Major Steam problems

[Freaky Lou]

I have played many games on Steam without incident in the past.

However, today I bought Fallout 1 and played it for a while. It initially got this weird glitch where it vomited pixely rainbow textures all over the graphics, but I looked up the problem and found a thread on this site where someone said all you have to do is open the "screen resolution" window and it'd go away. I did, and it worked!

Later I tried to play it some more, but the rainbow textures wouldn't go away even with the screen resolution window up. Frustrated, I exited, only to find that now Steam's own page was covered in pixely rainbows. I tried to play other games on Steam but every single one of them crashed---Team Fortress 2 would work up until I tried to join a server, then crash while gathering server details. Penumbra would crash when it tried to load a save file. I restarted my computer but nothing worked or helped.

Anyway, I bought and tried to boot Portal just moments ago, but now Steam says before booting it that it doesn't recognize my video card. If this is a Steam problem (which, since it says to send Valve my video card details, it seems to be), how come it used to let me play things? And if it's a Portal problem, how come I was able to play TF2, which is built on the same Source engine?

Please help because this is becoming extremely frustrating. I haven't been able to play anything properly all day.

 

[Freaky Lou]

Bump despite the fact that this probably won't ever be replied to.

I can make the reply on-topic, too! I can't really think of anything that might've caused this problem unless FO1 is so incredibly buggy that it's wrecked my entire system simply by installing it. Maybe something went wrong with the resolution when trying to adapt for it?

One odd thing is that Steam won't do anything for my brother, either. I'd think it was our internet connection (we live in the same house), but everything else on the net works fine and it's always a matter of the program crashing, not lagging.

I HATE this part of PC gaming. Crash crash crash and the solutions are always arcane matters of typing and deleting lines of code in hidden files.

 

[Drave]

your video card is either unseated for the motherboard or dying

 

[Freaky Lou]

your video card is either unseated for the motherboard or dying

Dying isn't likely; it's only about a year and a half old.

Unseated from the motherboard is more probable since this laptop has been knocked around probably more than is healthy. Is there any safe way to fix that or would I have to take it someplace?

 

[steevee]

Well I'm no techy, but my first port o' call whenever anything goes wrong with Steam, which is more often than I'd like, is an uninstall/install.

 

[Freaky Lou]

Any ideas why Steam itself--the store pages, library, everything---is rainbow-glitching when no other site is?

 

[octafish]

That sounds to me like a GPU problem, if it is a laptop it could be it was cooked. I'd back up your relevant files and do a clean install of the OS. If you still have a problem with a clean install of to a tech you go.

Why, may I ask, would you buy Fallout from Steam? Have you never heard of GOG?

 

[Freaky Lou]

That sounds to me like a GPU problem, if it is a laptop it could be it was cooked. I'd back up your relevant files and do a clean install of the OS. If you still have a problem with a clean install of to a tech you go.

I'm pretty useless when it comes to tech stuff, but cooked GPU sounds like a hardware problem. How would a clean OS install help? And why could the graphics thing be affecting only Steam and its games, and nothing else as far as I can tell?

Why, may I ask, would you buy Fallout from Steam? Have you never heard of GOG?

I have, but I've never checked it out, and Fallout was $4 today.

 

[isometry]

your video card is either unseated for the motherboard or dying

Dying isn't likely; it's only about a year and a half old.

Unseated from the motherboard is more probable since this laptop has been knocked around probably more than is healthy. Is there any safe way to fix that or would I have to take it someplace?

Unfortunately excessive heat often kills laptops within a year or two if the user doesn't monitor temperatures to avoid them getting too hot. Usually this happens when the fans are dusty, or the air vents are blocked, or running games on too high of a setting.

It might not be too late. You can install HWMonitor to view temperatures:

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

You can install MSI Afterburner to control the fan on your graphics card (good program, works for all brands):

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

You also need to control the fan on your processor, but I don't know a program that works for all motherboard brands. My board is made by Gigabyte, they have a program called easytune if you happen to have that brand:

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/utility.aspx

IMO you should avoid temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius, by turning up the fans and turning down the graphics settings, underclocking the hardware if necessary.

Sadly, default settings without using programs like the ones I listed often let temps get to 70 or even 80 degrees, greatly shortening the life of the hardware. If your laptop is under warranty, time to call it in.

 

[octafish]

That sounds to me like a GPU problem, if it is a laptop it could be it was cooked. I'd back up your relevant files and do a clean install of the OS. If you still have a problem with a clean install of to a tech you go.

I'm pretty useless when it comes to tech stuff, but cooked GPU sounds like a hardware problem. How would a clean OS install help? And why could the graphics thing be affecting only Steam and its games, and nothing else as far as I can tell?

Why, may I ask, would you buy Fallout from Steam? Have you never heard of GOG?

I have, but I've never checked it out, and Fallout was $4 today.

Well a clean install would rule out any software conflict leaving only a hardware problem if the glitches continued. A clean install will rule out many problems.

 

[Drave]

your video card is either unseated for the motherboard or dying

Dying isn't likely; it's only about a year and a half old.

Unseated from the motherboard is more probable since this laptop has been knocked around probably more than is healthy. Is there any safe way to fix that or would I have to take it someplace?

not for a laptop. I suggest taking it someplace that offers a free inspection or something. and just saying it might still be broken cause it could've been defective.

 

[Freaky Lou]

Spoiler

Unfortunately excessive heat often kills laptops within a year or two if the user doesn't monitor temperatures to avoid them getting too hot. Usually this happens when the fans are dusty, or the air vents are blocked, or running games on too high of a setting.

It might not be too late. You can install HWMonitor to view temperatures:

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

You can install MSI Afterburner to control the fan on your graphics card (good program, works for all brands):

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

You also need to control the fan on your processor, but I don't know a program that works for all motherboard brands. My board is made by Gigabyte, they have a program called easytune if you happen to have that brand:

http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/utility.aspx

IMO you should avoid temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius, by turning up the fans and turning down the graphics settings, underclocking the hardware if necessary.

Sadly, default settings without using programs like the ones I listed often let temps get to 70 or even 80 degrees, greatly shortening the life of the hardware. If your laptop is under warranty, time to call it in.

I've never noticed my laptop getting very hot. It would appear to be pretty well-ventilated and the fans definitely aren't clogged up with dust. Does that rule out a problem or is it possible for it to overheat without you actually feeling it or hearing the loud whirring that generally goes along with an overworked CPU?

Well a clean install would rule out any software conflict leaving only a hardware problem if the glitches continued. A clean install will rule out many problems.

I see. Well I'll keep looking into stuff, and hopefully the problem will go away on its own. If not, I might just have to do this, which would be pretty obnoxious. Ah well. Still, I don't get why the problem seems unique to Steam. I would think that if my computer had a problem, it'd be showing on other sites/programs/applications as well.

 

[Freaky Lou]

not for a laptop. I suggest taking it someplace that offers a free inspection or something. and just saying it might still be broken cause it could've been defective.

I'm trying to think if I have a friend who knows anything about computers.

I'd like to thank everyone who replied to this thread btw; this is really distressing and I didn't expect any replies.

Btw, once you've bought a game on Steam, you can install it on any computer you log into your Steam account from, right?

 

[Drave]

not for a laptop. I suggest taking it someplace that offers a free inspection or something. and just saying it might still be broken cause it could've been defective.

I'm trying to think if I have a friend who knows anything about computers.

I'd like to thank everyone who replied to this thread btw; this is really distressing and I didn't expect any replies.

Btw, once you've bought a game on Steam, you can install it on any computer you log into your Steam account from, right?

I advice taking it to a professional, once you open a laptop you void the warranty. moreover, laptops are build really compact so even if its out of warrenty they're really hard to deal with unless you're specially trained

 

[octafish]

snip
Btw, once you've bought a game on Steam, you can install it on any computer you log into your Steam account from, right?

Yes you can. You do need the client installed.

 

[Stryc9]

I have played many games on Steam without incident in the past.

However, today I bought Fallout 1 and played it for a while. It initially got this weird glitch where it vomited pixely rainbow textures all over the graphics, but I looked up the problem and found a thread on this site where someone said all you have to do is open the "screen resolution" window and it'd go away. I did, and it worked!

Later I tried to play it some more, but the rainbow textures wouldn't go away even with the screen resolution window up. Frustrated, I exited, only to find that now Steam's own page was covered in pixely rainbows. I tried to play other games on Steam but every single one of them crashed---Team Fortress 2 would work up until I tried to join a server, then crash while gathering server details. Penumbra would crash when it tried to load a save file. I restarted my computer but nothing worked or helped.

Anyway, I bought and tried to boot Portal just moments ago, but now Steam says before booting it that it doesn't recognize my video card. If this is a Steam problem (which, since it says to send Valve my video card details, it seems to be), how come it used to let me play things? And if it's a Portal problem, how come I was able to play TF2, which is built on the same Source engine?

Please help because this is becoming extremely frustrating. I haven't been able to play anything properly all day.

The first thing that I've noticed no one saying right off is that you should see if you have the most current video drivers installed.

The second thing I would do is go to the Start Menu shortcut for Fallout and right click on it, then click on properties, then the Compatibility Tab. Check Run in 256 Colors and Run in 640x480 Resolution, click OK then launch Fallout from the Start Menu shortcut and see of that clears anything up.

I highly doubt this is hardware problem because if it was you'd be seeing those wonderful little rainbow pixels all the time, not just in your Steam client and in your games. Take it from someone who has had to deal with the rainbow pixel everywhere.

 

[sb666]

To fix the colour issue for Fallout use these patchs in future.

Fallout1 High Resolution Patch v3.0.5
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1361

Fallout2 High Resolution Patch v3.0.5
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php?action=file&file_id=1362

For Fallout 2 this works better
http://www.killap.net/

 

[TheDarklite]

/snippedy snip!/

The first thing that I've noticed no one saying right off is that you should see if you have the most current video drivers installed.

^This, seriously this. It sounds to me more like Fallout somehow messed with your video drivers. What might have happened is that your drivers rolled back to Legacy ones suitable for Fallout (for whatever reason).

1. Right Click on My Computer, then click on Manage.
2. Once in here, click on Device Manager(in the left hand pane).
3. In the right hand pane, now expand the entry for Display Adapters.
4. Right click on whatever your card happens to be (eg. AMD, Nvidia.... Unknown Device in worst case scenario) and click Update Driver Software... .
5. This may help you alot, otherwise try doing a roll back by right clicking on the adapter and choosing Properties. The option will be in there.

This all assumes you are on Windows 7, but Vista will be pretty much the same.
I haven't used XP in a very long time so I hope you're not stuck on that

For people to propose that your laptop's card is dead out of the blue, without even doing basic troubleshooting is absolutely ridiculous.

I hope you have some luck with it

 

[isometry]

I've never noticed my laptop getting very hot. It would appear to be pretty well-ventilated and the fans definitely aren't clogged up with dust. Does that rule out a problem or is it possible for it to overheat without you actually feeling it or hearing the loud whirring that generally goes along with an overworked CPU?

That's a good sign, if you don't usually feel heat coming from the palm rest area then hopefully overheating isn't your problem.

You can search "graphics card dying" in google to see images and forum posts of the kind of visual distortions that occur, to compare with what you have. This page has some examples:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html

Even if it turns out to be something else besides overheating (hopefully!), I still recommend installing some software to monitor the temperature while you play games, it's something that every PC gamer should keep an eye on.

 

[Fayathon]

The first thing that I've noticed no one saying right off is that you should see if you have the most current video drivers installed.

The second thing I would do is go to the Start Menu shortcut for Fallout and right click on it, then click on properties, then the Compatibility Tab. Check Run in 256 Colors and Run in 640x480 Resolution, click OK then launch Fallout from the Start Menu shortcut and see of that clears anything up.

I highly doubt this is hardware problem because if it was you'd be seeing those wonderful little rainbow pixels all the time, not just in your Steam client and in your games. Take it from someone who has had to deal with the rainbow pixel everywhere.

I'm a mite surprised that no-one else said to check the drivers as well...

Check the drivers, and see if a mod/patch is available for higher resolutions. Failing that take your computer in to a comp shop, you don't want to be tearing a laptop apart yourself unless you are damned sure about what you are doing, they're too easy to mess up. Way I see it is you've got one of three things going:

1) Drivers are out of date/game's not quite compatible with your OS (Get a patch/mod, those fix damn near everything.)
2) Unseated video card (with a laptop I doubt this fairly seriously, but it happens)
3) Bad GPU (You'll need to replace it if this is the case.)

I'd offer more, but I'm dead from the neck up right now...