Steam fucked my shit up

[CatzEyes93]

you saw this already?
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5322-QYZB-5344

[Siggs]

yup

[sersoft]

Try ending services like system restore, updates, indexing or superfetch, install new directx, vcredist, dotnetfx, SP1 etc, maybe even do a disk check, system restore sucks but switching to another user account to use steam is not that bad. I am leaving the internet till tomorrow so good luck.

[Siggs]

hmm. Well latest DirectX and VCredist are already in, I know steam worked on the administrator account

I’m not getting any issues atm, if that’ll last I don’t know…

[russilker]

If you get another issue, disable everything (including antivirus software, ATI tray tools, etc.) but the necessary startup programs using msconfig, and see if you get any more problems. If not, add programs one by one back in the msconfig startup list to see which one of them is really causing the problem.

[Shadi]

that’s some fucked up shit my friend =/

[Zeus]

@Siggs

My shockwave plugin in Chrome has stopped working at the same time, so no youtube either :S

I believe we know this as “Flash” nowadays, since Adobe bought Macromedia and merged Flash and Shockwave… Or call it “Shockwave Flash”, it’s actual name. But please don’t call it Shockwave, that brings back bad memories.
EDIT: Shockwave does exist, I just checked. But it’s not what YouTube uses, which is “Shockwave Flash”, so my point still stands.

[Siggs]

Uh, yeah, the popup says shockwave flash, true…

…but, anal much?

[Zeus]

No, I just really really hated Shockwave. It was a horrible plugin. Nightmareish.

[Maverix26]

I don’t see what the problem is with just re dl’ing the game d:? Is is that much trouble?

Anyways, if ATI System tray tools isthe problem, can’t you just close that, or end the process? Or would that mean subsequently ‘ending’ your video card? I know that i can have my nvidia running without system trays open.

[Siggs]

@Maverix26

I don’t see what the problem is with just re dl’ing the game d:? Is is that much trouble?

No, but I’m sure you see where I’m coming from when I tell you that downloading ~80Gb of games, on a 3Mb/s connection, which is in use all day, by multiple people…

…well, it can be a huge pain, to say the least.

@Maverix26

Anyways, if ATI tray tools(it’s third party alternative to Catalyst Control Centre, the regular tuning application) is the problem, can’t you just close that, or end the process? Or would that mean subsequently ‘ending’ your video card? I know that i can have my nvidia running without system trays open.

It was the problem one of the times, yes. It wouldn’t stop the video card working by any means, no, so atm I don’t have it installed. It’s a shame, I rely on it alot.

But, seeing as I’ve had the error since, it might seem that Tray Tools is not the cause, so I may reinstall it and see.

[Metritutus]

When you reinstalled Steam, did you try reinstalling it to a different directory than before? It probably won’t do anything but there’s no harm in trying. Hopefully.

[CatzEyes93]

You may have to create a trouble ticket on the steam support area. sorry we cant help ya m8.

[Siggs]

@Metritutus

When you reinstalled Steam, did you try reinstalling it to a different directory than before? It probably won’t do anything but there’s no harm in trying. Hopefully.

…

@Siggs

My steam is installed to C:\GAMING\Steam - so it’s not that

I’ve tried installing it to 3 different places.

[CatzEyes93]

So is the error when you try to launch steam, or when you try to launch a GAME?

Edit: nevermind. I see your problem is that launching it it closes out.

How about safemode? Can you update or launch in safemode?

[russilker]

Don’t delete the Steamapps folder which contains your games, that shouldn’t be the cause of any issues. Did you try doing what I suggested thru msconfig? It sounds like something is interfering with Steam’s operation if a reinstall didn’t fix anything.

[Quintix256]

Did you use the builtin backup, or did you simply copy the steamapps directory?

[Chickenprotector]

Siggs - What’s your upgrade OS? I suspect that your Steam Apps folder may have an incompatibility with your current OS/Steam version install or a corrupt .GCF file inside of your directory… hence causing the problem. (The latter is far less likely as it doesn’t interface with the Steam directly, at least most of them, the WinUI.gcf and SourceInit.gcf MAY interface)

– Windows 7 & XP have two TOTALLY different Steam clients. As the code is vastly different, some of the mechanisms that run the games and logins may not be working properly with the client you have installed if it’s from a different version of the client. Read below.

Edit: After some research on the steam forums, and google… it seems this is a very similar problem to the one you’re having. Delete the WinUI and SourceInt.gcf files and see if it works. If not, then you’re gonna need to do a manual install, and move all your custom content over (if any). run it overnight and when you go to work/school, it does wonders for the wait.
… they’ll automatically re-download them.

[russilker]

If you think the SteamApps folder is the cause of the problem, just cut and paste it elsewhere on your hard drive and create a blank steamapps folder in place of it and see if it helps. If it doesn’t, try what I suggested above.

[Chickenprotector]

@russ -

It automatically re-creates the directory on its own… I think, too tired to remember at the moment. Couldn’t hurt to create another directory though and see what happens.

What lead me to suspect that is that Siggs did that with the content it crashed after adding the folder and starting steam. Couple that with the new OS upgrade (I suspect XP to WIN 7)… chances are highly likely that’s it.

Edit:

I brushed up on som’more of the material in the link I provided to the steam forums. Found this.

Essentially this guy was attempting to move from his old PC to MAC (I don’t know why) anyway, it’s a similar issue, 2 OS’ that are not compatible. This fixed the issue for him.

@webmessia

Ok I’m trying this now. At the moment I’m only copying GCF’s which are platform independent. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think for Source that’s
source materials.gcf
source models.gcf
source sounds.gcf

for TF2 it’s
team fortress 2 content.gcf
team fortress 2 materials.gcf

DO NOT copy
team fortress 2 client content.gcf
sourceint.gcf
winui.gcf

As these are platform dependent (contains code for windows only)

Correct me if I’m wrong with these. I’m trying the process of copying from C:\My Programs\Steam\steamapps\ to Users\USERNAME\Documents\Steam Content

And if I’ve learnt anything from using GCF’s to backup, you start downloading the game, wait for it to get past preparing files, then it starts downloading. Tell it to pause, then quit steam. In steamapps or Steam Content folder some GCF’s will have appeared, you need to replace these. When you load up steam, it will verify the files, and download the remaining ones. This process works on windows, on the basis you don’t copy any windows only gcf’s it should download the mac equivilents.

@webmessia(cont)

Ok I tried it and it works!!

Extra info though:
For TF2 you will need
source 2007 materials.gcf
source 2007 models.gcf
source 2007 shared sounds.gcf

as well as just the source ones

also multiplayer ob binaries.gfc is another one not to copy as there is a mac variation (as with all binaries)

Works for TF2, when from 50MB/7865MB downloaded to 7700MB/7865MB downloaded. That’s a lot of download saved

Should also work for Portal, I didn’t have Portal installed on my PC but I’m going to install it and try the same process.

Hope I have been of assistance. Go enjoy your headphone fueled bloodbath

Source
Secondary source, (same problem)

In short; do this:
Delete your steam client .gcfs inside of the old Steam Apps folder, then move the folder into your steam directory, everything should work fine after that… your SYSTEM won’t detect the installed games though as far as I’m aware. I could be wrong though.

Sourceinit.gcf <-- Steam will download it automatically
winui.gcf <-- Steam will download it automatically
If that doesn’t work, then delete the ClientRegistry.blob in your main steam folder. (I’d delete it just incase anyway)

Don’t do cross-OS file jigsawing for game cashes or else you’ll get the problem you have now. 9 times out of 10 you’ll get a coding error. Most games are exempt from this, but DRMs and other such that rely on WIN 7 or XP code is not best to move, instead delete them and re-dl/install them.

An example of things like this is Crysis, which uses two different clients designed for 2 different OS clients.

DX10 client for DX10 machines (WIN 7/Vista)
DX9 client for DX9 machines (XP/Vista)

One is extremely buggy on the other. It took Crytek a little while to get a stable client on both. Using hacked software to emulate a DX10 environment on XP machines aren’t reliable sometimes either, so that was another hurtle.