Problem with Steam

[juppy]

Is anybody else around here having problems with getting Steam to update (for games like Half Life 2, Portal, The Orange Box, etc)? The last time I could get it to update was 11/14/07 and now any time I try to start a game online or just start Steam so it can update, it goes to about 26% updated then resets to 0% and starts over. It does this three times and then apparently gives up after the third failed attempt and says something about the Steam servers being busy and to try again later. Well, later never happens, because I've tried all hours of the day, even 2 o'clock in the morning, and it still won't work.

There's a thread going about it on Steam's official site but so far nobody has found a fix and no mods or admins have jumped in with any info on it either. Anybody else around here have this problem and know of a fix?

[pam123]

I've noticed it, I have downloaded Black Box games, but I haven't got any updates.

[juppy]

Hi pam, thanks for the reply.

I don't really know what's going on with them. Several people on their official site have this "conspiracy theory" going that Valve is trying to squeeze out low speed users, since most of the affected are using dialup. I don't think that's the case really though, because there ARE a few DSL users in that same thread that are affected too. It happened right after the last Steam update so, to me anyway, that would be pointing to the source of the problem.

It wouldn't even bother me really, if I could at least START my darn games. But, of course, Steam wants to update before letting an offline session happen and well, that's what it WON'T do! So in the mean time, I have this nifty $50 Orange Box edition of the game that I can't even play anymore. Oh well, I dunno.....maybe they'll get it fixed one of these days.

Oh, just for my curiosity, and related to that "debate" I mentioned, are you using broadband for your connection?

[pam123]

Hi Juppy,

I have Verizon ADSL.

[Force Flow]

Juppy, try exiting out of steam and going back into it. I've seen a few times where weird things happen to downloads on occasion. Also, if you're doing more than one game update at time, try to pause all but one until it completes.

[juppy]

That's the problem Force Flow.....I can't even get into the Steam console to do anything. This looping problem occurs on the first update part, when it's trying to update the Steam platform files, not the game files. For instance, when you try to start a game it gives you the little box that says all the stuff about "launching" the game etc, and the first box says "Updating Steam Platform" and it counts from 0% to 100%. After that, THEN it usually loads the console and starts updating the individual games with their updates. I'm getting hung up on that first Steam Platform update screen, so I can't get into the console to do anything.

I tried deleting the ClientRegistry.blob file tonight so Steam would have to rebuild it, but that didn't do any good. I wish I would've known to backup that file when Steam WAS working, because apparently that's the file that decides whether offline mode is available or not. Unfortunately my current blob file says "Hey, you need to update" and so I'm locked out of my games totally. I'm debating whether to try reinstalling Steam or not. Several of the other people in that thread I mentioned have tried it and it didn't help. Personally I'm starting to think that the last update they did, they tried to optimize their servers and set some kind of "maximum" time limit for downloads and anyone with less than a major high speed connection doesn't get the download done in time and gets kicked out.

EDIT: 'Bout forgot....thanks for letting me know your connection type, pam. At least now I know the problem isn't just showing up on dialup.

[The_YongGrand]

Originally Posted by juppy That's the problem Force Flow.....I can't even get into the Steam console to do anything. This looping problem occurs on the first update part, when it's trying to update the Steam platform files, not the game files. For instance, when you try to start a game it gives you the little box that says all the stuff about "launching" the game etc, and the first box says "Updating Steam Platform" and it counts from 0% to 100%. After that, THEN it usually loads the console and starts updating the individual games with their updates. I'm getting hung up on that first Steam Platform update screen, so I can't get into the console to do anything. I tried deleting the ClientRegistry.blob file tonight so Steam would have to rebuild it, but that didn't do any good. I wish I would've known to backup that file when Steam WAS working, because apparently that's the file that decides whether offline mode is available or not. Unfortunately my current blob file says "Hey, you need to update" and so I'm locked out of my games totally. I'm debating whether to try reinstalling Steam or not. Several of the other people in that thread I mentioned have tried it and it didn't help. Personally I'm starting to think that the last update they did, they tried to optimize their servers and set some kind of "maximum" time limit for downloads and anyone with less than a major high speed connection doesn't get the download done in time and gets kicked out. EDIT: 'Bout forgot....thanks for letting me know your connection type, pam. At least now I know the problem isn't just showing up on dialup.

Ah... I tried to recommend the deletion of Clientregistry.blob and another one too...

I also have problems in updating Steam too last month. It kept on hanging there... and then bounces back to 0%. Well, try contacting the Steam guys, or you might let it rest until they figured out the thing.

[juppy]

Yeah, "letting it rest" is about the only thing any of us with the problem have been able to do. That thread on their forums with people saying they've got the same problem has grown to about 300 posts now. Still no official acknowledgement of the problem by Valve/Steam though. People that have sent in support tickets are saying they still haven't gotten any response from them either....some as old as a couple weeks. I mean, I realize with 13 million users, they've probably got alot of support issues to take care of, but you'd think at least *somebody* would get something back in that amount of time.

So far the only thing that has worked for anybody in that thread has been getting a friend with an updated, working copy of Steam to copy everything off (except for the SteamApps folder, of course) and install it on the machine that isn't working. The moderators over there said this is against the SSA rules though and is considered piracy, so they're not letting anybody post any kind of update file like that to help the rest of us out until they finally fix the problem.