Help with steam

[Zilcho]

I am having problems with getting my games from steam. I had half life 2 preloaded when it came out and it unlocked fine. I played the game and beat it. But I had to reformat my hard drive a few days ago and now everytime I try to install half life 2 or any games from steam it usually starts downloading and then gives me the error "game is not available, try again later." But after clicking on the game many times it eventually finished and when I started the game it just got stuck on the first loading screen. I know it is not my computer because I ran the game fine before. Does anybody else get this error or know why I am?

 

[^Ben]

Has it downloaded completly?

Because that's what usually happens when it aint downloaded completly it will freeze up on the first loading screen.

 

[Zilcho]

I am not sure if it is downloaded completely. The first time I downloaded the game was with the preload before it came out. Now when I click on it for the first time it says "preloading" for a few seconds then says it is updating game. But usually within a few minutes a get the error and have to keep trying to download it. I think it might be an error with no getting all of the files but I don't see how I can fix that.

 

[^Ben]

Try deleting clientregistery.blob when steam has shut down and then tarting steam backup.

Also if the steam icon in your tray has little dots over it, it usually means that it's updating something, so try right clicking on the tray icon and selecting monitor and it should tell you in more detail what it's downloading.

 

[Zilcho]

I am not sure what is wrong. It stopped updating and said it is ready to play but when I click on properties for the game it says it is only 53% downloaded. Is there anyway to make it complete the download?

 

[doomed - uk]

Have a look at Steam's monitor option and see if it shows any internet activity.