I can't even open Steam!! PLEASE Help!

[cloudedglow]

I have not played games for quite a while, and when I finally decided to load up good ol' Steam to play some games, it gave me the following error after trying to update (and going 27% through the process):

ERROR: unable to open Steam.exe for reading (copying)

I uninstalled the anything dealing with Valve and then reinstalled. Guess what the result was after I double clicked the icon to play? The result was the following:

ERROR: unable to open Steam.exe for reading (copying)

Does anyone out there have any ideas on how I can solve this problem?! Any help will be appreciated. Thank you in advance!

 

[Beerdude26]

Ummm... This may be a wild guess, but... Could it be that Steam won't start if it's read-only? Maybe that's the problem.

 

[cloudedglow]

Steam.exe was not Read-Only, but some of the files in the directory of Program Files/Valve were. So, I went ahead and made them all NOT Read-Only...same problem ;( Thank you for your help...

 

[Beerdude26]

OK.

Is Steam.exe active in the 'Processes' list you can see when you do CTRL+ALT+DELETE (Under the 'Processes' tab)?

 

[cloudedglow]

It's not in the processes anymore. I used msconfig to just not allow it to start up with Windows. When I start it, Steam runs and updates, 27%, and then it gives me the error within it's olive green GUI...then Steam closes... What is causing this madness!?! I also noticed that Call of Duty does not run nor does GTA: San Andreas (which has an ntdll.dll error). This may be a much bigger problem than I thought. The weirdest thing is that everything else runs perfectly fine....!!!!.... Any ideas for a possible solution?

 

[Beerdude26]

I also noticed that Call of Duty does not run nor does GTA: San Andreas

Hmmm... Try updating your graphic card drivers.

 

[^Ben]

It's a computer problem if other games are refusing to work.

 

[cloudedglow]

Ok, I updated (wow...much newer version was available...lol) to Nvidia's newest driver released on in late June (they fixed the graphical corruption! ). Well, I just loaded Steam.exe, and the problem still happened (By the way, I used Driver Cleaner 3 to make sure the old driver did not remain in my system files). Wow...this problem is really getting annoying/frustrating!

 

[cloudedglow]

What potential solutions could there be for the problem, ^Ben? I've tried the scannnow /sfc thing, and I then ran SP2 setup again. I also tried reinstalling DirectX 9.0c...ahhhhhh!!!!

 

[^Ben]

Are you logging in with a limited user account or the admin account?

Dome full virus scans? Adaware scans?

 

[cloudedglow]

I handle everything on my computer - I'm on an admin account. Ok, I am running sfc /scannow again, and it already needed to replace some DLLs! When I ran it before, it replaced almost nothing. But, I got to thinking, I just uninstalled IconPackager and FlyAKiteOSX (or whatever it is called). So, maybe those screwed with the system files. I shall reply here again! Thanks again for all of your help. This problem is driving me a little bonkers here...

 

[^Ben]

If you have system restore points enabled you could back up all your files and than restore from BEFORE those 2 programs were installed to see if that's the problem.

 

[cloudedglow]

The problem is that they were installed quite a while back... The sfc finished, and no games run...still!!! Any other ideas?

 

[^Ben]

Backup all your important data and reformat?

How long have the games not been working?

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Is your account legitimate?

 

[cloudedglow]

Of course, my account is legitimate. Wow, some people finally found a way to crack Steam? Well, I haven't played the games in about a month, so the files could have been messed up by quite a few different apps and possibly viruses, which I just scanned my computer and nothing was the result (using Bitdefender and the online Housecall @ antivirus.com). I hope the problem does not require a reformat to be fixed!

 

[Beerdude26]

I'm afraid that reformatting might be the only solution

But first check out The Steam Forums, maybe you'll find help there.

 

[cloudedglow]

Ok, thanks. Thank you for your help!!!

 

[cloudedglow]

FINALLY! I got it working. I went crazy and uninstalled ALOT of programs and disabled many services. Nothing helped. Then, I installed HijackThis, and it shows processes and other items running with Windows that the OS should tell you are running! I disabled several at one time, and now all of the games work again (but, sadly, I do not know which one was the problem-causer). So, if anyone else encounters a crazy problem similar to mine, install HijackThis!

 

[^Ben]

Post your hijackthis log here, we might be able to spot something curious.

 

[cloudedglow]

Well, here are the ones that I disabled, which fixed the problem in case it may help someone else:

O21 - SSODL: IconPackager Repair - {1799460C-0BC8-4865-B9DF-4A36CD703FF0} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\iprepair.dll

O23 - Service: WAN Miniport (ATW) Service (WANMiniportService) - America Online, Inc. - C:\WINDOWS\wanmpsvc.exe

O23 - Service: BitDefender Communicator (XCOMM) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Softwin\BitDefender Communicator\xcommsvr.exe" /service (file missing)

O23 - Service: BitDefender Virus Shield (VSSERV) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Softwin\BitDefender8\vsserv.exe" /service (file missing)

O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - [[[[[ETC]]]]

O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - [[[directory, etc...]]]]

O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - [[[[ETC!!]]]]

O23 - Service: Creative Service for CDROM Access - [[[ETCETC---CTsvcCDA.exe]]]

O16 - DPF: [[[[[ETCETC...http://musicstore.connect.com/assets/activexplayer/...]]]]

O9 - Extra button: (no name) - [[[[[ETCETC - (no file)]]]]

Needless to say, I reinstalled my antivirus. I think it was that extra button service...looks really fishy....

 

[KoreBolteR]

mine doesnt work either, i cant even update it.

it doesnt open and when i click it it says its already running.

 

[cloudedglow]

Is it giving you the same error? If not, what is it doing? If you don't even get to see the Steam GUI, try reinstalling it. I found a nice guide at the following link:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225026

Let us know if that helped or not...

 

[The Mexican]

Mine doing the same problem also right now. It say trying to update steam platform, update oh so slowly. Get to 30% then it either exit out of steam saying it cant connect, or it restart the update at 0%. Dosent seem to get pass 30%.

Really piss me off.