Steam games not working

[NerfedFalcon]

For some reason, recently, whenever I try to play a game on Steam, it only gives me a few minutes at best before my computer completely crashes. I've tried validating the game cache on several games, but it's not a problem with validation, nor with any individual game - all of them just won't work for me. Is there anything I can do about this?

Even booting up Big Picture caused my computer to crash within seconds. I've tried checking for updates but it says I'm up to date. Has anyone else seen this problem, or know how to fix it?

 

[AWAR]

Hmmm.. What kind of crash you got? Blue screen or does your system hang? What about non-steam games?
My best guess is to reinstall your graphic's card drivers.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Hmmm.. What kind of crash you got?

My screen just goes black. It also buzzes on a single sound, but mostly it's a black screen.

Blue screen or does your system hang?

If only I got a blue screen; then I might know something.

What about non-steam games?

Work just fine. It's only stuff on Steam that has issues.

My best guess is to reinstall your graphic's card drivers.

Not sure how that'd help, considering the problem seems to be with Steam for the most part...

 

[AWAR]

Not sure how that'd help, considering the problem seems to be with Steam for the most part...

Doesn't matter, do it anyway.
Have you tried restarting steam? Do the games work in Offline Mode?
If you still crash go to Settings/ In-game and disable Steam Community in-game, it's known to cause issues.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Doesn't matter, do it anyway.

Not sure how to find out what my current driver is or reinstall it. I'm not very computer-literate.

Have you tried restarting steam? Do the games work in Offline Mode?
If you still crash go to Settings/ In-game and disable Steam Community in-game, it's known to cause issues.

No, I haven't tried that. Hmm...

 

[AWAR]

snip

Do you know your graphic's card model? If not you can find it in Steam by going to Help/System information under Video Card. Go to either nvidia's or AMD's web page and download the newest ones.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

snip

Do you know your graphic's card model? If not you can find it in Steam by going to Help/System information under Video Card. Go to either nvidia's or AMD's web page and download the newest ones.

I tried checking Steam's automatic thing, then I looked up the feedback thread - and I don't like what I'm hearing. Is there any way to reinstall what I currently have, or would that not help?

The new one is called "GEFORCE R320 GAME READY DRIVER". 320.18 is the latest version, and I've heard some negative buzz about it from the forums.

 

[Albino Boo]

I tried checking Steam's automatic thing, then I looked up the feedback thread - and I don't like what I'm hearing. Is there any way to reinstall what I currently have, or would that not help?

The new one is called "GEFORCE R320 GAME READY DRIVER". 320.18 is the latest version, and I've heard some negative buzz about it from the forums.

Go to control panel -> hardware and sound -> device manager -> then expand display adapter (the + button) right click the card -> properties -> rollback driver.

You could try
Exit Steam ->
Navigate to your Steam installation directory. (c:\program files\steam\ by default.)
Delete everything in that directory EXCEPT the following:
steam.exe
steamapps directory (All of Steam's game files are kept here.)
Restart Steam to test the issue.

This should redownload all the local steam files while retaining the games that you have installed.

 

[thesilentman]

Have you checked your firewalls and all? It may be your network, but just double check that to make sure.

 

[Aariana]

Maybe check in your event viewer (you should be able to access it just by typing event viewer in to the start search). I know when I was having problems with my GPU (not saying that's what it is, however), there was an entry in there that made it a lot easier to pinpoint the problem.

Also, I know you said you aren't very computer literate, but are you at all able to find out what kind of power supply you have? It could be on the fritz.

 

[Laughing Man]

These guys have solved the issue for you

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=379205

In short the 320.18 drivers are nacked, update them.

The website I linked there will have drivers for Nvidia cards just download the latest ones.

Then go to Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager -> Display Adaptor (once clicked this should show the name of your graphics card) right click and then select 'Uninstall' from the menu. Let it uninstall and then reboot your computer. Once your computer has rebooted double click the new driver set you have downloaded and let it run.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

These guys have solved the issue for you

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=379205

In short the 320.18 drivers are nacked, update them.

The website I linked there will have drivers for Nvidia cards just download the latest ones.

Then go to Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager -> Display Adaptor (once clicked this should show the name of your graphics card) right click and then select 'Uninstall' from the menu. Let it uninstall and then reboot your computer. Once your computer has rebooted double click the new driver set you have downloaded and let it run.

The latest driver for my card is still 320.18, and I don't think redownloading it would help.

Oh yeah, the Steam reinstall fixed that, but now I'm having this problem with other games - just got Assassin's Creed off GoG, and even forcing it to boot in a window didn't stop it from crashing my entire OS. So, yeah, I'd need to get an older driver from somewhere in order to get off 320.18.

 

[Laughing Man]

The latest driver for my card is still 320.18, and I don't think redownloading it would help.

You didn't mention the GPU you are using but 320.18 is the last WHQL driver but there have been several betas since then. If you want to stick with WHQL drivers though the last driver prior to 320.18 is 314.22, it can be downloaded from here

http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/geforce_314_22_beta_driver_download.html