Steam...

[Rodéric]

Because of Steam Summer Sales, Steam use is not ideal ^^
I've had troubles too since they started, but usually it goes perfectly smooth.
It's like everything really, ignore it as long as it works, become frustrated as soon as it doesn't anymore

 

[Lightman]

It sounds like famous problem GTA IV had with IE9, where on launch it would simply crash. Took me like one day to figure it out, but after checking XP, Vista and W7 with this game I noticed only Vista and W7 had beta of IE9. You would think what IE has to do with gaming, but Securom wasn't happy about it and crashed game every time. Uninstalled IE9 and GTA started to work on Vista and W7.
Yes, I'm lucky to have three different MS oeses on the same machine, all licensed with various software installed on each. Diagnosing problem is easier for me thanks to that.

I will also add I have over 200 games on my Steam and except that GTA IV fluke I never experienced problem playing any of them on either XP 64 bit, Vista 64 bit or W7 HP 64 bit.
On couple of occasions I had to do Steam game content verification because of power cut or system hang game files can corrupt.
My brother with C2 bought from Origin didn't have that useful option and after latest patch 1.9 had to download whole game again .

 

[Npl]

I dont understand you.

1. You buy the physical game it crashes, then you buy the steam version, it still crashes, and somehow you are mad at the steam service? How does a seemingly intelligent and rational person reach this conclusion? Im betting you have installed some piece of software that makes it crash, otherwise you are cursed with bad luck in video games. Either way, i dont get it. If i buy a ps3 game and it constantly crashes(and i made sure its not a fault on my end) im not mad at sony, im mad at whoever made this piece of shit product.

"physical game" is nothing more than cached steam data. its not stand alone, it wont run without the steam malware.
So you arent mad with Valve for creating the game but mad at the company which is responsible for the DRM system that aint working.. which is... Valve. Why are people mad at securom, capcom and ubisoft but Valve is always getting a free pass...

2. Already been adressed (furthermore you can run steam offline - play games or whatever)

you need an connection to install and authenticate them, and offline still has the Steam Client running in the background.
There are better ways of course, but those arent official.

 

[hoho]

How many times do people have to tell you it's not steam, it's something else? Why not instead of bitching about unrelated things find the actual cause and fix it?

 

[Grall]

Because of Steam Summer Sales, Steam use is not ideal ^^

You could say that again. Been downloading Bully now for the last 3 hours or so and it's still only about 80% done... It's a 5ish gig game. Normally I snarf that much down in less than half that long.

It's like everyone + dog is downloading stuff right now, and it's maxing out their outbound bandwidth.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

"physical game" is nothing more than cached steam data. its not stand alone, it wont run without the steam malware.

Did you read the thread? Frank clearly states that he bought a PHYSICAL DVD copy and it didn''t work. Steam version didn't work either. Clearly the problem has nothing to do with steam.

So you arent mad with Valve for creating the game but mad at the company which is responsible for the DRM system that aint working.. which is... Valve. Why are people mad at securom, capcom and ubisoft but Valve is always getting a free pass...

Im not mad at valve for making a drm system, i dont get mad about video games, i have to many things to get mad about in real life. Furthermore im not even a particularly big fan of HL2 so i couldn't care less.

you need an connection to install and authenticate them, and offline still has the Steam Client running in the background.

Eh?? If he just wants to install games on one pc and game on the other, steam offline mode on one pc and online mode on the one that is supposed to work will do just fine? Steam will obviously run in the background in offline mode...

 

[homerdog]

Frank we don't think you're pirating games but clearly there is some issue with your systems that is causing these games to crash.

Cheezdoodle he may have bought a boxed copy but it would still require steam to activate and play it.

 

[Frank]

I dont understand you.

1. You buy the physical game it crashes, then you buy the steam version, it still crashes, and somehow you are mad at the steam service? How does a seemingly intelligent and rational person reach this conclusion? Im betting you have installed some piece of software that makes it crash, otherwise you are cursed with bad luck in video games. Either way, i dont get it. If i buy a ps3 game and it constantly crashes(and i made sure its not a fault on my end) im not mad at sony, im mad at whoever made this piece of shit product.

2. Already been adressed (furthermore you can run steam offline - play games or whatever)

3. You can turn of the ads (but those are just steam ads, otherwise you installed something on your computer). Furthermore, if you dont like the dollar=euros conversion, just dont buy it?

Also, instead of attacking the "it works fine here" answer, how about giving a proper CRASH LOG? Otherwise your just here ranting, you dont want a solution. Seriously, from a guy who apparently spent years creating automated installs, should have some programming skills. You should then know that saying something crashed without any additional information is about as useful as a policeman showing up to a murder scene to investigate and conclude "this person is dead"...

Ok, it turns out I have one laptop with an NVidia GPU. And King's bounty works on that laptop. Not on two other ones (Intel and ATI) or a desktop (ATI), all with W7-64. So, sue me, it does work!

Or is that a rather bad track record? I didn't try HL2 on that laptop yet.

 

[Frank]

Btw, completely off-topic: half the posts sound like: "I have shares in this company, so I'm gonna tell you that it is great, regardless." Very American. "When I am Rich..."

 

[Grall]

You're still being incredibly (and irrationally) defensive Frank. I don't understand why. It sucks you're having trouble with stuff you've bought, and we're trying to help you (though at this point I'm starting to wonder why ). We cannae change the laws o' physics though, we're not miracle workers!

 

[Frank]

You're still being incredibly (and irrationally) defensive Frank. I don't understand why. It sucks you're having trouble with stuff you've bought, and we're trying to help you (though at this point I'm starting to wonder why ). We cannae change the laws o' physics though, we're not miracle workers!

Sorry. Thanks for helping me out! (Although I seem to have that under control and supervision, by myself.)

And let me guess: you never had any trouble with any Steam purchase, you think Steam is the best thing after sliced bread, you have invested heavily into it and won't have some bloke interfere in that "feeling good" moment you get when you think about Steam.



Ok. Perhaps not. But my experience with Steam is probably less ecstatic than yours. It happens.

 

[homerdog]

Frank I think I know the problem: somebody shat in your corn flakes

 

[cal_guy]

You could say that again. Been downloading Bully now for the last 3 hours or so and it's still only about 80% done... It's a 5ish gig game. Normally I snarf that much down in less than half that long.

It's like everyone + dog is downloading stuff right now, and it's maxing out their outbound bandwidth.

Consider picking another less loaded server, i've had success with Hong Kong and South Africa in the past.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/

Ok, it turns out I have one laptop with an NVidia GPU. And King's bounty works on that laptop. Not on two other ones (Intel and ATI) or a desktop (ATI), all with W7-64. So, sue me, it does work!

Or is that a rather bad track record? I didn't try HL2 on that laptop yet.

If it crashing on some but not all of your computers then we can assume that something that is installed on some of your computers is interfering with steam. It might be your application's fault, or steam's fault, or it may be caused by malware. Checking the differences between your working nVidia laptop and your other computers would be a good first step. Checking Event Viewer is a also good idea.

 

[Grall]

And let me guess: you never had any trouble with any Steam purchase

Well, not with any steam purchase per se, as in them crashing or such. I have had trouble with some games asking me for a (missing!) CD key for example, Doom 3 with Return of Evil installed is one such title. Had to contact Steam customer support to resolve that one.

I've also had lots of issues with the steam client itself as you may have read in my other posts in this very thread, if you've bothered to check it out.

I find steam very convenient, for the most part, but it sure could be better. And cheaper too, for the most part. Many popular games are still pegged at launch price many months after release, Fallout 3 was still €60 like half a year after launch, if not even longer. I'm sure there are many other such examples as well. So, convenient, but not at all perfect.

Let us know how it goes for you, ok? Any progress so far? I'd still like to know if you've tried to run the game(s) on a completely clean OS install.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Out of curiosity Frank, have you ever asked Steam for a refund?
If you had trouble with HL2 through 3 different kinds of distribution and Steam happens to be one of them, then Steam may not be at fault?


Other than that, there's a whole lot of info that could help in solving your problem:

- What are the exact specs on each of your PCs? Maybe you're using unsupported components?
- What graphics card drivers are you using? Old drivers and drivers from Windows Update tend to be responsible for a lot of issues.
- Is any component being overclocked, or running in an user-defined configuration that may cause the system to be unstable?
- Are your PCs properly cooled? Games tend to push the case's heat a lot higher than anything else, so many sub-optimal cooling problems are only found when playing games.



Other than that, keep in mind that Steam won't leat you play the same game in two computers at the same time, at least not in online mode.

 

[Frank]

Consider picking another less loaded server, i've had success with Hong Kong and South Africa in the past.

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/



If it crashing on some but not all of your computers then we can assume that something that is installed on some of your computers is interfering with steam. It might be your application's fault, or steam's fault, or it may be caused by malware. Checking the differences between your working nVidia laptop and your other computers would be a good first step. Checking Event Viewer is a also good idea.

Yes, I spend another hour or two updating Catalyst on the desktop today. Talk about buggy software! Uninstalling or installing ATI drivers becomes harder all the time.

I think next time I'll buy Intel + nVidia.

 

[Frank]

Out of curiosity Frank, have you ever asked Steam for a refund?
If you had trouble with HL2 through 3 different kinds of distribution and Steam happens to be one of them, then Steam may not be at fault?


Other than that, there's a whole lot of info that could help in solving your problem:

- What are the exact specs on each of your PCs? Maybe you're using unsupported components?
- What graphics card drivers are you using? Old drivers and drivers from Windows Update tend to be responsible for a lot of issues.
- Is any component being overclocked, or running in an user-defined configuration that may cause the system to be unstable?
- Are your PCs properly cooled? Games tend to push the case's heat a lot higher than anything else, so many sub-optimal cooling problems are only found when playing games.



Other than that, keep in mind that Steam won't leat you play the same game in two computers at the same time, at least not in online mode.

Well, I tried about once a year on different hardware, for about four years. And my experience is, that they either think you're irritating or pirating.

It's never their problem, as they just sold a million units.

 

[itsmydamnation]

Yes, I spend another hour or two updating Catalyst on the desktop today. Talk about buggy software! Uninstalling or installing ATI drivers becomes harder all the time.

I think next time I'll buy Intel + nVidia.

really? i haven't had any issues in a long time and it upgrade almost twice a month, were you just install the new drivers, uninstalling the old ones first/etc?

 

[I.S.T.]

Btw, completely off-topic: half the posts sound like: "I have shares in this company, so I'm gonna tell you that it is great, regardless." Very American. "When I am Rich..."

Wow, nice way to be xenophobic.

 

[Grall]

were you just install the new drivers, uninstalling the old ones first/etc?

Doing the uninstall-reinstall song-and-dance with AMD drivers requires a restart inbetween, and reports say that the uninstaller doesn't actually delete ANYTHING anyway. So...whattafuck?

Nvidia's drivers do an automatic uninstall of the old drivers first these days (they have for over a year now I believe), so you don't have to uninstall-restart manually.

Plus they have a profile manager that is actually useful, and works, and which don't insult users by how stupidly onerous it is to manage.