PLease help-Win32 Error 5 "Access Denied" IM going to kill myself

[Icky Woods]

I get the following error while trying to update steam....

Steam.exe (main exception): ERROR: delete of Steam.exe failed, Win32 Error 5 "Access Denied"

I have tried everythign on their website and forum. Could anyone offer any insight besides a bullet to my brain?

 

[we11er]

That's very strange. First, make sure the file isn't read only. No idea why it would be, but try i anyway.

Right-click, properties for the file. Go to security tab, add an entry for "Everyone", and select the checkboxes for full access. This will be 2000/XP only though.

Reboot - some process may have locked the file.

Try again. That's all I can think of right now.

 

[Icky Woods]

I dont have a security tab under properties; only general, sharing and customize. I did notice that the valve file says read only but when i try to change it, it goes back to read only when i check again. I checked the individuals files and they arent read only. BTW, thank you for the help

 

[we11er]

Ah, XP home probably. Not sure if there is another way.

So by "the valve file" you mean steam.exe? If it's read only, that's a bit weird, and probably what is causing the access violation. Especially weird if it's being changed back to read only. Did you make sure you changed it when steam was closed down?

 

[Icky Woods]

Im mean the valve folder located in my program files

 

[Icky Woods]

I restarted in safe mode to access the security tab and followed your instructions above with no luck

 

[All_Steamed_Out]

Hi:


I spent weeks trying to solve this problem. I assume you also get this error message:

'Steam.exe (Main Exception): ERROR: delete of steam.exe failed,Win32
Error 5 'Access is denied'

After relentlessly digging through the forums, I found this post by someone with a great more experience and skill than I. It worked for me, give it a try. I have pasted his procedure below. Good Luck!

What I Did...
Maybe this isn't an "approved" method, but it allowed me to get into the game after about 2 hours of troubleshooting:

1. Remove any old versions of Steam.
2. Download the Steam client.
3. Download PrcView - a freeware utility that displays running processes. http://www.xmlsp.com/pview/prcview.htm
4. Run PrcView.exe. You'll see a list of running processes. Keep this somewhere visible, so you can monitor it and click on it.
5. Run the Steam.exe
6. You'll see Steam.exe listed in Process Viewer as a running process.
7. Watch it closely.
8. Soon, you'll see SteamTmp.exe launch. When you see this launch, immediately Kill the Steam.exe manually.
9. The SteamTmp.exe will close, and then continue running again as Steam.exe (a new Steam.exe not the one you killed in Step 8 above).
10. Continue updating as normal, and close Process Viewer.
11. Everything should be good to go!

While the above is necessarily perfect, it will circumvent any other SP2, Winblind, A/V, or other apps that could be causing problems with closing of processes in a timely manner.

When I monitored the processes using PrcView.exe, I did notice that eventually, the original Steam.exe would close. Unfortunately, SteamTmp.exe would "time-out" waiting for this to happen.

IMHO, if they simply increased the "time-out" as it waits for the old Steam.exe to close, a majority of users issues would be resolved.... Or, they could simply issue a forced "Kill" of the process themselves...

Not clean, but it works!

 

[Road_Trauma]

Thanx All_Steamed_Out

This worked but I only followed steps 5-8, did not need PrcView just used the normal 1 with alt+crtl+del, saw steam then steamtmp and killed the other 1 and all went well.

But my dad the tool took my copy of HL2 and installed it on his PC and now i cant use MY CD key!!!!! But hes gunna buy me another copy tommorow so its ok.

Thanx again m8