks]

Of course I'm trying that, but they don't respond instantly. So I post on tech boards to see if anyone knows anything while waiting for a response, and hopefully it won't just be "try running as an admin," because of course I've done that.

 

[mopar man]

My $.02

Steps
1. Uninstall Steam
2. Delete the ENTIRE install directory it was installed in.
3. Use CCleaner to clean up the registry.
4. Restart.
5. Ensure there is *nothing* left on the system pertaining to Steam.
6. Reinstall Steam.

No change?

 

[snacks]

I manually deleted the registry keys, I didn't use CCleaner. After reinstalling Steam reaches the store menu but any other tab causes an instant crash.

 

[ramonsterns]

Strange, I've had many things happen with Steam, but never constant crashing.

 

[Archean]

@snacks

I recently had issues with steam on Win7x64; where steam would sign me in, but as soon as I clicked on the Steam icon in system tray it would simply disappear.

So what I did was, backed up steamapps folder, then uninstall steam, and manually deleted every single entry with 'steam' or 'valve' in it (frankly took me a while), then reboot the system, and re-installed steam, and it fixed the issue for me.

Anyway CCleaner is good option to do this same thing and it may fix your issue as well, but personally I prefer to do it manually, but that is just me.

One other idea can be, do you have a restore point prior to this issue started ? If so, you can try rolling back your system to that date.

 

[snacks]

I did do it manually but didn't restart afterwards. CCleaner didn't change anything, and going to the restore point didn't make any difference.

Currently Steam can open, but crashes if any tabs or options are clicked on.

 

[mopar man]

Hmm

This is quite the problem! I'm running Win7x64, no errors with steam on this end.

I use CCleaner simply because I'm a lazy bastard; I don't want to go into the registry and take my time finding the keys if I don't have to. CCleaner does a great job of cleaning it imo.

I think you might have to wait for a response if even a system restore had no affect on the issue.

There has to be a software or hardware conflict with the new patch? Maybe check the event viewer to see if it references something specific?