Something is potentially blocking my games?

[Dresden]

Heya-

Yesterday, I noticed that none of my Steam applications load without a CTD. It would merely say "x has stopped working." It wouldn't even load the menu. The first thing that came to my mind was Avast, seeing as it has a bad habit of blocking a lot of programs. So, I turned it off, but received the same issue. Then, I assumed it was Steam. I attempted to have it verify the integrity of the files and fix potentially broken ones. No avail. I reinstalled Steam. Same issue. Then, I attempted to load a program using Origin and had the exact same problem. The issue is odd. Not every game is blocked. WoW seems to load without issue. Battlefield 3, as well, but I assumed it was because BF3 is browser based. I literally tried every title on my Steam library and had the same issue. Not a single one would load. Could it be an administrative issue? I'm running out of things to narrow down, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Malo]

Or you have a malware hooking executables? You could try running combofix on your system and see what it finds.

 

[Reload]

Maybe you've switched to the debug version of D3D runtimes...

(Sometimes, I forget to switch back to Retail version before launching a game...)

 

[Dresden]

I don't recall if I've ever fooled with the D3D debug version. Come to think of it, I may be using the latest beta drivers for my GPU's. Could that be the issue?

 

[Mize]

Which OS? Anything in Event Viewer?

 

[Dresden]

Windows 7 Ultimate. Erm, haven't checked the log.

My specs are as follows:

Intel Sandy Bridge i7 2600k @3.4 ghz (stock)
2 x 3 GB EVGA GTX 580's (I believe beta drivers 295.51)
16 GB DDR3

I can provide more info, if need be. I'm going to start with the video drivers this evening, by reverting back to the last WHQL's. If that doesn't work, I'm at a loss.

 

[Mize]

I scanned the beta release nots (I'm still back a few drivers) and nothing about it. Did you do a clean driver removal an installation or install-over-old?

 

[Dresden]

I scanned the beta release nots (I'm still back a few drivers) and nothing about it. Did you do a clean driver removal an installation or install-over-old?

Did a clean install, but didn't remove the old drivers. I recently reformatted, but had no issue launching applications. The only thing I can think of is the drivers. I honestly can't remember doing anything else to my computer other than switching between the betas and the WHQL's. I'll do a clean install tonight.

 

[Mize]

Yeah, I try a full driver removal, then retry the betas before reverting.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I've run into that problem at times if the correct version of Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable isn't installed.

A few months back I had something kinda like that with Steam, but a reboot made it go away. Not sure what was going on with that.

And as others have said, you may have malware of some type on your system mucking things up.

You might also try putting the games into Offline mode in Steam and then trying them. I've noticed sometimes that if things are wonky with my internet connection it will make starting certain games in Steam wonky also.

Regards,
SB

 

[Mize]

I had to reinstall the MSVC++ redistrib to get Civ V to stop crashing once...but that was game specific for me.

 

[Dresden]

I've run into that problem at times if the correct version of Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable isn't installed.

A few months back I had something kinda like that with Steam, but a reboot made it go away. Not sure what was going on with that.

And as others have said, you may have malware of some type on your system mucking things up.

You might also try putting the games into Offline mode in Steam and then trying them. I've noticed sometimes that if things are wonky with my internet connection it will make starting certain games in Steam wonky also.

Regards,
SB

I had to reformat, things were getting out of hand. It wasn't a big deal, though. I only had WoW and my Steam games installed. I tried restoring from certain points and nothing was working. Upon getting my system back up, everything worked fine. I'm not sure what happened exactly. I did a fresh driver install and everything mentioned in this thread. I'm happy with the outcome, I'm just hoping it doesn't happen again.

Thanks all!